Turboranger Episode 28

As Yamimaru sleeps, he dreams of a mysterious woman in red (spoiler alert: Kirika), who fills his head with the idea that he's destined to surpass the Bouma Hyaku Zoku. She then emits beads of green light that she passes onto him. He awakens feeling invigorated, and that a new era that's in his favor is coming. (A new era for the show, indeed. Spoiler alert: this begins a five-parter in which three of our regular villains are killed off, making room on the game board for new pieces.)

We know we're losing one of the main villains today, because a furious Ragon is pretty much roasting his officers while beating a punishment into them for their failures. It's come time for them to defeat Turboranger or die. Jarmine begins to volunteer, but Jinba cuts her off. Spoiler alert: Jinba don't make it.

This episode is mostly action heavy, with sword fights aplenty, as a dual-sword wielding Jinba takes on the Turboranger. He's energized and really putting the hurt on them, until the even more energized Yamimaru arrives on the scene, wanting to chase Jinba off to fight the Turboranger himself. While this scene and fight look like they're filmed in the parking lot of Toei's production facility, it's a darkly lit night fight, so it still looks cool. When Jinba attempts to strike Yamimaru, that strange green light from his dream protects him, sending Jinba flying, and even hurting the Turboranger, who are knocked back into their white Kuuga Growing Form. (It even effects Shiron back at Dazai's lab!) This leads Nagareboshi to realize that was more than just a dream and lights a fire under his ass.

What was that light? Recuperating back at Dazai's, Dazai tells them it was Demonic Aura, a power so strong it drains fairy power. Shiron lies in pain in her dollhouse, while the five heroes realize it means they won't be able to transform.

And then Jinba's voice is heard; he's on the monitor, shouting a challenge out to the Turboranger. He then manages to send attack blasts THROUGH the monitor, which cause damage at Dazai's. There's been many, many toku shows where the villain will pop up on our heroes' monitor to issue a challenge, but I don't think any of them but Jinba were able to manage to send an attack through the monitor. That's crazy! And did he manage to track down just the Turboranger's, or did he send this attack through every video or audio system through Tokyo, knowing at least one of them would be the Turboranger? (I'm assuming he just found out the Turboranger location since, spoiler alert, Dazai decides to abandon his lab -- their secret hideout -- after this, in favor of a new location.)

When Riki and the others prepare to leave to take on Jinba, Dazai stops them; they're too wounded and power-less. "We've relied on fairy power all this time. It's time to rely on our own power!" Riki tells him. Dazai lets them go, while obviously thinking, "Better have a Plan B!"

They face off with Jinba, who makes Sentai Sausage out of 'em. (Shunsuke tries to transform right off the bat, knowing it won't work, but gives it a shot, anyhow. That's so Shunsuke.) Jinba's performing final-type attacks on them, without power-suits, readying to go in for the kill on Daichi, Youhei, Shunsuke and Haruna. Riki makes his way over to his friends to shield them, desperate to not let them be killed, preparing to take Jinba's attack all by himself by placing himself between his friends and the kill. We hear the weapon strike Riki. We're shown the shocked reaction of the other four. We're zoomed in on a close-up of Jinba, panning down his swords to see that they've struck, all right -- they've struck Red Turbo!

While he's still not in top fighting condition, he beats Jinba back, but still takes some hits. The others return Riki's gesture by putting themselves in harm's way and shielding him, eventually just automatically transforming into Turboranger. Their courage, their selflessness, their willing to sacrifice themselves for each other, is rewarded. For everybody who complains about the Turboranger being fairy-powered, well...here they're POWERING THEMSELVES. Things turn around and the five defeat Jinba, who Yamimaru's only too happy to revive on his own and take control of.

Giant Jinba's still too strong for them, as he kicks Turbo Robo's ass so hard, he ungattais him. Just then, there's a tremor, while a new robot arrives, blasting Jinba and killing him. Everyone -- Turboranger and Bouma alike -- are confused by this new robot, but the giant T written on it don't make it clear for them. Spoiler alert: this thing is the Turbo Builder, a new super-duper immobile mecha, the first mecha of the franchise of its kind. Sadly, it's also the new base of operation for Dazai and the Turboranger. I liked Dazai's lab and its location near the school, so it sucks to lose it, especially in favor of the Turbo Builder, which is just...funny looking. And its location is very, very isolated -- how the hell are the Turboranger going to find the time to shuffle superhero work and schoolwork now?!

Turboranger was one of the rare '80s Sentais to have an official home video release; however, they didn't release the entire series, but only about 35 episodes, mainly focusing on the biggies. And although this episode is the first of a five-parter, featuring the Kirika tease, AND the idea that the Turboranger are able to power themselves, AND the destruction of their base, AND a new mecha, the official VHS release omitted this episode! It's pretty big to overlook, don't you think? The videos went from episode 26, skipping over two to then go to episode 29. So not only did they leave out the great episode with Rin, but they didn't feel it was too important to show you one of the main villains getting killed or not have you confused to jump into an episode in which the Turboranger have a completely new two-in-one mecha/base!

I would like to point out, though, that Hirai's voice performance as Jinba is pretty damn good in this episode. He sounds so pissed. Well, maybe he WAS pissed, like "I thought I had a 50 episode gig, what the hell, guys?!"