Carranger Episode 4 Review: It's Time To Eat!

Super Sentai is known for the giant monsters and many series have different ways of changing that. Carranger though still has the most bizarre concept for making a monster grow the size of a building. Even how this episode starts out is just odd. Usually we see the villains planning things out, but things start out with a fight. Not the usual type of fight though, the villains have a strife with themselves. Gynamo gets hit by Zonnette again and this causes all of the other monsters to laugh and for some reason Grotch laughs the hardest. Gynamo gets mad and tries to attack Grotch and it causes him to run to Earth and that is how things start. I was just at a loss here, but again this is Carranger so things will keep on getting strange. So the villains here are not organized at all and for this episode they just happen to stumble around on a way to defeat the Carrangers.

When Grotch gets to Earth he decides that he wants to test out Earth food because he was hungry. Again these are the villains and one just wants to settle his stomach. This then leads to Grotch finding the kid from the previous episode, Ichitaro. Now kids have had different reactions to the monsters of the series, but I can’t really remember the last time the kid stuck his tongue out and smack the monster with a stick! Grotch does not even attack the kid then, he simply just asks the kid for some good food. Ichitaro treats Grotch just like a normal person then and gives him some ideas. What is going on with this show, so far there is no action or even villainous action happening at all in this episode. While at the same time this is too enjoyable. Now an act of villainy does happen when Grotch takes Ichitaro hostage when his mother comes around. All he needs though is the delicious Earth food that Ichitaro told him about. This is all for food here! Now I want to eat, I’m going out for lunch!

Well I got back from lunch and now the mother just got back and gives the food to Grotch. The best part is that Grotch is clearly not holding Ichitaro hostage anymore and is sitting right next to Grotch as he waits for his food. The mother even stays around and so does Ichitaro as Grotch just hogs down the food that was given to him. This was just the creature that just held your child hostage, take that child and run for it! Watching Grotch eating is amazing though so I do not blame them for just watching. Something happens though, Grotch starts reacting to the food and he grows gigantic! Somehow Earth food can make these guys grow to the size of buildings. This is part of the same franchise that had monsters grow giant because of the villains have some sort of technology they had to make and plan to use. In Carranger it is just food that Grotch just found because of an angry dispute.

Things keep on getting better because this episode brings back the gag from the previous episode of Ichitaro just going to his father about the situation. Alright I get the last time why the kid would get his father and the father tried to fix things himself, but there is a giant monster in the city right now! When the father even hears of this news from his child, he just takes it like there is bully at his school. All logic is really thrown out the window for this show and that is why the writing for it is amazing. How does one write nonsense like this and make it work out? That is thanks to the show just accepting this sense of reality and not really trying to explain it or be serious either. This is parody and it could be one of the finest forms I have seen.

So the heroes also hear about the giant monster and when they arrive things do start to play out more like the usual. This is the first giant monster appearance and the heroes really do not stand a chance since there is no mech around at the moment. The heroes try to blast the monster with their blasters and even the Formula Nova. Nothing works out and my favorite part is when the Carrangers try to bash Grotch! They know the lasers are not working, so get those melee weapons out and keep slashing and hacking! This does nothing to Grotch and he even grabs Red and I love the use of props here. There is the giant hand that is grabbing Red and I miss those days when these giant props had to be made. Also the show had to use camera angles to show that Grotch is a giant and even the use of green screen and zooming out. Again it was those tricks that made me love the creative process of these shows. The tricks made the shows have style and personality.

So with Grotch’s recent discovery he now has a plan to defeat the Carrangers and it is to find more of that Earth food! Gynamo calls for the number one eater of the gang because that is an important title to have. Literally this show shares the absurdity of the assassins from Zubat with their gang members. So there is MM Mogu and together they catch Ichitaro and unlike last time, the poor kid is actually scared. This is only because of Mogu as Grotch gets the same treatment from the kid again. Ichitaro calls home to get the same food again, but this time it is his father who has to get it. Again this is literally a hostage situation and the pay is food, just what is this show? Then the father even treats thing normally, first of all I’m surprised this father is so easy to convince to get food, well I would guess Ichitaro told his father he was held hostage. For some reason I do not think that though since the father does not freak out or anything like that. He is a man who did just try to walk into a situation that deals with a giant monster, so he is a really calm man.

So the villains are clearly going to become big again and this is going to be a huge problem for the heroes. Even if they are thinking for a long time, they cannot find any solution to take down the large enemies. You get it! I’m using as many words as possible that mean tall, big, huge, etc! One part about this scene that confuses me is why are they in their suits? I guess not all the actors could show up for a shooting so I guess they had to voice it over. The only choice they got is to somehow get on their level and I love how Pink literally thought they would have to get huge and she found that embarrassing. What ends up happening is that the dream cars the heroes have are identical to the ones of the great constellations. Since they have that connection all they have to do is dream that those cars become big and hence those cars can literally be the great car spirits. Then when that is done they can transform into the great fighting god!

The cars become large and meanwhile the father has gathered the food for the villains. So everything is coming together, the episode is almost going to end and the heroes and their mechs. High chance the episode will end with a cliffhanger as the next episode will begin with the first mech fight of the series. All the monster has to do is eat the food and become large enough to destroy the city. Mogu eats the food and it seems he is getting the same reaction and then he actually shrinks… Wait… why did he get tiny? This is where the episode ends and it leaves on the question on why it failed this time. Also the show literally found a counter to the villains’ plans will it ever be used… maybe? Still that is a way to end an episode by giving a surprise, sure the hype for the fight is gone, but I am left with laughter so either way I am happy.

I keep saying Carranger is strange and the show just knows how to keep making that true and even stranger at the same time. We had an episode that only started with the villains being moronic and somehow it leads to giants appearing in the series. Even how the mechs appear in the series is pretty much by chance as well. The heroes just happened to have cars that looked like the great car spirits. Still this was a very different episode in how things were being presented here by making things happen by chance and what also helps is how the characters react to the situations. It’s a strong A episode in my book.