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.

Carranger Episode 3 Review: Make A Silly Face!

With Carranger for today, we get the training episode along with Red not realizing the importance of teamwork and a monster who awakens the true evil of your household appliances!

Super Sentai is known to have training episodes and since this is Carranger, the show has its little spin to keep this scene interesting thanks to the acting. There is just something funny about the faces and the noises the team is making during this. It is so over expressive that I can’t help to laugh. Also Minoru just hogs your attention the most since he is the try hard so far. Minoru has the best faces and the camera knows this and I love during the tire dragging moment you see Minoru come into the scene in one of the camera angles. Even the camera likes to make little surprises here and there.

The monster for this week is one of my favorites of the series because he has this unique personality and a unique power compared to other monsters in the series and the franchise. RR Ri has the power to change peoples’ personalities and his plan to make people insincere. Right off the bat I love this guy when he sees a woman and politely says “hello” to her. Of course the woman went off running away and Ri knew it would happen. Also what helps is that the woman screams, starts to run, stops for a moment, screams again, and then completely bolts it. The scene would be basic if the lady just straight up fled, but in Carranger they give that extra little touch to get your off guard like usual. I then love how the woman flees to her house as she tells her child about the monster as the boy asks what he looked like. Right away the monster appears in the house and for some reason I was expecting applause like it was a sitcom when he entered like he did.

The reactions keep on getting better as this is our first look with the boy, Ichitaro who is the best kid character of all Sentai. Ichitaro’s first reaction to the monster was more of a shock than actually being scared. To me it felt like how the audience would react to what just happened. Also the boy sticks around and watches for a while, again not scared, but just being surprised by what he is seeing. Then the monster uses his hammer to change emotions, but it hits a vacuum instead… oh this is going to get good. Before getting to what happens we take some other scenes with the villains and the heroes. Somehow they can even make the suited monsters be over expressive. Because Zelmoda learns he could lose his position of Deputy Leader as he goes “Oh my god!” and putting his hands over his head.

With the hero side of things we learn what is happening over the house as Ichitaro comes to his father to tell him what is going on. It seems that Ri’s hammer can change the emotions of anything else as the vacuum wants to destroy humans! This gets the father to not call the police or anything, but to settle it himself. The Director is simply treating this as if there is a rodent in the house and as man of the house he will take care of it. Again the faces are getting my attention again as the Director leaves his mouth is slightly open for some reason and when the team gets mad at Kousuke for not coming along you can see Youko puffing out her cheeks. Before I was writing this review I did not know what the main gag was, but I know what it is now and that would be facial expressions. There are just so many and they happen in so many scenes that it has to be on purpose. Again a show like this is being rather experimental with comedy gags and it works because back then and even now this is not all that experimented with. For the most part silly faces and over the top acting is found in “so bad it is good” entertainment. Here though it is on purpose and it does not shoot itself in the foot. There are times when being purposely over the top just will not work and some recent independent American films can show that.

So the team of four goes to fight Ri and I love how these guy fight. This is the first time where a great part of the team’s motif is showing off. The Carrangers’ actually perform attacks that represent cars! Recent Sentai has not been good with keeping themes and motifs like this and Carranger is simply one of the best with that element. We got Green Racer sliding on the floor and sliding in below the monster to attack him, representing a racing car. Blue Racer performs Hairpin Kick which references a tight turn, Yellow performs Checker Chop which is her doing chopping motions in the way of a checkered flag, and then the most obvious one, Wheel Spin Kick from Pink. She literally is just rolled up into a ball and spinning on the floor that way like how a wheel spins. Not only does this keep the action interesting, but it gets me to laugh too because who knows what these guys can pull off next.

We then get to back to Kyosuke’s car fet… I mean love for cars as he fixes the classic that his boss has. He takes it out for a run because he always wanted to ride a classic. He quickly learns he needs to put little desires like this aside as he sees the team getting beaten up and the car he admires gets affected by the Spirit Change Hammer. Even basic Carranger fans know of the face that Kyosuke makes in this episode. I bet if you just search up this character that face will come up. Then even the car gets over expressive as it becomes extremely tacky with flowers everywhere, big lips, and a weird mesh of colors. We then get the speech from Kyosuke saying that he needs to remember what being a Carranger is about even though this is episode three and him not learning it fully is quite understandable. Then even Dappu calls him out saying he should just get to fighting and stop talking to himself. 

The big fight happens and it is similar to the second episode where the weapons are being used like Fencer Sword and such. I still love the idea Ri had to make a building go berserk, I wish the mech was in the series because I would pay so much money to see a building attack the giant robot. The day is saved though thanks to Formula Nova and everything goes back to normal which makes the Director say this “Now we’re going to study! Honey call the air fleet!” I have no idea what this means and seeing the man do a little dance while saying this was priceless. The family then sees the Carrangers and gets their autographs and it is to give a boost of pride to these shy heroes. The episode ends with more training and Kousuke getting the hardest one because he was goofing off.

This was a more basic episode of Carranger compared to the previous two. Well while thinking about it the other two are quite basic as well. The first episode was the beginning, the second shown off the glorious weapons, and now we get the leader realizing what he needs to do. Carranger knows the basics though and then throws in many random factors to keep your attention and this works very well. The show is random and sporadic and that is the best thing about it. There is never a dull moment in this show and even if they have to resort to simple gags to do, it simply just works. All of the silly faces just keep getting my attention and there are many of them. This just gives me an appreciation for the craft put into this show in general because looking for details like this is rewarding when they can make you realize something or simply just laugh. The show is giving me some work to do and I am happy to do it. Carranger simply boosts up the basics with comedy and it is excellent with that as this episode gets an “A.”

Carranger Episode 2 Review: Dancing In The... Sky?

It seems that I can type up more than I thought. I was considering two episodes per review, but noticing how much I got just for this episode, doing even two would be too much for one post. Again I think I am getting out of this writer’s block and again this amazing show gets all the thanks I can give it. So these episode reviews will be pretty random overall, maybe some could have two or more depending on how I want to review it. Maybe if there is an arc or something of its kind I can do one post for those episodes. Oh well, who cares I want to talk about Carranger!

From the strong beginning of this show there is still much more to cover. Right off the bat the show has this unique feeling and then episode two just slaps you in the face with that. The monster of the week was BB Donpa and he is known as the Beethoven of Space, first off, what the hell does that mean? Is he just a famous musical genius who lives in space? See this is what interests me with Carranger so quickly, I cannot really guess what is going to come around. It feels like a bit of random humor where anything can come at you and the pay off always works out in this show. So for BB Donpa he is sent to the Earth to create a ton of noise and how he does that is amazing. Like in the previous episode we did see cars flying around and attacking civilians, well get that again, but better. Donpa conducts them as they dance in the sky and even around the Earth as they create glorious music! The music would be so loud that aliens would get so angry that they would destroy the Earth. I have never heard of any plan like that before from this type of show! I just love seeing the cars flying around, dancing, and trying to crash themselves into the heroes. I have to say cars are a good weapon to use in a battle, I mean they crash and go boom, what could be better?

Another thing to point out would be the cool new weapons the team gets. This is known has the Giga Formula! It is the usual cannon finisher weapon and like some other cannon weapons it can break apart to become different weapons. I got to say I love seeing Dappu happy to introduce this new weapon and yet everyone else just ignores him when he goes on for too long. Everyone thinks of an excuse, except for Natsumi who stays and works. The best part about this scene was Minoru, he notices that everyone is leaving so when he leaves he pretty much says he should leave because everyone else is, and this is my guy. Another thing I noticed was how there are many little gimmicks being done in the show. The cast of actors already show off this with their personalities and doing a good job of overreacting. Then there are bits like when Gynamo gets hit hard by Zonette because he was being stupid like showing her normal fireworks instead of the big ones. One really stands out though and that is with the white Whumper. First of all, he is the only one who is white and when he appears, he falls on the ground, gets trampled on by the others, and a little dog chases him away… I have no idea why that was there, but it was funny. That is the thing about random humor like that, it breaks your sense of logic and good random humor keeps doing that even if the show does it multiple times. You can never predict it and it gets you curious for more. This happens again when White is hiding behind Zelmoda and just runs away, why is this guy even fighting?

Now onto the Giga Formula, as I said before it can become more weapons and I always loved seeing cannon finishers like that. Zyuranger also has a strong one because I love seeing it come together and noticing which part is which. Carranger not only takes it apart, but puts it back together as well, but do use a cut away unlike Zyuranger. Unlike other Sentai shows though that have training sessions for new weapons, these guys just get a manual and read whatever they can before fighting. Another little random moment was that the manual was in a plastic wrap and when Red Racer throws it, Blue goes and picks it up. So for these different weapons, we got a Fencer Sword, Muffler Guns, Side Knuckles, Engine Cannon, and Bumper Bow. My favorite would be the Side Knuckles because of the electricity effect they have and close ranged weapons are always my thing. The Muffler Guns are quite funny because it doesn’t do the usual just destroying the foot soldier, no their butts are set on fire! 

Reminding me of fire, the manual comes back into play when the team needs to learn how to use the final form of Giga Formula. The manual is on fire though and they just see the image of Formula Nova and just go for it! Again there is no practice at all these guys just do it on the fly. I know other shows have done it before, but here I am bothered by it more, only because there is a legit manual for this weapon! This is a good simple gag that keeps this silly idea in your head about how quickly heroes can learn on how to fight. The weapon is used and again it does not destroy the monster, it just sends his butt back to space! There was also some nice little animation for the monster’s face when he gets hit.

One more thing to mention is that we get a nice minor character showing up in this episode, he is the boss of the heroes at their job at Pegasus. He decides to come over and give a lecture to the team and then Dappu just keeps knocking him out so he can introduce the Giga Formula. There is even a point where the man knocks himself out when he kicks the Giga Formula and that is how the weapon gets to work because some middle aged man just kicked it! There are so many other shows that would have a quest or something just to use a new cannon finisher or some sort of soul journey for the heroes so when they use it, it feels rewarding. Carranger says no to all of that nonsense and just kicks it into gear, literally!

 Episode two then ends with the villains losing and their plan backfires on them then. Donpa keeps playing his music unintentionally that is causes the aliens to attack them instead as we see Donpa’s arm fall off, implying that he got killed. So the heroes did not finish him off, but some random aliens did. Also the boss finally wakes up and does not get hit on the head as he gets a call from his wife and heads out. Meanwhile Dappu keeps taking care of the Giga Formula. This is only the second episode and I am amazed by what has happened so far. There are some shows that struggle with their beginnings because they try to find new ways to introduce new elements or even new toys to sell. Carranger just slaps it in while the nonsense really gets your attention and while your attention is being taken you can notice these new weapons being used and even noticing little details because this show can throw many curveballs at you. What is really special here is execution and that should be what people focus on and not the idea itself. This is a strong A episode because I loved the nonsense that happened here and really got into it when the new weapon was introduced which is rare now these days for current Sentai I feel. 

Carranger Episode 1 Review: A New Format Begins!

One thing for sure that caused me tons of stress was keeping up with episode reviews. For one I was mostly focusing on current series and it came around the time where the shows were not making me happy at all. Even discussing the shows caused this terrible taste in my mouth. I had a similar thing with my gaming when Heavy Rain came out, I simply couldn’t understand the praise for it and getting into arguments just had me stop my overall gaming. Funny enough this was around the time when I started to get into Toku. Luckily in that same year I already got back into a gaming mood and right now I think I am getting back my Toku love. Now I will say Kyoryuger did not kill this for me, I was actually fine with reviewing that series and I felt like I got my full input on it even if my enjoyment for the show was lower compared to others. Toqger did not help though because this was when I hit the wall. I had trouble finding what to talk about and trying to avoid repeating myself, in the end I could not. Toqger had big flaws and they come up many times in multiple episodes. There are still small amount of good things from what I heard from Fantasy Leader, but I had to stop watching it. Drive even got to that point when I was getting further into it, but I will say the recent developments I have been hearing, I could give it another try in the future. Right now though I am focusing on shows I wanted to see and Carranger has been on the top for a long time.

A big reason why Carranger has been in my thoughts is because of the comedy. The writer, Yoshio Urasawa is a man who wrote for one of my favorite anime series, Nerima Daikon Brothers. Also when I shown Fantasy Leader the game Wonderful 101 and its glorious comedic bits he said this resembles Carranger. I just had to jump right into Carranger because of those reasons and this is going to be one of my favorites.

So the layout for these types of posts will be a one or two paragraphs (or more...) review for an episode, I could easily just do them all separately, but again with how I feel about content, I don’t want to cheap you guys out. For the first one I will focus on the first episode because well I already typed up a lot above this paragraph. Also the first ones for these posts of series I will get the opening theme, design choices, and some more. Next is the fact that the first episode has to be the eye catcher and get the main plot out. So by the time I wrote this, I got to see five episodes of Carranger so far. The next post will be episodes two between five.

So the opening theme is one of my favorites from the franchise and always has been, it easily kept the series in my head. Thanks to subtitles now I can actually know some of the lyrics and it is really motivating and upbeat. Then in the opening theme we see our characters and I can say Green and Yellow are going to be favorites of this show. Mostly Green because of how silly he already looks in the opening theme. Also in the opening are the cars the heroes use and I am loving these cars. This was during the 90’s of Sentai and I love how they used mechs during that era.  First thing that I like is that the cars are dashing along making quick turns and all of that. Along with the upbeat music already gets me in the mood for racing. Also the camera work for these miniatures look strong already and there is a good sense of sizing already. We get good close up shots of the car to make them see huge and then far away shots of when they are together. I really enjoy the use of miniatures and I can’t really remember when current Toku has worked with them so well. The suits for the heroes look good as the car motif is strong with them. They got the headlights and all of the design choices a car would have, what also helps is that in fights these guys fight like they are cars or driving them. It just helps with their motif a whole lot more and makes their suits jump out since it gives the suits themselves some characteristics.

Alright on with the first episode and it is a strong one, nothing too ground breaking yet in my opinion, but this first episode does show what is in store for the future episodes. Shockingly the episode starts more drastic and it is a bit odd right after that upbeat opening. We see the destruction of a plant as the character Dappu is trying to escape. We see the terror of the villains with their menacing vehicles. We then actually see who the villains are and they are a gang and that is it. Even some of their monsters dress up like greasers from the 1950’s for America. Even their hideout is a bar that has this girl called Zonnette and she is pretty much a tease for these alien guys and I’m not joking. She is even the reason why the gang is doing this because Zonnette likes to see fireworks and the best ones are by destroying planets. One of the leaders of the gang even tries to lick her butt… I’m speechless. These villains are great, they are sleazy and I adore that about them. Compared to what villains we had from before and after this series, this is still something different for the franchise. These villains are not organized crime lords, they are hooligans who just go looting and destroying planets with no plan whatsoever. 

Kids' shows back then were awesome!

When the Bowzock have their sights on Earth or I should say Earf for them. First off, the Wonderful 101 makes a direct reference by calling Earth, Plant Chi-Q and that is how the Bowzock pronounces Earf or it could be Dearth if I want to go by Wonderful 101. Either way the gang sees five colorful lights emitting from Earth as Dappu says they are the lights of the Carrangers. The power that will bring peace back to the galaxy and he also reveals himself to the gang as being the sole survivor of his planet. There Dappu gets the power of Car Magic and goes to Earth to find the Carrangers and luckily they are in the same spot. These five heroes work at a garage where they fix cars and their goal is to build their dream cars one day as they have miniatures so far. There Dappu appears and literally throws everything to the team by using Car Magic! He gives the heroes their Accel Changers and already gets their base ready as these five are freaking out for the most part.

The episode then starts to get more insane when the Bowzock invade Earth and make vehicles come to life. For the Bowzock vehicles are alive and for Earth they are tamed by humans and the Bowzock easily made them more wild beings. So we see cars driving themselves or even something like a tricycle flying away with a child on it. Dappu appears to stop them with the five heroes that he tied up and forced them to the scene… again I am speechless here. I never seen the mentor character literally dragging the heroes into battle and the five heroes get into an argument saying they don’t have enough money to be protecting the Earth. This is when I am just enjoying this wackiness at the point of the flying cars because my goodness things keep on getting stranger later on. The heroes reject to be Carrangers as Dappu fights alone and loses quickly. Right off the bat the heroes go to Dappu and hear his story of his planet and mother dying. This gets so dramatic so fast and yet it causes me to laugh because I know this is all a joke. Carranger is the only official Sentai that is a pure parody of the franchise and that is probably why it stands out so much even to today. Dappu dies and the heroes get the passion to become the Carrangers and then Dappu gets back up as he faked his death… you little devil! Again I just laugh along with this even if Dappu was being quite manipulative here.

The Carrangers enter into battle though with… go-karts? To me these grown heroes look silly in the little go-karts, but again I do feel that is the point. Right off the bat these heroes start by saving the civilians from the destructive vehicles and we can see that some added powers are given to them as Red can push a fire truck back. We even got to see the main swords for the heroes, the Vi-blades and man they are awesome to look at. They are big swords with some added functions with charging as the wheels inside the hilt start to spin. The Auto Blasters work the same way then as they have a charge function to release stronger blasts. These are nice simple weapons with a great function with them. Also I got to mention when one of the mooks died an animated octopus appears, I’m going to love this show. The fight soon escalates with the team trying to take down a freighting looking fire truck as the vehicle crashes through buildings and gets the heroes off of it. I have to say I like seeing the heroes falling around because we see them crashing into the buildings, the roads, and even into a car. What also helps is the good camera work and making sure we see the glass breaking in front of us and quickly changing the scope so we can get good transitions for this scene. Soon Red gets a big hit on the leader and causing the Bowzock to retreat as the Carrangers get their first victory!

The action was good and was the standard of the 90’s and I miss this time. The suit action was everywhere as the whole area is used very well. We even get great far and close shots of the scenery as we see different angles of the fight. What stood out is when the heroes had to fight the evil fire truck because things are moving fast and even with many transitions going around, it was easy to follow. What also helped were those great weapons and the series will reveal some even better weapons later on. The overall comedy is strong and this was only the first episode with how Dappu pretty much forced these guys into becoming heroes. For the first episode it got through everything nice and easy. It’s a strong A for the first episode. Also I just realized that this was pretty long, I think the struggle is gone now guys.