I'm A Fan Of Turboranger

I thought I'd actually end any possible friendly debates and exchanges with Shogo B'Stard. Then it happened -- after he wrote about Time Force. Now he's written about Turboranger and maybe, just maybe I'll be exchanging views and enter into yet another friendly debate with him -- all the while I'll focus on Lupinranger vs. Patranger episode reviews. 

The series itself presented new innovative ideas such as the trope of "recruit teenagers with attitude" which makes one ask why in the world did Seelon decide to recruit teenagers showered with fairy energies? Why choose a bunch of teenagers given car magic powers to fight the thousand years worth of evil in the Violent Demon tribes? It was a new concept back then -- which was later strengthened in Carranger as another show that also suffered from rating problems since the ratings only increased from 4.4 to 4.8. It was Megaranger not Carranger that normalized ratings. But none of these performances can be said to be as terrible as Fiveman. I guess the rating problems were a result of Hirohisa Soda's burnout considering he was writing from Goggle V up to Liveman -- seven years worth of Super Sentai series.

I can remember the introduction arc thanks to the subs by Love X Care. It's been SOME TIME since I saw the badly done Tagalog dub by IBC-13. I could think of the way that the Turborangers were chosen to fight the bad guys. They're all but teenagers and they were in the middle of a glass. No nonsense facing with idiots like Bulk and Skull (or recently Victor and Monty, two GOOD reasons why I don't want to watch Ninja Steel in contrast to my two obviously lame reasons) who do nothing to contribute to plot. They are taken into the battlefield where they witness the Bouma are now planning to cause trouble for humanity. Dr. Dazai arrives and tells them the story of ancient mankind. What still made me go WTF though is just how in the world can teenagers with attitude immediately master their mecha? Did they get a driver's license or what? Or are their instructions in their suits? Also, remember when the Turbo GT FLEW? Riki doesn't even have flying lessons. I sort of didn't care too much about it either. I mean, didn't Ako in Jetman learn to fly so easily and she's just well... a late teenager? Super hero logic can be so weird huh?

Years later, I learned of the Turboranger clip show and what shocked me (or not) was that Goranger and JAKQ were not yet included until Ohranger. It was an interesting clip show that didn't rely too much on past clips. Instead, we saw better summaries. Then again, I think it was super possible back then within the time frame given BECAUSE they only featured from Battle Fever J up to Liveman before the previous teams leave it to Turboranger in a clip show. No, I don't even count it as an episode but as a TV special -- just like the Timeranger clip show. The clip show doesn't affect Turboranger's story all the while it honors its predecessors. If Shout! should release Turboranger then shouldn't they well, include this clip show? 

I soon learned that there was the problem of ratings and most likely payroll issues as a result of ratings. I remembered the midseason changes that happened especially writing off the three Bouma generals in favor of the Nagare Bouma -- a new plot that they were working on as the second half of the show. It's possible that the three generals were planned to stay and clash with them but payroll issues kicked in. The only way to do so was to write off Zimba, Jarmin and Rehda the best way possible. After reading Sentai Bandicoot's review on Gingaman episode 12 -- plus I kinda ROTFL and LMAO when he mentioned Naomi Takebe. I wonder was the show writing off Zimba, Jarmin and Rehda to let them go on a high note rather than push them behind the Nagare Bouma? Maybe. I admit, the way the three generals were written wasn't bad at all. It wasn't like Bilgenia getting written off just to introduce Shadow Moon just like that in Kamen Rider Black. 

Also, I just recently learned from Shogo that some people complained that it was becoming the Riki Honoo show. TBH, I find it hard NOT to like Kenta Satou. It wasn't all too surprising that I discovered that Satou was the lead singer of Turboranger's opening and ending themes -- not to mention that he was Zyuranger's opening theme singer too! I guess there was such thing as the Riki focus -- I mean who got rid of Rehda and Ragorn in one on one combat? The other Turborangers fired their laser guns at Zimba to help Riki. But not Rehda and Ragorn. I still can't forget the clips I saw of Red Turbo even facing the MAIN VILLAIN of the show one-on-one. Really? That was ones super powerful moment. Riki was trapped in battle against Ragorn, the Nagare Bouma were hoping to use it as a distraction yet Red Turbo emerged victorious after a very difficult battle. It didn't make so much sense yet it was a truly badass moment.

With that said, I'm looking forward to Shogo B'Stard's posts on Turboranger. I just think about having yet another exchange of ideas. But how long can I keep up with it? I'm probably going to start writing more Lupin vs. Pat posts -- just watch out for a possible Keiichiro/Patren-1 related post because the upcoming episode may heavily focus on said character -- all the while I'm looking forward to more Turboranger posts from Them's Fightin' Words.