My Constantly Shifting Opinions On Turboranger And Carranger

I can't deny that I do change my opinions every now and then -- it's just like I tend to prefer older vs. newer shows based on how good things go for me, I tend to think newer Kamen Rider is better than newer Super Sentai then I'm recently taking a short break from Kamen Rider Zi-O (to at least recharge my Rider vibes) then the same can be said about two shows. One is Kosoku Sentai Turboranger and Gekisou Sentai Carranger -- which one really shifted into Turbo is somewhat based on personal preference.

So why do I frequently end up comparing Carranger with Turboranger even if the said show was from 1996 and Turboranger was in 1989 making them seven years apart? It's because of the Car Magic theme, Power Rangers Turbo was based on Carranger and Gokaiger had one episode where the Gokaigers accidentally used the Turboranger powers instead of the Carranger powers. Hmmm both Riki and Kyousuke made guest appearances. Riki was in the Hero 199 movie and Kyousuke in the tribute episode. Not to mention that they are both my favorites in said shows for their Law of Chromatic Superiority which I will discuss later.

Turboranger was basically an experimental season because no season yet was based on cars. Carranger evolved the Car Magic theme with more cars. Turboranger didn't get too consistent with it especially when Dr. Dazai introducing a flying mecha for a car-themed show! Both shows relied on car magic-type powers to fight villains. What also differed one team from the other was that one team dealt with teenagers with attitude and the other were young adults.

The villain execution from both shows really differs. The first difference was that Turboranger dealt with the Hundred Violent Demon Tribes that were sealed for 20,000 years. Carranger dealt with the Bowzock who are stupid villains who lacked any real competence (well as if Super Sentai villains don't suffer from Bond Villain Stupidity). The difference was the seriousness done. The Hundred Violent Demon Tribes were scary and serious even if they had a knack for carrying out rather convoluted and/or unbelievable plots. Ragorn does seem to be a real damn moron of a Big Bad -- he always gets mad that the Turborangers always defeat him, wastes his best generals, needs Zulten for a scapegoat, and usually just gets stuck with idiotic plans. Carranger did introduce its own version of Emperor Ragorn in Emperor Exhaus who is surprisingly more competent -- he came up with plans to make the moronic Bowzocks useful or even thought of how to seal off the Carrangers' powers as part of his plan. Emperor Exhaus even managed to defeat the Carrangers' mecha in the finale!

There are lots of badass moments in both shows -- Turboranger seems to still take the cake better for that! Carranger does have some good action scenes such as Kyousuke defeating a monster out of suit (which also happened in Fiveman with Ken), there's Natsumi who is really a full season Mika Koizumi (except she isn't a camerawoman) with her episodes written by Hirohisa Soda and some cool mecha scenes and Emperor Exhaus' final rampage somewhat puts Ragorn's return to shame. However, we can't discount that Turboranger had plenty of good action scenes such as the midseason write-offs (especially Rehda's final episode which was said that the late Masashi Ishibashi didn't like his role as said character) and the Nagare Bouma show a lot of good scenes or the whole Red Turbo vs. Ragorn battle is really badass.

Some may still want to say "Turboranger is better than Carranger." (and vice-versa) even while liking both shows or because one dislikes the other show. I would still want to say that both are enjoyable at their own rates. You can like one better one over the other. Carranger can be viewed as "not funny" for some and think Turboranger can be better. However, Turboranger can be unfairly maligned maybe in favor of Carranger or any of series before and after it. I enjoy both of them while I really can't decide which show is better.