Ohranger vs. Carranger: Which Super Sentai Season Was The Rightful 20th Anniversary?

Super Sentai may be on hiatus, but I felt like still giving it the honors every now and then. This photo can be so sad, just thinking of how Yuka Motohashi (who played as Natsumi Shinohara in Gekisou Sentai Carranger) left us so soon due to cancer. Carranger's 30th anniversary happened this year, and that show could've been the anniversary. Instead, there was the contender because Choriki Sentai Ohranger was actually the 20th anniversary of Himitsu Sentai Goranger. The references were hard to dismiss like the military trend with Goranger, Dengeki Sentai Changeman, and Ohranger. It was also on 1995 when Goranger became more recognized as the first true Super Sentai series!

Apparently, there was some kind of identity crisis. Should a Super Sentai series celebrate its anniversary by year or by entry number? Do the mathematics. Ohranger was the 20th birthday of Goranger. Carranger was the 20th Super Sentai entry. There was some kind of crisis. Not to mention, Carranger also hit the milestone of airing the 1000th episode. There was a milestone that couldn't be ignored. Carranger somehow hit marketing limbo of sorts.

Ohranger was a toy-heavy season. Toys popped out more often. Yikes! I remember not wanting to grow up seeing the Power Rangers ZEO toys (and well, there were some Ohranger toys too). The more the Ohranger mecha are shown on screen, the more they share a similar vibe with the Buu Saga of Dragon Ball Z. Yes, who can remember when the Buu Saga introduced many cool toys that barely did anything? Gohan becomes Mystic Gohan only to be absorbed by Super Buu. Super Saiyan 3 Goku is cool, but ends up being more of a liability to the main character. It was probably because the show ended up changing tones. The first few episodes were rather grim but ended up going to Lighter and Softer, and some were Denser and Wackier. It was because of the Great Hanshin Tokyo Earthquake and the Sarin Gas incident caused by the Aum Shinrikyo. 

The approach somewhat changed during Carranger. Carranger went out to be a year-long parody of sorts. Carranger did away with the primary robot and the secondary robot, combining. Instead, we had two Megazords, namely the RV Robo and the VRV Robo. The Victory Trailer, which brought the components of the VRV Robo, was a short return to the Carrierzords that were often used since Battle Fever J -- a giant Zord that carried the Zords. It was more balanced, though one way or another. It didn't feel like a festival. Instead, the Carranger's use of Zord felt more "corrective" to me. The new toys didn't become an overload. The results were that the Zords really cooled better IMHO than what Ohranger could've given us.

Looking at both series again, I felt it this way. Ohranger wanted to celebrate 20 years of Super Sentai (since Goranger, but there was a hiatus in 1978). However, Ohranger wasn't lucky because it got hit by the Great Hanshin Earthquake and the Aum Shinrikyo Incident. Basically, Ohranger was a celebration marred by two major bad events. However, Carranger was a year where, while bad things happened, there was some sense of relief. Hashin was being rehabilitated. The people behind Aum Shinrikyu were already facing trial. However, it was also that time when Shoko Asahara was a "messianic figure". Still, there was some sense of relief when te Aum Shinrikyu culprits were arrested, and the Japanese system isn't easy to outsmart.

I would view Carranger as the CORRECTIVE anniversary. Ohranger was a show that became an unfortunate victim of sudden stress. Carranger had a sense of calmness that allowed it to remain consistent. Sure, the ratings didn't normalize until Denji Sentai Megaranger. However, I'm still going to be among the people who say that Carranger is a MUST WATCH.