All spoilers for Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger and Space Sheriff Gavan are left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
The legendary Space Sheriff Gavan is hired to capture the Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. However, Gavan himself is captured by Gavan Bootleg and is trapped in Makuu Prison, worst prison in the universe. The Gokaigers resolve to rescue the sheriff from the prison and join forces with him to fight Gavan Bootleg and Makuu Prison's warden, Asurada.
Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger vs. Space Sheriff Gavan: The Movie provides examples of the following tropes:
- The Alcatraz: Part of the story takes place in Makuu Prison, a huge, highly guarded inter-dimensional prison complex which none have ever broken out from, with the Gokaigers even planning a breakout.
- Aside Glance: Upon defeating the Gokaigers, Gavan salutes at the camera.
- Behemoth Battle: Kanzen GokaiOh and Dol vs. Asurada who enlarged himself.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: All the Gokaigers, including Machalcon in his Big Damn Heroes, borrow Marvelous' Battle Cry, providing variations of their own (all except Gai, who can't come up with one).
- Book Ends: A shot of Gavan at the top of a flight of stairs, first when confronting Marvelous and then when he's doing his henshin pose.
- Chrome Champion: Gavan's suit has been redesigned to be a mostly bright chrome silver compared to it's original muted colors. (Not an upgrade, as it's supposed to be the same one he's always worn but they had to rebuild it since the old one had long been worn beyond use)
- Combination Attack: Gokai Red and Gavan execute a finishing attack on giant Asurada called the Gavan Marvelous Dynamic — Marvelous plugs the Gokai Red Ranger Key into his Gokai Sabre for a Final Wave and does a powerful slash while Gavan uses his Gavan Dynamic, a powerful slash from his Laser Blade.
- Continuity Cameo: Well there's obviously Gavan, along with Battle Kenya and Denzi Blue. Several past Super Sentai villains appear as well.
- Action Commanders Sneak Brothers and Jerashid
- Trinoid 12 Yatsudenwani
- Phantom Spy Vancuria
- Dark Shadow's Shizuka of the Wind and Gekkou of Illusions.
- The three main Gaiark Pollution Ministers. Yogostein is still drinking the sake stolen from Genta's sushi cart from Shinkenger vs. Go-Onger!
- Mons Drake, Kinggon and Robogog.
- ...and Bae.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Gokaiger mention to Gavan at the beginning of the movie that the Dekaranger have already cleared the Gokaigers' names with regards to the accusations by the Zangyack.
- Jerashid is wearing a wedding ring, consistent of when he last appeared in the series.
- Cool Old Guy: The trinity of Kenji Ohba.
- Crucified Hero Shot: Gavan is held at the top of Makuu Prison, where his arms are spread out and restrained by cuffs on either end of the board he's cuffed to.
- Dramatic Drop: Gai drops his groceries at the beginning, upon witnessing the aerial battle between the Gokai Galleon and Gavan's ship, and seeing his friends lose.
- Dungeon Bypass: How the Gokaigers quickly escape the Makuu prison: separated on different levels, they all shoot down at their feet, creating a hole on each floor to jump through.
- Early-Bird Cameo: This movie marks the first appearance of the Gokaiger's successors, Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, who take on Basco.
- Evil Knockoff: Gavan Bootleg is an evil copy of the actual Gavan made by the Zangyack and the space police's technology.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: Makuu Prison; Retsu is held at the very top of the structure.
- Graceful Loser: Surprisingly, Basco chooses to make his leave once he is thwarted by the Go-busters.
- Handshake Substitute: Marvelous and Retsu have a fist bump before the big brawl.
- Homage: The ending in which Gavan poses with Battle Kenya and Denzi Blue is a callback to the Grand Finale of Space Sheriff Shaider, in which the title character posed with Gavan and Sharivan.
- Heel–Face Return: Dark Shadow were still antagonists (albeit, rather lame ones) and here they’re in a jail for reformed villains. The implications are obvious.
- Hope Spot: The beginning of the movie has the Gokaigers believing they shot down Gavan's ship that was chasing them, until Electronic Starbeast Dol flies out of the flames and takes them down.
- In the Name of the Moon: Gavan adds himself to the Gokaigers' roll call. Then there's the combined Kenji Ohba roll call of Battle Kenya, Denzi Blue and Gavan.
- I Owe You My Life: Marvelous helps Gavan to return the favor, since Retsu saved a young Marvelous and helped make him the man he is today by teaching him to be brave. The other Gokaiger go along because, as they say, Marvelous' origin is their origin, so by association they owe him too.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Marvelous and Retsu/Gavan.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Gavan is hired by the Zangyack to capture the Gokaiger.
- Lover Tug of War: Don between Shizuka and Kegalesia. Should he count as lucky or unlucky?
- Man Versus Machine: Gavan (Retsu, the human) versus Bootleg (the machine). As Retsu says in the final battle, Bootleg might know all his moves, but a mere machine can't copy the human soul.
- Mirrored Confrontation Shot: between Gokai Red and Gavan.
- Noodle Incident
- While discussing Gavan, Denzi Blue mentions to Battle Kenya that he met him once. An off-screen Denziman/Gavan teamup perhaps? This is more likely a Lampshade Hanging of the aforementioned
Acting for Three trope. - Jerashid is one of the inmates in the Makuu Prison. Since he had retired from villainy earlier in the series, it's unclear what led to his imprisonment. He even starts to explain, but the Gokaigers blow him off.
- While discussing Gavan, Denzi Blue mentions to Battle Kenya that he met him once. An off-screen Denziman/Gavan teamup perhaps? This is more likely a Lampshade Hanging of the aforementioned
- Oh, Crap!: Basco briefly has this look after Red Buster introduces himself and then sees the other two Go-Busters standing to his left and right side.
- Out-of-Character Moment: No actual reason is given to why Don decides to join Luka in beating up Gai, even if his rescue attempt was rather late.
- Overly Long Gag: The time Don takes to recover from a fall, in slow-motion.
- Production Foreshadowing: In the Go-Busters Early-Bird Cameo, Basco assumes they are "Super Sentai wannabes", before they reveal themselves to be the 36th Super Sentai team. Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger, an unofficial Super Sentai series which follows the adventures of an unofficial Sentai team trying to get their own TV show and be recognised as an official Super Sentai, first aired a few months after the movie was released.
- Remember the New Guy?: Marvelous is revealed to have known Gavan some time in the past.
- Shot at Dawn: How the Gokaigers are supposed to be executed, complete with Unwilling Suspension.
- Stealth Pun: Gavan's Evil Counterpart is called Gavan Bootleg. Bootleg is another term for a
Pirated Copy. - Strong and Skilled: Gavan. He's a veteran hero of nearly 30 years but since he's a Space Sheriff and not a member of Super Sentai he didn't fight in the War and lose his power to transform in the aftermath. So unlike almost every other returning character he's still able to fight at full power and both defeats the Gokaigers all on his own and later solos Gavan Bootleg without any help from the team.
- Theme Song Power Up: The Space Sheriff Gavan and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger main themes play during the Gavan vs. Gavan Bootleg/Gokaigers vs. Asurada double battle near the end of the movie. Also, the Gokaigers and Gavan quote their own theme songs at various points during the movie to inspire or motivate themselves/others (such as Gavan's pep talk to a young Marvelous).
- Time-Shifted Actor: Averted; Kenji Ohba plays Retsu in Marvelous's Flash Back, but they only ever show him from the back or in distant shots (and apparently touched up the gray out of his hair) in order to hide his age.
- Transformation Sequence: According to the narrator, it takes one-twentieth of a second for Retsu to change into Gavan, while the Gokaiger only take one-tenth of a millisecond to transform.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Played for laughs; Gai gets manhandled by Luka and Don because of how late his rescue attempt was.
- Versus Title: In this case, the "Vs." element comes from Gavan arresting the Gokaigers, then the appearance of his Evil Counterpart.
- Visual Pun: Gavan slashes at the screen in a certain pattern once the "cross"-over part was mentioned in the narration.
- The Worf Effect: A downplayed example for the Go-Busters' Early-Bird Cameo; though they don't exactly beat Basco, the fact that the three of them hold their own against someone who has overpowered all six Gokaigers single-handed is certainly impressive. Basco himself even acknowledges that they are pretty good, and chooses to take his leave when he sees that his opening is lost.
