Follow TV Tropes

Following

Series / Gekisou Sentai Carranger
aka: Carranger

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/carren_v1.jpg

Fighting for traffic safety! Gekisou Sentai, Caaaaaaaaaaarranger!

Gekisō Sentai Carranger (Extreme Rush Squadron Carranger) is the twentieth installment in the Super Sentai series, airing from 1996 to 1997. Naritaka Takayama sang the Title Theme Tune. It's about a group of idiot workers at Pegasus Garage who use the power of car-shaped constellations to fight a group of idiot aliens called the "Space Bosozoku Bowzock".note 

As the twentieth installment of the franchise, it bounces between being considered an Affectionate Parody of Super Sentai and all the tropes it has, while being a full Super Sentai series in and of itself. At the time, Super Sentai was suffering from low ratings due to a terrorist attack, Executive Meddling and writer discourse affecting the reception of Chouriki Sentai Ohranger, meaning ratings started low and continued dropping due to the continuance of executive mandates to make the show silly and comedic over being well-written. That changed in the latter half of the show, as the executives simply stopped caring and allowed the writers to do whatever the hell they wanted past that point... after which the show's viewership literally doubled in a week in its mid-30s.

The show has long been credited by Western fans as saving Super Sentai from cancellation; however, as stated in multiple interviews, this isn't true at all.

Adapted in the US as Power Rangers Turbo. They attempted to make a serious series out of it at first (using the goofiest monster suits and stock footage imaginable) but gave up halfway - this disjointed approach nearly had Power Rangers getting canceled, but the ratings recovered after the halfway point.

It is the 5th Super Sentai to see a US release in April 2017. It can be streamed for free at Shout! Factory TV.


Recurring Super Sentai tropes:

  • All Your Powers Combined: The Giga Formula, a race car comprised of the Carrangers' individual weapons mounted on a wheeled platform. It can reconfigure into the Formula Nova team cannon.
  • Bad Guy Bar: The BB Saloon, where the Bowzock love to mess around while planning on destroying the world.
  • Brought to You by the Letter "S": "C" is for Carranger.
  • By the Power of Grayskull!: "Gekisou! AccelChanger!"
  • Calling Your Attacks: Parodied in one episode. In the Monster vs. Mecha battle, the villain (SS Pamaan) prepares his ultimate attack. Unfortunately, its name is so long that the Carrangers kill him before he can pull it off. (See Shout-Out below for why it's so long.)
  • Color Character: Another Sentai whose codenames have the color as the head word, the first since Jetman and the last until Go-Busters, followed by the title "Racer".
  • Cool Bike: For the first time in the franchise, no one in the main team had a motorcycle (instead they had go-karts, which fit better in the car motif). However, Signalman rode one called the Polispeeder.
  • Cool Car: In addition to the aforementioned Speeder Machine go-karts (one for each member), the Ranger Vehicles and VRV Machines that composed the team's mecha naturally filled this role. They also had two sentient cars named the Pegasus Thunder and the Dragon Cruiser.
  • Crossover: Carranger vs. Ohranger
  • Custom Uniform: A partial version, since the differences were a male version and a female version.
  • Evil Will Fail: In true spirit to the season's parody nature, the villains lose primarily because the true Big Bad is actually a serious villain, which leads to the Bowzock teaming up with the Carrangers to stop him.
  • Eyecatch: Both before and after the break, the eyecatch features a zig-zagging line, which is revealed to be the Vehicle (or vehicles if more than one are featured) of the hero of the episode which stops as "Carranger" appears on one of the straight lines of the pattern in English. In the post-break version, we hear a small piece of the Carranger theme in instrumental. The footage from these eyecatches were used in the second half of Power Rangers Turbo which makes the only Power Rangers season to also use the eyecatches from Super Sentai. From episode 32, the eyecatch changes: the same "zig-zag" and vehicle is seen at first, but only at the start of the eyecatch, where it opens into a split screen showing the Carranger tied to the color/vehicle, as well as both the vehicle and humanoid version of their VRV Machine.
  • Finishing Move: The Carrangers all have a unique move, but rely on the Giga Formula/Booster for that last hit.
    • The Humongous Mecha also get their own finishing moves. RV Robo has the Gekisou Giri/Extreme Racing Cutter, VRV Robo arms itself with the Victrailer's weapons to perform the Victory Twister, and Sirender equips the Siren Vulcan to blow Gorotsuki to smithereens with a barrage of molten slag.
  • Five-Man Band:
    • The Leader: Kyousukenote 
    • The Lancer: Natsuminote 
    • The Smart Guy: Naoki
    • The Big Guy: Minoru
    • The Heart: Youko
  • Home Base: The Pegasus Garage, in a sense. Dappu used his magic to created an expanded hangar for the Ranger Vehicles and later the Victrailer and VRV Machines.
  • Humongous Mecha: In addition to the heroes' mechas, there was also Braking, the dragon mecha RitchRitchihiker used after taking over the Baribarian. It notably gave the RV Robo a run for its money, defeated it, and captured it. This is what forced the Carrangers into getting new mechs. Braking was succeeded by the Norishiron 12 (piloted by Zelmoda), the Akumagic Mecha trio of Sky Gigune (piloted by Zonette), Marine Zaboon (piloted by Grotch) and Land Zuzoon (piloted by Gynamo) that were used in a scheme to capture Dappu and take the Carmagic power he'd granted the Carrangers, and Norishiron Final, piloted by Gynamo, Zelmoda, and Grotch to distract the Carranger while Exhaus himself stole the Carmagic power directly from the five Carmagic constellations.
    • A Mech by Any Other Name: The Ranger Vehicles and the VRVnote  Machines (which could transform into humanoid forms called "VRV Fighters").
    • Combining Mecha: Notable for having the only Super Sentai mecha combination to date that is made up entirely of transforming robots. Also notable is that RV Robo and VRV Robo's limbs are interchangeable, a combination scheme that would later become a staple of Sentai robots in the 00s.
      • Red Vehicle + Green Vehicle + Blue Vehicle + Yellow Vehicle + Pink Vehicle = RV Robo
      • V Fire + V Dump + V Police + V Dozer + V Rescue = VRV Robo
    • Transforming Mecha: In addition to the aforementioned VRV Machines, Signalman's Sirender patrol car could transform into a robot as well, while the Victrailer, the giant trailer that stores the five VRV Machines, can transform into a robot that supports the VRV Robo in combat. White Racer's Radiacar Robo (which transforms from a car into a Mega Neko) is a parody of this concept.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: A great deal of episodes, if not all, have terminology relating to roads and driving.
  • In the Name of the Moon:
    Kyosuke: "RedRacer!"
    Naoki: "BlueRacer!"
    Minoru: "GreenRacer!"
    Natsumi: "YellowRacer!"
    Yoko: "PinkRacer!"
    All: "Fighting for traffic safety! Gekisou Sentai - CaaaarrrRanger!"
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority: The Carrangers don't really have a leader within their Five-Man Band - Dappu (and briefly, VRV Master) basically points them in the direction of the Bowzocks when they appear - until about halfway through, when VRV Master finally gets this into Kyousuke's head. He then gets hepped on the idea, takes it a bit too far, and eventually recovers the stolen RV Robo by himself.
  • Make My Monster Grow: The single silliest method of this in Super Sentai history: the Bowzock eat imo-youkan (a real Japanese snack food made from jellied sweet potatoes) to grow giant; and it's not an enchanted or magical version they need to eat, just store-bought imo-youkan from a local seller on Earth. Better yet, only fresh, hand-made imo-youkan (and from a PARTICULAR store, too, for even more comedy) makes them grow; factory-made pre-packaged and/or stale imoyoukan makes them shrink instead.
    • Pre-packaged imo-youkan and its shrinking property becomes a Chekhov's Gun as it is used against Exhaus in the final episode in order to depower him.
  • Mini Dress Of Power: Part of the Carranger girls' suits, that's including White Racer.
  • Monster of the Week: The Gorotsuki (meaning "thugs", "rogues", or "rascals"). Each one of them is the best amongst the Bowzock at something (best pizza chef [XX Mileno], best fashion designer [ZZ Zeri], best music conductor [BB Donpa], etc.) All also have double letters as part of their first name, like MM Mogu, QQ Kyuutan, or NN Nerenko.
  • Mooks: The Combatant Wumpers.
  • "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: A variant, with one of the heroes giving a traffic safety moral at the end of the next time trailer.
    • Parodied in episode 15, with Zonette taking over to give a deliberately terrible lesson, before Kyosuke comes in to correct her.
    • Parodied again with episode 36, with the Bowzock handling the entire trailer, culminating in Gynamo reading the usual lesson off a script.
  • Regular Caller
  • Secret Identity: The first show to actually do it, in fact - so see below.
  • Supervillain Lair: The Baribarian, a gigantic space station covered in highways. The Bowzock leaders themselves hang out at the BB Saloon to discuss how to destroy Earth.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: For the Carrangers and the Zokurangers.
  • Transformation Trinket: AccelChanger.
  • Two Girls to a Team: The sixth Yellow and Pink duo.
  • Villains Act, Heroes React: As is the norm for Super Sentai, we generally have Bowzock sending out a MOTW with an Evil Plan Once an Episode, with our heroes then arriving on the scene to stop them.

Tropes specific to Gekisou Sentai Carranger:

  • Affectionate Parody: Of the Sentai genre.note 
  • Agony of the Feet: Happens to Kyousuke when he meets Pegasus Thunder for the first time.
  • All Just a Dream: Episode 9 has the starting battle the Carrangers have with a powered-up version of BB Donpa be a dream that Kyosuke was having.
  • All There in the Manual: Parodied; the Carrangers themselves have to refer to the manual in mid-battle to figure out how the Formula Nova and Ranger Vehicles work. This has proven flawed at least once, when a copy of the manual once fell into a fire in the middle of a battle.
  • And Knowing Is Half the Battle: In every episode after the next episode preview, one of the characters gives safety tips for pedestrians (of course, 'cause kids are still not legally entitled to drive).
  • Army of Thieves and Whores: The Bowzock Tribe.
  • Avenging the Villain: Episode 8 has YY Bingo's twin brother, YY Gonza, doing this after Minoru kills him in the beginning of the episode.
  • Bad Guy Bar: The BB Saloon, which is the Bowzocks' official hangout spot.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: In Episode 38, Grotch found out that the Imocho owner is planning to retire, which would be pretty bad for them. Gynamo responds to this by sending out PP Chiipuri, the make-up artist Gorotsuki, to work their magic and make him young again with the youth cream Exhaus provided. Even after Norishiron 12 is destroyed by a misfired youth cream shot and PP Chiipuri is killed off by VRV Robo, Imocho is still open for business as usual anyway.
  • Banana Peel: RV Robo ends up falling victim to one, courtesy of DD Donmo, the Bowzock's maniacal shopper.
  • Beach Episode: Episode 25 starts like this.
  • Birthday Episode: Turns out the reason Naoki was kept out of the garage in episode 7 is cause the group was setting up a surprise party for him. He doesn't have the heart to tell them it's not for another month, but he's just happy to find out they don't hate him after all.
  • Book Ends: The first monster Bowzock tried to turn gigantic became tiny instead because the imo-youkan wasn't prepared right. Somebody should've warned the final boss Exhaus as after Gynamo eats some stale imo-youkan himself he gets the idea of using them to depower Exhaus and help the Carrangers defeat him.
  • Brought Down to Normal : Episode 8 has Minoru lose his Accel Changer while practicing his win pose after beating YY Bingo.
  • Butt-Monkey: Most of the characters to some extent, but this seems to be the white Wumper's only reason for existing.
  • By-the-Book Cop: Signalman, so much so he sometimes ends up being a nuisance to the Carrangers. He couldn't stop CC Chakko, the bug collector Gorotsuki, from kidnapping Ichitarou... just because the street crossing light was red!!! This causes him to veer into Lawful Stupid every so often.
  • Catchphrase: Signalman's "Daremo tooranai..."note , which even Ichitarou imitates.
  • Chekhov's Gift: The VRV Machines.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Remember that expired imo-youkan Gynamo ate earlier in the finale? Turns out that it can also De-power an enemy as Gynamo used them on Exhaus.
  • Colony Drop: Exhaus tries to crash Bowzock's base, the Baribarian, into the Earth. This gets stopped by Signalman and Sirender, of all things, who turn an Earth-Shattering Kaboom into a survivable landing. It gets reversed on him, in that the Carrangers take this opportunity to assault the place, but it doesn't quite kill him.
  • Cool Cars: The whole point of the show. (In-show as well, since the original Ranger Vehicles were based off of the Carrangers' "Dream Car"... models.)
  • Cool Old Guy: VRV Master, with a bit LOT of Large Ham involved. And while he turns out to have brought them the Victory Ranger Vehicles in VicTrailer, the Carranger's first impression?
    Naoki: "He's suspicious..."
    Yoko: "He goes right past suspicious and into creepy..."
    • That exchange is justified, considering Dappu warned them not to trust other aliens. Unless they like gumdrops. Aliens who like gumdrops can always be trusted!
  • Creepy Cockroach: Subverted with Goki-chan. Sure, it is an enlarged cockroach, it is hideous and it is a Bowzock, but it's not treated as disgusting by anyone in-universe (Zonnette even thinks it's cute).
  • Crying Wolf: Used in episode 18 when the little girl Emi says there's a alien just for fun, nobody believes her when she really does see a Bowzock member.
  • Dating Catwoman: When Kyousuke realizes Zonnette likes him (but not that she likes Red Racer, regardless of who is wearing the helmet), he decides to try and make things right between them. It doesn't work... at first.
  • Death by Origin Story: Subverted (and of course, parodied) in the very first episode; after Dappu fails to recruit the future Carrangers, he "dies" at the hands of the Bowzock. This motivates them to avenge his death; turns out Dappu faked his death to get them to do so. He even gets up right away after they first transform and scolds the newly-motivated rangers for not cooperating earlier.
  • Deconstructive Parody: While the show is an affectionate parody for the most part, this applies to the final episode; specifically the ending. See Status Quo Is God below.
  • Denser and Wackier: Easily the most cartoonish Sentai installment.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Grotch sings part of the closing theme to himself in episode 5, alongside the shrunken MM Mogu.
  • Expy: Almost all of the main cast, hero and villain alike, are similar to Kousoku Sentai Turboranger.
    • The Carrangers are the car shop employee versions of the Turborangers, complete with a souped-up Turborobo (RV Robo).
    • The Bowzock is the Bohma Tribe as an alien Army of Thieves and Whores, with Exhaus being a parody of Ragorn.
  • Eye Pop: During its second battle, the enemy mecha Braking lets out one when it's Shot in the Ass by a Giant Medical Syringe courtesy of V-Rescue.
  • Fake Defector: The Monster Of The Week in episode 40.
  • Feud Episode: Episode 6 is one between Natsumi and Youko.
  • Finishing Move: Redefined with the RV Robo, which doesn't use an energy sword-style finisher - the RV Sword is, instead, something of a scaled-up Viblade (which seems to glow a bit during use). When RV Robo performs its finisher, the Gekisou Giri/Extreme Racing Cutter, it dashes towards the Gorotsuki while the sky turns dark, starts spinning like a top, crashes into the Gorotsuki really-pointy-sword-first, then ends up in an awesome pose while the Gorotsuki explodes behind it.
  • Fountain of Youth: In episode 38, the Monster of the Week, PP Chiipuri, gets to show off their 'universe's best beautician' cred by turning the owner of the shop who makes the imo-youkan into a much younger man. He was planning on retiring because he was too old, but after the adventure, decides he has enough urge to keep cooking for a while longer.
  • Full-Name Basis: The heroes generally always refer to themselves by their full team title as "Gekisou Sentai Carranger" rather than just "the Carrangers".
  • Fun with Acronyms: When lined up, the first kana of the heroes' surnames spell JI-DO-U-SHI-YA, as in jidōsha, Japanese for "car".
  • Genre Refugee: Signalman looks and acts like a Metal Heroes protagonist....only he's stuck in a goofy Affectionate Parody of Super Sentai.
  • Giant Medical Syringe: During the VRV Machines' first battle, V-Rescue (which is in the form of an ambulance) fires one of these at Braking's... rear, whose eyes bug out as a result (and RitchiRitchihiker to let out a startled "Aiiiiii!").
  • Good Is Not Nice/Jerkass: Though they usually mean well, the Carrangers are probably the most genuinely unpleasant people to wear the rainbow colored spandex (except maybe Captain Marvelous and Luka Millfy...). Notable in that they are probably the only Sentai to actually fight against another in a teamup movie for reasons besides mistaken identity or Mind Control by a Kiss of Death from the cyborg Shibolena.
    • However the two teams made peace and the Carrangers sacrificed their wish (a vehicle that can travel the universe so they could visit all their alien friends) in order to give the Megarangers the necessary power to win their current battle so it's more like they are Jerks With Hearts of Gold
  • The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: In the finale, the Carrangers and Bowzock leaders made a truce thanks to Zonnette/Vanity Mirror, and teamed up to stop Exhaus.
  • Got Me Doing It: Episode 12 has Kyosuke now calling Earth "Earsh" when he gets into an argument with Signalman.
  • Grievous Bottley Harm: Zonnette tends to crack one over Gynamo's head when he's said or done something stupid or hasn't blown up Earth yet.
    • In episode 2, Zonnette cracks a bottle over Gynamo's head for offering to give her sparklers instead of blowing up the Earth.
    • Episode 4 has her do it to him again when he pretends to be asleep.
    • Episode 9 has her do it when he says he knew KK Esu was stupid and he was right, with her calling Gynamo a know-it-all.
  • Heavy Sleeper: Dappu's species has this thing where they go into hibernation for a few weeks per year. Dappu himself actually does so once about halfway through the show. This causes problems since, being mentor to a group of Idiot Heroes, he's effectively their leader...
  • Heel–Face Turn: All the main Bowzock, since they're not really that villainous. The only two exceptions are Ritchihiker and Exhaus: Ritchihiker goes full evil after a festival ritual gone wrong changes him into Ritchi Richihiker, and takes over the Bowzock to destroy the Carrangers... only to be killed in his own mecha by the Carrangers and VRV Robo. And Exhaus was always evil, so he was going to die anyways.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted humorously in the first episode by Dappu, who played dead just to get the Carrangers to transform.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Exhaus' Super Strong form is so powerful, he attempted to finish off the Carrangers (in a heavily damaged RV Robo) with what appears to be a Breath Weapon attack... which proved to be his undoing when Gynamo took advantage of an expired imo-youkan's effects by throwing them into his mouth.
  • Homage: The first team attack the Zokurangers try on the Carrangers? The Zokuranger Ball.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: When the Carrangers are almost cooked into a pizza by XX Mileno.
  • Idiot Hero: All of them to one extent or another.
  • Karmic Death: The first Gorotsuki, BB Donpa, a musical themed bad guy, plotted to annoy other aliens into destroying Earth by literally conducting a symphony of honking cars around the Earth. He escapes getting destroyed by the Giga Formula, only to be blasted to bits by his fellow aliens for making too much noise.
  • Kidnapped by the Call: Dappu outright chained the civilians chosen to become the Carrangers and dragged them along to partake in the fight against the Bozo against the will. In order to give them motivation to fight, he then faked his own dramatic and tragic death.
  • Loves My Alter Ego: Zonnette towards Kyousuke, though she eventually came to warm to his non-Red Racer persona as well.
  • Magical Girl: Radietta Fanbelt/White Racer. Everything from her transformation to her outfit is pure magical girl. Though she does also have a mecha. It's part cat, part car, all cute.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Natsumi and Naoki.
  • Minor Offense Overreaction: Gynamo hates Signalman not for giving him a ticket for riding on 1 million kilometers per hour... but just reminding him that he forgot to put his seat belt on.
  • "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: Variation. There is no exact phrase, but there is an exact theme of the phrase in the end of every episode: Traffic safety tips.
  • Off-the-Shelf FX: Whenever a ranger is picked up by a giant monster, it will generally be a toy. When monsters grow small, they are also usually shown with toys. (In general, there's a sense that there wasn't as much communication between the production departments as there should have been. )
  • One-Steve Limit: Both Signalman and Blue Racer get a giant police car that changes into a mecha.
  • Paying in Coins: In one episode, Zelmoda buys a super fuel from Minoru. He pays the 1,000,000 bill in 10 yen coins.
  • Poke the Poodle: The villains are a gang with no regard for traffic laws, and blow up planets for the lulz.
    • Perhaps the best example is when we're introduced to the Zokurangers as they go around committing the most heinous of crimes: ZokuRed (SS Pamaan) shoots some flowers with his gun; ZokuBlue tramples a sand castle some kids were making; ZokuGreen scares off a couple by bursting through a window; ZokuYellow steals a boy's popsicle; and ZokuPink throws mud on a lady's laundry.
  • The Psycho Rangers: Bousou Sentai Zokuranger, brought together by Bowzock's #1 hero researcher, SS Paaman. Notable for: 1) consisting of barflies aside from SS Paaman, 2) Not resembling the heroes in the slightest except for their vague coloration, and 3) getting their own version of the opening song.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Signalman pulled one of these on the Carrangers in Episodes 35 and 36. It was actually Exhaus' attempt to frame the heroes.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: More of a "...writes the characterization" — apparently Yoshihiro Masujima (Naoki) really was that overly polite during his audition, and Yoshihiro Fukuda (Minoru) really hailed from Osaka, so their characters were rewritten that way.
  • Rearrange the Song: The opening theme was replaced with the rearranged (and Stereo!) "Full Accel Version" after only 13 episodes.
  • Recycled In Space: Basically Kousoku Sentai Turboranger lampooning the Super Sentai series itself.
    • Lampshaded in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger where they change into that team, realizing that it's a completely different one. Kyousuke is not impressed.
  • Sdrawkcab Name: In episode 42, Dappu realizes the reason planet Hazard was blown up is because the bad guys were told by lucky fortune they should blow up planets, especially places starting with Ha-. And they were set up to do it because the one who wrote the fortune is "suahxe", or Exhaus was prodding them into getting rid of a place he didn't want.
  • Secret Identity: At no point does it seem like they're making an effort to do so on purpose, but the Carrangers' human identities are kept secret - in fact, everyone except Dappu and VRV Master thinks they're aliens. (This is apparently a case where everyone believes the Carrangers are too strong to be human - Dappu out-and-out introduced them as such to the Bowzock in the first episode.)
    • Furthermore, this is the first show in the Super Sentai series where they actually bother keeping their identities a complete secret. Amusingly, it's also the one that keeps it best, with no outside characters finding out until the end.
  • Self-Parody: As mentioned above, Carranger parodies Super Sentai while also being an official installment in the series.
  • Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Naoki the gentleman and Minoru the brute.
  • Shirtless Scene: The male Carrangers on the beach at the start of episode 25.
  • Shot in the Ass: During the second battle with Braking, V-Rescue shoots a giant syringe at the ass of the enemy mecha. Cue it letting out an Eye Pop, and RitchiRitchihiker letting out a startled "Aiiiiii!".
  • Shout-Out: SS Pamaan's attempted final attack when giant-sized is a amalgamation of all the previous series' Humongous Mecha' attacks — he gets about halfway through before getting a Gekisou Giri to the face. He's also named after Supermannote .
    SS Pamaan: I've thoroughly researched the art of giant fighting -pamaan! Witness my ultimate killing sword -pamaan! Great Galaxy Blitzkrieg Science Darkness Sword: Lightning Blitzkrieg Plasma Cyber Aurora...
    Red Racer: The technique's name is way too long!
    SS Pamaan: Centrifugal Gravity Super Thunder...
    Carrangers: RV Sword Gekisou Giri!
    (RV Robo hits SS Pamaan with the Gekisou Giri, blowing him sky-high!)
  • Slept Through the Apocalypse: Dappu would have done this, if not for the timely appearance of VRV Master.
  • Sneeze Cut: Happens in episode 41 because Dappu references his father, and VRV Master sneezes, hinting at the revelation he's the person Dappu's talking about.
  • Something Person: Like Ninjaman (Samuraiman) before him, Signalman is another rare example of a Sentai hero who follows this trope.
  • Space Is Noisy: In episode 2, BB Donpa's plan to destroy Earth is to levitate the cars into space and make so much noise with them that nearby aliens will attack Earth to stop the noise. In the end, his own bike makes so much noise that a passing alien takes offense and blows him up.
  • Status Quo Is God: At the end of the series, all of the Carrangers are right back where they started, returning to their normal dumb lives and having learned absolutely nothing from saving the universe. Not that they're concerned with it in the first place, though.
    • Subverted later in Megaranger vs. Carranger, where the Carrangers are still active and got involved with the Megarangers' conflict with Helmedor.
  • Story Arc: Despite being an Affectionate Parody Sentai series, it does have a set of multiple mini-arcs:
    • RV Robo Arc: Episodes 4 & 5
    • Signalman Arc: Episodes 12 & 13
    • Signalman's parting/Bowzock Festival Arc: Episodes 27 & 28
    • VRV Robo Arc: Episodes 29-32
    • Evil Signalman Arc: Episodes 35 & 36
    • Norishiron 12 Arc: Episodes 37 & 38
    • Akumagic Mecha Arc: Episodes 41-43
    • Exhaus Arc: Episodes 46-48
  • Surprise Party: Subverted in Episode 7. The other Carrangers spend the whole episode preparing Naoki's birthday party. Turns out they were off by a month.
  • Tagalong Kid: Ichitarou to Signalman. He has even stood in for him at the Kobaan Base on occasion.
  • Tap on the Head: In episode 2, Souichiro gets one by Dappu bonking him with a mallet.
  • Team Dad: VRV Master leans towards this in contrast to Dappu. (A neat bit of Foreshadowing too, since he's actually is a father. Dappu's, to be specific. Although just how, exactly, he fit his head inside that helmet is never answered .)
    • In keeping with Carranger's parodic nature, he also likes to do typical "Oyaji" stuff, like Pachinko (which he's apparently very good at), drinking coffee milk, and getting shaves at the barber. Daily. Despite pretty obviously not having any hair (or even taking his helmet off, for that matter).
    • To a far lesser extent, when ZZ Gyuri and four Wumpers board the stolen RV Robo, the Wumpers correspond to the colors of the usual pilots (with the white Wumper taking Yellow Racer's seat). The blue Wumper even does Blue Racer's Plugnado Spark pose before firing said attack.
  • Team Hand-Stack: Attempted by the carrangers in episode 38, but Youko isn't paying attention.
  • Theme Naming: The surnames of the Carrangers (Jinnai, Domon, Uesugi, Shinohara and Yagami) form the Japanese word jidōsha ("automobile").
  • Thematic Rogues Gallery: The Carrangers are, obviously, based on cars. Their enemies are a gang of alien biker punks.
  • This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Episode 8 has a powerless Minoru fighting against YY Gonza to prove he's worthy of the Carranger powers, with Dappu stopping the others from jumping in. Minoru... does horribly, and Gonza just kicks his ass. It gets so bad that the other Carrangers have to jump in.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Natsumi and Youko.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Y'know that Colony Drop further up the page? Guess how it got stopped. Sirender ''catches it in midair and pushes it back into orbit.
    • Also happens to Kyousuke when he finally starts steps up to the plate and acts like a Red Ranger/Leader.
  • Took a Level in Dumbass: The Monster of the Week of Episode 33, UU Ussu, drank a Psycho Serum called "Gekibaka" (Japanese for "Violent Idiot"), which makes him more powerful at the cost of being incredibly stupid.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Imo-youkan for the Bowzocks. Somewhat justified since that allows them to grow and become giants.
    • Actually, LL Onene reveals that she prefers green tea cake other to imo-youkan before proceeding to enlarge.
    • Also, XX Mileno, being the Bowzock's best pizza chef... well, you already know what his favorite food is. Heck, he puts his serving of imo-youkan on pizza to grow to size!
    • And ZZ Gyuri, the MOTW who commandeers RV Robo against the Carrangers, is absolutely cuckoo for kimchi.
  • Training from Hell: Episode 10 has Natsumi put LL Onene's mind control headband on Naoki's head, then has him pedal a cart dragging a 200kg/440lb weight to get him to be able to outrace her.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: A hallmark of the series - unless they're actively causing trouble, very few people ever seem to take more than casual notice of the Bowzock. All the more notable when the empowered RitchRitchihiker pulls The Starscream on Gynamo, and he and Zonnette spend the next few episodes doing varied stuff on Earth (even getting jobs at a pachinko parlor - the same one that VRV Master attends, to boot!).
    • Grotch, for example, goes out and buys the imo-youkan himself. This is after he himself grew to giant size and stumbled about town. Still, the store owner does admit he looks pretty strange.
      Grotch: (in reaction to the store owner staring at him) Don't look at me like that...
  • Verbal Tic: Dappu, who likes to add his name to the end of all his sentences. He even does it with his handwriting.
    • So do the Gorotsuki, by constantly repeating their names (most of the time excluding the double initials), which even replaces Calling Your Attacks for them. Most of them also yell out their full names when enlarging via imo-youkan.
  • Victory Pose: Parodied in one episode where Minoru kills YY Bingo... and then decides his pose wasn't cool enough and practices several others trying to find the best one. He gets so absorbed in his task he doesn't notice his Accel Changer fell off and spends the majority of the episode unable to change to Green Racer.
  • Villain Song: The show's ending theme is an upbeat song sung from the point of view of the villains, about having a chance to relax after a tough day of getting beaten by the heroes, and wondering if maybe the good guys can let them win next time. Surprisingly, Grotch and MM Mogu both sing this in Episode 5 while driving.
  • Weirdness Magnet: Ichitarou and family. Dappu setting up shop in Daddy's shop was merely the beginning.
  • "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Kyousuke recaps what the heroes and villains were up to after Exhaus' defeat.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Minoru used to be afraid of lightning after being shocked by an electric eel as a child. He got over it.
    • Interestingly, Zelmoda too has the same fear. We don't see him recover, though.
  • "World's Best" Character: Each Monster of the Week claims to be "the universe's best" at what they do. This ranges from "universe's best mechanic" to "universe's best beautician" (these apply to MM Shuurisukii and PP Chiipuri, respectively).
  • Wrench Wench: Natsumi. To such an extent that she can dismantle a moving bicycle untransformed, and as Yellow Racer she uses it as an attack.
  • Wrench Whack: Episode 8 has Minoru attack YY Gonza with one when he's without his powers and Accel Changer. It doesn't work.
  • Wrestler in All of Us: In Episode 10, Naoki has an Imagine Spot of Natsumi putting him in a Boston crab.

Top