Anime / Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger

We'll blow you away!
From left to right:
Front row: Monk, Pochiro, Bakumaru, Urii, Nyorori
Middle row: Gaoh, Hols, Pakaracchi, Souffle, Tart (second form), Drago
Background: Nyanma, Princess Aura, Cream

In this Spiritual Successor to Samurai Pizza Cats, life is peaceful for the citizens of the utopian country of Mugen. The country and its citizens are connected to Heaven by the Novel Pole, a gigantic totem pole composed of the "worlds" of the beloved stories, fairy tales, and other assorted classics of the human world; these stories are thus called "Novel Worlds."

The mysterious and evil catwoman known as Nyanma scatters her minions, the Jyarei Monsters, to the Novel Worlds to corrupt them, which will eventually result in their destruction and the destruction of the Novel Pole, which would result in drowning all of Mugen beneath the sea. Princess Aura, the de facto ruler of Mugen, enlists the aid of the Bakuretsu ETO Rangers, a team of 12 animal heroes corresponding to the 12 signs of the eastern zodiac. Using the flying machine Kirinda, our heroes must travel to the Novel Worlds, reveal the Jyarei Monsters and stop their corruption, and put an end to the threat of Nyanma.

The series never received an official translation into English, and was only ever dubbed in Tagalog for the Philippines and in Korean for South Korea. An English fansub was attempted in 2007, but was ultimately unsuccessful and stopped at Episode 15 due to the translation team, MugenX, disbanding. A second fansub began on YouTube in 2015, piggybacking off of MugenX's work and taking more creative liberties. This fansub was completed in 2016.

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This anime provides examples of:

• Action Girl:
  • Tart is the most active and battle capable in both forms.
  • Corrupted Little Red Riding Hood proves herself to be a gigantic badass the very moment she appears.
• Action Survivor: Urii during the Grand Finale, as he's one of only three Etorangers who faces Nyanma and lives, surviving because he hid behind the others when the house blew up.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Captain Ahab. In the novel Moby-Dick, while there are debate as to whether he is evil or not, he is still dangerously obsessive and almost insane. In this adaptation, his obsessive nature is toned down and is treated more as a bit of a comedic relief. He is still portrayed as charismatic and adventurous, though.
• A Day in the Limelight: If the coordinates of a Novel World are a three-in-a-row match, there is a chance the episode will center around one character.
  • Tart is the focus of Episode 5, when The Ugly Duckling is tackled. The swan in the story is swapped out for an innocent ostrich by the Jyarei, and she takes it on herself to look after him, feeling she can relate to him. It also introduces her human form, which sticks for the remainder of the series (with a couple of exceptions).
  • Episode 6, which deals with Journey to the West, is Monk's turn. He must swallow his pride and take charge when Bakumaru loses the Revealing Mirror and is captured, both because he injured his hand saving Monk from falling earlier.
  • An unusual case of Bakumaru getting one in Episode 16, which dealt with The Mouse Bride. He's mostly just the plucky leader and a typical hero in most episodes, but here he's forced to swallow both his pride and his sense of duty in order to save Cream by throwing a fight. Luckily, Cream escapes and helps him finish the mission.
  • Episode 24 focuses very strongly on Souffle, as Bakumaru isn't picked. Because of that, Souffle offers to be the temporary leader when they travel to The Boy who Cried Wolf, desperate to be useful after experiencing some doubt.
  • Episode 29, which takes place in Frankenstein, focuses on Pakaracchi, who falls in love with a young woman that turns out to be the corrupted version of the monster.
• Adipose Rex: Corrupted Pinnochio, who, while not a king, is wealthy enough to have quite a bit of control, as he's made of gold instead of wood.
• Always Save the Girl: In episode 16, the Novel World of the Mouse's Wedding has been corrupted into a martial arts contest. Bakumaru ends up competing in the contest, which has marrying an attractive female mouse as the prize, but actually it's because the Jyarei Monster is likely to be competing in the contest. Bakumaru makes it to the final round against a lizard warrior using a whip, but the lizard is the Jyarei Monster, and he has his buddies kidnap Cream with the threat to do away with her unless Bakumaru throws the fight. To ensure Cream's safety, Bakumaru intentionally lets the monster beat the tar out of him until Cream escapes, shows up, and uses the Jyarei Mirror to reveal the Jyarei Monster.
• Animal Jingoism: Played straight with Monk and Pochiro's "monkey vs dog" rivalry. It can be a problem on missions, but they will set their differences aside to see it through. Their friends frequently lampshade that they just can't get along.
• Antiquated Linguistics: Pochiro tends to talk like a feudal samurai when serious.
• As You Know: Kirinda always gives a summary of the story that the team is about to enter before they leave, just in case a team member, or the audience, isn't familiar with it.
  • Aura starts with these words during the first episode, explaining to the Eto Rangers and, by extension, the audience about their role in protecting Mugen and the Novel Worlds.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Several fights with Jyarei boil down to attacking their weak points.
  • A Jyarei made of crystal is able to No-Sell light attacks like Bakumaru's sword and Urii's Bi-e Beam. And then Pakaracchi manages to make a crack.
  • Nyorori realizes that the structure of one Jyarei monster's wings is similar to the ones on his own failed flying machine, which meant that the base was weak.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Nearly all of the Jyarei Monsters are gargantuan in their true forms, but Super Gousen is bigger than most of the regular Jyarei Monsters.
• Audience Surrogate: Bakumaru is only Etoranger who's picked for every mission with the exception of Episode 24 and 31, so he's privy to the same adventures the audience is.
• Badass Adorable:
  • Most prominently, Souffle in Episode 24. Even when equipped with a scouter and a submachine gun, she still manages to be super-lovable.
  • Pochiro also deserves special mention, basically being a fluffy samurai dog with a taser-staff.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • In episodes 12 and 13, the Etorangers go into the Novel World of the Three Little Pigs, and fight against a giant mechanical wolf. They eventually beat the wolf, so the Three Little Pigs should go back to normal, except they don't. It turns out this is actually the Novel World of the Wolf and Seven Lambs, corrupted until it looked like the normal version of a completely different Novel World!
  • In episodes 20 and 21, the Etorangers visit the corrupted version of Puss in Boots. The king in the story is much nastier than usual, so obviously he's the Jyrrei. That turns out to be true, as the king is actually Gousen, one of Nyanma's four subordinates, in disguise. The Etorangers do really well against Gousen at first, but the battle turns against them when it turns out Puss in Boots is also an evil subordinate in disguise: Genen!
  • Episode 26 has the entire team involved in a the Novel World of The Honest Woodcutter. They suspect Nyanma will be involved this time but, in the end, only Bakumaru and Nyorori are active while the rest are Taken for Granite. It turns out to be just another regular Jyarei Monster, and Kirinda sent them all at once just to see if he can.
• Batman Gambit: Bagi uses one to cause the main conflict of the series. First, before an upcoming race to determine Etoranger membership, Bagi sends Chocolat a phony vision of Princess Aura telling Chocolat that she thinks of her like a little sister, so Chocolat will be granted special permission to start the race five minutes early. But since the real Princess Aura said no such thing, Chocolat was thus disqualifying herself by unintentionally cheating. Chocolat doesn't realize the vision wasn't real and thinks Princess Aura deliberately set her up for a fall, so she runs off in tears. Then Bagi appears to her, offering her the power to get revenge, which Chocolat takes, turning Chocolat into Nyanma. Nyanma then unleashes Jyarei Monsters on the Novel Worlds, thus becoming a pawn in Bagi's own schemes against Mugen.
• Battle Boomerang: Pakaracchi has a boomerang that is shaped like a horseshoe.
• Battle Butler: Little Red Riding Hood learned her combat skills from one of these. Considering he's the Jyarei of that episode, it makes sense that he'd be the source of her phenomenal strength.
• Berserker Tears: Urii doesn't technically "go berserk" when he cries, but the crystal on his chest fires a huge laser beam when he does.
• Big Bad: Nyanma is the main villain, and causes the plot. However, as it turns out near the end of the series, the real Big Bad is Bagi, the evil cat spirit.
• Brand X: Bakumaru's first attempt to fix the Straw Millionare Novel World is because he wants a Portable Gaming System the main character received in a trade.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Urii pretends to be one in order to get a Novel World character to let go of a game system that he's not supposed to have, crying about it to his "mother", Tart.
• Bull Seeing Red: Hols' main contribution to the Etorangers. Whenever he sees red, he transforms into an actual bull instead of an anthropomorphic one.
• The Bully: In a very brief flashback in the Puss in Boots episode, we see how Bakumaru developed his fear of cats, as Chocolat used to be this trope to Bakumaru, constantly chasing him around.
• Bunnies for Cuteness: Cream, #4 in the Etorangers, is a cute rabbit.
• The Butler Did It: Bakumaru says this trope by name. Little Red Riding Hood's Battle Butler is the first Jyarei to reveal himself to be evil before being blasted by the Mirror, by trying to kill Urii when Corrupted Red and the other Eto Rangers were away.
• But Now I Must Go: Souffle falls in love with a clothing store worker named George in the corrupted world of Cinderella, and Urii becomes best friends and playmates with the corrupted version of Little Red Riding Hood. Neither the love nor the friendship ends well, because the world-fixing process erases the memories of the inhabitants of the worlds so their stories can continue properly.
• Call to Adventure: The Eto Rangers team is formed during a race on New Year's Day. The first twelve who make it to Princess Aura's Castle will have the honor of wielding the signs of the Zodiac. There is a special condition, however, that requires all participants on Mugen to remain in their homes until the stroke of midnight. Failure to do so will result in disqualification. It is implied that each generation of Eto Rangers is formed every twelve years.
• Chain of Deals: Since one of the episodes dealt with the Trope Maker of The Straw Millionaire, this was inevitable.
  • Original story: Straw with fly > Orange > Cloth > Horse > Mansion
  • Infected story: Straw with fly > Handheld game > Straw with fly > Robot dog > Bazooka > Orange-shaped bird > Hoverbike > Car > Straw with fly > Winged backpack > Straw with fly > Balloon > Straw with fly > Hoverboard > Straw with fly > Orange > Cloth > Pakaracchi > Umbrella
• Character Development:
  • Bakumaru has to get past his crippling fear of cats so he can help the team take on Nyanma and her Elite Four, all who just happen to be cats.
  • At the beginning of the series, Monk and Pochiro are willing to put a mission in jeopardy in order to get one over on each other. At the end of the series, they both give up their lives for each other.
  • Towards the end of the series, Souffle has to put her nervousness aside and become a leader when the roulette chooses her instead of Bakumaru for a mission.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Cream, in Episode 16. She just about loses it because Bakumaru has to compete for the hand of Shun-Lin, the Corrupted Mouse Bride, in order to keep the Novel World together.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk. He's introduced nearly eating the magic beans the moment he was introduced, later nearly jumps off of Drago's cloud, and eagerly wants the giant's autograph.
• Combination Attack: The Zodiac Punisher, the Eto Rangers' ultimate attack is this. All twelve members each fire a laser from their respective badges, which then combine into either a superlaser or a giant energy sphere. They use it to defeat Rouran and Bagi with Nyanma's help.
• The Comically Serious: Drago ends up in this role quite a few times, just nonchalantly floating while the rest of the team is up to their usual shenanigans.
• Corrupted Character Copy:
  • The characters of a Novel World tend to look or act differently when a Jyarei Monster corrupts it, for better or worse.
  • It is revealed during the final episodes that the Jyarei Monsters are fully corrupted story characters when the previous Mugen fell.
• Cosmic Keystone: The Novel Pole not only contains the Novel Worlds, but is the only thing tethered between Heaven and Mugen. The more Novel Worlds destroyed, the more cracked the Pole becomes until it breaks, dooming everyone on the island country as it hangs over an endless ocean. It's the Eto Rangers' job to save the worlds and prevent this from happening. In other worlds, the fate of Mugen literally hangs by a thread.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The country of Mugen, including Princess Aura, worship a god called the Great God Goal. He's a representation of everything positive in the human imagination, and stands for courage, love, and creativity; he's technically the ruler of the Novel Worlds just as Aura is the ruler of Mugen.
• Dare to Be Badass:
  • In the world of Peter Pan, the Jyarei Monster disguised as Tinkerbell has hypnotized Peter Pan into being afraid of heights. During a fight with Captain Hook, Wendy is put into danger and Peter Pan must rediscover his flying powers to rescue her. Pakaracchi gives Peter a huge speech about the power of youth enabling one to face his fears, inspiring him to fly.
  • On multiple occasions, when the team is feeling dispirited about their chances, Bakumaru suddenly yells at them that they're the Etorangers, and they have jobs to do, so it doesn't matter how difficult it is. This usually motivates the team and raises their spirits.
• Deadline News: Reporter Lydia the Kirin witnesses Nyanma's transformation only to become her first victim. He was later rebuilt as Kirinda.
• Deal with the Devil: Chocolat kicks off the whole series by accepting a deal with Bagi to turn her into Nyanma and get revenge against Princess Aura. Unbeknownst to Chocolat, Bagi herself was responsible for the humiliation that prompted Chocolat to take the deal.
• Did Not Get the Girl:
  • In episode 17, Gaoh develops a crush on an innocent young girl named Otama. Unfortunately for Gaoh, once Kirinda purifies the world of Aladdin, it turns out Otama's actually the princess, and she's supposed to marry Aladdin. She does thank Gaoh for his help, though.
  • Tart has a crush on Gaoh, but Gaoh does not return her feelings.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: During the Grand Finale, Tart and Gaoh die together, him cradling her in his arms as they both fall to their deaths.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Chocolat thought Princess Aura deliberately got her disqualified from a race. As Nyanma, she chooses to take her revenge, not just on the princess she thought had wronged her, but on the entire country of Mugen, trying to sink it into the sea by wrecking the Novel Worlds and thus, by extension, the Novel Pole holding up the country. This is more justified than usual examples of this trope, however, as Chocolat turned into Nyanma by accepting a deal with the evil cat spirit Bagi, so Nyanma is not entirely thinking straight.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Well, distracted by the "Cute" in this case. In episode 1, during the athletic event, Cream wishes Bakumaru luck while winking at him. He blushes and brags to Cream about how well he'll do, but he stops paying attention and several other racers pass him.
• Dub Name Change: All of the characters' names were changed in the Philippine dub. In the Korean dub of the anime, only the main characters (minus Drago) and Nyanma get different names.
  • Bakumaru to Ttolgi.
  • Hols to Tteongi.
  • Gaoh to Hochi
  • Cream to Saechomi
  • Nyorori to Yorongi.
  • Pakaracchi to Macho.
  • Souffle to Mimi.
  • Monk to Mongchi.
  • Tart to Kiki.
  • Pochiro to Gangdari.
  • Urii to Jjingjjingi.
  • Nyanma to Haera.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Pakaracchi uses this in episode 15 to snap Peter Pan out of his fear of heights. Wendy is in danger, so Peter Pan should be able to do anything to save her.
• Earth All Along: Tart found a story about the previous Mugen falling from despair, while the Mugen they are protecting now is newly formed from hope. Fast forward to present time during the final episodes, the Eto Rangers find out that the Jyarei Monsters stronghold is the newly-dubbed "Dark Mugen", making all of the monsters they faced fallen characters.
• Eastern Zodiac: Each of the heroes has a numbered badge corresponding to the order in which he/she finished the race to determine the Etorangers, and how the animals finished in the Eastern Zodiac legend. The famous "exception" to the eastern zodiac, the Cat, is seen with Chocolat, the Cat who was disqualified from the race and turned into the villain Nyanma.
• Elite Four: The Jyarei Four, Rouran, Genen, Gousen, and Jyuken, are Nyanma's main subordinates. They're the most humanoid of all the Jyarei Monsters, but the most devastating as well.
• Enemy-Detecting Radar: Souffle's main contribution to the team is a radar she can use to try to locate the Jyarei Monster. It doesn't always work, though.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Subverted. Chocolat thought that Princess Aura did this, by promising her Etoranger membership if she started a race right then, and then suddenly disqualifying her for seemingly no reason. Actually, the "promise" was a fake by Bagi, and Princess Aura was within her rights to disqualify Chocolat for starting the race too early.
  • Jyuken plays this straight when she starts becoming concerned about Nyanma. She rebels against her during the final episodes, but is killed in the process and absorbed back into her. Her spirit did play a part in Nyanma's defeat, however.
• Everyone Has Standards: Monk keeps playing tricks and pranks, and can be really callous about it. However, in episode 33, when Pochiro asks Monk if Monk tricked Chocolat into getting herself disqualified using his voice changer, Monk imitates Princess Aura's voice for a few seconds before angrily shouting at Pochiro that that's below even Monk.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In episode 23, Jyuken cannot comprehend why Pochiro would save Bakumaru from a trap even though Bakumaru himself accidentally triggered it. Jyuken also cannot understand that Gaoh would come to Tart's defense not just because Tart was the Bluebird of Happiness at the time, but because Gaoh and Tart and the rest of the Etorangers are friends.
• The Fake Cutie: The Jyarei Monster disguised as Tinkerbell is notable for being the first Jyarei Monster to both actively mislead our heroes by suggesting another target and act as a heroic ally throughout the episode.
• Face Fault: This show has so many, there's at least one in almost every episode.
• Failed a Spot Check: In episode 3, the team assumes that the Novel World of Cinderella is perfectly normal, only to learn that it is twisted into a modern world, complete with a Tokyo Disneyland Expy. They then realized that they wasted so much time having fun, they only have 8 hours and 5 minutes to defeat the Jyarei Monster. The managed to complete their mission at the last possible minute.
• Fastball Special: Because Bakumaru was injured in his fight with Geton, Gao throws Bakumaru at the Jyarei Monster to defeat it.
• Feather Fingers: Tart's first form, a chicken, is seen filing her non-existent nails at one point.
• Finishing Move: Bakumaru gets one later in the series, learning a technique called the Killer Hurricane, where he spins around like a ball with his laser sword outstretched like a pinwheel of death.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Bakumaru, who doesn't believe in divine punishment even though his entire mission is to protect the structure that tethers Mugen directly to Heaven.
• Floating Limbs: Nyorori uses a pair of telekinetically manipulated white gloves as his hands, giving him this appearance.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In Episode 16, Bakumaru is only allowed to take Cream and Urii to the world of "The Mouse Bride". He shouts at Kirinda, "How can I do anything with just these guys?!" Cue Episode 38, when those three are the last ones alive.
  • Also in episode 16, the girls are talking about weddings, and Monk asks Tart what she's going to do if a guy she likes doesn't like her back, which makes Tart mad at Monk. Then, in episode 17, when Gaoh's crush on Otama doesn't work out because she's supposed to be with Aladdin, Tart tries to cheer Gaoh up by saying first crushes never work out. Both of these episodes foreshadow something that occurs much later on in the series, namely the fact that Gaoh doesn't return Tart's feelings.
• Four Is Death: Later in the series, Nyanma stops relying on the Jyarei Monsters and splits off four parts of herself to become evil cat subordinates, who then become "boss fights" for the Etorangers.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: The Jyarei are intentionally doing this to the Novel Worlds in order to literally fracture them. If it isn't restored, it can collapse.
• Freudian Excuse: Nyanma has one. She used to be Chocolat, a friend of the soon-to-be Etorangers and Gaoh's best friend in particular. However, due to a giant misunderstanding, Chocolat ended up disqualified from the race that could have qualified her to be an Etoranger and she mistakenly thought Princess Aura was responsible. That turned her against the citizens of Mugen, and out of revenge she sought power from Bagi, the evil cat spirit. Bagi then turned Chocolat into Nyanma, granting her the power she sought.
• Friendly Rivalry: Monk and Pochiro fight, compete and, argue frequently, especially on missions. Their friends often point out that their species just can't get along due to their Animal Jingoism. That said, they have each other's backs when saving the worlds.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Chocolat was just an ordinary, albeit somewhat bratty, cat girl who looked up to Princess Aura until she fell into Bagi's trap.
• Furry Reminder: The team being all animals (albeit spirits representing ones), some traits, instincts, and even stereotypes, tend to show up now and then.
  • Bakumaru loves cheese and hates/fears cats.
  • Cream's rabbit ears are sensitive. She can pick up sounds from afar, but hurt from loud noises.
  • Monk, being a monkey, has a desire to climb things, expressing his want to join the team in the Jack & the Beanstalk world, though disappointed not getting the chance.
  • In the Image Song album, Tart's song has a line where she throws an egg at a bad date.
    • She is also the first Pochirro and Monk turn to when settling the argument of whether the chicken or egg existing first, because she is a chicken spirit herself. She doesn't know.
  • Hols turns into a feral raging bull whenever he sees red objects, though it's not true in Real Life.
  • Pakaracchi has powerful kicks like a real horse, enough to crack a Jyarei Monster made of crystal.
  • In order to entertain a baby that he's been left with, Gaoh transforms into his Tiger Form and starts doing circus tricks for it.
  • Pochiro is a dog and acts as such sometimes, including wagging his tail in excitement, even when he claims he's not.
  • Nyorori is a snake and is seen swallowing an orange whole, slowly.
• Gender-Blender Name: Kirinda used to be a reporter named Lydia who was killed and then magically revived as Kirinda. Lydia was a male reporter, however.
• Guardian of the Multiverse: Mugen's god, Goal, protects the main characters of Novel Worlds, preventing Jyarei Monsters from impersonating them.
• Genre Shift: In-universe, as one of the several forms the fairy tale fracturing takes. The first episode has the Eto Rangers venture into Momotarō IN SPACE.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: An In-Universe version, as in episode 17, it's revealed that Souffle is a big fan of the Arabian Nights, and she was very disappointed when the Jyarei Monster corrupted the Novel World of Aladdin into the Edo period of Japan, as Souffle much prefers the desert sands.
• God Is Good: The Great God Goal, worshipped by the country of Mugen, is a benevolent god, and he helps our heroes directly near the end. He's a more literal example of this trope than usual, as he is literally a representation of courage, love, creativity, and everything positive in the human imagination.
• Golden Super Mode: Kirinda obtains one after being revived with the Rei-Lin Stone. It can't purify the most powerful Jyarei Monsters without transforming first.
• Gratuitous French: Chocolat's name. It's French for "Chocolate".
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • In episode 15, Nyorori really wants to be able to fly, even to the point of trying and failing to build a personal flying machine. He gets excited and jealous when he visits the world of Peter Pan. When Peter tells him that, even though he can fly, he won't because he's scared of heights, Nyorori does not take it well.
  • In episode 16, in the corrupted world of The Mouse Bride, Bakumaru has to compete for the hand of Shun-Lin, the titular mouse bride, in order to move the story along. Shun-Lin thinks the world of Bakumaru and repeatedly tells him so, but Cream, who has feelings for Bakumaru, becomes jealous and finally storms off in a rage.
  • In a flashback in episode 33, in order to make Chocolat mad enough at Aura to become Nyanma, Bagi lies to Chocolat and says that Princess Aura betrayed Chocolat because Aura was jealous of Chocolat's intelligence and beauty.
• Hand Wave:
  • One episode starts with Aura talking about "Happiness Waves". It was never talked about again but it's possible that Bakumaru's Determination was part of this which helped with repairing the Novel Pole in the final episode.
  • Bakumaru questions why the coordinates to a Novel World are displayed as the year, month, and hour of an animal, though it was never explained.
• Heel–Face Turn: Twice, with Jyuken due to questioning her master's goals. and then Nyanma, due to realizing that she was deceived all along.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The only reason that Nyanma's trap house doesn't immediately result in a Total Party Kill is because Nyorori noticed something was off in time and shoved the others out of the way before they were locked in.
• Hot-Blooded: Bakumaru and Pakaracchi.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: How Little Red Riding Hood is corrupted. The Big Bad Wolf had been captured, and was scheduled to be executed and made into a stew to be eaten by Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother the following day instead of the other way around.
• Hypocritical Humor: Hols complains about the size of Tart's butt early in episode 5 when she lands on him by mistake. Hols is a bull.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: This is how the Jyarei Monster disguised as Heizou's wife blows its cover in episode 18. In the corrupted Stone Age world of The Grateful Crane, the crane in question still looks like a young woman, but instead of a crane, she changes into a mammoth, which the Jyarei points out before it happens. The only way Heizou's wife could have known there was supposed to be a mammoth there is if it changed the crane into a mammoth in the first place.
• Image Song: Every character has one, compiled into the CD "Hit Song Collection".
• Impact Silhouette: In episode 18, the old man Heizou defeats Gao in a boxing match with his Sparkling Upper, which sends Gao flying into the air, crashing through the ceiling and leaving a Gao-shaped hole in it.
• Inexplicably Tailless: Most of the Eto Rangers don't have tails. To make up for this, the tailless Rangers usually have ponytails and rattails shaped like the tails of the animals they represent; in Bakumaru and Pakaracchi's cases, they have a literal rattail and a literal ponytail respectively. Pochirro's ponytail is shown to have wagged one like a dogs tail when happy.
• The Ingenue: Souffle.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Souffle has an innocent personality, and her eyes are bluish-green.
• Insistent Terminology: In episode 12, Urii and Monk have a brief argument when Monk jokes that the Three Little Pigs are Urii's relatives so Urii is lucky to be able to meet them. Urii insists he's a boar and not a pig, and Monk sees no difference.
• Intercourse with You: Nyorori is not very subtle in his Image Song. The song's title contains "Hey Baby!", and in the lyrics he sings about how he cares, how he's tender, how he wants to stuff your body...
• Intrepid Fictioneer: The Eto Rangers, of course.
• Involuntary Shapeshifter: Of the "malfunctioning Transformation Trinket" variety. Tart's beak occasionally shows up again if she gets hit in the face, like with a soccer ball, or a beam from the Revealing Mirror.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: Subverted in Episode 3. When our heroes reach the Novel World of Cinderella, everything seems quiet and normal, no signs of corruption are apparent at first. But our heroes conclude that this is because Kirinda's readings were off and no Jyarei Monster is in this world, so they take a 2-day vacation. This comes back to bite them, as then they start noticing that there are phones, cameras, and other high technology in what should be a medieval world. By the time they discover that the "ball" has been changed to a disco dance contest, they only have one night to find and defeat the Jyarei Monster.
• Jerkass Ball: While the final straw for Tart before transforming was something else, the rest of the team harassing her certainly didn't help.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Bakumaru, Pochiro, Tart and Monk are all this in their own ways.
• Kamehame Hadouken: The "Hadouken" part is Nyanma's main mode of attack, and the "Kamehame" part is used at several points. Gousen even does the complete Kamehameha motion.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Tart is a fan of Moby-Dick, so Nyorori jokes that he'll get her Captain Ahab's autograph, much to her dismay, and then, due to her Hair-Trigger Temper, his. He actually makes sure to get it later, and shows it to her to calm her down after the team returns to Kirinda.
• Lampshade Hanging: Souffle begins episode 24 feeling useless to the team. While trying to give Souffle a pep talk, Tart mentions that yes, it does feel like "Bakumaru does everything around here", referring to Bakumaru being the Etoranger who usually gives the Jyarei Monsters the finishing blow.
• Laser Blade: Bakumaru's main weapon. He doesn't start out the series with it, as near the end of episode 2 Momotaro gives Bakumaru his laser sword as a gift.
• Last-Minute Hookup:
  • Played straight with Tart and Pochiro.
  • Parodied with Pakaracchi and Souffle; after witnessing the above straight example, he decided it was time to confess his feelings. She wasn't interested at all, instead just wondering about what Bakumaru's unfinished "Shanghai Cabbage" story would have been like.
• The Leader: Bakumaru has the necessary hot-blood and determination traits, and every time the Etorangers need to visit a Novel World and Kirinda must pick four or five members to go, Bakumaru is chosen in the lineup almost every time. There are only two episodes where Bakumaru isn't picked.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: Soufle, Nyorori, Cream, Urii and Monk equip themselves with futuristic armor and guns in the corrupted Novel World of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". However, their equipment was so heavy that they couldn't move, so they packed light armor and lightweight guns instead.
• Lost World: The Novel World in Episode 12 starts out as one, as it was already so saturated with evil energy that Kirinda could barely even locate it, let alone identify it. It was The Wolf and Seven Lambs, which had been so thoroughly corrupted that it seemed like The Three Little Pigs. The only reason it was able to be restored at all is because Nyanma was injured and needed Genen to return and help her.
• Love Freak: Pakaracchi, who muses about the preciousness of youth every other sentence. His Day in the Limelight episode is even called "Pakaracchi: Of Love and Youth".
• MacGuffin: To find and expose a Jyarei Monster, Bakumaru is given a trinket called the Revealing Mirror. He shines a special light at a suspect and break its illusion if it is their target.
  • It also has a Summon Magic feature, which calls up to two allies for help if/when needed.
• Manchild: Peter Pan in episode 15, though this turns out to be a good thing. When Wendy is put into danger and Peter Pan has a fear of heights, Pakaracchi explains that overcoming hardship is a part of youth, and also a part of youth is the capacity to do anything if it's for someone you like. Peter's youthful traits embolden him to save Wendy and put the story back on course.
• Manly Tears: Pakaracchi, sometimes.
• Meaningful Name: Almost every character has a meaningful name related to their species, color, or personality.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Bakumaru's Revealing Mirror shines a brilliant light forward in a wide area, and if a Jyarei looks at the light, it reveals its true form.
• Misplaced Retribution: It turns out that Gaoh's old friend Chocolat is doing this as Nyanma, as her entire evil plan is motivated by a desire to get back at Princess Aura for supposedly setting her up to be disqualified from a race. Bagi was responsible, not Princess Aura, and finding this out near the end causes Nyanma to turn against Bagi.
• Mistaken for Badass: During the first encounter with the extremely powerful Genen the Cruel, the other Eto Rangers have all been driven back, but Bakumaru is staring her down in a display that even gets her complimenting him on his bravery. After she's forced to leave, he's still in that defiant position; the others then realized that he wasn't standing up to her, he was frozen in peril and fainted standing up because he's a mouse and she's a cat.
• Monster of the Week: The Jyarei Monsters are disguised as characters of the Novel Worlds themselves, so before our heroes can do battle they first have to use the Jyarei Mirror on the disguised monster to get him/her to reveal his/her true form so they don't kill innocents.
• The Multiverse: The collection of Novel Worlds, based on fairy tales and the like, count as this within Mugen's Novel Pole.
• Mystical India: Nyorori is a snake, has a very distinct Indian accent, a big, jewelled turban, and psychic powers.
• The Needs of the Many: Because the Novel Pole is what's preventing the country of Mugen from falling into the sea, the Etorangers absolutely have to fix any corrupted Novel World or the Novel Pole will be destroyed, drowning and killing everyone in Mugen. Normally, this isn't an issue, as most of the time everyone in the story benefits from the corruption being removed. But on a few occasions, the Etorangers have to revert a change that was actually beneficial to a story's protagonist so that the Novel Pole and Mugen will remain intact.
  • Little Red Riding Hood's story is supposed to end with her being eaten by the wolf before finally being saved by the woodsman, but the Jyarei Monster turned her into a kick-butt wolf-slayer.
  • Snow White is supposed to bite into a poisoned apple so the story can end with her being awoken by Prince Charming, but the Jyarei Monster corrupted the world so that Snow White was capable of standing up to the wicked queen.
  • The Little Mermaid is supposed to die at the end, throwing herself into the sea, but the Jyarei Monster turned her into an aspiring idol-to-be in a setting where she is in no danger of dying. In this case, when she finds out the truth, the mermaid deliberately chooses to help the Etorangers fix her story, knowing what will happen to her but knowing it's for the best.
    • The Quarrel of the Monkey and the Crab ends with the Crab killing the Monkey to avenge his father. Rouran of the Jyarei Elite Four tried to exploit this by making Monk the main character so a) he would be killed and the Novel world will be saved, or b) he lives long enough for the world to fall. Luckily, Bakumaru and Pochiro were able to both protect him and defeat Rouran to save the world.
• Nerd Glasses: Nyorori is never seen without his pink ones.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: Pakaracchi, with his tied-back long hair, his blindingly colorful outfit, and his constant shouts about the Springtime of Youth.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • The Jyarei of Little Red Riding Hood blew his own cover by going after Urii when the other rangers and Red were away, making Urii cry, and activating the Bi-e Beam, alerting the others to their location.
  • The Jyarei of Peter Pan hypnotized Peter into being scared of heights, then made an arrangement with Captain Hook. Hook then modified his ship on his own to fly, and tied Wendy to one of the riggings, making Peter snap out of the hypnosis to rescue her. The Jyarei called Hook out on ruining everything.
• Nice Mice: Bakumaru the mouse can be brash and loud, but he's the leader of a team of 12 heroes.
• Noodle Incident: We never did find out what Bakumaru's "Shanghai Cabbage" story, which was promised to be an in-universe Tear Jerker, is. The mission that interrupts his telling it is so stressful that he forgot it himself.
  • Souffle has been obsessing over it ever since, occasionally bringing it up, especially during the last moments of the final episode.
• Not So Harmless Punishment:
  • The Ugly Duckling is corrupted via the titular "duckling" being changed from a Cygnet (baby swan) to an ostrich chick. While it seems silly at first, Tart quickly realizes ostriches can't swim, so if the story tries to play itself out as normal, the "duckling" will drown.
  • The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter a.k.a. The Tale of Princess Kaguya is corrupted via the elderly couple that is supposed to discover the baby Kaguya becoming successful restaurant owners who constantly get customers. That seems beneficial at first, but they get so many customers that they're constantly exhausted, and if they're too busy to even leave the restaurant, they can't discover the baby Kaguya in the bamboo and the story can't begin (and the baby could have died if the Etorangers hadn't left Hols and Gaoh to care for her in the elderly couple's absence).

• Oh, Crap!: In Episode 10, Pochiro lets it slip that when he knocked Tart's face off with a soccer ball earlier in the episode, it was on purpose. And then he sees that Tart was standing right there listening.
• Old Master: Heizou, the old man who appears in the corrupted Stone Age version of The Grateful Crane. He's a champion mammoth hunter and coin tosser. Unfortunately, this becomes a huge problem, as Tetsuko, the grateful crane in the story, has been changed into a mammoth, so the Etorangers have to prevent him from seeing her or he'll eat her. He still beats them all; Tart has to save the day by taking Tetsuko's place so Heizou will still think he's seeing a crane.
• Once an Episode: Since having all 12 Etorangers visit a Novel World at the same time would be disruptive to the world, Kirinda picks about four or five Etorangers each mission by using a slot-machine reel.
• One-Winged Angel: Nyanma, after killing and absorbing Jyuken. Not much changes about her appearance, but when it happens, the Rangers know they're in serious trouble.
• Opaque Nerd Glasses: Played for Drama at one point. Nyorori's eyes vanish entirely when Pakaracchi is telling him to Please Wake Up.
• Out-of-Character Alert: While the Jyarei Monsters sometimes disguise themselves as obvious villains, sometimes they'll disguise themselves as usually benign characters. If you see a character in a Novel World whose in-story role is "good" suddenly act like a massive Jerkass, this is an alert that this character is probably the Jyarei Monster in disguise.
• Painting the Medium: Played for Laughs. When Corrupted Peter Pan tells Nyorori about how he was supposed to take Wendy flying, he jealously imagines it. Peter then yanks the thought bubble away and crumples it up. Even Nyorori's shocked, desperately trying to iron it back together.
• Papa Wolf: Gaoh has a weakness for young, cute girls in distress, so he gets more dangerous than usual if you threaten one. The Arima Family ninjas in episode 17 find that out the hard way when they threaten the innocent Otama in Gaoh's presence. Then, when the Arima Family kidnaps Otama later to bargain for the Magic Lamp, Gaoh chases them down, beats them up, and saves Otama himself.
• Partial Transformation: Tart turns into a human with a chicken head a few times, which makes her very angry.
• Pink Means Feminine: Cream wears pink and red clothing, Souffle has pink hair, and Princess Aura wears a pink dress, and all three have feminine personalities. Tart, who is more tomboyish, dresses in dark clothing.
• Plagiarism in Fiction: Nyorori may be The Smart Guy, but he's not very creative; his attempt at writing involved taking The Honest Woodcutter and replacing the word "Axe" with the word "Urii".
• Playboy Bunny: One of Cream's costume changes. She uses it to serve as a distraction, but it either fails or she misinterpreted what sort of distraction they actually needed.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: This trope caused the main conflict of the series to happen. Chocolat used to look up to Princess Aura, but devoted her life to revenge after she mistakenly thought she had set her up to be humiliated.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Nyanma's One-Winged Angel state is defined by her hair turning electric blue.
• Pragmatic Hero: In episode 12, the team gets an SOS from Aura Castle while some of them have already left for a Novel World. Drago suggests the remainder of the team going to the castle, even though they're unable to let the other heroes know they'll be gone, as he's sure they'll understand.
• The Prankster: Monk loves pranks and good-natured trolling.
• Princesses Rule: Aura is the ruler of the country of Mugen, and she is addressed as "Princess Aura" rather than "Queen Aura". However, this might be because she herself answers to a higher power, the Great God Goal.
• Pun: Multiple examples that involves corruption of the Novel World are shown throughout the series.
  • Journey to the West was corrupted into... Journey to The Western.
  • Mole is Mogura in Japanese, making the giant mole Mogura Dick, instead of Moby Dick.
• Quivering Eyes: Urii's eyes quivering is a sign to start running, as when he cries he unleashes a giant laser beam.
• Race Against the Clock: It is explained by Kirinda, in Episode 3, that staying in a Novel World for more than 2 days will result in being stranded. Bakumaru, Cream, Souffle, Pakaracchi, and Nyorori come dangerously close in the same episode. However, Episodes 31 and 32 show the consequences of Pakaracchi, Tart, and Pochiro being stranded (Goah was saved from this fate while being with them) and having a corrupted Novel World left unchecked. Luckily, both crises were undone.
• Red Herring: Sometimes an episode will set up an obvious candidate for the Jyarei Monster corrupting the Novel World, only for it to turn out to be someone else.
• Refused by the Call: Chocolat was disqualified from the race, and thus also disqualified from becoming an Etoranger like she dreamed. But as it turns out, the call didn't actually refuse her; because of a trick by Bagi the evil cat spirit involving a fake Princess Aura, Chocolat disqualified herself from the call and didn't realize it due to being given phony "permission" to start the race early.
• The Reveal:
  • The Big Bad, Nyanma, is actually the team's former friend, Chocolat, who was corrupted by Bagi after Bagi tricked her into thinking Princess Aura had wronged her. There's another one that's almost as important. Kirinda, their ship's computer, used to be a reporter named Lydia, who was killed by Nyanma shortly after transforming and was then magically revived as Kirinda.
  • It's also revealed that Mugen is the second of its kind, and that the first Mugen's Novel Pole was destroyed, sank to the bottom of the sea and became Dark Mugen, complete with its own Dark Novel Pole and Dark Novel Worlds. As it is Nyanma and Bagi's base of operations, the Eto Rangers are shocked to learn they are hiding leagues below them from the beginning. What's more, Bagi reveals his/her true intentions, saying that Dark Mugen is dying, and if it dies, Bagi dies. However, if the current Mugen sinks to the bottom of the sea, it will become a new Dark Mugen, and thus Bagi will live forever.
• Rewriting Reality: All Jyarei Monsters have the power to change the stories of the Novel Worlds. The Eto Rangers are tasked with defeating/purifying them in order to undo the changes. For some outlandish examples:
  • Momotaro changed from a Edo-era Japan adventue to an intergalactic space war.
  • Moby Dick changed from a chase of a giant whale across the seas to a chase of a giant mole across a desert.
  • The Tortoise and the Hare changed from a simple foot race to a high speed car race.
  • The Mouse's Wedding changed from a mouse girl's journey to find the ideal husband to a martial arts tournament between bachelors with her hand in marraige as the prize.
  • An unusual one involves Frankenstein, turning the dismal horror-themed world Lighter and Softer. Monsters from other stories supposedly converge onto this world and turned most of them, including Frankenstein's Monster, into schoolgirls.
  • The biggest one changes the entire story from The Wolf And The Seven Young Kids to make it look like one from The Three Little Pigs thanks to Genen, to throw off the Eto Rangers.
• Right Under Their Noses: At the start of the final episodes, the team learns that the stronghold of Nyanma and the Jyarei Monsters is at the bottom of the ocean, right below Mugen.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • Bakumaru is presented with a very nasty one in episode 16. He has to choose between saving the Novel World and saving Cream, the person he most cares for. He lets Geton beat him up, but Cream escapes and reveals Geton to be the Jyarei Monster, so they're able to save the Novel World anyway.
  • In Episode 25, our heroes are faced with another sadistic choice. The Little Mermaid Novel World has been corrupted, but fixing it would mean that the titular mermaid will die, and Souffle agonizes over whether or not she should fix the Novel World. The choice is taken out of our heroes' hands by the mermaid, who finds out the truth and then decides to help our heroes expose the Jyarei Monster anyway, as her story will move reader's hearts.
• Serious Business: While watching Bakumaru's fight against a hermit crab who can fly in episode 16, Drago gets irritated that the hermit crab is flying "inelegantly", which Drago doesn't do when he flies.
• Ship Tease:
  • There's plenty between Bakumaru and Cream, starting in the very first episode. Later, they become an Official Couple.
  • Tart has obvious feelings for Gaoh, but Gaoh doesn't return her feelings.
  • There is some ship tease between Pakaracchi and Souffle, and he even attempts to confess to her at the end, but she's busy talking about something else.
  • Gaoh is still very fond of his old childhood friend Chocolat, and episode 33's flashback reveals that he and Chocolat used to be dating. His fondness is strong enough that even when he has a chance to finish off Nyanma during the Grand Finale, he doesn't take it.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • When the butler tells Bakumaru, Pochiro, and Hols that Urii and Little Red Riding Hood are bathing together, they start commenting on how "lucky" he is. Souffle scolds them for having their heads in the gutter.
  • When Bakumaru is handing Souffle the Revealing Mirror and reassuring her when she's picked to lead on a mission instead of him, nearly the entire team starts clapping and cheering for them, to their embarrassment.
  • Tart is frequently teased about having a crush on Gaoh, but she continues to deny it. She at least acknowledges that he is in a relationship with Chocolat.
• Shock and Awe: Drago can control the weather directly, and Pochiro's staff has taser-like electrodes in both ends.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Hare's showing off his new car, he does a series of poses with it like the Speed Racer opening.
  • Little Red Riding Hood lives in a mansion and received combat training from her butler to fight bad guys.
  • One of the extras in the Battle for the Bride martial arts tournament was named "Rasca the Raccoon", a rather blatant reference to Rascal.
  • In the world of The Boy Who Cried Wolf-turned-high-tech-war, Souffle and Urii prominently wear functioning scouters as part of their equipment.
  • Majirisu, one of the opponents in the Battle for the Bride, is clearly meant as a nod to DBZ, first knocking his first opponent out of the ring with seemingly a single punch, then when he faces Bakumaru, it's revealed that he has Krillin's signature dots on his forehead, along with calling his attacks and fighting Bakumaru primarily with Ki Blasts.
    • Another reference to Dragon Ball Z happens in the Grand Finale. The first thing the revived Rangers do after they return is fly towards Bagi, bursting with red energy, and crash into her, blowing off her wings, exactly how the also-freshly-resurrected Goku paralyzed Nappa with the Kaio-Ken Attack in the first arc of DBZ.
  • Jyarei Goddess Bagi is a reference to Bagi, the Monster of Mighty Nature.
  • A blink-and-you'll-miss-it gag in Episode 14 showed that the Straw Millionaire had briefly wound up with a robot dog clearly based on Doraemon.
• Smug Snake: Nyorori's a literal Smug Snake, but he's a non-villainous example, as part of a team of 12 heroes.
• Spirit World: Mugen serves as this, as residents like the main characters are regarded as spirits representing animals, instead of just animals.
• Strictly Formula: Subverted. A significant portion of the series is "Team squabble, then roulette, then go to the Novel World, then find out what's wrong, then reveal the Jyarei, then fight and purify, then bring up the team squabble again". However, there starts to be noticeable periodic breaks in the formula starting with Episode 12, and by Episode 33, it's abandoned entirely with the final Novel World segment being over and done with in the first two minutes of the episode. Then the Dark Mugen saga begins.
• Summon Magic: The Revealing Mirror can bring up to two additional Eto Rangers per mission if the current team needs help.
• Super Mode: Several rangers and villains possess one.
  • Hols transforms from a pudgy anthro bull into a realistic, psychotic one whenever he sees red.
  • Gaoh's "Tora Tora Eye" transformation, similar to Hols in that he turns from anthro to feral.
  • Drago's gigantic feral transformation using the Adult Drop.
  • Pakaracchi and Pochiro are forced to distort into a massive muscular form after being rendered Brainwashed and Crazy by Jyuken. Tart manages to avoid this while resisting, allowing Drago the opportunity to destroy the cause of the transformation at its source.
  • Gousen has a similar feral tiger form to Gaoh's, and it makes Gaoh's look like an ant.
  • Nyanma gets one in the final few episodes after defeating and absorbing a Heel–Face Turn Jyuken, resulting in a hair color change and increased power. However, Jyuken's spirit rebels and paralyzes her long enough for Bakumaru to finally defeat her.
• Super Drowning Skills: Corrupted Ugly Duckling will drown in water because he's an ostrich.
• Supreme Chef: Souffle is revealed to be this in episode 16, as during a tea party, Bakumaru responds to Tart's accusation that he and Monk don't care by saying he does care, as he "wouldn't miss Souffle's cakes for the world!"
• Swirling Dust: Bakumaru does this when preparing his special spinning sword strike.
• Taken for Granite: In the world of The Honest Woodcutter, the entire team except for Bakumaru and Nyorori fall into the pond and are turned into wooden totems.
• Team Mom: The other team members see Tart as this, and she very much is, but it just confuses her.
• Tear Jerker: Multiple times in-universe.
  • Cream hates the ending to Princess Kaguya / The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter so much that she specifically asked not to go on that mission until the roulette forces her to.
  • Bakumaru promises that Shanghai Cabbage would have been one... if he hadn't forgotten it.
  • Souffle hates the ending to The Little Mermaid because it's the Hans Christian Andersen version where the mermaid dies in the end, and for that reason when they go to that Novel World, Souffle at first attempts to keep the truth hidden from the mermaid, who is now an aspiring star-to-be not in danger of dying. But when Bakumaru leaves Souffle a message on her radar compact while she's sleeping, the mermaid, who is still awake, overhears Bakumaru's message and learns the truth. She decides to help the Etorangers fix the Novel World anyway despite knowing the tear jerking ending in store for her.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Bakumaru and Monk get on each other's nerves. Monk is frequently at odds with Pochiro as well. Despite this, they manage to work together as a team as part of the Etorangers. It gradually evolves into just plain "teamwork" without the "teeth clenched" part.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Souffle in episode 3. She's an Etoranger, so she has to leave the guy she had a crush on while visiting the Novel World of Cinderella.
• Title Drop: Once an Episode, when the Jyarei monster asks "Who Are You?"
  "We're the Twelve Warriors! Bakuretsu! Eto Rangers!".
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Tart is generally a tomboy, although she can be girly and feminine when discussing romance.
• Toros y Flamenco: Hols is strongly implied to be Spanish, with his accent, general bullfighting theme, and the fact that his Image Song is, you guessed it, a flamenco.
• Transformation Trinket: Gaoh can transform into an actual tiger instead of an anthropomorphic one by putting on sunglasses and shouting "Tora Tora Hai!", meaning "Tiger Tiger Equip!" Drago can transform into an actual dragon by using a ball with a miniature dragon inside it called the "Adult Drop." Cream's magical carrot-shaped stick can transform her into various disguises.
• True Companions: The Etorangers would go through anything to help one another, and usually do.
• Undercover as Lovers: In episode 14, in order to get the protagonist of The Straw Millionaire to give up his car, Bakumaru and Cream stage an argument where they pretend to be lovers, and Cream hits Bakumaru and yells at him for not taking her on a romantic drive like he promised. Then Cream pretends to cry and says Bakumaru doesn't love her anymore. However, Bakumaru almost confesses he loves Cream for real, embarrassing them both and Cream has to remind him that they're just pretending. This foreshadows them becoming an Official Couple later.
• Verbal Tic:
  • Nyorori keeps adding his name, "nyorori", to the end of his sentences.
  • Hols has "Ushi", which is Japanese for "bull".
  • Pochiro has "Degozaru", an antiquated equivalent to "Desu".
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The show starts out fairly lighthearted until Nyanma shows up in person.
• Villain Respect: Genen compliments Bakumaru on his bravery the first time they meet for defiantly staring her down instead of being driven back like his teammates. It turns out he just fainted standing up.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: The Corrupted Seven Dwarves are turned into a team of hulking musclemen in boxer shorts after intense training spurred on by Snow White's warning.
• Walking Spoiler: Nyanma's blue bracelet doesn't bare much importance until episode 30. During their confrontation, Gaoh notices a resemblance between the villain's bracelet and a set of collars he had collected for his old friend Chocolat years ago, before her disappearance. He becomes distracted by the possibility that both cats are the same person. Princess Aura confirmed this to him in episode 31. However, it wasn't until Tart confronts Aura about the subject, in episode 33, when the latter finally reveals this to the Eto Rangers, the reason behind Nyanma's grudge, and who was responsible for her corruption.
  • In episodes 12 and 13, Princess Aura recognizes Nyanma right away, though never mentions her real name.
    • Episode 20 shows a brief flashback of Chocolat chasing Bakumaru wearing the blue collar.
  • The team sees that the location of the Jyarei Monsters is directly under Mugen in the ocean. We already see lights emerging from the ocean very early, but Souffle is the first to notice a pattern in-universe late in the series.
• Walking the Earth: After Mugen is restored and Bagi is destroyed, the freed Chocolat decides to walk the continent of Mugen until she can redeem herself.
• Wave-Motion Gun:
  • Urii's Bi-e Beam, which is one of the most powerful attacks in the team.
  • Nyanma primarily uses Kamehame Hadoukens to fight, in both forms of the trope.
• We Used to Be Friends:
  • Gaoh and Chocolat, the cat spirit who became Nyanma. Episode 33 reveals that they used to be dating; before the race Chocolat even jokingly threatened to break up with Gaoh if he finished ahead of her.
  • In the corrupted world of Pinocchio, the titular Pinocchio is friends with a sweet and innocent girl named Meru. This friendship is broken when one of Nyanma's Jyarei Monsters corrupts Pinocchio into a golden-bodied Jerkass, but Meru instantly forgives Pinocchio when Pinocchio starts working at the port, and they're friends again.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 12, when Nyanma and her generals are fully revealed to be no pushovers.
  • Episode 36. Hols and Drago are dead, and it gets worse through the next two episodes as almost everyone died.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Hols in episode 11 unwittingly ends up wearing a dress in the Novel World of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. He seemed to be enjoying it, until the Wicked Stepmother called him unpleasant. He's considerably less enthusiastic about it when it happens again in Episode 23.
• Who Are You?: The Jyarei asks this Once an Episode after being revealed, and Bakumaru always responds with a Title Drop.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The race to decide the formation of the Eto Rangers in this series is almost similar to the old Chinese Folklore of the original race.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Nyanma actually tries to avert this by successfully breaking into Princess Aura's throne room, attempting to assassinate her herself with a Death Ball. In other words, she basically did try to shoot the only person who could make her plans fall apart. She underestimated her target, however, and wound up injured herself.
• With Friends Like These...: There are times when the Rangers get along with each other, but those are generally limited to when someone's life is on the line.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: Part of how the world of The Honest Woodcutter was corrupted; vast expanses of pure gold sand dotted the landscape and loses its worth, to the point where wood was a more valuable commodity. This was a trap so Nyorori and Bakumaru would realize too late that their now-wooden comrades were valuable and likely to be stolen.
• Would Hurt a Child: Even though he's a child, the Jyarei have attempted to kill Urii more than once.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Among the Etorangers, Cream has shades of this, but Souffle is the straightest example. There's also a couple of side characters who fit this archetype: Meru, Pinocchio's friend who is also a reference to the Blue Fairy, and Otama in the corrupted "Japanese Edo period" version of Aladdin.
• You Are Number 6: Each of the Etorangers has a numbered badge, which reflects their rank and the order in which they finished the original "Etoranger qualification race".
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Bagi says this to Nyanma after her defeat.

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Now, describe Shanghai Cabbage he— *fwip*

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