YMMV / Ressha Sentai ToQger

• Americans Hate Tingle: In America, trains don't play nearly as big a role in transportation as they do in Japan and Europe, possibly making many viewers less nostalgic towards their use as a motif. It also wasn't as popular with non-Japanese fans for other reasons, though as Vindicated by History below says, it's enjoyed a bit of a redemption since.
• Awesome Music:
  • The theme song. Especially the opening.
  • "Byun! Byun! ToQger" is as catchy as it is cheery.
  • Akira's theme as ToQ 6gou, titled Ame Nochi Rainbow.
  • That BGM that's become as ubiquitous as Buchido Icchokusen from Shinkenger — victory vibe from jump.
  • To some extent, Akira's little "death requiem" on the harmonica. To a far greater extent, the Triumphant Reprise version.
  • In Korea, the toyline has a catchy remix tune, composed of various train station noises. Especially at the end of the song.
  • The soundtrack includes a Japanese heavy metal version of "I've Been Working on the Railroad". It's as awesome as it sounds.
• Broken Base:
  • The suit designs and mecha. Are they an interesting throwback to 80's Sentai or idiotic designs that make the rangers look like a group of mooks?
  • Much like with Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters and Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger, when it was announced that Power Rangers would skip adapting this series in favor of Shuriken Sentai Ninninger, there was a similar debate about if it should've been skipped - ToQger proponents pointed out that Ninninger performed worse than ToQger, whereas Ninninger fans pointed out that trains are not nearly as popular in the US as they are in Japan and Europe. Although with Gobusters itself being adapted Out of Order, it's possible that it's only a matter of when for an adaptation of ToQger.
• Complete Monster: Creator Devius. See here for details.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Emperor Z, due to his Anti-Villain status.
  • Schwarz is getting this reaction, due to averting the Orcus on His Throne trope by actually confronting the rangers on his own, his Noble Demon traits, and his Pet the Dog moments with Gritta.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: After episode 3, Right and Kagura started to develop a following. Tokkati and Mio are often paired together too.
• Growing the Beard: While the show was already good, episode 15 is where it starts to improve, and Akira's introduction is where it really starts to shine.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Rangers run on imagination power, huh?
  • Years ago, Kobayashi once wrote a train-themed Rider, and now she's writing a train-themed Sentai.
  • Having the expressionless mascot announce that our heroes are Dead All Along should sound familiar to some. ^note Especially with Gen Urobuchi's work on Kamen Rider Gaim creating a sort of Colbert Bump for his previous work.
  • The probably non-canon special Farewell Ticket: The Wasteland Super ToQ Battle ends with Wagon being upset because Ticket stuck himself on her hand. Much later, in Ressha Sentai To Qger Returns: Super 7gou of Dreams, Wagon ends up being the new Conductor of the Rainbow Line and has Ticket on her hand, as it seems to be a pre-requisite for the job.
  • The Stamp Shadow Monster of the Week appeared to be channeling the well-known "funyaa~" episode of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, but then the creature reveals that the victims will become too lazy to even keep breathing. And you know it'll work because it's been done!
  • Zed's first appearance has him getting a balloon from a pink bunny mascot. The Big Bad got a sneak peek at the Big Good!
  • A more minor one; Conductor's actor, Tsutomu Sekine, appeared to have starred in an extremely obscure game show entitled "Quiz Ressha Shuppatsu Shinkou" in 1979.
• Ho Yay:
  • Mio and Kagura are particularly close, even for a team as tightly-knit as the ToQgers. In any given group shot there's a good chance the two of them are side-by-side, especially in one shot where they're sharing the same seat in ToQ-Oh's cockpit (which has seats for all the ToQgers). They're actually holding hands in Station 21. Becomes more obvious since they did first in their childhood.
    • The return movie even has a picture of Kagura kissing Mio on the cheek, which only adds to it.
  • Right and Tokatti have their moments, especially in Station #6, which most of which focuses on their relationship and makes it obvious to the audience how much Tokatti admires Right.
  • There are rumors that Akira Nijino is pressumed to be gay after the events of Station 34, where he kissed a man who had a crush on Mio, and now said man is having a crush on him.
    • Akira's sexuality is even more debatable thanks to the movie's reveal of Tank Top Shadow
• Memetic Mutation: See this page for examples.
• Moe:
  • Tokkati. Adorkable? Check. Cute face? Check. Shrinking Violet? Check.
  • Kagura is also seen as cute by the fans.
  • Gritta, in a weird sort of way.
• Moral Event Horizon: Zed crossed it when he hijacked and killed Gritta, revealing that getting devoured by her was part of his plan. He remorselessly tells Schwarz that she has served her purpose, and then attacked Schwarz as he was grieving.
  • Episode 41 pushes him even further over the horizon. He kills Madame Noir in front of her daughter, strikes down Nero and Morc for getting in his way when they were just trying to help him, and then kills Schwartz.
• Most Wonderful Sound: For train enthusiasts this is. The equipment speaks in a manner meant to sound like a train conductor, i.e. in a cheery monotone laden with excessive politeness and constantly repeating itself.
• Older Than They Think: This isn't the first train-themed Tokusatsu show that's based around imagination. That honor goes to Kamen Rider Den-O.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: #20 has Jack-in-the-Box Shadow make two sumo wrestlers dance to what sounds a bit like Carlos Santana's "Smooth". It's the electric guitar that sells it.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: ToQ 7gou, despite the fact that the V-Cinema release is named after him, gets nearly no usage throughout the movie. He shows in up in a brief scene to save the child ToQgers from Hei and appears to fight the final battle with everyone else. That's it. His identity as the (former) Conductor ends up getting summed up in a couple of minutes, and is swiftly brushed off after that.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The whole focus on imagination is this. Rather than having the Rangers display it by coming up with creative tactics in tough situations, the show’s use of the word mostly amounts more to “I think we’re gonna win, so we will win”, with the fights being very by the numbers.
  • The fact that Zed's still at large after his final battle with the ToQGers is never brought up in any of the movies released after the series' conclusion. His actor having officially retired hasn't helped, either.
• Unfortunate Character Design: When the ToQ-Oh toy came out, people realized that they could unfold the Red Ressha and give the robot a long red cylinder extending from its crotch. Just people being people and perverting anything they get their hands on into something dirty, right? Well, no. The function shows up in-show◊ in #3, where the ToQgers use it to, er, thrust Red Ressha out of the trap they're in. Some have even speculate that this is why this season has never been made into a Power Rangers season.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The 4th-wall breaking narration during the opening mentions that Ressha Sentai ToQger will depart at 7:30. This is a reference to the show's timeslot, at 7:30am on a Sunday morning, which Super Sentai had held since episode 8 of Megaranger, all the way back on the 6th of April 1997. However, as of episode 32 of Kyuranger on the 1st of October 2017, Super Sentai now airs at 9am, meaning this reference will be lost on modern viewers of the franchise.
• The Un-Twist: It seems that the ToQgers were the most surprised to learn that they were children. The show offered ample evidence to support this to the point where it became a common theory. Evidence of this is as follows:
  • Their memories that come flooding back slowly feature them only as kids.
  • They are wearing the same clothing in the first episode that feature in some of these flashbacks
  • Their powers run on imagination and operate out of a train that can only be seen by those with moderately high imaginations which pretty much means only children (though there was that one time teens could see it too) can see it.
  • Their behavior especially in early episodes is quite childish.
• Vindicated by History: The season has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity for the same reasons people derided it at first (being too different), especially that Ninninger became a much worse season than this.
• The Woobie: Gritta. She may be from the villain side but considering all the crap she ends up going through like having your body taken over to seeing your own mother and romantic interest die as a result of rescuing her, its not hard to feel sorry for her.
• Win Back the Crowd: Because of the infamous Spotlight-Stealing Squad case in Kyoryuger, Toei tried to balance things again (with mild results) in ToQger, with emphasis on True Companions. It didn't get the intended viewership back, but at least it played straight.

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