Gekisou Sentai Carranger: The Complete Series (DVD) Review: A Special Return

“Power Rangers: Turbo” is considered to be one of the worst, if not the worst, seasons of “Power Rangers.” This was the point where the series started to lose popularity stemming from the core audience growing out of it and everything about this season, from the writing, villain, and action scenes being one big train wreck. On the opposite side of the world, however, “Super Sentai” was seeing a renaissance with “Gekisou Sentai Carranger.” As has been the norm these past few years, SHOUT! Factory has released the entire series on DVD in the states and you can see why this saved “Super Sentai.”

An intergalactic biker gang called “Bowzock” has just destroyed the planet Hazard and now set their sights on Earth, which they call “the Earsh.” Dappu, the lone survivor of Hazard, has used his carmagic to turn five people working in a mechanic garage into “Gekisou Sentai Carranger.”

Toei decided to make this series into a much more lighthearted “parody” of “Super Sentai” and does it show. The villains are as stupid as they come (one of them says he can’t fight because he hasn’t washed his belly button in weeks,) the main leads are pretty bumbling too and not to mention their entire theme is cars.

Oh, and there’s one episode where the monster of the week does homework for kids so they can bring him watermelons for the “Bowzock’s” to squash on the beach. And another where the plan is to use a beam to make the Carrangers so hot they take their clothes off, catch a cold and be out of action for ten weeks.

If you’re hearing The Colonel from “Monty Python” saying, “right, stop that! Silly!” you’re not alone. Of course, if you’re a “Super Sentai” fan, you’ll be laughing non-stop because this is the sort of zany story lines “Super Sentai” is known for, only more extreme.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any serious moments. There are times when the series does get serious, but not too serious. It finds a fine balance of serious and silliness so as to not become contrived in either area.

The only real downside is the giant monster/mech battles are way too short and uninteresting. For something that’s supposed to be a highlight of the series, these battles ae not fun to watch in any way. While there are some exceptions, like major battles between the “Bowzock” leaders, these aren’t all that fun to watch.

While “Super Sentai” fans will love “Gekisou Sentai Carranger,” everyone else may be turned off by its super silliness. If you can look past that, you will find that this is one of the better “Super Sentai” seasons out there.