is a Japanese tokusatsu television show. It was Toei's twentieth production of the Super Sentai metaseries. It is the second vehicle-themed Super Sentai, preceded by Kousoku Sentai Turboranger. It aired from March 1, 1996, to February 7, 1997, replacing Chouriki Sentai Ohranger, and was replaced by Denji Sentai Megaranger. The show was written as a parody of its own franchise. Its action footage was used in Power Rangers Turbo. Toei given the name for international distribution is Car Rangers.
On January 6, 2017, Amazon set to pre-order "Gekisou Sentai Carranger: The Complete Series" on Region 1 DVD by Shout! Factory and it was released in North America on April 25, 2017. This is the fifth Super Sentai series to be released in North America. In June 2018, Shout! streamed the series on their website.
Plot Five workers from the Pegasus Corporation auto garage discover Dappu, an alien from the planet Hazard. He empowers the five with the "Carmagic" power of the five legendary car constellations, transforming them into Carrangers. As Carrangers, the five battle an alien reckless driver gang and prevent them from destroying Earth.
Characters Carrangers The eponymous Carrangers are a group of five employees at the auto garage who battle the Bowzock using . Their special team attack is the .
The team utilizes in conjunction with ignition switch-like bracelets to transform. While transformed, each member carries an , which can be reconfigured into the railgun, and a sword as their sidearms. They also ride go-karts for transportation. By combining their personal weapons, they form the , which can be reconfigured into the to destroy human-sized Gorotsuki. Later in the series, they acquire the scanner, which can switch between its laptop-like and handgun-like modes and/or combine with an Auto Punisher to form the , and the dragster-like , which can be reconfigured into either the or the .
Kyosuke Jinnai is the 23 year old test driver at Pegasus Corporation, normally only assigned to do errands and aberrant jobs. He was pristinely a selfish jerk, callous enough to abandon his team because he wanted to drive his boss's classic car. Soon though, he realized that he had a responsibility as the Carrangers' leader and became very conscientious, albeit the role of leader sometimes gets to him and he is inundated by the stress of being responsible for the team. He fell in love with Zonnette, albeit at first she only loves his Red Racer alter ego, and is eventually able to confess his love to her. He is a very stouthearted, heroic man who was disposed to jeopardize his life to fight as Kyousuke and not Red Racer to prove his love for Zonnette.
As Red Racer, Kyosuke wields the . Later in the series, he tames and acquires the sentient Chevrolet Camaro, which is equipped with the gun and can assume to gain flight capabilities. He also shares riding Pegasus Thunder with Yoko.
Naoki Domon is the 17 year old (though he turns 18 during the series – he had his birthday party early on in the series, but his partners unknowingly missed the date by a month) polite and shy car designer at Pegasus Corporation. His aptitude had led him to be sought by car manufacturers before. He is also an animal lover.
As Blue Racer, Naoki dual wields the twin . Later in the series, he tames and acquires the sentient Jeep Wrangler, which is equipped with the winch and can combine with the Giga Booster to gain increased power. He also shares riding Dragon Cruiser with Minoru and Natsumi.
Minoru Uesugi is the 24 year old bungling salesman at Pegasus Corporation. He once lost his Accel Changer (and thus the Green Racer powers) while practicing victory poses after a fight in episode 8. He verbalizes with Osaka-ben and is a fan of the Hanshin Tigers.
As Green Racer, Minoru wields the .
Natsumi Shinohara is the 19 year old genius mechanic at Pegasus. She is able to fine-tune any machine in minutes. She uses a legendary wrench given to her by the owner of a garage she visited as a child, but later learns she can still fine-tune anything without the wrench. Her initial opposition to Kyosuke's relationship with Zonnette makes her one of two female warriors to oppose the red warrior.
As Yellow Racer, Natsumi dual wields the twin .
Yoko Yagami is the 19 year old secretary at Pegasus Corporation, calculating the expenses and payroll. She is very self-conscious about her weight because she loves to eat sweets, and frequently consults magazine fortune-telling articles to prognosticate her future. She dreams of becoming an idol someday and espousing an affluent husband, and has a terrible sense of direction.
As Pink Racer, Youko wields the .
Allies Dapp is one of the few survivors of planet Hazard, which was destroyed by the Bowzock after they ransacked it for its treasures, he took his mother's pendant as her final wish to find the Carrangers. Stalling away on the Barbariban, Dappu arrives to Earth to find the Carrangers-to-be. But when they refused to fight for frivolous reasons, Dappu fights Zelmonda himself and fakes being killed to give the gang incentive to fight. He is the keeper of the 'Kurumagic' (a pun on Kuruma (car) and Magic), thus the Carrangers' power is dependent on their friendship with him. Through about episode 18, he wore a cloak, until the events of that episode forced him into Earth-style clothes.
Signalman is a blue-colored robotic being who was assigned to Earth, and something of a Sixth Ranger figure. He originates from the Police Planet where he left behind his wife Sigue and son Sigtarou. To Gynamo, Signalman is space's number one worst person. He can sometimes be more of an obstruction than a help to the Carrangers, because of his excruciating training in the rules of traffic. Signalman briefly left Earth and returned to his homeworld to spend time with his family only to find that it was polluted by five-colored exhaust engendered by Exhaus to warp Signalman's mind. Tricked into thinking that the Carrangers were behind it, he went back to Earth to perform police brutality on them, and remotely became the new leader of the Bowzock. Fortunately, the Carrangers managed to restore their friend to normal by tricking him into imbibing natural mineral dihydrogen monoxide. Signalman kenned off the Carrangers true identities until episode 46 through Ichitarou.
Signalman can conventionally be optically discerned operating from the , a diminutively minuscule Police booth, which can be proximately everywhere in Japan (except places where people might actually pass it...). In battle, he wields the sidearm, which can switch between and . He also rides the police motorcycle.
Tenma Family The is the family involved in the Carrangers' lives.
Souichirou Tenma is the owner of Pegasus Corporation and the Carrangers' boss. He is an automobile aficionado and always drives his prized vehicles to work, much to the envy of other car lovers such as Kyousuke Jinnai. He and his family are fans of the Carrangers (even though he does not know they are his workers) and finds himself at the mercy upon occasion both at the actions of the Bowzock as well as Dapp, who is using one of the garage's rooms as the team's headquarters in secret.
Yoshie Tenma is Souichirou's wife.
Ichitarou Tenma is Souichirou and Yoshie's son, who is close friends with Signalman. Though a young boy, he is a friend and ally with the Carrangers and has frequent encounters with the Sentai team as well as other factions running amok on Earth. Notably, he is the one who originally suggested to Inventor Grotch various food that was popular on Earth, in particular the imo-youkan that would lead to the Bowzock discovering a method of growing large to destroy Earth (though originally suggested by his father). He also once protected Signalman's police box while the alien officer was on duty.
Radietta Fanbelt is the younger sister of Zonnette and a huge Carranger fan. With magic, she dons an outfit modeled after the Carrangers (to the point of having the number six as an identifier) and calls herself "White Racer".
As White Racer, Radietta uses volleyball-like that detonate if the enemy who catches it does not know the answer to her riddles. She also rides the cat-themed buggy, which can assume a humanoid form called for one minute.
VRV Master , also known as the , is a being in black-colored armor who suddenly appears while Dapp is in a hibernation that his race goes into. He gives the Carrangers their VRV Machines after RV Robo has been stolen by Bowzock. He is later revealed to be Dapp's father. To save his son from Exhaus, VRV Master apparently sacrifices himself so he could return to Earth. Later through a Christmas gift from VRV Master himself, it was revealed that he is alive. He returns to Earth once again to save the Carrangers and Dapp from being killed in a bombing of their work/base. He is addicted to coffee milk, which is the reason he was not in hibernation himself. After the final battle, VRV Master is finally seen out of his suit as he travels through space with Dapp in Victrailer.
Universal Reckless Driving Tribe Bowzock The is an intergalactic biker gang with no regard for the laws of traffic. Hired by Exhaus to pave the way for his highway by blowing up every planet in the way of construction. They have targeted Earth, the last of such planets, for destruction and frequently hang out at the BB Saloon, a bar in the Baribarian spacecraft. After he had absorbed the Carrangers' Carmagic Power, Exhaus set the Baribarian spacecraft on fire and sent it crashing to Earth, only to have it stopped by Sirender and the Carrangers in human form take control of it and drove it straight into Exhaus to try and kill him. It did not kill him, though it was destroyed.
The Bowzock members, as well as Signalman, mispronounce the Japanese word for "Earth", saying (吃球) instead of the correct form (地球). In Shout! Factory's release of the series, the name of "Earth" is changed to "Earsh".
Emperor Exhaus is the main antagonist of the series who hired the Universal Reckless Driving Tribe Bowzock to do his dirty work. His ultimate plan was to build a giant road for aliens across the Milky Way, and to destroy Earth because it was in the way of the road. Exhaus kidnapped Dapp and tried to drain his Carmagic Power to use for his own robots, turning it into Akumagic Power, but his plan backfired when Dappu overloaded the robots with power. He betrayed the Bowzock and took over the operation personally, only to fight the Carrangers personally when he absorbed the evil energies of the entire universe into his body to assume a fighting form, . In this form he seemed unbeatable, damaging both VRV Robo and RV Robo, but was fed stale imo-youkan by Gynamo, causing him to weaken, revert to his original form and shrink to human size so he could be finished off by the Carrangers.
Instructor Ritchhiker is an alien who Gynamo hired to help the Bowzock as their "Evil Director of Human Resources", devising the plans to deal with the Carrangers and Signalman, whom he had a grudge on from putting him in jail. However, during the Bowzock Matsuri festival, Ritchhicker is struck by a lightning bolt made of pure evil cosmic energy that turns him into . With his increased intellect, RitchRitchiker kicked out Gynamo and Zonette and takes over as leader of the Bowzock with the promises of riches to the space bikers. From there, RitchRitchiker uses Braking to steal RV Robo from the Carrangers before using his robot to take a building holding the Study Book Fair to educate his forces. But it leads to his robot's defeat by the VRV Machines with RitchRitchhiker upgrading Braking as he proceeds to capture VRV Master. However, it results in RitchRitchiker's death when is consumed in the blaze caused by Braking being finally destroyed by VRV Robo.
President Gynamo