There are arguably two dominant superhero cinematic universes round proper now: the MCU (though that’s slightly extra debatable as of late), and, as io9 has written about earlier than, the Fast and Furious franchise. However whereas Quick has dabbled with superheroics and touched the sting of full-on cars in space movies, we now have a collection courageous sufficient to supplant it: Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger.
The forty eighth and newest entry within the Super Sentai franchise—the Japanese tokusatsu series that types the motion footage and design foundation for Power Rangers—Boonboomger started airing this previous weekend in Japan, and the premise is fairly easy: what in case your brightly coloured superhero crew was truly additionally a car-based courier service for something and the whole lot, from secret information to girls about to be wedded off into crime households unwillingly, whereas additionally a bunch of car-obsessed aliens had been about to invade earth?
That is removed from the primary time that Sentai has performed a vehicle-based, and even car-specific crew—the motion footage for Energy Rangers Turbo got here from the delightfully goofy, road-safety obsessed Carranger, for instance, or the apocalyptic RPM being derived from the racecar-themed Go-Onger—however even in its first episode, Boonboomger’s need to go all in on the Quick and Livid vibe is obvious.
The principle trio—Crimson Ranger Taiya (Haruhi Iuchi), Blue Ranger Ishiro (Yuki Hayama), and the crew’s newcomer, Pink Ranger Mira (Miu Suzuki)—already really feel like they’re 5 seconds away from calling one another “household.” There’s a comic book aid sentient automobile robotic, Bundorio Bunderas—I can not stress sufficient that that is actually a play on Antonio Banderas’ title—who not solely grows in measurement to assist the crew’s automobiles remodel into their big robotic, however can also be their private hype man again of their base. Even the villains, the foot troopers of the Hashiryan empire, are equally obsessive about pace and automobiles, referring to the human screams they gather as “Ghassolin” and even keen to pause a drag race with their new enemies within the Boonboomgers to stick to Earth’s highway legal guidelines. And though there are some live-action automobile stunts, a number of the vehicular carnage and mecha-combining happens in a digitized automobile hyperspace runway that basically seems like Mario Kart’s Rainbow Road.
It’s a very foolish debut, leaning extra towards Sentai’s comedic facet than the straight laced superheroic fare. The Boonboomgers may be superheroes going through an alien invasion, however they’re additionally all motorheads pushed by their need to be behind the wheel, the liberty of being keen about racing and driving. And that’s arguably as essential as donning wheel-shaped helmets and getting in big robots to them, which makes the Quick and Livid parallels really feel even nearer. As a lot as these movies have steadily raised and raised the stakes till they’re perpetually teetering on the edge of turning into full-on style fiction, from enhanced humans to Automobiles In Area, Boonboomger taking the total step and making that need its complete factor proves that, actually, Quick ought to go forward and do the identical, as a result of it’s enjoyable as hell.
Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger is now airing in Japan, however is sadly at the moment unavailable internationally—however hey, if Hasbro continues to be just a few years off of attempting to totally make Energy Rangers into its personal factor with a rebooted, unique continuity, perhaps we would finally see a Turbo-esque adaptation of it down the road. Megazord Drift, anyone?
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