WELCOME TO THE NEW BEGINNING. TOOT-TOOT RESSHA SENTAI TOQGER. Let’s go go go go go!
Today’s episode is entitled: Let’s Go By Special Express Train!
We start off with a voice-over talking about the IMAGINATION world; a world you dream up.
All is happy, but then a little girl is kidnapped by a skull train: The Shadow Line.
We meet Bagshadow, a Shadow Line monster who is taking the crying, kidnapped children to “Forsaken Children Mountain.” lolz
As he yells at the kids to cry more, he finds an adult on the line.
The adult is Right, our ToQ 1 (Red). Right wakes up when the Rainbow Line appears! AND THEN THE OPENING CREDITS/THEME SONG.
It is a majestic song about GO GO GO GO GO and rainbows and trains and it’s perfect.
We return to Right pushing Bagshadow off the train where they fall safely onto tracks.
The Rainbow Line slows to a stop and ToQ2 (Blue) falls off along with ToQ3 (Yellow), ToQ4 (Green), and ToQ5 (Pink).
Bagshadow calls upon his “Crows,” which are this year’s henchmen. They remind me of Dairanger and Akibaranger henchmen in stylizing and such.
ToQ2-5 take the Crows on with sass and spirit followed by the team climbing on board the Rainbow Line. We meet Mr. Conductor and his puppet, Ticket.
Supposedly Ticket is not a puppet but a “being” that sits on the Conductor’s hand? Sounds kind of gay (this coming from a gay man). hahahah
It is explained that when they were younger, they had a friend group that met at a tree with boarding passes (the same one Right had on the Shadow Line earlier). We then learn the names of the team. ToQ1 (Red) is named Right. ToQ2 (Blue) is named Tokatti. ToQ3 (Yellow) is named Mio. ToQ4 (Green) is named Hikari. And ToQ5 (Pink) is named Kagura. Also, I would like to point out that Mio says “somehow, it seems like we haven’t been apart that long.” Kagura also says they don’t know how they got there (on the Rainbow Line), but were asked to fight when they did. This makes me wonder if they’re children still who are imagining their adult forms in an epic battle. Just a thought.
Then Mr. Conductor begins to talk about the Shadow Line…. And we see their chess themed/castle evil train station base.
We first meet Madame Noire who is the baby’s mother. She is very steampunk and I love it.
The baby’s name is Grita (Gretta) and is creepy AS FUCK. Madame Noire explains that she is building a dark train station for Grita.
We then meet Baron Nero who is some form of a crow and reminds me of a court jester. He then explains that the new station is also a way to spread more darkness, but is also the place to greet the “Emperor of Darkness.” Grita is apparently being raised to marry the emperor and this is just getting weird now. haha
General Schwarz is quickly seen and I think I just peed my self a little.
The Shadow Line returns and Right jumps on to save the children, but he hasn’t gotten his morpher yet. He looks into the camera and breaks the 4th wall. Glorious.
As the ToQgers cross trains to give Right his morpher, Mr. Ticket explains that they were chosen because of their, let’s all say it together, IMAGINATION. A tad creepy, but I love his excitement.
Right punches Bagshadow out of the Shadow Line and the great battle begins. As the Crows begin to attack, the ToQgers morph by putting a colored ressha (mini train) into their morpher. ToQ1 puts in a red ressha, which will be his usual color, but as you will see, his number will stay the same but his suit/color can change by putting another ToQ’s ressha/train in the morpher. (Sidenote: when they press the first morpher button, a line appears for people to get behind so they don’t get hurt by the oncoming trains, ie Crows. lol)
As they morph, railroad lines appear and wrap them as a suit. It’s spectacular.
The morphing music is my ABSOLUTE favorite from the entire episode, specially when the train tracks circle around their heads. It’s just airy and heartfelt. Love it.
Each ToQger has a rollcall with their train. Have I said that I’m obsessed with ToQ2 yet? Yeah, I am. hahaha
I love their rainbow train stance.
AND their spinning combined rollcall. God I love this.
Each ToQger has their own weapon, ToQ2’s is called the Platform Trigger and shoots a target laser.
ToQ3’s is called a Signal Hammer and it’s a hammer that has a blinking light of pain. haha
ToQ4’s is Tunnel Axe and shovels monsters into death. I’m having too much fun with this. lol
ToQ5’s is called Bridge Claw and sends monsters down an escalator which makes them small.
She then stabs each small monster and they all die in tiny puffs of smoke. I LOVE KAGURA.
Lastly, ToQ1’s is Rail Slasher and wraps enemies in a train track to contain them until the sword attack destroys them.
In the battle, ToQ1 decides to switch ressha/colors/powers with ToQ2. COLOR SWAPPING SENTAI TEAM. This is so much fun!
During the color swaps, ToQ5 becomes a female green ranger!
ToQ4 and ToQ1 become male pink rangers, which is only the second time in Sentai history. (The first being in the Gokaiger vs Gavan movie.) (Also, there was a dark blue female ranger!)
Mr. Conductor becomes pissed off at them for color swapping for no reason and resets their color with a press of a button on the Rainbow Line!
The ToQgers bring their weapons together to form the Coupling Bazooka and finishes Bagshadow off with “Crying Child Statue Rainbow Rush.” Mr. Conductor quickly says that with the bazooka they can attack any monster with any attack they can imagine.
This one stacks statues of children on the monster and crushes him, since he made children cry. At that moment, ToQ5 breaks the 4th wall and the writers have sold me on this clusterfuck. haha
As Bagshadow explodes, evil spirits begin to rise and grows large. My guess is that no special power grows monsters this year (like has happened in other Sentai/Power Ranger seasons too), just their shadows/spirit.
Then Mr. Conductor tells the team to call upon their ressha/express trains to form a megazord, ToQ-Oh. A train station booth and invisible wall appear. Each ToQger has to swipe their boarding pass to embark on their trains. hahahahahaha
The trains combine and I really like this year’s cockpit. Reminds me of Goseiger’s cockpit in coloring and such just with customized stations that match their trains!
ToQ-Oh express connects and uses their Crossing Sword to “Express Slash” and destroy Bagshadow for good!
At the end, Ticket confesses that the ToQgers might be dead?!?!
The ending theme this year is trains from Japan/around the world! They play a cute theme, but it’s no Kyoryuger dance finale. haha 😉
Review
I LOVED THIS EPISODE. I loved the characters, villains, megazord, morphers, rollcall, opening theme, color swapping, background story; this episode had it all. Right, Tokatti, Mio, Hikari, and Kagura (ordered in ToQ1-5), may act somewhat immature, but I think that has to do with the fact that they might just be children’s imaginations of their adult forms, so immaturity. Also, Right’s lip gloss needs to calm it down. hahaha I AM OBSESSED WITH TOKATTI. He is soooo cute. ANYWAYS. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode as much as me. What were your thoughts on our new Sentai team? Tell me in the comment section below!
Sidenotes
Sorry I had so many pictures and things to explain, but I wanted my first review of this series to lay the foundation for the entire series; wanted to make sure I was thorough so you guys weren’t confused! I started reviewing about 13 episodes into Kyoryuger, so I didn’t have to do that last time, but I always worried that you guys might be confused by the way my explanations might be different from the previous reviewer’s. ANYWAYS. ENOUGH WITH THAT. haha We’re all on track now! hahahahahah OH MY GOD TRAIN PUN.
PS. In future reviews I may tag them as both SimplyScott1/PowerSentai since PowerSentai is my power rangers twitter handle and PowerSentaiHeadquarters is my tumblr url. Just for clarity if you want to follow me on either!
Until next time, this has been SimplyScott1/PowerSentai. Stay imaginative!
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