Brian Camp
"Megaranger vs. Carranger" unites the superhero teams from the 1996 and 1997 sentai seasons, "Gekisou Sentai Carranger" and "Denjai Sentai Megaranger" (the bases for their American counterparts, "Power Rangers Turbo" and "Power Rangers in Space"). The Megarangers are all high school students and the Carrangers all work at an auto repair shop, yet, after an initially awkward, if comic, confrontation, they realize they have to work together to protect Picot, a space fairy (which resembles a little blue dragon), who is coveted by assorted space villains. Picot has the ability to grant five wishes per planet to anyone who pours water on it and strokes it twice. Each of the teams tries it out separately by wishing for, first, a big cake and, second, a bowl of katsudon. However, one of the villains, a monster motorcyclist, seeks to grab Picot for himself and wish to make the universe safe for hell-bent motorcycle gangs. At one point, one of the villains gets control of the Carrangers and turns them against the Megarangers, so that, for the space of one battle at least, the title is accurate. One of the villains, a lobster monster called Nejira, gets hold of Picot at one point and wishes for the resurrection of five monsters killed by the Megarangers in earlier episodes. Eventually, the rangers all unite for one big battle, using their megazords to confront the five giant monsters and their masters in a dense urban landscape.This TV special crams a lot of action into its 47 minutes, about as much as you'd find in three TV episodes, and it's generally quite imaginatively staged, especially the final zord battle. The actors playing the rangers are all delightful and the script gives them ample opportunity for lots of humor. For instance, when Mega Red, sitting in his classroom, sees a light fall from the sky, he complains to the teacher that he has a stomach ache and needs to be excused. He then indicates to all the other rangers that they need to leave also, so they all feign stomach aches at once, confounding the dyspeptic teacher, and leave to find the source of the light (Picot's arrival on Earth). At one point, the rangers of both teams all take a break to eat lunch together on Dream Beach and bond with each other and with Picot. It's a charming scene and a nice break from the frenetic action that infuses most of the show. I pretty much like every sentai movie I see and thought this was definitely one of the better ones. It's also one of the few that I own in an English-subtitled edition, which helped a great deal.
