Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger (2024)

Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger (roughly translated as "Burst-Acceleration Squadron Boonboomger") is the 48th entry in the Super Sentai franchise and the fifth series to start in the Reiwa Era, airing alongside Kamen Rider Gotchard — and later, Kamen Rider Gavv — in the Super Hero Time block starting March 3, 2024, replacing Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger, headwritten by Atsuhiro Tomioka (Battle Spirits anime, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Pokémon: The Series: from Diamond and Pearl to XY). The series has a theme of vehicles and creation. The Title Theme Tune is performed by Masaaki Endoh.

The series follows the Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger, a covert team of professionals who work to perform odd delivery jobs, ranging from delivering top-secret government files to even people. However, things get heated up when the notorious space mafia Hashirien finally touch down on Earth with an intent to Take Over the World, and it will take the Boonboomgers all their Cool Car-powered wits and talents to foil their evil plans!

Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger's tie-in projects include:

• Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger: GekijoBoon! Promise the Circuit, the summer movie double-billed with Kamen Rider Gotchard: The Future Daybreak set to be released on July 26, 2024.

Recurring Super Sentai tropes:

• Combining Mecha:
  • Boonboom Trailer + any combination of Boonboom Cars = Boonboomger Robo.
  • Boonboom Killer Trailer + Boonboom Killer Off-Road + Boonboom Killer Wagon = Boonboom Killer Robo
  • Boonboom Leon is combined from the Boonboom Leo Rescue, a Boonboom-Trailer-sized fire truck, and the Boonboom Shobosha, a regular-Boonboom-Car-sized fire engine. Boonboom Leon itself can also combine with up to eight other Boonboom Cars in their weapon mode.
• In the Name of the Moon: A simplistic one compared to the past few seasons:

  Taiya: Bun Red!
  Ishiro: Bun Blue!
  Mira: Bun Pink!
  Jou: Bun Black!
  Genba: Bun Orange!
  Sakito:^note Bun Violet!
  Taiya: The tension is booming! Bursting out for a spin! Bakuage Sentai! ^note
  All: Boonboomger!!

• Dancing Theme: The ending song "Kotsukotsu-PON-PON" features the main cast dancing alongside Boondorio, who sings the song.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode is referred to as a "Bakuage"^note.
• Leader Forms the Head: Played With:
  • Bundorio Bunderas forms the majority of Boonboomger Robo, and unlike in most series he's a white mecha representing the team as a whole instead of any specific Boonboomger, and in some occasions was driven by rangers other than Bun Red. However, he still has red markings and his head matches Red's helmet, associating him with Bun Red anyway.
  • Boonboomger Robo Police, Build and Knight highlight Bun Black, Orange and Red respectively, and make them the "leader".
  • Averted with Boonboomger Robo Monster. Bun Marine, Which belongs to Bun Blue, forms the head, but the ranger isn't marked as the leader.
• Mecha Expansion Pack: Boonboomger Robo has a number of formations based on attaching different pairs of Boonboom Cars. Byunbyun Mach Robo can likewise use the Boonboom Cars. While costume combinations could be made of the different pairs, here are the default ones:
  • Boonboom Off-Road + Boonboom Wagon = Boonboomger Robo's default formation.
  • Boonboom PatoCar 1 + Boonboom PatoCar 2 = Boonboomger Robo Police.
  • Boonboom Shovel + Boonboom Dozer = Boonboomger Robo Builder.
  • Boonboom Classic + Boonboom Racing = Boonboomger Robo Knight.
  • Boonboom Marine + Boonboom Safari = Boonboomger Robo Monster.
  • Byunbyun Mach Robo can lend its wings and crossbow weapon to the Boonboomger Robo, forming Wing Boonboomger Robo.
  • Boonboom Leo Rescue + Boonboom Shobosha = Boonboomger Robo 119.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: The main sidearm for Red, Blue, and Pink is the Boonboom Handle, a steering wheel/socket driver-themed handgun that can extend a blue Phillips screwdriver-themed shaft for usage as Rod Mode. Black and Orange use the Boonboom Change Axe, which also has Steering Wheel Mode and a nightstick-like Rod Mode in addition to housing their Transformation Trinkets. Violet uses the Boonboom Controller, which has Controller Mode and Bow Mode.
• Three Plus Two: While show generally treats the Boonboomgers as a standard five-member team (if one that takes a few episodes to fully form), Bun Black and Orange are set apart by slightly different suits (with an extra shoulderpad and line on the chest) and changers and by being excluded from Boonboomger Robo's default combination. They're also the ones that joined after the series premiere, but Bun Pink joined in the premiere so that's not as much a difference as it looks.
• Transformation Trinket:
  • Red, Blue, and Pink use the Boonboom Changer, the first since Kiramager to be wrist-mounted instead of doubling as a weapon.
  • Black and Orange use the Boonboom Booster module which detaches from the Boonboom Change Axe, and like the last three series, it doubles as their main weapon.
  • Violet uses the Boonboom Controller, which, as its name suggests, looks like a video-game controller. Like the Boonboom Change Axe, it also doubles as his weapon, and the buttons on it can be pressed in different combinations, like in a video game, to release various attacks.
  • Bun Red uses the Zoonzoom Shoka Blaster, which also doubles as a gun, to transform into his power-up form, Bun Red 119.
• Transforming Mecha: Both Bundorio Bunderas and Byun Diesel can transform from humanoid forms into vehicles. The Boonboom Leon can also transform between a fire truck and a lion.

Don't stop the Trope-Tropes!

• And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Starting with Bakuage 3, a short segment teaching about traffic safety (in collaboration with the Japanese Automobile Federation) appears during the end credits of each episode.
• Another Dimension: Highway Space, a world of brightly-colored futuristic superhighways. Much is yet to be revealed about this place, but Yalcar will travel here to rampage as part of their Make My Monster Grow process, and it is up to the Boonboom Cars to chase them out of it. The Boonboomgers also use it to test the Boonboom cars.
• Art-Shifted Sequel: In stark contrast to the CGI sets of King-Ohger, Boonboomger not only brings back the usage of physical sets and more extensive outdoor filming, but it also utilizes a sharper filming style that resembles recent entries of its sister franchise, making use of more width and distance in many scenes.
• The Big Race: This turns out to be the main reason Taiya and Boondorio developed their equipment. Their dream is to hold the BBG (Big Bang Grand Prix), a race across the entire universe to test who has the best car. It proves to be... divisive amongst the team, so to speak.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • The Boonboomgers' suits are generally monochromatic, being primarily white with grey side stripes and primarily token appearances of their signature colors. This is a stark contrast to past suits, where the rangers' signature colors generally make up at least half of the total color palette.
  • The helmets are a sharp divergence from previous vehicle themed Sentai. Previous vehicle themed seasons such as Turboranger and Carranger (and to a lesser extent, Boukenger and Go-onger) had the helmets invoke the front of their mecha (automobile grills, headlights, windshields, etc.) This time around, the helmets take inspiration from the tires.
  • The series uses a rare team setup, previously only seen in Kyoryuger and Ryusoulger, where the core team is arranged as Three Plus Two with a central trio and two additional members that join a few episodes later;^note and that trio is of Red, Blue, and Pink Rangers instead of the more standard Red, Blue, and Yellow — in fact, these teams have no Yellow Ranger at all. In addition, Boonboomger is the first such team not to be themed around dinosaurs. (That said, the three-and-two core team is now established as an ongoing trend in its own right; occurring regularly every five-or-so years since it was first used in Engine Sentai Go-onger.)
  • The Boonboomgers are one of the very few Sentai teams to have an Orange Ranger, and there hasn't been one this central to the team since Battle Cossack in Battle Fever J forty-five years ago.^note
  • While each Boonboomger would usually pilot their own Boonboom Car, they also occasionally share their mecha between each other. This even extends to the other Boonboomgers piloting the Boonboom Trailer instead of Bun Red.
• Central Theme: "Taking the wheel"; independence and leading your own life. It's seen in the very first episode with Mira leaving her arranged fiancé and her boyfriend to join the Boonboomgers, and the production notes state that it's going to be an ongoing theme.
• Car Chase: Yalcar will enter the Highway Dimension after absorbing all of the Gyahsoline a defeated Grumer collected, forcing the Boonboomgers to chase them in their Boonboom Cars. After they defeat them, Yalcar will return to earth and reform the Grumer from the Gyahsoline, leading to the Giant-Robot Battle. From #17-onwards, this has been rescinded as Cannonborg upgraded them to do this automatically, removing the need for an extended chase sequence.
• Cool Car:
  • The entire team has vehicles as an overall theme, and unlike the most recent example, most of the mecha don't have any fantastical overtones (animal motifs or the like), and aside from a few details look just like any regular vehicle the average Joe would see in the streets. This level of realism hasn't been seen since Gogo Sentai Boukenger almost 20 years earlier.
  • In particular, while most of the Boonboom Cars are heavily fictionalized mecha, Taiya's Boonboom Supercar is a customized version of a genuine cool car, a Mitsuoka Rock Star convertible. (It is still a bit fictionalized in having a rocket thruster under the engine hood, but other than that...)
• Couch Gag:
  • The opening features a shot of Bundorio making curry in which he will either wave to the camera or fall down in his seat.
  • The opening sequence has a scene where the Boonboomgers, Sanseaters, and Saibu make various poses at the camera to the beat of the lyrics, which switch up every episode.
• Dramedy: The series' overall tone could be best described as this. While Boonboomger has a healthy dose of comedy in nearly every episode, it also features plenty of serious scenes to balance the hilarity out.
• Evolving Credits:
  • Initially, Jou and Genba are credited in the opening as regular civilians, while Bun Black and Bun Orange appear in very quick shots. Each one of them is credited as a Boonboomger one episode after he joins the team (#6 for Jou, #8 for Genba), with his Boonboomger form also making more appearances alongside the core three.^note This contrasts previous Super Sentai shows with assembling core teams, as those shows would feature all of the rangers in the first opening, even if some of them join the core team later.
  • Sakito and Byun Diesel, of course, are added to the opening at #19 after joining the Boonboomgers. The ending also adds them, albeit in separate bubbles that appear over the regular dance. The fast-paced part that shows the Boonboomgers, Bundorio, Shirabe and the Sanseaeters is updated as well.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: From the right side of the abdomen to the left shoulder is a large speedometer graphic, above which are the team's signature colors. Black and Orange additionally have shoulder-pads only on the left shoulders.
• Food p*rn: The series doesn't pull any punches when it comes to ensuring Boondorio's preference of cooking only curry stew isn't an Informed Attribute, and a good portion of the shots are dedicated to loving glances at what he cooks up. Needless to say, it'll make waterfalls of drool after enough views.
• Inconsistent Spelling: The katakana ブン (pronounced "boom") is given different romanizations, sometimes even within the same word; being rendered "boon", "boom", or "bun". That said, the series is at least consistent in how each one is used: codenames use "bun" (like Bun Red and Bun Blue); and everywhere else it's "boon", followed by "boom"(s) if the syllable is repeated.
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to the more serious and violent King-Ohger, which stands as the darkest of the Reiwa entries of Super Sentai thus far and one of the darkest in the franchise overall, Boonboomger is a bit more tongue-in-cheek in tone, featuring plenty of hilarious antics from the get-go. However, the more grounded setting and characters alongside more serious-leaning scenes prevents the series from going full Denser and Wackier.
• Mood Whiplash: Episode 8 ends with Taiya falling to the ground, exhausted after using the Ghost Car to barely defeat Mad Rex. And then the very cheerful ending theme starts playing.
• Mythology Gag:
  • A Freeze-Frame Bonus shot in Taiya's garage shows three hubcaps referencing Turboranger, Carranger, and Go-Onger.
  • Bun Black's debut episode has the 4-man team use the Turboranger team's "Super Sentai" Stance. It also shows Boonboomger Robo Police strafing while shooting in the exact same way Dekaranger Robo did.
  • In Boonboomger Transformation Lessons Part 2, Taiya says "The five of us together are Boonboomger".
• Naked People Are Funny: The series manages to pull this off in a sense; the Kurumaju are all designed with numerous screws that secure their armor to their bodies, and on occasion, the Boonboomger Robo will use it's arm-mounted screwdriver to remove the screws, causing the armor to detach. The result? A giant Monster of the Week having a Naked Freak-Out.
• Production Foreshadowing: At the end of March 2024, we got the debut of Boonboomger Robo's police-themed form - right before Toei announced a new TTFC special involving the police-themed Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger.
• Pun: The term "-taiya", used by many of the Boonboomgers' equipment. While playing on "tire", in Japanese it is also a slang term for "want to". As such, announcements such as "Bakuage Tire!'" can also alternatively mean "I wanna Burst-Accelerate!"
• Purple Is the New Black: Bun Black's secondary mecha, Boonboom Patocar 2, is a purple armored truck. Averted with Bun Black in terms of suit design, as the helmet's hubcap detail is white instead, to better stand out from the already black tires surrounding the visor.
• Revisiting the Roots:
  • Unlike the previous two entries, showcasing a staggered team gathering a la sister series Pretty Cure, the characters headbutting with each other in a clash of personalities and not introducing the main mecha early on, in Boonboomger the core team is formed immediately, the trio gets along rather well and we get to see the main mecha in action in the first episode.
  • Whereas every Red starting with Carranger has been an Idiot Hero, a Stock Shōnen Hero or a Rookie Red Ranger, Taiya is the first since Goro Hoshino/Oh Red from Chouriki Sentai Ohranger to be a true Standardized Leader.
  • Boonboomger is the first series since Mashin Sentai Kiramager to feature a proper ending theme dance after the past three series had the cast dance to the opening instead.
  • The Opening Theme for the series features the Super Sentai Series logo after King-Ohger's opening omitted it, albeit with it being placed in the left corner where the speedometer for the Boonboom Trailer is usually located.
• Rewatch Bonus: Ichiro's distrust for Mira and Taiya's for Jou become much more apparent after #8's twist. They weren't judging if they should be part of the Boonboomgers; they were wondering if they were going to be recruited for the BBG.
• Scenery p*rn: The sets for the mecha battles are incredibly designed with much attention to detail, which is made more impressive than its more CGI-laden predecessors in that they are purely practical sets.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: Two different themes are in play for different groups of characters:
  • The Boonboomgers' allies are Named After Somebody Famous: Bundorio Bunderas (Antonio Banderas) and Byun Diesel (Vin Diesel).
  • The Hashirien bosses are all named after car and race movies: Big Bad Waruido Spindo (Wild Speed, the Japanese title of The Fast and the Furious) and captains Madrex (Mad Max) and Cannonborg (The Cannonball Run).
  • The GekijoBoon! movie has names in both categories that revolve around Days of Thunder, with the villain named Damon Thunder after the film itself and the Boonboomgers' ally named Nicola Keydoor (Days actress Nicole Kidman) from the planet Trickle (the name of Days' protagonist).
• Story Arc: The series is divided to story arcs which, fitting with the cars and racing motifs, are called LAPs:
  • 1st LAP (#1-#9), which centers around Boonboomger's formation, the revelations about the true reasons Taiya and Bundorio created the team, and their battle against Hashirien's Charge Team Captain MadRex.
  • 2nd LAP (#10-TBA), the current LAP, which introduces Hashirien's Modification Captain Cannonborg as well the AI-Powered Boonboom Safari and Boonboom Marine and the Boonboomgers' quest to bond with them. It also introduces Bun Violet and his Robot Buddy, Byun Diesel, revealing more about Bundorio's past and the Big Bang Grand Prix.
• Technology p*rn: Taiya's garage features loads of loving looks at its tech as the Boonboom Cars are deployed.
• Time Dilation: Oddly averted in Sakito's case. With 10 years having passed on Earth while he was travelling the universe, he should have still remained the same age he was when he left, yet he still normally ages into adulthood.
• Uniformity Exception: Black and Orange have personalized shoulderpads on their left shoulders, which Red, Blue, and Pink lack. Additionally, Black has an extra gold line across his speedometer design while Orange's speedometer design is black in contrast to the rest of the team's white.
• Vehicle p*rn: The promos alone are absolutely laden with it, with much of the focus being given to Taiya's "Boonboom Supercar".
• Wham Episode: #8 drops the bomb that the Boonboomgers' actual purpose was to be a racing team in the BBG and not fighting off the Hashiriens like Mira and Jou thought. This causes a major rift in trust within the team, which is only exacerbated by Taiya's recklessness during his fight with MadRex.