Engine Sentai Go-onger


Engine Sentai Go-onger is Toei Company's thirty-second installment in the Super Sentai metaseries of Japanese tokusatsu television series. It premiered on February 17, 2008, a week following the finale of Juken Sentai Gekiranger, and ended on February 8, 2009. It aired as part of TV Asahi's 2008 Super Hero Time block alongside Kamen Rider Kiva. Its footage was used for the American series, Power Rangers RPM and was dubbed into Korean as Power Rangers Engine Force. The catchphrase for the series is "Rushing by at full-throttle mach speed, our slogan is 'go on!'".

Story

Machine World is one of the 11 Brane cosmology other than our own, which is referred as the Human World, and it is home to giant vehicular beings called Engines who wage a war against the Gaiark who desire to pollute their world. Losing, Gaiark's three Pollution Ministers' escape leaves them on Earth, seeing the Human World as an easier location to create their ideal paradise. The six Engines manage to pursue them, selecting five humans to become their partners, the Go-ongers. The team are joined by Go-on Wings and their Wing Engines, as well as the Ancient Engines, as they all together battle the Gaiark as well as other evil villains from other Braneworlds.

Episodes

The episodes are titled as Grand Prix motor racing, or "GP" for short, each ending with a Go-on Seminar, a Gaiark Seminar, or the one-time Samurai Seminar, to explain a trivial fact relating to a character or element in the show. The eyecatch has the five main Engines racing, with a different one winning each week.

Films

''Boom Boom! Bang Bang! GekijōBang!!''

Engine Sentai Go-onger: Boom Boom! Bang Bang! GekijōBang!! was released in theaters on August 9, 2008, as a double bill with the Kamen Rider Kiva movie, . The film features guest stars Sonim, Jyunichi Haruta, Kento Handa, Mika Kikuchi, Naoya Uchida, and Masaya Matsukaze. The events of the movie take place between GPs 31 and 32.

''Go-onger vs. Gekiranger''

Initially scheduled for DVD release on March 21, 2009, Engine Sentai Go-onger vs. Gekiranger will feature the return of Hiroki Suzuki, Mina Fukui, Manpei Takagi, Riki Miura, Sotaro, Hirofumi Araki, Yuka Hirata, Naoki Kawano, and Kazue Itoh reprising their roles as Jyan Kandou, Ran Uzaki, Retu Fukami, Gou Fukami, Ken Hisatsu, Rio, Mere, Long, and Miki Masaki from Juken Sentai Gekiranger. The story features the Three Gaiark Ministers and their Nunchaku Banki teaming up with the last remaining member of the Confrontation Beast Hall, Meka, practicer of the Confrontation Beast Tortoise Fist who is after the golden orb that Long was sealed in. To defeat their common foes, the Go-ongers, the Go-on Wings, and the Gekirangers team up with the revived Rio and Mere to fight the new evil team and stop them from releasing Long.
On December 6, 2008, several of the cast members of Go-onger announced on their blogs that there is going to be a second Go-onger movie. The next day, Toei announced on its Go-onger website that the film was going to be Go-onger vs. Gekiranger, and that it was to commemorate the 15th of the Super Sentai V-Cinema VS Series, having started initially with J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai vs. Gorenger in 1978 and revived annually with Chouriki Sentai Ohranger vs. Kakuranger in 1996. The film was released to theaters on January 24, 2009. The events of the movie take place between GPs 37 and 38.

''Shinkenger vs. Go-onger''

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger vs. Go-onger: GinmakuBang!! was released in theaters on January 30, 2010, featuring a crossover between the Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and Go-onger casts and characters. The heroes of Tensou Sentai Goseiger also make a cameo appearance in the film.

''10 Years Grand Prix''

Engine Sentai Go-onger: 10 Years Grand Prix was released direct-to-video on September 26, 2018, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the premiere of the series, unlike the two other 10 Years After films Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger: 10 Years After and which take place 10 years after the finale.

Special DVD

It's a Seminar! Everyone GO-ON!! is a special DVD in which Bomper lets each of the Go-ongers do their own special seminar on ecology and also tie into the three Gaiark Pollution Ministers. Sōsuke and Gunpei start by helping Renn show how water and oil can't be mixed as Speedor covers Kegalesia and her Water Savage Machine Beasts. Then Hanto shows how clean air is essential for people in an exercise experiment that nearly suffocates Gunpei from breathing in too much polluted air and being saved by inhaling helium by mistake as Speedor explains about Kitaneidas and his Savage Air Machine Beasts along with the Go-on Wings. After Gunpei's voice returns to normal, Saki begins her lesson though unaware she was supposed to teach a lesson though she grew strawberries from polluted soil and made a cake from strawberries that she grew in clean soil. As Sōsuke and Gunpei get the tea for her, Speedor talks about Yogostien and his Savage Machine Beasts, as well Hiramechimedes and all the events leading to Yogostein's death. The last seminar is cut short when Hiramechimedes' cross-dressing older brother Kokorootomedes goes after Sōsuke out of revenge, but is destroyed by Go-on Red's Kankan Kong Express Speedor Version after a tough fight. Just as Gunpei decides to give a seminar on how to be cool like himself, Bomper says that they are out of time and the seminars are over. The events of the specials take place between GPs 37 and 38.

Cast

Songs

;Opening theme:
;Ending themes:
The single of the opening and ending themes comes in two versions, one of which is the limited edition "Engine Soul Set" version that includes a limited edition toy Engine Soul that plays the opening theme melody. It is the first Super Sentai theme song single to ever make it onto the Oricon charts' top ten list, reaching #4 on the weekly singles chart by selling 22,000 records in its first week. It had started out at #3 on the daily singles chart on its first day of sale, March 19, 2008, peaking at #2 on March 20, 2008. It had remained in the top 20 of the weekly charts for four weeks, and became the #113 top selling single on the Oricon's yearly rankings. As part of a Kodomo no Hi report, the Oricon listed "Engine Sentai Go-onger" as the #1 tokusatsu hero karaoke request, ahead of songs such as AAA DEN-O form's "Climax Jump" for Kamen Rider Den-O and V6's "TAKE ME HIGHER" for Ultraman Tiga.
A final album was released for Go-onger on March 18, 2009, which included all of the character songs in the series, including versions of "G3 Princess Lap" performed as a group and by each individual member, "Smile×Smile" performed by Rina Aizawa, "Yume no Tsubasa" performed by Yumi Sugimoto, "Utopia" performed by Nao Oikawa, "G5 Prince Rap", versions of "Kimi to Gyutto♪" performed by G5 Prince and each of the individual members, "miss you" performed by Hidenori Tokuyama for episode 31, and "Engine Special Lap" by Project.R, featuring "Engine First Lap", "Engine Second Lap", "Engine Third Lap", "Engine Final Lap", and "Engine Winning Run" as a single song.