Wherever there is life, there is a roar of justice!
"Do you all know? This is the beautiful blue Earth that we all live upon. Many dangerous, dark beings have tried to destroy it's beauty. But don't worry, The Earth has courageous warriors that stand up to evil. Their passionate souls have protected this planet's beauty. Five people have inherited the souls of these warriors and continued the fight..."
The Narrator
Hyakujū Sentai Gaoranger ("Hundred Beasts Squadron Gaoranger"note ) is the twenty-fifth installment in the Super Sentai, airing from 2001 to 2002. Yukio Yamagata performed the Title Theme Tune.
A thousand years ago, the evil Org spirits were fought by warriors backed by the Power Animals, but in the modern day, Orgs begin to show up again. From the Animarium in the sky, the Power Animals choose five new warriors to fight them, and they're mentored by Animarium caretaker Tetomu and joined by one of the original warriors who was frozen in time.
Partnered with the Kamen Rider series Kamen Rider Agito before concluding its airing alongside the first episodes of Kamen Rider Ryuki in what would later be known as the Super Hero Time block.
Refer to Power Rangers Wild Force for the Western Foreign Remake.
The series can be streamed for free at Shout! Factory TV
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Recurring Super Sentai tropes
- All Your Powers Combined: The HajaHyakujuukennote , which is notably the first melee weapon for a Team Finisher.
- Near the end of the show Shuten, Ura and Rasetsu's remains are merged into the One True King of Orgs, Ultimate Org Senki. There's also a Monster of the Week formed from a bunch of stolen Power Animals.
- Bishounen Line: Senki, the most powerful and the most humanoid of the Highness Orgs.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: "Gao Access! Summon, spirit of the Earth!"
- Color Character: Another "[team prefix] [English color]" Sentai.
- Crossover: Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai. In lieu of the traditional crossover with the previous team, this one involves a team consisting of various rangers from assorted teams, particularly Soukichi Banba/Big One, Yuusuke Amamiya/Red Falcon, Miku Imamura/Mega Pink, Gouki/Ginga Blue and Daimon Tatsumi/Go Yellow. All the other former red warriors also appear in the movie, albeit in costume only.
- Custom Uniform: The first full-blown example. Gao Silver's suit not only has a pattern of dark blue on it along with silver, but his belt has a wolf head emblem rather than the team's five-animal emblem.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In Quest 25, during the giant robot battle, the Karaoke Machine Org attacks the Gao King and Gao Hunter by singing a very off-key version of the Gaoranger opening theme song.
- Five-Man Band:
- The Leader: Kakeru, though he technically acts as the Rookie Red Ranger and the second-to-last member to join.
- The Lancer: Samezu, who acts also as The Baby of the Bunch when Sae isn't involved and is a bit of a jerk due to how he's treated for his age.
- The Smart Guy: Gaku, who also plays the role of The Lancer when paired with Kakeru.
- The Big Guy: Soutarou, the physically strongest of the bunch and largest in height.
- The Heart: Sae, the youngest member of the bunch and a soft-voiced girl.
- Sixth Ranger: Shirogane, joining on the second arc after spending some time as an antagonist while merged with an evil spirit.
- Home Base: Gao's Rock, a flying turtle-like edifice that transports the Gaorangers. Also has a conduit to Sky Island as well as a sacred spring that, among other functions, detects the presence of an Org by bubbling.
- Humongous Mecha: The first Super Sentai to feature extensive use of upgrades. In fact, it was the first to introduce multiple peripheral mecha, imply their compatibility out of the default formations and put the potential to good use. Super Sentai used this concept on and off for several years, before adopting it consistently with GoGo Sentai Boukenger.
- A Mech by Any Other Name: The Power Animals and the later God Power Animals that form Gao God.
- Combining Mecha
- Gao Lion + Gao Eagle + Gao Bison + Gao Shark + Gao Tiger = Gao King
- Gao Gorilla + Gao Eagle + Gao Bison + Gao Polar + Gao Bear = Gao Muscle
- Gao Falcon + Gao Madillo + Gao Rhinos + Gao Deer + Gao Giraffe = Gao Icarus
- Gao Falcon + Gao Lion + Gao Shark + Gao Tiger + Gao Elephant = Gao Centaurus
- Gao Wolf + Gao Hammerhead + Gao Ligator = Gao Hunter
- Gao Kong + Gao Eagle + Gao Bison + Gao Shark + Gao Tiger = Gao Knight
- Gao Leon + Gao Condor + Gao Swordshark + Gao Jaguar + Gao Buffalo = Gao God
- First Church of Mecha: The clue is in the name "Gao God".
- Mecha Expansion Pack: The other Power Animals served as upgrades to the Gao King by replacing the Gao Shark and Tiger (which formed the right and left arms respectively) or the Gao Bison (which formed the waist and legs). The Shark and Tiger also served as alternate parts for the Gao Muscle and Gao Icarus (along with the Bison for the latter). Since the Power Animals were interchangable, there were combined forms that were never used on the show or never had official names.
- Gao King + Gao Elephant = Gao King with Sword & Shield
- Gao King - Gao Shark + Gao Giraffe = Gao King Spear
- Gao King - Gao Tiger + Gao Deer = Gao King Cross Horn
- Gao King - Gao Shark - Gao Tiger + Gao Polar + Gao Bear = Gao King Double Knuckles
- Gao King - Gao Bison + Gao Madillo + Gao Rhinos = Gao King Striker
- Gao Muscle - Gao Bison + Gao Madillo + Gao Rhinos = Gao Muscle Striker
- Other Power Animals include the Soul Bird (which serves as a power-up to any of the robots) and the rare Gao Panda (which never appeared on the show and was only available as a giveaway along with a bonus CD offered by Terebi-kun magazine in Japan). There was also a blue version of the Gao Ligator and a black version of the Gao Elephant, as well as several Power Animals that were never made into toys. After all, the show's title was literally "Hundred Animals Task Force", and all 100 were named, but only 24 were featured in the show.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Episodes are called "Quests".
- In the Name of the MoonRed: The Blazing Lion, Gao Red!
Yellow: The Noble Eagle, Gao Yellow!
Blue: The Surging Shark, Gao Blue!
Black: The Iron Bison, Gao Black!
White: The Belle Tiger, Gao White!
Silver: The Sparking Wolf, Gao Silver!
Red: Where there is life, there is a roar of justice! Hyakujuu Sentai!
All: Gaoranger! - Law of Chromatic Superiority: Red's weapon is able to transform into a different one.
- He later gets the Falcon Summoner, but only because the others did the work for him.
- Interestingly Red is actually second to last getting an additional Power Animal (GaoWhite is first and GaoBlack is the last to) and while he gets a total of 3 so do Yellow Black and Silver. Though Red is the only one to get additional Power Animals on two separate occasions as Yellow and Black both get two at once while Silver simply starts with 3 from the get go.
- Make My Monster Grow: Tsuetsue's specialty.
- Mini Dress Of Power: Part of Gao White's costume.
- Monster of the Week: Orgs.
- Mooks : The Orgettes.
- The Movie: Gaoranger: Hi no Yama, Hoeru ("The Volcano Howls"), the first Super Sentai theatrical featurette since the Ohranger movie (the Gogo-V movie with Zeek was a straight-to-video release).
- Narrator: Hiroshi Masuoka narrates the series.
- "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase: Surprisingly averted.
- Our Centaurs Are Different: Gao Centauru.
- The Smurfette Principle: After three straight pinks, the lone girl gets to wear a different color this time, making her the fourth female white ranger.
- Strictly Formula: To wit:
- The first Mecha Expansion Pack appears in Episode 5.
- Episode 10 features the debut of GaoMuscle.
- Played with in Episode 17 is the middle of the Rouki arc. He doesn't become GaoSilver until Episode 24.
- The Gaorangers are Brought Down to Normal a grand total of three times: First in Episode 14 where Freezer Org's freeze attack froze the G-Phones and the Gao Jewels. Then in Episode 44 where Rasetsu activates the bug he had planted in GaoRed's phone. Then there's the penultimate episode.
- Then there's the Wedding Dress Org who attacks brides and other women, forcing GaoBlack to impersonate as a bride.
- Clock Org also seemingly sends four of the Gaorangers to Edo-era Tokyo. It was merely an illusion, however.
- The friendly Monster of the Week for this series was Charcoal Grill Org, whom the Gaorangers were forced to Mercy Kill. It seemed it wasn't a true death though, as he's shown serving food to Futaro at the end of the episode.
- Supervillain Lair: The Matrix.
- Theme Music Power-Up
- Transformation Trinket: The G-Phone and Shirogane's G-Brace Phone.note
- Villains Act, Heroes React: As is the norm for Super Sentai, we generally have a new Org appearing with an Evil Plan Once an Episode, with our heroes then arriving on the scene to stop them.
Wherever there is trope, there is a roar of justice!
- Actor Allusion: Hidekatsu Shibata once more voices the male half of a villain with male and female nature.
- Airplane Arms: A variation where the Gaorangers run partially bent over with their arms out in what is apparently intended to be a ready-to-strike-savagely position. It's not as practical as it sounds.
- Alien Blood: Orgs tend to bleed green—the fact that Rouki bleeds red is a hint as to his true nature.
- All There in the Manual: The Super Sentai Art Collection: Sentai Robo Edition illustration book includes a list of all 100 Power Animals. No, it wasn't just a a grandiose title. On top of the 22 Power Animals that appeared in the show, the movie-only Gao Kong, and the audio drama-only Gao Panda, all of which had toys released, it also includes the 4 Power Animals that had brief appearances in the finale and then the other 72 that are canon. And there were plans for many of the Power Animals to be made into toys and/or feature in the show such that they had officially named Gao King, Gao Muscle, and Gao Hunter powerups, as well as several brand new combinations that never made it on the show. There's even a Choujin Sentai Jetman reference in the string of Power Animals of Gao Hawk, Gao Vulture, Gao Owl, Gao Swallow, and Gao Swan.
- Animal Mecha: In spades, and one of the instances where it's crucial to the plot.
- Animal-Motif Team: The six Gaorangers are themed after a Lion, Tiger, Bison, Shark, Eagle and Wolf.
- The Atoner: Silver, once he's freed from the thousand-year evil.
- Back from the Dead: Blue is killed in episode 30; Black, Yellow, and White follow suit in episode 31. They don't stay dead for long; after a short quest in the afterlife, they come back by the end of the episode thanks to a literal Deus ex Machina.
- Tsuetsue and the three High Dukes also get revived in episode 47.
- Bad Guys Play Pool: Silver is often seen playing in the bar he hangs out at. Justified as his weapon includes a pool cue configuration.
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: Gao Red does this against Rouki. With his feet.
- Berserk Button: Whenever somebody calls Tsuetsue Oba-san.
- Body Horror: the three High Dukes are especially guilty of this.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: In the finale, after the Gaorangers are Brought Down to Normal, they bring out their last weapon against Senki: an old sword dating to the Heian era. Needless to say, it doesn't work.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the beginning of episode 15, Red starts taking off his pants and everyone tries to stop him. Black then turns to the screen and puts his hand over it saying, "Don't look!"
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Broken Aesop: Played for laughs. In episode 12, an Org is is disgusing himself as one of the Gaorangers. When they discover two Whites, Red realizes who the real one is because the doppleganger is stepping on a flower and the Gaorangers swore to protect all life. Then the real White reveals she accidentally stepped on a flower as well. - Catchphrase: "Nebaa Gibaapu!"note
- Yabaiba has... "Yabaiba!", meaning "This is bad!" while also a direct pun on his name.
- TsueTsue's "Oni in, luck out!".note
- Christmas Episode: Quest 41.
- Chromatic Arrangement: The three High Dukes have colors corresponding to the RGB scheme: Shuten is red, Ura is green, and Rasetsu is blue.
- Climb, Slip, Hang, Climb: Happens to Gao Black in episode 4.
- Clip Show/Breather Episode: Episode 45. Features, apart from the Gaorangers (and Yabaiba) reminiscing about the series so far, GaoKing dancing and the episode ending with everyone in a hot spring.
- Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai, while including plenty of new action scenes, doubles as a clip show for the entire franchise, as the veteran rangers tell the Gaorangers about Super Sentai history.
- Code Name: In a strange departure from previous series, the Gaorangers refer to each other by color and have no knowledge of their comrades' true names, and so the audience only learns of them by the last episode (though the names are shown in the opening and a few moments throughout the series). Even Gao Silver's apparently real name turns out to be either a nickname or a codename.
- Their names are occasionally given in the show itself, but only on a few occasions prior to the finale.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Gaorangers' battles with Rouki. When he brings out Gao Hunter you can generally be sure that some Power Animals are going to be taken.
- Darker and Edgier: While it's not as dark as Timeranger there are still some dark moments, especially the Gaorangers' Final Battle against Ura.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Strangely, a heroic example. The supremely powerful Gao God is killed by Orgs twice in series history, and was evenly-matched with the Org-controlled Gao King.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: The episode with Clock Org showed us what appeared to be a fire-breathing t-rex.
- Disguised in Drag: Henshin, what henshin? All Black needs to wear to kick ass is a wedding dress.
- Fanservice: Tsuetsue "accidentally" reveals her leg in Gaoranger vs Super Sentai.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Shirogane has a hard time adjusting to life a millennium later. Gao God isn't happy with what humans have done over the last thousand years, either.
- Floating Continent: Animarium, the turtle-shaped flying island where the Power Animals reside after they're found.
- Foreshadowing: In Quest 34, Charcoal Grill Org just wants to make food for everyone. He gets brainwashed and the rangers have no choice but to kill him. Afterwards, the White Ranger says, "I'm sure he's cooking for God now". After that, we see Charcoal Grill Org in his human form making food for Futaro - who is Gao God, but that hasn't been revealed yet.
- Goldfish Poop Gang: Tsuetsue and Yabaiba after the first act.
- Golem: The Power Animals are more like this than actual mecha. They're spirit animals who inhabit material aspects created from the Earth itself. Their robot-like appearance is due to using metal ore deposits to make their skins.
- Gratuitous English: As seen here.Yellow: Jesus.Yellow: (After seeing a zombie) AAAAAHHH!!! *whack* OH! *whack* MAH! *whack* GAAAWD!
- Blue and Black have their own Gratuitous English: "Never give up!"
- Even Red gets in on it. "Open the vulcan!"
- The entire team's henshin call: "Samon! Supiritsu obu ji aasu!"
- Green Gators: GaoLigator is a green alligator mecha.
- Heel–Face Turn: When Silver first showed up, he was possessed by the demon Rouki and became a good guy after the other Gaorangers beat him. His mecha, the Gao Hunter, also does a literal heel face turn, as his face changed from an "Evil Mode" to a "Justice Mode".
- Part of Charcoal Grill Org's backstory. When he saw that humans enjoyed his cooking, he took on human form and then lived to enjoy human's delight.
- I Let You Win: Ura pulls one in the Rangers by letting them win against Orgs powered by the thousand-year evil spirit, then using its matured power to power himself up.
- If It Swims, It Flies: Gaoshark, and it's various modifications, fits this perfectly.
- Forget the mecha, GAOBLUE can fly on occasion.
- Improbable Weapon User: Almost all the Orgs. Rasetsu has a giant fork and spoon for chrissakes.
- Innocuously Important Episode: Well, more of an Innocuously Important Scene. Rasetsu smelling Tetom's cooking and being distracted by it doesn't just let the Gaorangers destroy the Monsters of the Week. Rasetsu's craving for it is ultimately responsible for Senki's creation.
- King of Beasts: Red's first mecha is the lion, and his powers are based on it.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Red suffers from this in episode 8. He doesn't forget everything, just his time as a Gaoranger.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: vs. Super Sentai spoils a bit of Choujuu Sentai Liveman. Yuusuke is mourning not just for his friends who died in the pilot, but ALSO Kemp and Mazenda, not only spoiling their deaths, but also that Obular survived.
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Making Use of the Twin: Quest 12 features twin sisters Chiharu and Akiyo Tomita as an office lady and the Copy Org assuming her form. Averted when the Copy Org copies Sae Taiga (Mio Takeuchi); as the actress does not have a twin sister, tokusatsu trickery was used. - Meaningful Name: The Gaorangers' civilian names all contain the names of their animal.
- Mega Neko: While all the feline Power Animals count, this trope goes solely to the Super GaoLion, bigger than most of the combined mecha.
- Mid-Season Upgrade: Not only do the Gaorangers get new Power Animals as the series progresses, Yabaiba and Tsuetsue also get upgrades of their own... for a while at least.
- Miko: Tetomu. Tsuetsue is promoted to this by the Highness Dukes near the end.
- Mons: There's a reason they're called Hyakujuu "note Sentai. Several episodes revolve around receiving new Power Animals. And then it's revealed at the end that There are literally 100 Power Animals, most of which were still dormant. This includes Gao Peafowl and Gao Wallaby, which are as awesome as they sound.
- Mood Whiplash: Pretty big-time. Episodes can typically begin rather light - then end up rather serious. Such as Quest 38, where Lion Tamer Org "tames" the Gaorangers and the Power Animals, showing off various combinations of the latter along the way; but ending with Futaro showing his true powers, and that he isn't merely a child.
- Mythology Gag: In the list of Power Animals above-mentioned, there were two sets intended to pay homage to earlier series: one set consisted of a hawk, a vulture, an owl, a swallow, and a swan; the other included an ape, a frog, a wolf, a bear, and a crane. Amusingly, all of these teams have the same color configuration with Gaoranger (red, blue, yellow, black, and white).
- Then there's a Zyuranger nod, an elephant whose head becomes a shield for GaoKing (homage to Guardian Beast Zyumammoth's head being Daizyujin's shield) while the rest becomes a sword with which GaoKing performs a lightning-charged slash to finish the monster (homaging Daizyujin's Dinosaur Sword Godhorn and his Super Legendary Lightning Cut).
- GaoKing is a nod to Ohranger Robo. Avian forming back and head, leonine torso, bovine pelvis and legs, with blue and white mecha forming limbs. The main design difference is that GaoKing has the last two mecha as arms and the bovine mecha forms complete legs, whereas Ohranger Robo's leonine mecha is torso and arms, and the last two mecha are lower legs.
- Gao Red is a lion-themed hero who uses a Power Fist and a BFG, just as Yellow Lion was.
- The idea that the villains are ranked by how many appendages they have harks back to Kagaku Sentai Dynaman and the Jashinka (which had a similar system involving how many tails you had).
- Not What It Looks Like: White chances upon Red's wallet in episode 8 and assume the girl in the picture is his girlfriend. Turns out she's the wife of Red's boss when he was a veterinarian.
- Oni: The Oni Tribe Org, who were born from the madness and despair of humans. They are shown to have a hierarchy base on the number of horns they have. Baron Orgs, the Monsters of the Week, have two horns and are spirits who possess Inanimate objects. The Duke Orgs and their masters the Highness Duke Orgs had single horns.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Played for laughs between Yabaiba and Yellow.
- Palette Swap: Many Power Animals are slightly modified recolors of others, most notably Gao God's components being retools of Gao King's components. Thanks to the stacked retools, Gao God avoids being a blatant example.
- There's also Gao Hunter's Blue Moon mode, which, as you'd expect, turns most of its non-silver coloration into a bright blue.
- Panthera Awesome: Usually, animal-themed Sentai have at least one large cat ranger in the mix. Here, we have two, Gao Red for a lion, Gao White for a tiger. Additionally, we have the Leon and Jaguar mecha for Gao God.
- Psycho Rangers: Done in Quest 12 by an Org based on a photocopy machine. And later, a specialty of Duke Org Dorodoro - he made the Gaorangers fight their shadows, which they could not defeat without hurting themselves.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Also see link to Gratuitous English above.
- Punctuated Pounding: See link to Gratuitous English above.
- Really 700 Years Old: Lampshaded when White points out that Tsuetsue is the oldest woman in the show.
- Played straight by Tetomu in episode 5.
- Remaster: Averted in Gaoranger vs Super Sentai. All the flashbacks of previous Sentai used whatever tape masters Toei currently had of their previous series and it shows. Only a few shots looked as clean as the Gaoranger portions of the movie; most were faded, dirty, and less sharp.
- It's not Digital Destruction as that implies Toei ACTUALLY put remastering work into the older clips. Considering the typical Super Sentai budget and that any extra budget for this film probably went to bringing back the five older actors, it's likely Toei just used what they had.
- It's also not Stock Footage Failure as they're flashbacks and not meant to show currently happening events. It does count when the older footage is used for the mecha fight and Red Ranger role call (although Toei did a decent job MOSTLY matching everything together; while it's clear each Red Ranger was in a different spot for the main part of their roll-call, it was all still on some cliff so it's consistent).
- According to rumor, the differences in quality did have one benefit: it supposedly inspired a remastering effort of every series before Carrangernote that were released on DVD and averted Digital Destruction. However, it goes around and becomes a slight problem again when Toei released Gaoranger vs Super Sentai on Blu-Ray: namely due to the budget, the film was only upscaled, with all the lesser quality flashback footage as before. It's worse as the movies from Ohranger vs Kakuranger to Go Go V vs Gingaman were remastered and looked great and showed the rest of their respective series could be remastered as suchnote .
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: In the second Eye Catch, GaoRed fires the Gao Mane Buster.
- Series Continuity Error: In Episode 27, the Soul Bird is trapped, and the team laments that they won't be able to combine their Power Animals without it. Apparently forgetting all the times they combined them before they got the Soul Bird.
- Shout-Out: In episode 30, Tsuetsue and Yabaiba do a Shout-Out to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.Tsuetsue: Well, which one?
Yabaiba: Hmm... no. 3!
Tsuetsue: Final answer?
Yabaiba: Yes, final answer!
Tsuetsue: ......correct!
Yabaiba: I did it! Yes!- Also included is a great white shark Power Animal named Gao Jaws and a reindeer named Gao Rednose. And in The Movie, there's a gorilla Power Animal named Gao Kong.
- Why else would a pool-cue weapon be named the Gao Hustler Rod?
- The list of all 100 Power Animals contains two very familiar groupings: Hawk, Condor, Owl, Swan, and Swallow, and Ape, Bear, Toad, Japanese Wolf and Crane.
- Something about a Rose: The monk who talks to Sae in Gaoranger vs Super Sentai gives her a rose. This turns out to be foreshadowing, as the monk is none other than JAKQ Dengekitai's Sokichi Banba, who was always seen with a rose.
- Split-Screen Phone Call: Done in Quest 25 when Tetom uses her necklace to reach Silver.
- Team Pet: Soul Bird fills this role before growing into a BFG.
- Wham Episode: Episode 15. Just when the going seemed good for the heroes after Shuten's defeat, Ura appears and unseals the Sealed Evil in a Can Rouki, who wipes the floor with the Gaorangers in their first encounter.
- Episode 30. Ura reveals his master plan and absorbs the thousand-year old evil spirit, killing all but two of the Rangers.
- Wing Shield: Gao Icarus can use the Falcon's wings to deflect incomming attacks.
- Written Sound Effect: The GAO! kanji pops up on screen numerous times. Other instances include the kanji for Slash! when the Haja Hyakujuuken is used.
- Unsound Effect: Even more Kanji used during some fights("Separate Drowning!"), and each Gaoranger's title tends to appear on the screen as they do their role call.
- Villain Decay: After the first act, Tsuetsue and Yabaiba turn into comedic relief. They're actually more entertaining like that.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Pulled after Shuten's defeat, the Gaorangers prepare to return to their normal lives - right until Highness Duke Ura appears.
