Recap: Ressha Sentai ToQger, Starting Station – Let's Go on the Express Train

Our narrator explains there is a world that only those with imagination can see. Imagination, which can make anything possible. But where there is light from these happy imaginations, there is darkness that hates it.

Suddenly, a black train speeds through the city. Only the children with imaginations can hear or see the train and it’s those children that get swept up and taken by it.

“A world without imagination will fall into darkness.”

Shadow Creep Bag Shadow welcomes the crying children to the Shadow Line and bullies them into crying more. It’s a beautiful sound for him. But something sounds off. Bag Shadow finds someone snoring… an adult!

This grown-up holds a hand-drawn train ticket. Home Secret Base. No expiration. And his name: Right.

Bag Shadow wakes him up, but they suddenly hear other trains approaching. Bag Shadow looks out the window, The Rainbow Line! Right wants to see too.

The two trains travel on Tokyo’s tracks before flying into the air and coming to a stop back on the ground.

Bag Shadow and Right fall out of the Shadow Ressha Kuliner just as the Rainbow Line Train comes to a stop in front of them. The PA system announces the arrival of the ToQgers. The doors open and the blue one does not watch his step while exiting. The yellow, green and pink ToQgers safely disembark.

Not interested in hearing about the ToQgers, Bag Shadow summons The Close, the Shadow Line foot soldiers. The ToQgers fight them off.

Blue and Yellow have no problem. Pink, on the other hand, is afraid and runs off. When cornered though, she stops and imagines she is strong. Super Girl! She takes care of her Closes. (Kurozus?)

Blue takes a tactical approach before having to run behind some crates.

Right watches. “I guess I get it, even if I don’t.” He charges through a group of Kurozus toward Bag Shadow who ends up knocking him clear across the way into a pile of crates.

The ToQgers hurry over, worried.

After a little dream, Right wakes up. He’s on a train with the ToQgers, now de-henshined.

He is excited as the others smile. Right turns to another person and asks if he’s a ToQger too. It’s Conductor and his monkey puppet Ticket-kun.

Right is mistaken. Ticket is not a puppet, and it greatly offends him to be called one. It’s an illusion, Conductor explains. Conductor and Ticket walk away, singing together to prove so.

What is going on Tokatti? Right asks.

*gasp* How does Right know his name?

Flashback. Five kids are playing together using their imagination. They’re at the Goseiger tree and the red-clothed boy hands them passes to be able enter their secret base which is 100 kilometers high, in space.

Right remembers, these are his friends.

Tokatti.

Mio.

Hikari.

Kagura.

They haven’t changed a bit since they were kids. It’s like no time has even passed.

But why are they here? The others say when they came to, they were already aboard the train and told they must fight against the kaijin.

Conductor explains. The Shadow Line’s goal is to engulf the world in darkness.

Speed off toward the Shadow Line’s Castle Terminal. Madame Noa asks Bag Shadow about the construction on the newest station. Bag Shadow says all he has to do is transfer the crying children there. Their crying should form great shadows.

Madame Noa’s daughter Gritta comes in and wants to go out. She’s bored. It’s only a matter of time, Madame Noa says. She’ll be able to build a great station full of shadows for Gritta to play with.

Baron Nero joins them and says it’s too soon to be building playing stations because they need to continue to expand the Shadow Line to prepare for the arrival of the Emperor. The Emperor to whom Gritta will be betrothed.

Gritta sees General Schwartz walking in the hallway.

Conductor finishes explaining and says the Rainbow Line exists to fight the Shadow Line. That’s why they’re ToQgers.

But why were they picked?

IMAGINATION!!!!!

Huh?

Suddenly, the lights flicker and Conductor says they’ve caught up with the Shadow Line. Right opens the door and immediately jumps onto the Shadow Line train. He quickly confronts Bag Shadow and is more confident now that he’s become a ToQger. But how?

Ticket says he knew Right wasn’t meant for this, but the Conductor thinks otherwise. He gives the others Right’s ToQ Changer.

The reason they were chosen to be ToQgers is complicated, but to put it simply, Conductor says, they, especially Right, have “it.” The power to light the darkness and fight the Shadow Line.

The ToQgers hop from the Rainbow ressha and onto the Shadow Line ressha to join Right.

They have the power to dream. The power to imagine. The power to make the impossible, possible.

I’m not losing to this guy, Right says. Bag Shadow asks where he gets all this confidence. I can see it, Right replies. He could see it from the very start, in his head.

That is IMAGINATION!

Right knocks Bag Shadow right out of the train as it comes to a full stop. They lead the children out.

Bag Shadow summons The Close as Tokatti hands Right his ToQ Changer.

The PA announcer tells everyone to stay behind the white line.

The ToQgers place their resshas into their ToQ Changers and henshin.

ToQ1/ ToQ Ichigou

ToQ2 / ToQ Nigou

ToQ3 / ToQ Sangou

ToQ4 / ToQ Yongou

ToQ5 / ToQ Gogou

They charge forward toward the Kurozus and have a better time fighting them off, this time using their respective weapons.

Right asks Tokatti if he can be Blue. He wants to transfer.

Transfer!?

Right takes Tokatti’s ressha and trades him his. They insert their new trains into their ToQ Changer and they now have switched colors.

Looks interesting, Hikari says. He trades Kagura for her ressha. Now she’s Green and he’s Pink. He feels lighter as Pink. But now Kagura has to deal with Hikari’s heavy weapon.

She cowers again, but again tells herself that she is strong enough. She imagines herself as Kairiki Girl and lifts Hikari’s Tunnel Axe to slice through the Kurozus surrounding her.

Right wants to transfer to Pink now so he trades Resshas with Hikari. Having fun with it, he trades with Mio for Yellow and then Tokatti for Blue.

Bag Shadow is annoyed by their switching as he takes a few hits from Right. Conductor calls them and asks them to please not transfer without permission. He pushes a control panel that returns them to their regular colors.

Ticket tells them to finish Bag Shadow off with their bazooka by linking up their weapons. Their finisher is Rainbow Rush which they can change to fit whatever they imagine.

Since Bag Shadow bullied children, Right decides to make the attack one of crying children. They launch the bazooka and Bag Shadow gets buried by statues of crying children.

“I really don’t get it,” Bag Shadow says.
“Me neither,” Kagura adds.

But Bag Shadow embiggens and Ticket tells the ToQgers to summon their trains.

A ticket gate pops up and they have to scan their tickets to be able to enter and board the trains.

Conductor transfers control of the trains to them as they hop into their respective train cars. They can move however they imagine!

The trains separate onto their own tracks as Ticket tells them the keyword is “Ressha Gattai.” They initiate the linkup and form ToQ-Oh.

The battle continues with Bag Shadow until they wrap things up with a train crossing Ressha Slash.

Bye bye Bag Shadow.

The ToQgers are back in the main car. They can’t believe what Ticket just said about why they became ToQgers. Conductor says Ticket misspoke, but they ask Ticket to repeat what he said.

It won’t change no matter how many times I say it, Ticket says, “You guys are as good as dead.”

Episode Thoughts
OMG! I am totally on the Imagination Train. Choo choo and full speed ahead!

I lost interest in Kyoryuger, at least interest enough to catch back up after coming back from the Philippines. But I did genuinely enjoy the insanity of the 20 or so episodes I did see.

But ToQger takes all of that to the next level and then some. It’s random insanity coupled with cuteness and rainbows and dreams and IMAGINAAATION!

Like they said, “I don’t get it, but I do.” And I love it.

The ToQgers are fun. They each have their distinct Sentai prototypical personalities, but they’re all likeable and adorable. Like, when was the last time you could say that? They really are cute little kids.

And speaking of, I like that they’re all childhood friends who imagined and dreamed together. How poignant. Them playing around the Goseiger Tower of Heaven tree was a nice, sweet little scene.

But wait up… THEY’RE DEAD!?!?!?!? What in the world? So they are as good as dead. What does that even mean? Are they doomed or are they actually dead. Like, is this purgatory or something. Did they die while climbing the Goseiger tree? WTF!?

I can definitely see the purgatory angle. We saw kid Right falling from the tree and the others have said that they just woke up in the train with no memories of how they got there. Like no time has passed. They all look different, yet the same.

WHAT!? They died and got SORASed?! That is amazing.

The villains are very cool. I love this western-y, steampunk-ish theme. I LOVE steampunk-themed shows and movies so this is awesome. I hope they expand on that motif. It definitely fits in with the train theme.

The grunts, the Close. So cool and definitely creepy at the same time. “The Close” … their name even sounds scary even though they provided some hilarious sight gags the entire episode.

But damn, this season is starting out with everything I want. It’s like a brighter Go-Busters; fun and hilarious with a serious and grim touch of death. I mean, they could be dead for goodness sakes! There’s even some Miyazaki with big baby Gritta. I love the upbeat music.

I’m in. Or, I guess, I’m on. I’m on board the Resshas. Full speed ahead! Choo choo!