Tomica Hero Rescue Force



""Save the life! Rescue Force, explosively suppress the extreme disasters!""

A Toku that serves as the Spiritual Successor to Madan Senki Ryukendo, taking the Rescue genre and seeing just how outlandishly awesome it can make it. The plot centres on the titular Rescue Force, a team of rescue workers equipped with high-tech equipment designed to stop extreme natural disasters. It carries a Rescue Police vibe in that their equipment is designed primarily for rescue efforts, not to fight evil. Despite this, the show has been slowly creeping towards evil-fighting with antagonists Neo Terror artificially creating extreme disasters and sending Mooks to interfere with the rescue efforts.

With the same writing staff, stunt crew and suit aesthetic, any fan of Ryukendo will probably like Rescue Force. And with the name of a toy company in the title of the show, there should be no doubt that it's Merchandise-Driven all the way.

The show got a sequel with a new branch of Rescue Force in the form of Tomica Hero Rescue Fire.

This show contains examples of:
 * Action Girl - Rei Kozuki
 * Acting for Two - In one episode, Juri's actress Emi Hasegawa doubles as "Eri Haseyama", an idol who happens to look just like Juri.
 * Actor Allusion - The Three Great Executives of Neo Terror are an Expy of Yasuda Dai Circus, a Japanese comedy trio who actually voice their counterparts.
 * Also the two Interpol agents and the cyclist who appear at the end of the movie and wave to Super Rescue Max are Ryugunoh, Ryujinoh and Ryukendo
 * And Knowing Is Half the Battle
 * Ascended Fanboy - Hikaru Todoroki/R1
 * Alternate Continuity - The movie (which introduces one of the vehicles and one of the characters before they were actually introduced in proper context).
 * Badass Grandpa - Juri's martial arts-practicing grandfather in one episode (who at one point even steals the R5 suit to help his granddaughter out).
 * Base on Wheels - Rescue Phoenix (actually more of a "base on wings").
 * Brainwashed and Crazy
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall - In episode 40 a couple of people try to put up posters and one suggests putting one on the fourth wall
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer - Eiji loses all his stoic-ness when he dons the R5 suit, becoming ridiculously Hot-Blooded.
 * Camp - It is from people who brought you Ryukendo, after all.
 * Car Fu
 * Celebrity Star - The episode with Daisuke Naito, a real life boxing champion. Played ridiculously over-the-top: suddenly everyone (even the villains!) is enthralled with boxing, and constantly talk about how awesome Naito is. The man himself is introduced with a Twinkle Smile.
 * It doesn't help that before that, he made appearances at the end of several episodes in a Rescue Force uniform to give encouragement messages to the kids watching at home.
 * Chainsaw Good - Rescue Crusher in Mantis Mode.
 * Chewing the Scenery - Later episodes give the impression that the actors are trying to make each other corpse with their ridiculously over-the-top acting.
 * Combining Mecha - The culmination of all these mecha is God Striker, a multi-armed vehicle that can fly, despite all the weight on it. Like Ryukendo, God is only the halfway mark. The new vehicles are added onto the old to create Great God Striker, a flying monstrosity of a mecha.
 * Companion Cube - Juri's medical training dummy.
 * Cool Car - The "Core" vehicles which form the cockpit of the Humongous Mecha.
 * In the movie, Core Striker Fire has a built in chamber for a Transformation Sequence and a Javelin/Pickaxe weapon hidden underneath and is thus automatically the coolest.
 * The Tomica company is primarily known for its' 1/64 scale deicast toys based on real cars. If you have a Japanese car that wasn't made primarily entirely for export, chances are there's a Tomica model of it.
 * Cool Old Guy - UFDA Director Reiji Osakabe (R0) embodies this trope in the movie. It certainly doesn't hurt that he's played by Hiroshi Fujioka. He later shows up in Rescue Fire, where he takes on more of an Old Master vibe.
 * Crew of One - Rescue Striker and Rescue Saver. Their Base on Wheels appears to have a crew of five.
 * Cute Bruiser - "Kajiba no Super Power!!!"
 * Dancing Theme - In the movie.
 * Doppelganger - Episode 40, which has Juri (played by Emi Hasegawa) meeting... famous idol Eri Haseyama. And then they swap places, so Eri Haseyama is acting as Juri and Juri, played by Emi is acting as... Eri... yeah, don't think too hard about this episode.
 * Drop Ship - Rescue Phoenix
 * Elegant Gothic Lolita - Maaen
 * Evil Counterpart
 * Finishing Move - Final Rescue
 * Five-Man Band
 * The Hero - Hikaru Todoroki/R1
 * The Lancer - Kyosuke Jinrai/R2 (Hikaru and Kyosuke are best friends)
 * The Big Guy - Rei Kozuki/R3 (Not an exact fit, but she is the most capable member of the team in a fight)
 * The Chick - Juri Shiraki/R4
 * The Smart Guy and The Mentor - Eiji Ishiguro/R5
 * Sixth Ranger - Natsuno "Nancy" Nanbu/RU
 * Technically also Reiji Osakabe (R0) in the movie, though he doesn't lurk outside of the action for long.
 * Gender Bender - One episode has Maaen creating some kind of virus to turn all men into women.
 * Heroic Resolve
 * Holding Back the Phlebotinum - The team need to secure approval from either captain Eiji Ishiguro or commander Natsuno "Nancy" Nanbu before they are allowed to use a Final Rescue.
 * Hot-Blooded
 * Humans Are the Real Monsters - Daaen's motivation.
 * Humongous Mecha - Rescue Max
 * Instant AI, Just Add Water - Maaen
 * Joshikousei - When Neo-Terror release a virus that turns men into women Hikaru ends up wearing this.
 * Kawaiiko - Maaen, when she's not in a bad mood.
 * The Ladette - Rei Kozuki
 * Macross Missile Massacre -
 * Mecha Expansion Pack - Several, including a shovel, a ladder, a crane, a bulldozer, a fan, and of course a drill.
 * The Medic - Juri Shiraki
 * Mighty Glacier - Shiika
 * Mirror Match - AI Daaen (and its Black Core Striker.)
 * Mission Control - Eiji Ishiguro, the commander of Rescue Force who makes the final call regarding the use of a Final Rescue.
 * Mood Swinger - Maaen. A thousand times Maaen.
 * Mooks - Axts also known as Axto-Domo and Axto-Tachi.
 * Elite Mooks - Maens personal bodyguard are completly black versions of the axts with horns and red bows as well as being armed with swords.
 * Naive Newcomer - Hikaru Todoroki
 * Never Tell Me the Odds - Less than 0.1% chance of winning? Pssh, whatever.
 * Nice Hat - Reiji Osakabe's skewed fedora in the movie. His signature move seems to be tweaking the brim downward with two fingers (though in a Crowning Moment of Awesome )
 * Nitro Boost
 * Non-Serial Movie - Probably, no one's explicitly stated the canonicity of the movie but the Rescue Zamber, Rescue Diver and Zero Fire appear in different ways in the movie than they do in the series. Also one episode involves Rei winning a pair of tickets to ride the "Mach Train" which happens in the movie but with different results.
 * Not Quite Dead -.
 * Power Gives You Wings - Super Rescue Max. It's Rescue Max, but with wings!
 * Ridiculously-Human Robots - The Three Great Commanders of Neo Terror (and Maaen, though she's technically not a robot.)
 * Roar Before Beating
 * Robot Buddy - The A.I. of the Rescue Commanders.
 * Rollerblade Good - Rescue Max
 * Rule of Cool
 * Serial Escalation- How needlessly cool can this show make the Rescue genre? What kind of Wave Motion Gun will be used to save the city this week?
 * Delightfully subverted in the final episode as well. The big danger isn't solved by whipping out the biggest guns, but by.
 * Shout-Out - To Ryukendo, naturally.
 * Super Mode - R1 Max.
 * Surprisingly Good English - The Supreme Commander, aka Nancy.
 * Stock Footage
 * Swiss Army Weapon - In droves. You've got Rescue Breaker, which has eight modes (granted, only seven of which are preserved in the actual toy); Rescue Crusher, which has three (one of which uses Rescue Breaker's Break Drill mode); and R1 Max's Max Divider, which also has three (well, five, if you count the three sub-modes of Divider Mode).
 * Terrible Trio - Neo Terror's "Three Great Executives": Maaru, Saan and Shiika.
 * Theme Music Power-Up
 * This Is a Drill - Obvious for a show like this. Rescue Breaker as Break Drill; Rescue Crusher in Drill Mode (which uses Break Drill as an attachment); the medium vehicle Rescue Drill (actually a Drill Tank).
 * Transforming Mecha
 * Transformation Sequence ("Chakusou!")
 * Verbal Tic - Apparently being a Neo Terror android/virtual construct means you come with one of these. Great Commander Saan suffixes his sentences with "gansu"; Shiika suffixes them with "gossu"; Maaen has a habit of suffixing sentences with "no da;" the Axto Mooks only say "zansu!" over and over.
 * Maaru is the only exception, though you might be able to present a good case in her habit of using "mou!" whenever she's disappointed. (Though it really doesn't happen that often.)
 * Victory Pose - Upon learning that he is in consideration to be the driver of a new Transforming Mecha, Kyosuke's first priority is...To decide on his Victory Pose.
 * Another episode features Hikaru and Kyosuke spending their free time trying to synchronize their victory poses so that it'll look cooler when they complete something.
 * Mere seconds after Rescue Max's First victory Kyosuke realises that he and Hikaru need to update their "Bakushin Kanryou!" pose.
 * Villainous Harlequin - Maaen, Daaen's "daughter" (and the next step up the Sorting Algorithm of Evil).
 * Wave Motion Gun - Most (if not all) Final Rescues
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?