Ressha Sentai ToQger

Ressha Sentai ToQger is a Japanese television series and the 38th entry in Toei Company’s Super Sentai metaseries, following Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger. It debuted on TV Asahi affiliates on February 16, 2014, alongside Kamen Rider Gaim and, later, Kamen Rider Drive in the Super Hero Time programming block. The series concluded on February 15, 2015. ToQger has a train motif, and, unlike earlier series in which the heroes were named for colors, its heroes are numbered and regularly exchange colors during battle.[2]

A prop from the series—a costume used for one of the villains—was used in the 24th and 25th seasons of the American Power Rangers series, Power Rangers Ninja Steel and Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel. Both adapted the 2015 Sentai installment Shuriken Sentai Ninninger. Otherwise, ToQger was the second Sentai series since Chōjin Sentai Jetman to be passed over for adaptation as a Power Rangers season. The first was 2012’s Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, later adapted as Power Rangers Beast Morphers in 2019.

The series’ main characters made a cameo in the film Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger vs. Go-Busters: The Great Dinosaur Battle! Farewell Our Eternal Friends. They also appeared at a special meet-and-greet and press conference at Tokyo Dome City in late January 2014. In October 2014, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism presented the series with the Japan Railway Award’s Special award during its annual “Train Day” observance, recognizing its effect in encouraging children to enjoy trains.

Only people with great Imagination (イマジネーション, Imajinēshon) can see the mystical railway known as the Rainbow Line (レインボーライン, Reinbō Rain), along which run massive trains called Ressha (烈車).[a] The Ressha are driven by five warriors known as the ToQgers (トッキュウジャー, Tokkyūjā).[b] Their mission is to protect towns from the evil forces of the Shadow Line (シャドーライン, Shadō Rain), who use residents’ fear and sadness to build their own railway. This will enable the arrival of their leader, Emperor Z, whose aim is to consume light and plunge the world into darkness.

The five ToQgers are childhood friends who are also fighting to recover the memories of their hometown, which was consumed by the Shadow Line’s evil. Later, Akira Nijino, a reformed former Shadow Creep, joins them. The ToQgers then begin a campaign to free the “Shadow Towns” from their Shadow Creep Keepers and regain their memories, while the Shadow Line must also contend with opposition among its own subjects.