Definitely not a Metal Hero.
In this episode, the traffic enforcer from space (!) is finally assigned in a blue planet named Earf, I mean Earth. This space traffic enforcer's name whose mission is to end Bowzock's vehicular genocide is Signalman, from the planet Polise! Did I mention that he is quite a jerk?
There are two kinds of jerks that exist in this world; the first kind is the one you want to kill while the second is the kind of jerk that you will love. In Signalman's case, he falls in the lovable jerk category. His serious dedication to traffic safety is one of the reasons why I love the guy. Heck, he doesn't care if a group named Caaaaarranger exists, because this town only needs one traffic enforcer!
As for his debut in this series, it is really amazing. For some reason, his debut feels like it is like a debut of a Space Sheriff at night, and not a debut of some new Super Sentai hero. I mean, when I first saw this episode*, the first thing that came to my mind is that he is one lost Metal Hero for crying out loud! The lighting in the suit is so good that I thought he is a Metal Hero for a sec! As for his weapons, I love the gimmick that his badge can transform into a baton that emits one strong electric shock, and later, it can transform into a gun! For some reason, I can't help but notice that he likes to shoot the knees, didn't help that the name of the move is Smash Beam!
As for Red Racer in this episode, even though he is the first one who saw Bowzock in this episode, he didn't do much when Signalman starts rolling! Heck, Signalman didn't give him a chance to chase Bowzock when they are trying to escape because... he is violating the speed limit. I know he is dedicated with his job, but can't he see that he is ticketing a guy who looks like a freakin' super hero?! Oh well, maybe this is his first time seeing a hero in spandex, guess I can let this pass... that is until Red Racer starts explaining stuff.
Instead of understanding what the heck Red Racer is trying to say, Signalman acts a bit like a retard, like he doesn't understand what Red Racer is trying to say. The only time he gets it is when Red Racer's teammates arrived and finally understands what Red Racer is trying to say! To put it simply, he can't understand that Red Racer is part of the Carrangers without his teammates! To add the injury, Signalman was informed by Dapp about the existence of this team before his arrival! That my friends, is why I like Signalman, his understanding level when it comes to simple things is quite low, but when it comes to traffic safety, he is so strict that it hurts!
Speaking of which, Signalman's love for traffic safety is one of the reasons why Bowzock hate him. Aside from sticking traffic violation tickets in their faces... while they are on the road, it didn't help that their boss, Gynamo has this deep grudge on the guy! That reason is that he attempted to break the speeding limit only to receive an advice from Signalman to wear a seatbelt so that he can be safe! Considering that he has this pride of being the leader of a biker gang, and that his subordinates were arrested because of traffic violations higher than that, then I have every right to be angry with Signalman!
This is when their creation, U.U. Wooling comes in; this creature is created to beat Signalman. To put it simply, this creature is a savage beast and is trained just to kill Signalman. As for Signalman, he is done setting up is Kobaan Base, which kinda looks like those old Western sheriff booths for some reason. You can say that it is a police box, but I don't see the point why he needs one if he is just a space traffic enforcer.
For some reason, it is quite helpful because an old lady identified it and asked help to some alien about directions in a planet he just landed recently. Wow, for an old lady, she didn't mind if she asked some weird looking traffic enforcer that wears traffic lights in his chest! I find this scene a bit weird, I mean, if I were the old lady, I will run away from this guy because he looks weird to begin with! But hey, this is Carranger where people don't mind dancing cars, have fashion critics critique super hero costumes and have heroes whose duty is to protect traffic safety!
Because Signalman is helping an old woman, and that Kyosuke (Red Racer to those who forgot) hates the guy, he decides to follow him after calling his teammates. This is when we learned that the old woman is actually a Wumper in disguise and that they actually planned luring Signalman in the good old abandoned warehouse! Here comes the fun part, even though he is clearly outnumbered, he didn't want the Carrangers helping him! What's more, he made this line that the Carranger's shouldn't cross, you know, the ones kids do when they are marking territories!
So yeah, for the duration of this episode, the Carrangers are just... there. To put it simply, this episode is basically the Signalman show and I love every bit of it. Aside that he showed off more of his moves, we also learned that his whistle, the Signalman Whistle is also useful in battle as it can call his motorcycle! One thing I noticed in his motorcycle summoning scene, which took me three watches to see it, is that some guy in black is driving it! I paused the video just to verify if I am just seeing things, and when I saw it, I can't stop laughing at it! What's more is when they are now in the close-up shots, we don't see this guy in black driving Signalman's bike!
After seeing more of how awesome Signalman is, U.U. Wooling transformed into a giant monster after getting beaten by Signalman. With this, he is ready to defeat Signalman! What's funny is that Signalman continues to act like a traffic enforcer even this scenario as he warned U.U. Wooling that he wasn't given the permission to grow big! Instead of seeing Signalman's very own mecha, we saw the RV Robo in action in this episode after Signalman begged the help of the Carrangers. Guess this reminded us viewers that we are still watching Carranger and not the Signalman show featuring the Carrangers.
At the end, they beat U.U. Wooling and that the Signalman finally accepted that a group named Racing Squad Carranger exist. But first, he must ticket them for a traffic violation of illegal parking! I guess even super heroes need to follow the rules just to set a good example for kids!
* When I wrote this review, this marks the third time I watched this episode. It is so darn good that it is worth a rewatch!
