Crush Gear Turbo

Premise

Crush Gear is a fictional sport where two pocket-sized cars called "Gears" go head-to-head in a match. The players are somehow able to drive the Gears at will which eliminates the need of RC control. The object is to either knock the opponent's Gear out of the arena, flip over the opponent's Gear in such a way that it does not get back on its wheels on time, or, controversially, shatter the opponent's gear to pieces. When not in a match, the Gears appear in traditional animation as with the series itself. But when the vehicles are in a match, the Gears appear in CGI.

Gekitou! Crush Gear Turbo tells the story of Kouya Marino, an eleven-year-old boy who is a member of the Tobita Club, a Japanese Crush Gear team led by his late older brother, Yuhya Marino—the Asian Cup champion who was qualified for the World Cup finals—, who died in a tragic accident four years ago. Kouya's skills are nowhere near his brother's, and is nearly disqualified when he arrived late at the clubhouse for an elimination match. Yuhya's former teammate, Takeshi Manganji quits the team and forms a club of his own, forcing the rest of the members to join his new group, the Manganji Club. As the Tobita Club is facing the threat of extinction, Kouya refuses to give up and comes to inherit a Crush Gear from his late brother, the Garuda Eagle. Kouya must find a way to reinstate the Tobita Club back to its former glory. With the help of his new teammates, he eventually develops his techniques in Gear Fighting and comes to feel that Crush Gear is an important friend, leading him to victory. By recognizing the same feelings in his opponent, he becomes friends even with his rival.

Characters

Main characters

Kouya Marino (真理野 コウヤ, Marino Kōya)

Voiced by: Megumi Matsumoto

Gear: Garuda Eagle ⇒ Garuda Phoenix

The series' protagonist and the captain of the Tobita Club, Kouya is a young Gear Fighter who aims to be the number one in the world of Crush Gear.

Naotake Furusato, producer of Crush Gear Turbo, said that the creators "lost a lot of sleep over" trying to name the main character. Furusato credits director Shūji Iuchi with the final naming. The creators decided to use "Kouya" as the name "had a ring to it like brothers would have and that made it kind of realistic" and that the name literally means "wilderness" and "sounded right for a main character". Furusato added that the name "Kouya" made him want to see the character "grow up big and strong".

Jirou Oriza (織座 ジロウ, Oriza Jirō)

Voiced by: Masato Amada (Michael Shitanda)

Gear: Raging Bull ⇒ Raging Bullet

A Gear Fighter and member of the Tobita Club, Jirou is a former baseball pitcher who likes to eat red-bean buns. He is Kouya's closest teammate and friend. Jirou also has a crush on the team's deputy owner, Lilika.

Kyousuke Jin (迅 キョウスケ, Jin Kyōsuke)

Voiced by: Chika Sakamoto

Gear: Dino Spartan ⇒ Dino Phalanx

A Gear Fighter and member of the Tobita Club, Kyousuke is known as a genius Gear Master, a mechanic with superior skills in tuning, maintaining and customizing Crush Gears. He was Kuroudo's former teammate in Team Griffon.

Kuroudo Marume (丸目 クロウド, Marume Kurōdo)

Recurring characters

Yuhya Marino (真理野 ユウヤ, Marino Yūya)

Voiced by: Kenji Nojima

Gear: Garuda Eagle

A genius Gear Fighter and Kouya's deceased older brother, Yuhya was the late former captain of the Tobita Club and former champion of the Asia Cup tournament. Four years prior to the start of the series, he was killed in an unfortunate accident just before the final match of the World Cup tournament. Yuhya often appears in flashbacks.

Furusato said that Yuhya's name was decided on early in the production.

Marimo Marino (真理野 マリモ, Marino Marimo)

Voiced by: Chiharu Tezuka

Kouya and Yuhya's mother, who runs a café called La Mére du Marino.

Tateo Marino (真理野 タテオ, Marino Tateo)

Voiced by: Ken Narita

Kouya and Yuhya's father and Marimo's husband.

Gou Manganji (万願寺豪, Manganji Gō)

Voiced by: Hiroomi Sugino

Manganji's father, who is the president of the Manganji Group corporation.

Shinnosuke Gomano (胡麻野シンノスケ, Gomano Shin'nosuke)

Voiced by: Kanako Tateno

Manganji's loyal sidekick and a member of the Manganji Club.

Daikichi Momita (揉田ダイキチ, Momita Daikichi)

Other characters

Taikan Mizumori (水守 タイカン, Mizumori Taikan)

Voiced by: Yōsuke Akimoto

The owner of a kendo dojo where Kuroudo attends.

Ryouichi Ebata (江畑リョウイチ, Ebata Ryōichi)

Voiced by: Hiroko Oyamada

Gear: Wild Stag

An arrogant member of the Manganji Club.

Q (キュー, Kyū)

A chimpanzee at the zoo where the father of Nagidori siblings works. Q knows how to play Gear Fighting.

Kouji Hanano (花野コウジ, Hanano Kōji)

Voiced by: Takeharu Onishi

Kaoru's uncle, who lives in Hokkaido.

God Voice (ゴッドボイス, Goddoboisu)

Voiced by: Kazuya Ichijō

The host of the Illusion Cup tournament.

Taka Shibuya (渋谷タカ, Shibuya Taka)

Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama

Gear: Dorikin

A Gear Fighter and member of Club 4649 (Yoroshiku).

Momo Yamanoki (山野木モモ, Yamanoki Momo)

Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami

Gear: Cuty Tiger

Film-only characters

Jake Groundstein (ジェイク・グランドシュタイン, Jeiku Gurandoshutain) / Gear Emperor (ギア・エンペラー, Gia Enperā)

Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama

Gear: Kaiservern

Manganji's old friend and the son of the president of the Groundstein Group, a rival company of the Manganji Group. Jake is responsible for stealing the Kaiservern, the first Crush Gear created in the world.

Gear God (ギアゴッド, Gia Goddo)

Voiced by: Jūrōta Kosugi

A mysterious man at the GFA headquarters who holds a golden front weapon, Goldblade.

Production

Planning for Crush Gear Turbo began in March 2001, with intent to begin airing in October 2001. Naotake Furusato, producer of Crush Gear Turbo, received a toy car prototype that used two AA batteries and a motor. The toy car operated in circles instead of straight lines, and operators could cause them to collide with one another. Furusato used this concept to develop Crush Gear Turbo. According to Furusato the show was the first Sunrise production to "genuinely adopt the use of 3D graphics". Furusato added that the 3D rendering allowed the animators to "brilliantly express the stage presence of the Gear Fights" and incorporate effects not in real-life toy gears such as fireworks and smoke. According to Furusato 3D Production Chief Mitsuo Fukuda (福田 己津央, Fukuda Mitsuo) told Furusato that, because there are some elements that may only be expressed in 3D, the series ought to use 3D "to full effect". Furusato concluded that this caused the battle scenes to appear "a little bit unique". Furusato credited the customization and element attributes in each gear to Sunrise's "already well-established know-how". In addition the producer credited his own experience on Gear Fighter Dendoh and director Shūji Iuchi's experience on Mashin Hero Wataru in the formation of Crush Gear Turbo.

Furusato intended for the creators of the series to "encourage children to think and place on value on things like friendship and trust in others" and for the series to express deepening human relationships. He added that the series "got kind of a Heisei Era [1989-2019] "Kyojin no Hoshi" and "Ashita no Joe" feeling to it" and that the current generation of children "are fundamentally a more cheerful lot and go in for a bit of a slapstick flavor".

Media

Anime

Gekitou! Crush Gear Turbo, directed by Shūji Iuchi and produced by Sunrise's internal "Studio 10" division alongside Tokyu Agency, premiered in Japan on October 7, 2001, and concluded on January 26, 2003, after 68 episodes on Nagoya TV and TV Asahi. Atsuo Tobe is the character designer for the anime series, with Shinji Aramaki, Susumu Imaishi and Mitsuru Owa as the mechanical art designers. The musical score is composed by Kenichi Sudo and Yogo Kono. The series features two pieces of theme music and one insert song, all performed by JAM Project: the opening theme is "Crush Gear Fight!!", and the ending theme is "Ai dayone!! -Gear wo Tsunagou-" (愛だよねっ!! ～ギアをつなごう～, lit. 'It's Love!! ~Let's Connect Gears~'), while the insert theme is "Kaze no Eagle" (風のEAGLE, lit. 'Wind Eagle') featuring Hironobu Kageyama. A Filipino dub of the series premiered on ABS-CBN in the Philippines on April 21, 2003.

Crush Gear Turbo the Movie: Kaiservern's Ultimate Challenge (激闘！クラッシュギアTURBO カイザバーンの挑戦, Gekitō! Kurasshugia Tābo Kaizabān no Chōsen) is a 20-minute short film that was released in Japan on July 20, 2002, as part of Toei Animation Summer 2002 Animation Fair. In this movie, Kouya and Manganji team up against a Gear Emperor who is controlling the world's first gear, Kaiservern. JAM Project performed two pieces of theme music: the insert song is "Get Up Crush Fighter!", and the ending theme is "Alright now! (Movie Re-mix ver.)" featuring Rika Matsumoto.

Manga

The manga adaptation is illustrated by Hisashi Matsumoto. The manga version featured original elements and unique developments, and the Gear Fighting is slightly more realistic than in the anime. It was serialized in Kodansha's magazine, Comic BomBom from October 2001 to January 2003, and released in tankōbon (book) format in four volumes from February 2002 to March 2003. The manga also included three bonus chapters.

The English-language version was licensed in Singapore by Chuang Yi.

Video games

Two video games have been produced based on the series, both published by Bandai and released only in Japan. The PlayStation version of Gekitou! Crush Gear Turbo was first released on July 25, 2002. Gekitou! Crush Gear Turbo: Gear Champion League was released for WonderSwan Color on August 10, 2002.

DVD release

In Australia, the English dub of Crush Gear Turbo was released by Magna Pacific. Volumes one and two of the series were released on July 1, 2004; volumes three and four were released on September 8, 2004; volume five was released on October 6, 2004; volume six was released on November 10, 2004; and volume seven was released on January 19, 2005.