Yeah, I figured it'd take a while to figure out the humor alone in the translations, given how silly this series is supposed to be compared to others. That being said, this'll probably be good practice for some of the 2000s series' after we get past the "every sixth ranger dies" era.
I've seen almost half of the series and now that I think about it the one kind of humour they haven't really used is the pun-based stuff so beloved of more recent Sentai. :hmm:
A lot of Carranger's comedy revolves around 'wtf' moments. A scene will be proceeding as you'd expect and then someone will do or say something completely out-of-the-blue and absurd. For example, a monster of the week has grown giant and is smashing buildings, then it suddenly realises that it's clothes don't cover it's midrift and everyone will be able to see it's bellybutton fluff and it gets all embarrassed.
The show does indeed make some self-aware comments. These aren't super insightful quips that make you re-think the whole franchise or anything. Just a gentle nod and a wink here and there. The villains don't (yet) know the Carranger's true identities, and whenever they bump into them untransformed they will pointedly refer to them as "those unremarkable citizens".
That's not the only kind of humour of course. If you've seen Kakuranger's first half or any of Dairanger's "Three Gorma Stooges" episodes, you'll find plenty of that kind of humour too. But not much in the way of puns or hitting each other in a slapstick fashion.
I must admit while I can appreciate what the show is doing differently, I don't find it super funny. You read reviews where people report being in constant giggles from start to end. That's not me. But the show never becomes grating. I still find it very easy to sit and watch.
I think that's because it's in the era when Sentai episodes were only 20 minutes long. Whether a joke works or falls flat, the show hasn't got time to sit on it's laurels. It's got to move straight onto the next thing or it won't fit it all into the episode.
About the only headache I can imagine Shout Factory having is that if they wanted to "borrow" the fansub again HaroRangers completely overhauled their translations five or six episodes in, so the first few don't match the rest of the series.
