The story follows Kouya Marino, a 5th-grade boy who loves Gear Fighting. His older brother, Yuhya Marino happens to be an Asia Cup Gear Fighter Champion and is qualified in the World Cup tournament when he died four years ago because of an accident. Kouya's skills are nowhere near his brother's, and is nearly disqualified after arriving late for an elimination match in the Tobita Club. Most of the team members shift into the Manganji Club – a team created by one of the club's former members, Takeshi Manganji – causing his brother's Crush Gear Club faces the threat of extinction from the rival team. Refusing to give up, Kouya challenges Takeshi. At first, he uses the Garuda Eagle from Yuhya, but is later destroyed in the middle of the Butokan Cup. Soon after, Kouya's teammate Kyousuke Jin created the Garuda Phoenix for him, and Kouya uses it throughout the Gear Fighting. Kouya has to find a way to reinstate the Tobita Club back to its former glory.
* Naotake Furusato, the producer of Crush Gear Turbo, said that the creators "lost a lot of sleep over" trying to name the main character. Furusato credits Shūji Iuchi, the director, 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".
Music Composer – JAM Project, Kenichi Sudo, Yogo Kono
Theme songs
"CRUSH GEAR FIGHT!!" by JAM Project
"Ai da yo ne!! ~Gear wo tsunagou~" by JAM Project
"Kaze no EAGLE" by JAM Project
Production
Planning for Crush Gear Turbo began in March 2001, with intent to begin airing in October 2001. Naotake Furusato, the 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 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 "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
DVD release
In Australia Volumes 1–2 were released on 1 July 2004. Volumes 3 and 4 were released on 8 September 2004. Volume 5 was released on 6 October 2004. Volume 6 was released on 10 November 2004 Volume 7 was released on 19 January 2005.
