Friday, April 20, 2012

Akibaranger Episode 1 and 2 Review

 Check out the subtitles of Akibaranger at Jefusion:

 I just checked out subtitled episodes of Akiabranger since I've been busy and I was surprised to find out that when they transformed, it was just a delusion. I was disappointed when I found out as Nobuo Akagi out as well. But not a bad kind of diappointed. I like the plot twist. Here is a small summary of the first two episodes:
Nobuo Akagi is a 29-year-old delivery boy who is obsessed with Super Sentai (much as I but I am a substitute teacher). He spots a robbery but just trips his bike and he daydreams of saving the lady. But in real life, the lady saves herself using the bike. Professor Hiroyo Hakase recruits him along with Mitsuki Aoyagi (who wants to be a martial artist) and Yumeria Moegi (a cosplayer who uses a baby voice) to become Akibaranger. She owns a Sentai Cafe with an assistant who cosplays as Sentai heronies and villainesses. The trio transform and train, using their powers. Their goal is to become an 'Official' Sentai as they are 'Unofficial,' in a 'real world' where Sentai is a show. Hiroyo doesn't know the villain and tells the trio to look for bad dealings. At night, they bump into a girl saying there is bad dealings in a night club she works at.

  
They go inside and see Nai and Mea and she becomes a monster and another woman becomes Malseena of the Stema Otsu Corporation's head of redevelopment. They transform and are transported out in the morning in a quarry and fight. Blue is better at fighting. Malseena becomes cold and leaves. Red comments on when bad guys say they gotta go, the monster of the day is doomed. They destroy the monster and then they expect him to grow big but he doesn't. They wait for the sunset. They then return to the Cafe... to find out that it was all just a delusion. She shows them footage of them standing around 'fighting' out in the street. The police saw them and raided the place. So their delusions lead to real life crimes being foiled. And the episode ends. The ending credits have pictures of what it would look like Akibaranger was an actual Sentai with a Christmas cake, an Akibaranger movie and kids dressed with Akibaranger clothes.

 In the second ep, Akagi is disillusioned about the delusions. Akagi walks around aimlessly and spots Ryuji Sainei and calls him BanBan as he is dressed as BanBan. BanBan says he wants him to be his partner... but it turns out to be an delusion. The real Ryuji hears him and tells him that he is just dressed like that for Power Rangers SPD expo thingy and leaves. Akagi is sad. The girls followed some fanboys going to get bootleg photos of Aoi (the Anime show-within-a-show). Malseena had a pink sticker over DVD covering her 'naughty bits' so the DVD glows and the men are made naked instantly and carry around boards like the sticker. The girls are told to engage her and they transform and eventually fight.

 They fight off the grunts in comedic fashions and then fight the monster of the day that looks like the first one but he is a different guy, which has a long name which is used for comedic effect. Meanwhile Akagi spots Deka Red on the street and then in an alley they confront each other. Deka Red doesn't talk and does 'charades' with him. He tells him to 'see the light.' Also, we find out that Yellow has a deep voice when her wig comes off. Akagi is inspired and goes fight. He reunites with the team and Hiroyo tells them to take the car. Machine Itashar is a prius that is decked out with Aoi and transforms into a robo. Bascially it ejects the trio and the girls go in the front seats and Red goes on top.

They confront the bad guys and fight but the robo ejects them because supposedly they aren't 'deluded enough.' It turns out that Deka Red is just a guy in cosplay that Hiroyo hired. But when the trio battle the MotD, Deka Red appears--shocking Hiroyo. Deka Red tells Akiba Red that they are partners and he becomes handcuffs and they use it to defeat the bad guys. At the end of the episode, Akagi is happy. 

Review:
 It's pretty good series, the second episode is more well-put together and flows better than the first one. The first one had a bit of clunkiness when it came to Hiroyo recruiting the three and them transforming. Anyways, I do kind of see myself in Hiroyo except for certain aspects as I am a 29-year-old Sentai fan, but Otaku fans are more well known in Japan, but this is universal with any fanboy, nerd, geek, etc. It isn't as 'scandalous' as I thought it would be. Sure there is looks at boobs, panties, etc but they are quick.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

The appearance of Sentai heroes worries me. Arn't they copyrighted by Saban in the US?

Lavender Ranger said...

What do you mean? Toei owns them. Saban only has them in the u.s. and most countries except for japan and korea and a few others in yhat region. as for spd, it is dubbed with the original deka actors. I dunno who owns that but toei always has last say. Toei can do whatever they want. Saban is under toei in a way, they can't stop toei doing what they do.

~gAb said...

Agreed with the difference of ep 1 and 2. But also it gives me a feeling that it is like K.R Decade.

The similarity is that Decade final form can summon the other riders and transform into tools to assist him. it's shown in the show for SPD, except that Dekared can talk, and not being summoned.

sidechar said...

Someone should do a list of cameo/inside jokes/geeky thing in Akibaranger, that would be great like how Momoko Halko (self-proclaimed Queen of Akibahara) is singing the theme song and how the half way time jingle is Hatsune Miku... Any huge sentai related thing?-

lionel_B said...

In your opinion, what teams will appear in Akibaranger? I bet on Maskman, Turboranger, Fiveman, Zyuranger, Gokaiger and Go-Busters. I think we will as rangers red, except for Gokaiger where it would appear that GokaiSilver(something tells me that AkibaRed and GokaiSilver know).
You should do a poll! And also a poll to find what color your fans would prefer for a possible fourth Akibaranger.