Chinese Recap: Baffled by the continued status of Akibaranger as an official Sentai, Nobuo is drawn back into the delusion world, where he meets China Red. With the Section Chief of the week overwhelming him, he’s forced to assemble the team again…

Aqua’s Thoughts: There is wacky, there is completely incomprehensible and then, somewhere in between, there is Akibaranger. This season seems to be diving into the, uhm, “plot” from the get go, eschewing the mostly comedy-oriented episodic stories that the show consisted of before it got all wacky and meta. With the latter part being essentially retconned, I expected Akibaranger to focus on parodying again, but au contraire, the overal premise for the second season is just as nutso as last one’s. Nobuo is still searching to find out why his team replaced Dairanger as the 17th Super Sentai. Once again, why Dairanger? Seeing Ryuuranger being demoted to the quirky and oddly familiar ChinaRed was hilarious, but it leaves me wondering just whether exactly Toei still had some bones to pick with a show that aired twenty years ago. Did they pull the name of the show that would be getting the shaft out of a box, or was Dairanger especially unsuccessful or something?

In any case, the chemistry between the amateurish Nobuo and his even more amateurish new fan works surprisingly well. With the Blatantly Evil Marketing Firm back in action, trying to rid Tokyo of the shameful nerd capital of the world once again, it looks as if Akibaranger is back to its alleged main job of being a parody. Poor Aoi even gets dragged through the proverbial mud by this week’s hilariously cheap-looking Section Chief. Nevertheless, the confusion that plagued last season raises its ugly head once again. Where did Kibaranger come from? Is the line between delusion and real life blurring again? Who is this, errm, malicious new villainous type? Judging from his rather first hilarious meeting with Nobuo, I am going to guess he is just as delusional as he is, yet thinking himself to be a classic Sentai villain rather than a hero.

Speaking of new faces, that brings us directly to what should have been the main event of this episode. The introduction of the new AkibaBlue, wannabe idol Luna Iwashimizu, however turns out to fall a bit flat. While immediately likeable with her plucky berserker fighting style and Dairanger fangirling, the girl literally gets a Moe Moe Z-Cune stuffed into her arms and blam, she’s part of the team. Is this a reference to the whole “recruit teenagers with attitude” thing or just a quick cop-out caused by a sudden change in actress? I have no idea, but it is a bit of a bummer to see a new main character get so little spotlight. Let’s hope next week’s episode fixes that.

Oh, right, and I guess Yellow is back too?

Random Delusions

• I hope Akibaranger is not abandoning its original goal of being a parody comedy and turning into a show with actual plot ambitions. It doesn’t really work.
• Seriously everyone in this show is adorable as heck, even by toku standards. Yes, even Nobuo.
• When is Malshina going to pop up?
• With all the Z-Cune Aoi merchandising you can see in the background, it surprises me just how much effort Toei put into that without exploiting it for all it is worth. Are they seriously not planning an OVA or something?

Zigg’s Thoughts: There’s nothing which kills comedy faster than obviously trying too hard, and that’s a trap that Akibaranger comes very close to falling into in this episode. It almost feels like the show has become Kyoryuger sometimes, so rapidly does it throw shit at the screen to see what sticks.  We’ve got the introduction of the new villain and the new Akiba Blue, the reintroduction of Ryuuranger, now reduced to delivery boy, the return of the section chiefs, the arrival of the seemingly real Kibaranger…it’s all just too much and this episode lurches from plot point to plot point uncomfortably, never really allowed to settle into the easy rhythm good comedy requires.

Let’s take a look at the Ryuuranger/China Red scene, because it’s a perfect example of what I mean. The idea that in this reality Ruyuuranger has been reduced to some crappy knockoff mascot to promote a Chinese restaurant chain? That’s hilarious, and yet the presentation conspires to just make it sort of confusing instead. Why even bother with the Chinaman reference? It adds nothing to the basic idea and forces the show to do the least funny thing possible – explain the joke. I understand an inherent part of the appeal to Akibaranger is the inside-baseball nature of the jokes, but come on. You’re referencing a prototype design of a twenty year old TV show and it’s not actually that funny anyway.

And then there’s Luna, who’s just sort of…eh. She’s very bland, especially compared to Mitsuki, whose tsundere schtick might have been clichéd but it at least gave some easy definition to her character. Luna is sort of cute and nice and…I don’t know. Yes, the joke is meant to be that she’s a fan of the wacko universe version of Akibaranger but the crazy fangirl character is already sewn up by Yumeria and Karin Ogino’s loopy performance is already so iconic another character of that type seems pointless. Hopefully there’ll be more to her once we get to know her a bit, but this is not a strong introduction and her status is a quick and dirty replacement character is somewhat obvious.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m dumping on Akibaranger because there were still plenty of very funny bits in this episode, like the section chief’s remote control powers or the as-yet-unidentified baddie singing the Denjiman song, but it does feel to me that it’s perhaps becoming a little self-indulgent. Good comedies, and good parodies especially, need a sharp cutting edge to their humour. Let’s hope Akibaranger can rediscover that quickly.

Random Delusions

• Tommy!
• I don’t know why they talk about zettai ryouki with Sakamoto. Everyone knows his real fetish is for explosions.
• The new mooks are hilarious but I have to wonder if it’s a joke that’ll work more than once.
• I somehow like the completed credits less than the half-finished ones