Spoileriffic Recap: A new Baros LOL monster catapults the team into a world where Z-Cune Aoi has become a gory, controversial show. Can they rescue their precious waifu?

Aquagaze‘s Thoughts: Akibaranger posts can basically be reduced to a simple list of  “best and the worst moments of the episode” by now. Moments are really everything Akibaranger still has going for it, with the main narrative probably gotten lost on its way here from Crazytown and drowning somewhere in the Pacific Ocean right around now. Are the borders between reality and elusion fading again, is someone using delusions to manipulate the real world, or did they just throw all that out of the window? It’s sad Akibaranger apparently cannot find a way to properly integrate some of the great jokes it has into something that makes more sense, because by now I am basically just watching that show for the occasional great joke.

The entire plot of this second season just reeks of “we have no idea what we are supposed to do anymore”. Random unexplained changes from the first season, important development taking place off-screen, a complete lack of sense of direction, the list goes on. Even with the characters, the show seems to be at a loss. Will Yumeria now being a married woman in any way affect her character? By the way, what is up with Luna? I admit Mitsuki was a bit too clichéd of a mopey stereotype, but at least she had an interesting dynamic going on with the other two. Luna is just another perky, energetic, geeky cutie, only distinguishing herself from Yumeria by doing everything the latter does worse. Do you call that dancing?

It’s a bummer, because this episode, unlike last week’s incredibly Dairanger-dependent episode, actually had some fantastic jokes. The monster of the week putting Nobuo out of commission by spoiling the Z-Cune Aoi movie? Good. Nobuo and Yumeria paying homage to the obscure once-Super-Sentai-but-now-not-anymore Ninja Captors wearing hideous tights? Fantastic. Aoi coming to life in an anime sequence and using her waif charms to grant Nobuo a power-up? Priceless. Despite these jokes being great, it is sad they are very often not explicitly carried by the plot of characters, which makes me wonder if Akibaranger simply would not have worked better as a completely unambitious sketch comedy.

Being a bit alienated from the Akibarangers themselves due to all this plot inconsistency has proven rather succesful for another character, though. Malshina might secretly have become the best thing about this show. While season 1 already made it obvious that our resident sultry dark lady hates working together with people who think they are campy villains from the Showa era, Honoka’s sassy performance here really makes clear she absolutely loathes her new boss, her new subordinates and the same old heroes she is supposed to fight again, like a teenager annoyed by all the embarrassment their parents make them sit through. Heck, she even gets a sweet powerup! In casts full of nutters, the only sane one is often on the side of good, which makes the (relatively) competent and evil Malsheena a breath of fresh air. Sometimes, things just go in strange ways.

Random Delusions

• I’d be easier to get to know Luna if she showed up more. Aside from a token scene filmed somewhere off-set, she only showed up in-costume. I wonder if her actress has more pressing matters to attend. Or could this be another meta joke?
• Speaking of costumes, I noticed that Malshina’s new form uses rather unsubtly skin-coloured tights for the bits that are supposed to be “exposed” whenever she has her mask on. I guess they couldn’t find a stunt lady as, uhm, blessed as Honoka, huh?
• The “spoilers” the monster used to beat Nobuo apparently revealed that Aoi and Satomi, the labcoat-wearing girl Yumeria cosplayed at in episode 7 of the first season, “break up” in the movie. So, that means they were dating in the first place? A magical girl series where the lesbians are actual lesbians? Blasphemy!
• By the way, Toei, where is my Z-Cune Aoi anime?

Zigg’s Thoughts: As Aqua has so well summed up, the major problem with the current series of Akibranger is that it’s a series of great jokes in search of a plot to anchor themselves to. Thus, while episodes can be funny, clever and entertaining, it’s difficult to get very invested in them because stuff just happens almost without rhyme or reason. It feels as if the showrunners simply picked the most basic plot that still allowed them to use the premise and then tried to shoehorn in as many nerdy jokes as they could. Thus while there’s tons and tons of fan bait, there’s little of the clever metatextual commentary that made the first Akibaranger sometimes sing.

Having said that, it’d be unfair to this episode to bury it, and there’s some very funny, very knowing stuff here. Naturally the highlight is the superb power-up sequence at the end where the show goes full anime for a few wonderful seconds, but there’s some great goofs sprinkled liberally throughout here. I particularly like the impoverishment of Hakase and of course the monster’s forced spoiling of the Aoi movie to Nobuo. The Sun Vulcan styled fight is a decent idea that probably needed to go a little further to become truly amusing. And while I find Malshina’s transformation kind of rubbish, Nobuo’s Aoi-Tan armour is a pretty great and weird concept for a powerup, and actually manages to not look completely terrible.

The major issue wioth this episode is that far too much time is devoted to Yumeri’s plotline. The idea that she’s married is just baffling – it’s completely out of character, we never see her husband and the whole thing just feels like a blatant setup to get Mitsuko Horie in for her cameo. There’s distrressingly little of Luna too, which is alarming considering this should be the precise time she should be popping up everywhere getting her character development in. It’s been two and a half episode and she still hasn’t evolved beyond cheery idol-robot. We don’t even learn the reason she decides to come back and join the others. It’s just ‘because the plot says so’ and not in the self parodying way the show sometimes gets away with.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this episode a lot more than the last one, mostly because of the decent gags and a blessed touch of weirdness. Having said that, I’ve adjusted my expectations downwards for the rest of the season, since there seems to be disappointingly little attempt to create a coherent plot arc. But hey, Zyurangers in the next episode, that’s something to be excited about.

Random Delusions

• While the ‘Bladed’ Aoi looks cool, she sort of comes out of nowhere.
• I love the fact that Malshina’s transformation theme is just sung.
• Not going to lie – I would totally go for Nobuo’s kidnap wedding plan.