American Recap: The team meet Tyranno Ranger and Dragon Ranger from Zyuranger…except it turns out Zyuranger never existed! Instead, they’re the Red and Green Rangers from the American series Powerful Rangers, which Super Sentai  was adapted from!

Zigg’s Thoughts: Let’s be clear here – this episode basically only has one good joke. But god damn, it’s a great joke. If you’re a child of the Power Rangers generation, as I am, it’s nearly impossible not to be grinning like a madman all the way through this episode, and I feel it’s the first time that Akibaranger has achieved the magical tipping point where the sheer insanity of what’s going on is enough to make you gloss over some of the less strong points.

For a start, the core idea of twisting the world so that Super Sentai  is now a knockoff of Power Rangers rather than vice versa is a fantastically weird and brilliant inversion. It strikes that perfect tone somewhere between parody, knowing meta-commentary and flat-out craziness that I feel this season of Akibaranger has been lacking so far. The fact that Toei can’t even actually namecheck Power Rangers, instead going with ‘Powerful Rangers’ should be rubbish but just adds this incredible sleazy bootleg feel to the whole affair that only makes it funnier. It honestly feels like some sort of bizarre fan-fiction cocktail that some nerd cooked up in his basement, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Then there’s the rangers themselves, who are basically just an excuse to whip out every horrific Japanese stereotype about America, and it’s hilarious. Even by Sentai standards there’s some incredible overacting here, and all the subtlety of a kick to the groin, but that doesn’t stop it being funny. There’s something about the exaggerated movements and terrible engrish that just brings a smile to the face, and the fact that the American rangers are basically portrayed as out-and-out jerks should be offensive but is so shameless it almost becomes charming (obligatory ‘I am British’ disclaimer).

Which is good because there’s really not much else here to chow down on. I guess the subplot about General Pain and Luna’s rival idol is intriguing in terms of what it holds for future plot development, but really the fact it’s tangentially related to Luna in any way just sends me right off to sleep. She’s ostensibly the focus character of this episode, but her actions and attitude towards the Powerful Rangers just make her look incredibly stupid and her dialogue is as vapid as the idol culture she seems to have been created to pander to. I don’t think this is the fault of Shione Sawada, who gamely struggles with what she’s given, by the writing just makes Luna so bland and ditzy that it’s difficult to warm to her. There’s also a multitude of the by now standard Akibaranger sins – costume reuse, bad doubling for Malshina, and sort of out-of-nowhere fanservice to name a few.

Neverthless, this is the best episode of Akibaranger 2 so far, although I think that’s mostly because it attacks a target much nearer and dearer to my heart. But I also think  that it’s because the comedy is more accessible in general. As opposed to the hyper-specific Dairanger stuff, nearly everyone who’s into Sentai enough to watch this show knows of the SS/PR connection and so the jokes can be bigger, broader and sillier. Yes, it’s mostly dumb stereotype play, but that has its place and it generally works well here. Sometimes one good joke is all you need.

Random Delusions

• The Powerful Rangers’s Dino Bucklers clearly still say ‘Zyuranger’. Would covering that, or hell, getting MMPR morphers have been so hard?
• More toy shilling – ‘George Spielburton’ playing with the soon to be released Figuarts of Tyranno Ranger and Dragon Ranger. Nobuo using the Dragon Dagger gets a pass however because it’s sweeeeeeet (and there’s a pretty good joke).
• I’m a little disappointed they didn’t go deeper with the Power Rangers references, but then it’s not really the place or the audience for that. Still, a ‘Jason’ or ‘Tommy’ would have been cool.
• Luna’s heels/checked skirt/pigtails combo is like the uncanny valley of idol clothes. There’s something very disturbing about it, I just can’t work out what.
• The Zyuranger finisher involves spreading Luna’s legs and her shooting a giant beam from her crotch. Just sayin’