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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Akibaranger Episode 6 Review: Action!

Things already go into the weird as it seems Hiroyo and one of her co-workers are acting out Jetman fan fiction which is being written by Yumeria. Nobuo comes in and has great news, but he stops as he notices that the two girls are going to kiss. It seems that Hiroyo was just helping Yumeria get out of her writer's block and she doesn't kiss the co-worker (TEASE!). Yumeria is out of it as she decides on the title which is called "Fall For
Me." Nobuo picks up that it's like the Jetman episode and yes the fan fic is with Grey and Gai... Anyways Nobuo shows Hiroyo a package he has to deliver and it's going to Toei. Both Hiroyo and Nobuo are excited since it's the mecca of Sentai. He then decides to take Mitsuki along so that she can learn something about the official heroes. Yumeria doesn't join because she has to corrupt the world? We see her walking around the city and she finds two guys with disappointment in their faces. The two men are fans of a female singing group and missed their chance for tickets, but luckily a man appears to give them backstage tickets. Back to Nobuo and Mitsuki they are almost out of range, but when he stops at the red light he sees Sayaka crossing the street. There she asks of Nobuo to take her to the office since her heel broke. Back to the two fans and we see that they have been tricked. They have been given different tickets and soon the salesman uses magic to seal them on their foreheads. The salesman is today's MOTW as he sends the two fans flying out. There Yumeria transforms and since the other two are still in range they transform after they drop off Sayaka.
The fight is about to begin, but this time the setting is very different. They are on a stage as the creature attacks with ash trays. The team try to escape since it's too cramped, but the grunts appear and make an invisible box around them by stage direction. It seems that the creature as the power to throw reality out of the door with his screen play directions as the grunts use their boxes as heavy weapons. The grunts start to put white "X's" around the stage as act two is beginning. It's called Battlefield and whenever the rangers step on an "X" an explosion will occur. Blue falls for this first and soon the rest of them are flailing around getting hit by the explosions. Next Shimo turns out the lights and makes himself hide in the darkness, but in reality he is hiding behind a black wall that is moved around by the grunts. The team has lost and the delusion is cancelled. Nobuo doesn't mind though as he wants to get moving quickly, but Mitsuki doesn't want to go anymore. Nobuo though tells her that if she goes she will learn the truth about Sentai battle. The Carranger theme starts to play as the package gets delivered and now the two sneak their way further inside the building. The two do get further in and Nobuo sees the Greek Pillars which was recently used in Gokaiger and Fourze. Nobuo then notices a building prop that was used in episode 6 of Gekiranger (dang now that's hardcore knowledge) he tries to get a picture of him near it. Next the two reach Oomori hill where Nobuo reactants a scene from episode 39 of Timeranger where Ayase fell down when it was raining. Mitsuki quickly gets pissed off seeing that Nobuo lied about the true meaning of battle and runs off.
Nobuo tries to stop her and luckily she does when she notices an older man. He is doing some stunts with another stunt actor as they fight with wooden swords. Mitsuki is impressed with the man and Nobuo says it is Niibori. He is a very stuntman who has been every red warrior since Goranger and until Jetman. Mitsuki quickly goes up to him as tells him that she is the Blue warrior in Akibaranger and she wants some help with her matrial arts. Niibori is surprised to hear the name and thinks it's going to be the next Sentai. Now she sees that Nobuo wasn't lying, but in reality he was. Her first lesson is about her role call which is something she doesn't really do well at. She just says the name, but Niibori tells her that the pose draws from her skills and without it the fight won't do well. Back to Yumeria who is still going on with her fan fiction and she mentions the words grey zone as it activates another delusion. We then see Mitsuki learning more from Niibori as Nobuo narrates for a little while and is sad that he isn't joining. The next lesson starts as he ties a cloth around her eyes since the helmet will nearly blind her. Mitsuki is confused by this, but does it anyway with perfection. Yellow soon appears back on the stage and before the others join Mitsuki learns one more thing. Niibori tells her about the magic behind the camera and that is whatever the camera catches it's reality in the world of film. She is then called by Hiroyo to enter in the delusion as she runs off with Nobuo, but he wanted to get an autograph. The two enter into the delusion and get Yellow away from Shimo. The role call begins with Blue as she performs a much better, but longer one. Red talks about how he liked Niibori as Red Hawk the most and Yellow talks about her rottenness.
Malshina then appears and tries to shoot down the heroes. Red though switches the scene as Malshina and Shimo are transported into a classroom from Awa High? The scene starts and kids start to flood the room, some go to Malshina about their platters and Shimo is picked on for his bad grades. Malshina soon gets inside of a locker and Shimo is attacked by balls of paper thrown by the kids and for some reason they hurt. The team soon shows themselves as they are in the Toei studio and now they will torment the villains with their delusions. Shimo jumps out of a window, but another scene change occurs and he is in a destroyed set. Malshina gets out of the locker and there she sees a drawing of Hiroyo when she was younger. With Shimo he is attacked by three priest (kinda odd how the same costumes were used in Fourze recently). It ends up it was the team disguised as they disrobe them off. Shimo tries to attack, but all of a sudden Red Hawk appears! Red Hawk slashes and kicks Shimo into different scene where Shimo is now in a movie theater. The movie starts as it stars the team as a gangsta team as they shoot their guns at Shimo. Another scene change and this time Blue is fighting alone as Red and Yellow film the action. With Malshina we see portals coming out of nowhere around her as she starts to walk towards them. Thanks to the magic of film Blue can even hit Shimo, but in reality she didn't even touch him. With the camera facing Shimo's back though it looks like she did hit him. Soon Shimo turns out the lights by destroying them with his ash trays, but Blue uses the eyes in her mind to fight him. The scene is then changed once more to the outside and there Shimo tries to fly away, but Red Hawk soon appears and gives Red his powers. Red Hawk transforms into a pair of wings and Akibared starts to fly in the air he then dashes through Shimo, finishing him off. After the fight the team regroup and somehow Malshina is in the real world!
Episode 6 is a very good episode, probably my favorite so far. First I like that the show gave more focus to the stunt actors and played with some jokes about filming. Yumeria going on her own was kinda odd and seemed pointless, but someone had to stay around I guess. I loved seeing Niibori and it was nice to see him on film for once, but sadly Kotaro Tanaka didn't return for his role. It was odd just seeing a soundless Red Hawk fight and it reminds me off how Basco summoned rangers. At least they could of had Niibori be the man behind the helmet. The action was amazing as it blended with some comedy like episode 3 did. I loved seeing all of the scene directions as it made a good original fight. Another thing that was nice is that it started with play direction and then it moved to film direction. Both of those scenes show major differences in how are executed which made them more enjoyable to watch. The play scenes had focus on the actual script, but for film it was more focus for the director and the camera. Overall a lot of things worked greatly and I can't wait to see how the heroes will fight Malshina since she is real now, an A
Next Time: Machine Itasshar's first fight!

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