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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Akibaranger Season 2 Episode 2 Review: Chinaman!

Continuing off where we last left our delusion heroes we found out that Dairanger is gone and Akibaranger replaced it! What exactly is happening to our official heroes and will Nobuo be fine by himself?
The first thing I want to cover is what this season is doing. I have a feeling that it will cover issues regarding the Sentai franchise this time. The big reason why is the plot with Dairanger being completely gone. The only thing left is Ryuu Ranger, but he's not the same anymore. He has been changed into China Red from Chinaman. For those who don't know, Chinaman was an fake name for the series that was started by rumors on the internet. The helmets were different has they have two eyes above the visor which looks creepy so I'm glad it vanished for Dairanger. So now China Red is real and is just a mascot character for a restaurant it seems. We first see him holding onto gyoza which was Ryou's specialty dish. I love this plot point since it digs into Sentai history and making it relevant and it's funny to see that China Red is not a fighter at all.
So how could have this possibly happened? Our heroes don't know yet, but they do know that the delusion world is breaking through reality. I mean why would Akibaranger replace Dairanger there has to some sort of connection. Nobuo thinks the new Chief Clerk used his powers to downgrade Dairanger into Chinaman, but again how does that completely get rid of Dairanger from existence? There are so many questions and there isn't an explanation yet, but all we do know is that something caused it and it has to be stopped. I am really loving this since we have seen the new main villain for the series in this episode and boy he's something. Going on it's great to see that Nobuo thinks of a plan to save Dairanger which is to defeat the Chief Clerk!
Well let's hope he can
So the Chief Clerks return and this time it's quite different from the usual ones. The monster is a Bluray creature that has the powers of a remote control. He appears in reality as a salesman who has the dreamray player which lets anyone's fantasy come alive on the screen. Of course this leads to a pervert having a sex anime with Aoi-tan play on the screen which causes a massive nosebleed and this causes other people to do this as well and then their clothes are replaced with cardboard. The MOTW really seems like a take on Dairanger's monsters since this guy talks about his powers like it's a technique. Also he's not based on a city name, but an item which was a huge motif theme for Dairanger. I really like his powers as well, he can downgrade anything he wants and even rewind and fast forward. He can even summon images and make then real by his 3D powers. It's a very creative creature and it's quite strong as Nobuo cannot handle this by himself, so it's time for the reinforcements!
We get a new Akibablue as it is Luna, a sixteen year old girl trying to become a model. Nobuo, Hakase, and Kozukozu find her after realizing that they need help. It's a stroke of destiny as well since Luna is a big fan of Akibaranger and notices what Noubu wears is the same outfit in the show it seems. There was even a funny moment where she mentions how she saw the show thanks to the Toei Chan.... yea it got censored which was hilarious. The whole Toei logo even got censored which just made me laugh more. Going on Luna is a fun character so far, she actually gets in the group because she thought she was going to be in a remake for Akibaranger. So it's very similar to how Nobuo first thought what Akibaranger was. What's great though is that Akibaranger is real so this gives many moments for some comedy gold. Continuing on with Luna though she does tons of research on many directors of Super Sentai cause she tried to do auditions before. When she got her first fight she goes crazy and just starts sprawling with her gun and fists.
And then our favorite rotten girl, Moegi returns and when she comes back she is dressed well rather nice. This makes me want to think on where Moegi came from, but I know that will be for another episode. What's important though she comes back and even dresses back up in her cat cosplay. Moegi stayed very much the same which is great as her character was a lot of fun. She was a big fan like Nobuo is and the two shared some great moments together. Even in this episode the two act like they weren't even separated as they both act like goofs together. One thing that is odd though is that the Akibaranger suits for blue and yellow are different. Blue has a pony tail on her helmet while yellow has two buns on the side of her helmet (I know it's called something, but I'm not a hair expert). I really have no idea why it's like this, but I guess it's because of Akibaranger actually becoming official means there were changes to their suits.
Back to the villain portion of season two we see the new main baddie. So far we didn't get his name, but I can tell he means business. First is how he dresses up, it looks like a rejected costume for General Kar from Dynaman. He even has the same face paint as the guy. What he does though is give life to these new creatures as he says they will surpass their sempai. I want to guess he is correcting things for himself since he seems to be a big Sentai fan as well. He has statues, figurines, and he even sang a song in Denjiman that only played for one episode, heck I didn't even know of that song. All we do know that he is the cause of all that is happening and that's fine for an introduction heck he even met Nobuo when he was singing that song.
Another thing I loved in this episode was seeing how many changes did occur. Akibaranger fully replaced Dairanger as all the merchandise that used to be Dairanger became Akibaranger. Even the opening theme song got changed for Akibaranger! The Ittasha Robo had a new look as it had more official colors, there were even delusion videos. Nobuo was completely happy to see this stuff and I don't blame him, the whole goal in the first season was to become official and now it has happened. Now what Nobuo isn't happy with though is that his delusions seems to be off. If it was his delusion why would he want Ryuu Ranger changed into China Red and he even lost in the first fight. So this obviously means that there are some major changes in the delusion world as I even wonder if the Chief Clerks are real this time? Probably not, but something to wonder about. What was even funnier was how Luna knew a lot about Akibaranger which didn't match with what the other two were used to. She was saying the name differently and was doing poses differently. Technically she isn't wrong either. Each time this happened the Red and Yellow paused and were confused.
The final thing to talk about is that Kibaranger appears at the end of the episode. First it's the original voice actor who did Byakko's voice. He is mad at the Akibarangers because of them he is part of their team and he isn't happy about that at all. He even had the Akibaranger logo on his chest! Just more switching around and I love it. I so know the next episode will hold ton of Dairanger greatness since the team has to save Ryuu Ranger and Kibaranger somehow. Then for those who don't know Dairanger is my favorite Super Sentai so you can see why I am excited.
Overall this was a very fun episode that shown us a lot of things, but didn't explain them yet. We know that something odd is happening and we even know who is doing this. There were great comedic moments and I just love seeing the fake rumored Chinaman being a part of the episode. Also having the switch around was very well done. I am already set for more from Season 2 as I give this episode an A-
Next Time: More Chinese delusions!

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