For this episode of Akibaranger the franchise gets a major change as somehow Powerful Rangers the American adaption of Super Sentai is first! Then the first Super Sentai series is Gaoranger, how did this possibly happen and how will it be fixed?
Now for those who think this is a battle of the purist of Sentai and Power Rangers, it sort of is. The Powerful Rangers act like how a PR fan would when they think it's the better franchise. Also I mean the fans who will be blasting their words at you for this topic. The two rangers quickly attack the Akibarangers saying that they suck for ripping them off. It can also been seen for the Sentai fans as well since the situation is that Powerful Rangers was first so in ways they are Sentai now. This leads to the argument that Sentai purist bring up cause Sentai was the first which makes it better. Personally I used to be a Sentai purist when I started the franchise since I found out that America just uses the stock footage. After a year though I quickly realized how dumb that was of me. I mean a series is a series and if it's good it's still good no matter what. So I really did like how the Powerful Rangers were used as they portray the anger in the fandoms.
Now moving on to how the heroes reacted to this. The only one in the group who wasn't completely destroyed by this was Luna since she was the one who caused this. I will talk about her later though. So the other two heroes try to get people to remember the Sentai series before Gaoranger. Then going on the story behind this is that Gaoranger used Powerful Rangers Wild Force footage without permission and for America they own the franchise and has considered suing! This does bring up some questions though, would Dairanger be gone completely again since it was never used for PR? Then going to more thoughts Kakuranger would only be the Alien Rangers! Well going on some would now think that Nobuo and Moegi would act like the Sentai purist and they are, but it's only because they love that franchise. I mean they watched it as kids and they never said they hate Powerful Rangers so that's open for discussion. The two are just fighting for the series they love to come back into reality. Too bad one person didn't think like this.
Oh Luna how I wanted to like you, but this episode didn't really make you shine at all. First she was the cause of the situation, now this isn't the major reason why she didn't do well in this episode. How this happens is because she sees an image of Powerful Rangers and thinks they were the originals. After the team find out that she was the cause they give her the whole breakdown of what happened. Sadly though she still doesn't listen and wants to be on the Powerful Rangers' side because of a director she likes and the fact that they are cool. Now it makes sense she doesn't really care about which series is first, but you think she would see how hard the other two are doing in the beginning and help them. In the delusion world where they meet the two rangers again, Luna just runs up to them. She is then held on the sideline and watches her allies get beaten up! This is when she does start to see how hard the two are working, but she still doesn't do anything until the Zyurangers return to normal and thinks they are cooler. The sad part of this is that it could have been easily fixed.
When in the delusion world for the second time they try to get the Zyurangers back to normal by referencing the biggest part of the series. Mostly the parts with Burai and Geki and yea spoilers were there. This doesn't work so the two American rangers beat up the two, they are even knocked out of their transformations. The Americans continue to attack them and soon Nobuo brings them back to themselves thanks to Dragon Ranger's saber toy. This was pretty simple to get the two back to normal and I was hoping for a little more. Heck I see a great way this could have been done. Luna starts to see the heroes she was idolizing are going way too far and are acting more evil than anything. This would lead her to give a speech to the two about being good which could have been the reference to Zyuranger since her speech could have similarities to Geki's speech to Burai about being good. Sadly though this was a wasted opportunity and how everything was then executed just felt average at best.
Another thing that was just average was the jokes. I was hoping to get more Power Rangers jokes for this episode and I mean why not. They are clearly referencing it. Now I will say the Powerful Rangers were funny cause they had broken English speaking patterns and they acted like a really stereotypical American. There was also a Powerful Ranger comic where the Red Ranger looked very muscular which does poke fun at how America likes to sell them as more muscular heroes in the toy lines. Still I was hoping for some jokes with Bandora/Rita since it would have been interesting to see how they would have done with that. Also some clips of Powerful Rangers would have been great as well. Also for some reason when Mogei mentions Toei she doesn't get bleeped like Luna did in episode two. So yea the jokes were good, but there could have been some more to have with this.
The villains weren't at their best either since the Shogun didn't do much since he had personal business to take care of. We meet his student I guess since this girl calls him her Sensei. This new character is Akina as she is a fan of Sentai as well I would guess since she does the dance of avarice which was in Sun Vulcan. Going on there was a very random joke where they fuse three names together to make one director. This name is George Speilburton. It's very obvious what they are referencing and they even make an E.T. joke. Also it seems this director was a Sentai fanatic so Luna would be wrong that he would like Powerful Rangers more. Still Akina was barely in the episode as I just question why she was there. I can tell she will be in the series more since she has a connection with Shogun as he calls her his Chimera which was a villain in Dynaman.
Even the action wasn't that much and I know this series is not really the highest form of action, but after the reveal of Super Akiba Red you think they would really want to rival that or use it again. It was a straight struggle fight which is fine, but it was only Red and Yellow in that part. Blue barely did anything which is still really a bad move for the series since it would have been a little funny to see Luna fight Red and Yellow. She wouldn't go too far though since she knows them. The new monster was barely even used as it's the phone monster again, but as a Trinoid. At least the first fight had some fun since Malshina easily used the Powerful Rangers to her advantage. Well with the Zyurangers back there is going to be a new power for the Akibarangers, but Luna gets it? As I said before she barely did anything, but cause issues in this episode so why would the Zyurangers give her their powers? Then the item isn't that special, it's a giant buckler that fires a laser. The last power was great because it worked with the Dairanger's special move and the laser that it fired was ten times stronger. Even the past items had more creativity since we had the Deka Cuffs which pokes at the police theme in Dekaranger, Bouken Scoop was interesting because it was a completely different tool and it combined features of Bouken Red's weapon with Yellows. Then the best one is the Jet Winger which works with how the Jetman fly. The giant buckler is alright, but there could have been more ideas with them. Also at least give it some other powers other than a finisher.
I am not a big fan of this episode. They missed a lot of opportunities and really misused Luna. Also some weak reveals as well. I mean really if the Luna issue was fixed it would have been a much better episode and make Luna more likeable, but she still stays as the same person now. I can tell she will love Sentai now, but it's only because she found them to be cooler. It's weak which is most of the episode, but it still passes by as average at best. So this episode gets a C.
Next Time: There is always time for tea.
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