Akibaranger Episode 4 Review: Let the Fantasies Begin!

We start the episode off with the gang shocked on why Mitsuki is not going to transform anymore. She is not leaving the group for good, but as a marital arts tournament coming up and she will have to be in Izu for three days. She just wants to stay focused during those days so she won't be deluding with the others. The team is relieved to hear this, but now Mitsuki asks Nobuo and Moegi to not have any delusions for now. Hiroyo tells the team though that the only way to go into the grand delusion is to be in Akihabara. The two are now happy to know that they can keep what they have to do even though they are only local heroes making it harder to be official. Mitsuki yells out "No" because she knows the two can have some really weird delusions which is mostly because of Hiroyo getting them drunk in the last episode. Before Mitsuki leaves she yells at the two to not enter into any delusions and they agree. Nobuo agrees because a three man team who had to fight with two only, only happened in Sun Vulcan when the 2nd Vul Eagle appeared. We then cut to the next day where Nobuo is working and is thinking about how all he has to do is to avoid transforming, since everything is a delusion. Also Moegi is having some fun on her own as I guess she is going to meet someone she admires. Nobuo is on his delivery route when he notices a bunch of cross dressers entering into an odd looking building. He starts to think of episode 26 of Dekaranger, but he stops because he knows to not enter in any delusions. He snaps back into reality to see that it was just a cafe for cross dressers.

With Moegi she is going to get an autograph from a manga author. The manga is also a piece of yaoi work and Moegi starts to remember the MOTW from the last episode and how he.... well you remember right? She almost enters in a delusion as well and tries to stop herself, but there are many books around with the same cover. She stops herself and runs out of the store. Back with Nobuo and he finds out that the Great Five model has been sold! He is sad about this and it's replaced with a Gavan figurine, but something looks different about it. He soon sees Sayaka though as she is running down the street and thinks this is another flag for love. He asks is she gets off on Saturdays, but that's not the case since it seems that her office has been robbed. Nobuo thinks this is a big case, but he remembers again that he cannot enter into any delusions. He goes off saying that if the case is with the police things should go well and leaves. At the cafe we see that Hiroyo is completely bored because she knows nothing is going to happen. Moegi then gets somewhere and makes sure to keep her rotten behavior to herself for the next three days. A criminal appears and he is a rapist. There are wanted posters of him and he is trying to get Moegi, this is another delusion moment and she tries to not enter one. She makes a quick relization that the guy is not an enemy of the Akibaranger and she runs off yelling "pervert!"

Nobuo is still having a hard time with this as well as he cannot stop thinking about Sentai. Even seeing people eat treats reminds him of Kakuranger. He runs away because of the risk of a delusion as it seems to be getting much harder for him to stay away from them. He soon runs into Moegi who is almost going to cry and Nobuo gets a creepy smile from hearing "Oni-chan." Nobuo now is hanging around Moegi as she wants to have a change of costume, but she is afraid of going into a delusion if she was alone. The first outfit she tries on is a nun with a gun, next is an Indian, then little red riding hood. Nothing seems right though, but Nobuo finds something perfect. Of course it's Sentai related as Moegi is now dressed up as Mele from Gekiranger. The guys are in complete affection with her and Nobuo looks around for more outfits. He soon finds a Shizuka outfit, but he starts to think a little more and imagine if Mitsuki was wearing the outfit. He starts to head to different ideas as he imagine Mitsuki cosplaying as Jannu from Abaranger. He then thinks of Rije and Moegi appears as her and next comes Hiroyo as Rijewel. Nobuo thinks more of her character though and thinks of her dressed up as Swan from Dekaranger. Hiroyo though isn't that graceful though, but Sayaka is! Sayaka then appears in his thoughts as she is dressed up as Tetomu from Gaoranger. Next for Sayaka is Nagisa from Changeman and he is very content with this. Now he thinks of a more mature outfit as Sayaka is changed into Shelinda from Gingaman. Sayaka isn't that type of person for that get up, but Malshina is! Malshina then appears as Shelinda and he then thinks of her as Windenuu (Hurricanger) and Kegaleshia (Go-onger). His imagination then gets more into a fantasy as the three Malshinas start to approach him with some sexy music in the background.

Reality kicks in though as Moegi is waiting for her next outfit. There Nobuo remembers that if he wants to be an official Sentai member he needs to drop the pervy thoughts.He tries to pound those thoughts and soon a marketer appears! The monster tries to attack, but Moegi gets him out of the way, but the men are hit by it. The monster has the powers to purify any man of his dirty thoughts as the men head out saying they are going home to mediate. The monster will purify the filth in Akihabara and Nobuo realizes that his little fantasy as created the creature. Since it's a delusion Moegi tries to run away with Nobuo, but they are stopped by the grunts. The two have no choice as they transform into Red and Yellow and get ready for a fight. The monster thinks without Blue the team is worthless and Yellow is still in her Mele character as she calls Nobuo master. She even fights like Mele and the grunts are easily pushed out of the picture. Yellow calls the MOTW a weakling, but he says he isn't one and his name is Rex and is based on a bird unlike the last villains who had insect motifs. The two try to attack him, but he blocks both easily with his staff and hits them away with it. Hiroyo is worried about this monster since he can purify people which could possibly ruin the delusion. She then tells the two that he is too strong and the only way then can win is to wait for a comeback moment. Red starts to think that whenever a member is missing they come in to save the day. Yellow is worried for Nobuo as she thinks they could be dead soon. Red doesn't want to be jinxed though and brings up episode 10 of Bioman (don't remind me!). Red gets an idea though, mostly official sentai members come in the fight transformed already so he thinks of just making Blue appear to fight. The monster will grant that wish as he summons Blue!

With Blue now things should go well, but they don't. Blue takes out her gun and shoots Red and Yellow. Now Red thinks this could be a brainwashing episode and they have to snap Blue back to normal. Rex won't allow that as he attacks the two. Red tries to fight him, but he messes up. Yellow though saves him and takes Rex on by herself. Red goes up to Blue to see if he can do anything, he first tries to see if she would attack him again and she does. Then he tries to make Mitsuki remember the first time they met and how they both love Aoi-tan! It seems to work, but Blue was just acting and attacks once more. Hiroyo is confused on what is going on since Mitsuki is in Izu. Red and Yellow switch positions as Yellow tries the crying method. This is when a tear of a teammate's helps the brainwashed ally to go back to normal, but the helmet is in the way of the tear, so that doesn't work. Red then goes to drastic measures as he hugs Blue from behind and says she is so cute! Blue thinks of him as a pervert, but Red defends himself by saying this happened in task 14 of Boukenger where Masumi got Natsuki out of her brainwashing and since she watched Boukenger it should have worked. Things seem over as Blue gets her gun ready to finish the two off, but another Blue appears! Red quickly thinks now that it isn't a brainwashing episode, but its an imposter ranger episode! The two Blues fight each other and during the fight the imposter shows her true identity as it is Malshina. With the real Blue around now Malshina leaves and Rex is left alone to fight. Red is mad that the problem got resolved to quickly, but that should be the good news. The three perform their role calls and this time their logo appears with loud sounds. The fight is an easy one though since the victory flag has already been triggered since Blue came back and they finish Rex off with their finisher. After the fight the two start to look for a gift for Mitsuki. She comes back though and gives something to Hiroyo. They also see that she has some Aoi-tan key chains from a special event. The episode ends with the two ticked off at Mitsuki as she lied the whole time.

Episode 4 is a good episode that plays on an element that Sentai hasn't done that much. I know teammates can be gone in fights, but how this episode did it was different. Mitsuki was mostly gone for the whole episode and we didn't know what she was doing at first. Usually it shows the missing teammate doing their activity, but that is for the comedic ending. I really liked the ending because the two couldn't be otakus while she was gone being one for the Aoi-tan event. I loved seeing Nobuo and Moegi trying to force themselves out of delusions and see reality instead. A bit on the realistic side too for this episode which helped with the humor because the two had to act completely different. Nobuo's cosplay delusion was hilarious! Any big Sentai fan boy knows about the attractive female villains and allies in the franchise and that perversion was just funny to watch, especially at the end of it. The fight with the MOTW and the fake Blue also had good humor because of the constant methods of breaking the brainwash and how all get broken down. Overall the episode didn't have much action compared to past episodes, but what it had was more comedy moments for the characters, I give it a B+

Next Time: Uhhhh......