Well it's finally time I started to do reviews on Akibaranger season two. I know I am rather late, but for this week I will be doing one per day and if I cannot then I will do Wizard or Kyoryuger. I know I am behind on things and I still have to do that Megaforce review, but I want to wait till the hiatus is over so that episode can stay fresh in my head. Anyways let's dive into the delusional world again with our unofficial heroes, Akibaranger!
Now here is the first thing I am going to cover, the first season's plot is mostly changed. I am sad to see this, since the ending for season one still kept the fight happening so it could have easily been done. It would also be great to see this episode go over about what happened in the nine months after the original ending. It would have been interesting to see how the team slowly separated and this could have been because of being bored of doing the same thing over and over again since all they have to fight is Malshina. This isn't too big since this episode does cover the big changes that do happen as there are many changes. Now here's the thing though, are these changes good or bad?
In the beginning of the episode there are small changes occurring as Nobou and Hakase are talking about the past. The beginning seems like it stayed the same as episodes one are two are kept in place. We see the three being gathered and become the Akibarangers. Then we see Nobou retiring quickly cause nothing he was doing was even real. We get commentary from these two as it just reminds me of the flashback episode in season one. It was still a fun watch, but it doesn't leave a good after taste though. Well with this, it's like eating something and while you enjoy the flavor as it is it changes suddenly. Now you have something new to taste right away and you don't know what to think when at the moment. That is what the changes feel to me as they did slap me across the face unexpectedly.
First thing to say though, I don't hate all then changes, heck some are there to be funny. Like how we hear what happens in episode three with that creepy MOTW who molested Red all the time. Well it seems Mitsuki defeated him in a much different way. She defeated the creature by wearing a white swimsuit and wearing cat ears and paws....... Well Moegi was the only witness so she could have been just drunk and just had a crazy delusion while in a delusion. Then the biggest change is Hakase's father who was a big villain in the first season. He still made the technology for the Akibarangers, but he had no further involvement. Not that's kinda a bad thing to me since he was just a fun character in the first season. He was a huge reference to leader villains from the Showa era and his actor made his presence feel stronger. Now who took his place though?
The series didn't add a new villain, yet, but Delusion Knight became the bigger villain for the heroes. Also the delusions were still leaking into reality so at least the biggest plot changer for the series stayed in. The knight gets an odd introduction though as he was the pedophile that confused Moegi for a boy. So yea does that mean Delusion Knight is a pedophile? Going on another big change occurs with Mitsuki as you instantly notice as her hair is slightly longer than usual. Yea they did shoot new footage which is good so that they can show scenes to get around some parts, but they couldn't her hair short? They even show the other scenes so it's just bad continuity. Call it nit-picking if you want, but that's just lazy to not have her hair shorter for a couple of new scenes. Continuing on the biggest change for Mitsuki is that she gets the offer to join the Pentagon. In the first season it was Nobou who got the offer, but this time it actually happens.
If you all didn't follow the news about the second season, the actress who played Mitsuki, Kyoko Hinami had to leave for her other work in the media. I forget exactly what she is doing now, but the main point is that she won't be in the series anymore. I know a lot of fans were not happy with this happening as I am happy as well, but I not flaming mad like others. All I have to say is that her replacement has a large role to fill. With this the series had to think of a way to get rid of her even though they could have easily done that even with continuing onwards with the original story. So in the end Mitsuki leaves the team to join with the Pentagon, a lot of people are going to miss her.
Then there was another thing that was bugging me at times, which was with the new footage being mixed with the old footage. I was expecting it when I first heard the original story was being changed, but along with Mitsuki's hair there was another big change. This was the lighting, again call it nit-picking, but there are huge changes into the shooting of the new scenes. It's just inconsistent and laziness cause they could have easily shot a whole new scene, but nope there was a lot of editing around as it just made some scenes feel odd because of this. Going on with the episode there was some new footage added in as we see Nobuo had some different fantasies when he was dreaming of the girls cosplaying. There was Mari Gold, White Racer, and Frabeejo. Overall the changes were bad at times mostly because of poor editing and I'm not a fan of messing with the original story, but I have a feeling that something might happen.
The finale also gets a big change as our heroes have one huge final battle with Malshina and Delusion Knight! First, the Delusion Knight had the power to revive his comrades back from hell and they came back much stronger than before. Our heroes get in a big pinch as they keep fighting and then are saved by the official heroes! First this scene happens in the beginning of the episode, but when the officials come they are figurines. It was funny to see that since it the figures had sticks on them as they were places at locations with the pictures of the monsters inserted. Still that scene had some odd slow downed perspective as it got choppy a lot of times. I guess it's supposed to show a dream, but I instantly got that when the official members were on sticks!
Soon though we see the real final battle as we see the scene again, but this time it's suit action and not figure action. I really liked seeing the real heroes come in and help the heroes not only because team ups are great, but with the low budget that Akibaranger has we get to see just pure fighting. Along with that the fight actually went on for three days and nine hours as the fight was shown by freeze frames, sort of as we still see movement in the heroes. Sadly no original voice actors came back, but I think the actors they did get to sound or not sound like the heroes was slightly funny. Then I love hearing the Jetman ending theme during that! Finally though there is the mecha fight as Malshina controls the mech from the original series. Then our heroes appear in their robo which was a figurine. Yea all they did was put some strings on and had a blast doing that scene. Now I will let that get away since it was a huge comedic purpose and it was well done. I know they made it obvious for this reason.
I mean look at that so fake sun!
The ending of the episode is what I liked the most though as it leaves with a big hanger. First is that along with Mitsuki leaving, Moegi left as well for unknown reasons. So now it is only Nobuo as he still sticks to his delivery boy job, oh yea and Sayaka isn't around either so no love for Nobuo :(. While on his job though he stumbles upon Akibaranger merchandise? He goes into the store to see if this is true as it seems Akibaranger is the seventeenth Sentai series! Nobuo even gets into an argument with the store owner who is played by Yuu Kamio who was Dr. Maki from OOO. I can probably tell that Akibaranger is going to give little tributes to other franchises because of that scene. They even had Yuu hold Bae on his shoulder, but you can see the doll from OOO in the background. The important thing is that Dairanger has been replaced and it doesn't even exists now! This is an utter nightmare!
(Not this picture though)
Overall the episode still gave me some fun moments thanks to some changes for comedic purposes. Also I really loved the ending for this episode as it's a real shocker. I still got issues though since I don't like it when original stories are toyed around with. I really don't see why these changes were made and with the bad editing that was done it makes me wonder why didn't they just stick with the original story? I would give the episode a C+ since it's still a nice introduction in ways, but again this episode gave me some bad things to taste.
Next Time: What has happened to Dairanger?
No comments:
Post a Comment