*Episode 7*
After the usual recap of the last episode the Akibarangers tell Hakase about Malshina appearing in the real world but turns out she doesn’t even know what Malshina or the Akibarangers look like as she only listens to the fights on her computer. Yumeria draws the Akibarangers and Malshina for her to see and she acts very suspicious about the Malshina drawing. Hakase tells them to go get some rest. Later when she’s alone she goes to the back of the café to a safe and pulls out a drawing of Malshina and the Moe Moe Z-Cune left to her by her father.
Mitsuki and Yumeria cosplay as Aoi and Satomi from the Z-cune Aoi anime then re-enact a scene. Nobuo’s boss comes in so he hides, she has a flower delivery from Malshina who has just opened up an evil headquarters. The Akibarangers go check it out. Malshina is an empty room and tells them the people of Akihabara are being turned into vampires. They run outside, she set the vampire on them forcing them to go into the grand delusion.
When they appear there are only a few drones in sports gear. One of the drones comes up and talks to them but is actually this week’s sub-chief who is a spider who control it’s host. The sub-chief is fast and powerful being Olympic themed. Meanwhile in the real world Malshina appears at the sentai café, one of the waitress tries to fight her but is defeated by Malshina’s boobs. Malshina mentions she is Hakase’s father’s but gasses her instead of telling her.
The spider manages to take all three of the Moe Moe Z-Cunes and runs off, the Akibrangers calls the Machine Itassha to try to keep up with him. Malshina is on the microphone impersonating Hakase and tells the Akibarangers to focus only on catching him then they should break through the wall. Hakase wakes up Malshina tells her she wants to break down the wall of the real world and the delusion world as something will happen.
The Akibarangers ‘delusion turns into a digital tron-like world and the sub chief. There is the first robot battle between the spider and the Itassha Robo while a new insert song plays. The spider and Itassha Robo ended up bursting into the real world. The Akibarangers defeat the sub-chief and after seeing themselves running in the corner return to their bodies. We see the Akibarangers going on with their everyday lives as Malshina hasn’t appear for a while but at the end of the episode they get a call from Tsukada, the toei producer.
GRADE
This was a very good episode evolving the plot into more than just a comedy show something I wouldn’t have imagined at the start the series, in terms of story and ideas it’s rivalling some of the official series. The relationship between Hakase, her father and Malshina is very interesting and I hope it has a good conclusion. The boundary between what’s real and a delusion is getting smaller and smaller, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Z-cune character got involved. The new insert song works really well and the first robot fight was worth the wait and the CGI was very well done even though I would have preferred suit work. Seeing the Akibarangers in their normal lives was a very good insight to their characters. The story is getting serious but still keeping it’s humour and knowing how to use each well. The only problem I have is the length of the series as I’m afraid they might rush some of the story. I’m excited for the next episode. 5/5
