*Season 2 Episode 2*
After a recap of the previous episode and the now completed opening, Nobuo finds a salesman in an alley trying to sell a Dream Ray Player that supposedly shows you whatever you want. Of course this is Akihabara so he is trying to sell to a bunch of nerds and they want to see a perverted Z-cune anime. Just before you see anything a fountain of purple blood comes gushing out the nerds’ noses which turn their clothes into cardboard for no given reason. This whole section is very similar to the bubble sheet from last season. Nobuo realises the salesman is a sub section chief and he reveals he is Chief Blu Ray of course Nobuo has to point out the naming scheme has changed. After a quick battery replacement for his Z-cune it’s time to enter the grand delusion.After a little Scooby Doo like antics, Blu Ray shows off a few of his powers including fast forwarding and rewinding. Blu Ray using is 3D function on a sign that brings a truck that runs into AkibaRed blasting him off into the distance. Pow, straight into Ryuranger from Dairanger at least that’s who Nobuo thinks it is but in this timeline he is China Red from Chinese Sentai Chinaman, one of the pre-production names from Dairanger along with eyes original planed for his helmet. He is not an official hero but a mascot character for a Chinese restaurant in fact he fanboys over AkibaRed being the official hero. Blu Ray finds them and uses his Digital to Analogue beam till a building almost fall onto them but Nobuo is kicked out the Delusion. The villain of this season is also shown looking like General Kar from Dynaman.
Back at sentai café all the Diaranger merch has turned into Akibaranger merchandise. They even go to the karaoke club to see if the Dairanger songs are there but they are replaced with Akiba lyrics. They work under the theory that if Chief Blu Ray is destroyed then everything will be back to normal. Nobuo hears a familiar song and runs into one of the nearby rooms. The previous seen villain is in there singing a song only played once in Denjiman. In order to defeat they will need all 3 Akibas but they can’t get a hold of Mitsuki so they have to find a replacement. A high school girl called Luna comes up to Nobuo thinking he is cosplaying AkibaRed and calls herself a mega fan of Akibaranger. Because her name has the kanji for blue in it they ask her to join but she thinks it’s an acting role in a remake to help her idol career. Turns out she auditioned for sentai before but didn’t get the gig but she has since studied on what the directors look for.
Blu ray appears again so it’s time to transform. AkibaBlue’s suit has slight redesign but Luna inside thinks the transformation is just advanced effects so she goes into the fight foolhardy. The grunts for this season are introduced known as Freakers and rightly so as they are serious perverts. Meanwhile at the sentai café Moegi returns dressed smartly for a change but after a quick change into her cat girl outfit she joins the others, AkibaYellow’s suit has also changed. During the roll call Luna does the Dairanger version while the others do the actual one but Nobuo says he’ll explain later. With all three members and the penultimate cannon they take out Blu ray but China Red runs over to them and nothing has changed. Suddenly Kibaranger attacks. The episode ends with a cover of Fight! Sun Vulcan Robo sung by Moegi’s actress.
GRADE
This episode shows Akibaranger has still got it, all the humour and references are still there for any sentai fan to enjoy and discover. Chief Blu Ray was a nice throwback to the designs of the past by turning an everyday object into a monster. Adding Luna gives an interesting dynamic of one of the member being a fan of a different version of the team. The villain being a big sentai nerd like Nobuo can lead to many interesting ideas though out the show. I would have liked an in show explanation for the new designs of Blue and Yellow. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. 5/5