Saturday, July 06, 2013

Farewell Akibarangers さらば、アキバレンジャー


And so with another 13 episodes gone, season 2 of Hikounin Sentai Akibarangers has come to an end. Will this be the last? Hopefully not, considering it's been a blast watching how the show makes fun of Super Sentai tropes.


The show's primary audience are the adults who grew up watching Sentai. It takes references from previous shows, and makes fun of them at times, which gives hilarious results. The main character who's a sentai fan will notice certain "flags" raised by the enemy, and by doing so he's assured of victory. For example, whenever a main villain leaves the monster of the week alone when he's winning and says "I'll leave the rest up to you" he goes into cocky mode and knows he'll win for sure. Or when a new weapon comes, a new member joins, etc. And he makes use of this knowledge to beat difficult villains. It's hard to explain, but it's really funny.


There are even episodes where they make fun of the American Power Rangers. In this episode the original Red and Green Rangers become brainwashed and Americanised, and they have to remind them of their Japanese origins. Brilliant.



While I understand not many non-Japanese viewers or Sentai fans can understand the series, the creativity of the writers never fail to amaze me. This series takes a step away from the official line up, and the results are refreshingly entertaining. Here's hoping for a season 3. :) 非公認戦隊アキバレンジャーシーゾン「痛」は最終回で終わってしまいました。スーパ戦隊が大好きからこの番組はとても面白いと思った。シーゾン3の公表までに、さよなら、アキバレンジャー!

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