Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Preview: Hikounin Sentai Akibaranger


4th July 2012 edit: I wrote a review based on the complete series. You can read it here

Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger is Toei's official Super Sentai Parody. It's written, directed and produced by people that actually work in Super Sentai series. And it's aimed at adults, so, as they say at the end, good kids shouldn't watch it. Synopsis from The Morphing Grid:

AkibaRanger will tell the story of three people being part of an otaku club and living in the new "Electric-Town" Akihabara. They will have to fight a mysterious malevolent entity that swore to conquer Earth with cool gadgets created by a brilliant genius. The Akibaranger's secret base/hideout is a "Sentai Cafe," a Super Sentai version of the popular maid cafe in Japan.



Nobuo Akagi, the AkibaRed (the aka in Akagi means red), is a 29 year old delivery boy from S.P.D (Sasaki PomPoko Delivery) and is a super sentai otaku. He's also a fan of Niiyome Academy Z-Cune Aoi (Aoi-tan, for the fans), a parody of Strike Witches. AkibaBlue Mizuki Aoyagi (Aoi means blue) is a martial artist that joined the Akibarangers to become stronger. She is the "normal" member of the group, but not that "normal". AkibaYellow Yumeria Moegi (Yumeria is written with the characters for Yellow and Moe) is a cosplayer and is always saying nyaah! Their boss is Hiroyo Hakase (Hakase means professor), the owner of the Secret Base Café.


They use a device called MMZ-01 to transform. MMZ-01 is a play with Moe Moe Z-Cune, since the device is a Aoi-tan figurine. Their car is an itasha (google it) car called Machine Itassher. And it becomes their mecha Robo Itassher.

The Akibarangers fight the evil Sutema Corporation. The name is a wordplay, but since it's too soon, I couldn't find a decisive translation. Their boss is a woman named Marushina and their soldiers are salarymen.


The production value is pretty high, and even though it's a parody, everything is as well done as in a normal series. 

Right off the start, there were cameos from Sentai actors, tons of references and homages to the Sentai franchise. But they also made fun of many of the franchise's tropes. Also, the show was full of jokes about the otaku and the japanese anime otaku subculture, including Akibaranger's target audience, the Sentai fans. Even the songs are full of jokes. And since there's a lot of girls and they're all cute, I guess they'll go for some   sex jokes.

I really liked it and, if things keep going like that, it'll be an awesome show.

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