Ep. 3: Martial Arts Delusion

Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger Season 2, Episode 3

## Episode Guide

**Martial Arts Delusion** (妄想拳劇, *Mōsō-ken Geki*) is the third episode from Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger Season 2.

## Synopsis

Luna is now part of the team as the new AkibaBlue. The Akibarangers are trying to find out what happened to the Dairangers and why they were replaced as the 17th Super Sentai. KibaRanger attacks. Why is he wearing the Akibaranger logo on his chest?

## Plot

With the Akibarangers having a hard time defending themselves against Kiba Ranger, Malseena appears before them, much to their surprise, claiming that following her defeat, she was brought back to life by the "New Dimensional Intellect Remodeling Underground True Empire Baros lol" after her body was trapped in the Artic, but she fails to convince Akagi and Yumeria with such an absurd story. Malseena then retreats and Kiba Ranger leaves soon after, swearing to return and bring them down for good in their next encounter. Back to reality, the Akibarangers learn from Kozukozu's research about *Gosei Sentai Akibaranger* on the Wikipedia that this series was the biggest commercial failure in the Super Sentai history, lasting for only 13 episodes. Akagi then realizes that Kiba Ranger was meant to be introduced later in the show, but it was not possible with its early cancellation, explaining his anger at them.

Meanwhile, Malseena complains with her new employer, General Tsu about her obviously false explanation for her return concocted by him, which he claims to be inspired by the character of Queen Hedrian, a villain that was defeated in *Denshi Sentai Denziman* and later revived in the following series *Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan*. While General Tsu sends the Chief Editor HVD to assist Malseena and Kiba Ranger, Akagi and the others come with a plan to have the Dairangers remember their true selves. Once returning to the Delusion World, the Akibarangers kidnap China Red to have him watch a poorly executed reenactment of Dairanger's opening clip made by them, just to be forced to flee after Malseena and the others appear.

Once away from the enemy, Akagi manages to have Ryu Ranger remember himself and return to normal after reenacting one of his most famous scenes from *Dairanger*, the climactic duel between Ryo and Jin Matoba, and Yumeria does the same with Kiba Ranger once he appears to confront them. HVD comes soon after to fight them just to be defeated once the two Dairangers entrust the Akibarangers with their Inordinate Power, the Dairan Bomber, which they use to finish him. While celebrating their victory, Akagi and the others wonder about the real intentions of their new enemies, but much to their shock, Luna expresses her will to quit the team as she knows it will not be of any help with her career.

## Cast

* Nobuo Akagi: Masato Wada (和田 正人, *Wada Masato*)
* Luna Iwashimizu: Shione Sawada (澤田 汐音, *Sawada Shione*)
* Yumeria Moegi: Karin Ogino (荻野 可鈴, *Ogino Karin*)
* Hiroyo Hakase: Maaya Uchida (内田 真礼, *Uchida Maaya*)
* Kozukozu Mita: Kozue Aikawa (愛川 こずえ, *Aikawa Kozue*, of Danceroid)
* ©Na: Honoka (穂花, *Honoka*)
* General Tsu: Ryo Horikawa (堀川 りょう, *Horikawa Ryō*)
* Himself: Yukio Yamagata (山形 ユキオ, *Yamagata Yukio*)
* Himself: MoJo
* RyuuRanger (Voice): Keiichi Wada (和田 圭市 Wada Keiichi, *Keiichi Wada*)
* Kiba Ranger (Voice): Wataru Abe (阿部 渡, *Abe Wataru*)
* China Red (Voice): Tomokazu Seki (関 智一, *Seki Tomokazu*)
* Chief Editor HVD (Voice): Kappei Yamaguchi (山口 勝平, *Yamaguchi Kappei*)

## Gallery

Scg051013 2116 34.jpgChinaWhite appears in front of Akibarangers.Scg051013 2150 18.jpgThe DX Moya Moya Z-Cune is shown in this episode.Scg051013 2207 13.jpgThe Akibarangers dressed in Chinese costumes during their attempt to tranquilize ChinaRed.Vlcsnap-2013-04-29-10h58m25s201.pngThe Akibarangers paralyzed by Yuko Yamagata and MoJo singing Gaoranger and Battle Fever J theme songs after being hit by Kibaranger's Byakkoshinken Howling Echo attacks.Vlcsnap-2013-04-29-11h11m21s88.pngThe Akibarangers reenact Dairanger's opening theme song to restore ChinaRed's memory as Ryuuranger.Scg051013 2224 42.jpgAkibarangers, Ryuuranger and Kibaranger performing roll calls.Scg051013 2223 59.jpgThe Akibarangers obtained Dairanger's Ludicrous Power, the Dairen Bomber.
## Tropes and References

* When Malshina re-appears in front of Akibarangers, she recites the line of her revival from the iceberg. Actually, the line was from Queen Hedrian's revival from Denziman to Sun Vulcan.
* The summons by Byakkoshinken during his Howling Echo are Yukio Yamagata and MoJo (who likewise sing this season's theme) simultaneously singing their most notable opening themes: *Gaoranger Hoero!!* and *Battle Fever J.*
* General Tsu's monster creation is reminiscent of clay mold monsters made by Pleprechuan from *Zyuranger*, since both of their creations was made out of clay mold.
	+ Once the mold has been made, General Tsu then put his monster creation on top of the platform and then flips the switch to transfer it into the delusion world. This method is similar to how Megazord's monsters were transported in *Go-Busters*.
* The monster this week is similar to the monsters of the Gorma Tribe of Dairanger, being associated with an inanimate object and having an official title. Most of the Gorma monsters was well-known for one-eyed motif.
* Above Sentai Cafe's wall, two signature plaques signed by Sentai directors is clearly seen. The first signature plaque was signed by director Katsuya Watanabe on September 12, 2002. While the second signature plaque was from director Noboru Takemoto, dated January 6, 2013.
	+ Incidientally, the September 12, 2002 signature was placed during the time Watanabe directs *Hurricaneger* series. The date fits between Scroll 29 and Scroll 30 .
	+ The other date was during *Go-Busters'* Mission 45 aired. Takemoto didn't direct the episode, but the episode was written by Kento Shimoyama, and both of them did a lot of collaborations throughout Go-Busters series.
* It also mention that Gosei Sentai Akibaranger had being cancelled after 13 episodes (which is the true length of the original Akibaranger series), but it would have been a slap in the face if they were an original 50 or something episode series.
	+ In the alternate universe, the Akibaranger was written by Naruhisa Arakawa, the main writer of the original Akibaranger series. However in Dairanger, he only wrote about 10-12 episodes.
	+ The wiki article then describes that the Akibaranger is a dismal failure series, and they had to brought in the writer Toshiki Inoue to fix it. This is a reference to the shakeup that occured in *Kamen Rider HibikiFile:Icon-crosswiki.png*.
	+ Finally, after the whole article there's a "Needs citation" link, meaning that none of the information that they read can be verified.
* During the Akibarangers reenacting Dairanger's opening theme song, they hum out the Ryuuranger part, since they want China Red to remember it.
* The fight between Akiba Red and China Red is an reenactment of Ryo's fight with Jin Matoba from the Dairanger episode It it iit's the Final Punch. During the fight, the famous Dairanger transformation music is heard when Ryo recovers his memories.
* The talk between Akiba Yellow and Kibaranger is an reenactment of Lin and Kou's talk in An Idol's First Experience.
	+ Nobuo's explanation for the reenactment being "This is what an otaku is" is a reference to Captain Marvelous justifications for his actions "This is what a pirate is".
	+ In the roll call, Nobuo mentions about Phoenix Noodles, the noodle cup that Lin hold during her magazine advertisement promotion shooting from the same episode.
		- Luna then mentions that she loves sardines, and told not to underestimate them. If you look closely in Japanese, the thing is a basically a pun on her roll call. The word that Luna spelled was IWASHI daisuki, anadoRUNA.
* The moment before Ryuuranger and Kibaranger gave the Ludicrous Power to Akibarangers, Ryuuranger told AkibaRed that "he can turn everyone's cry into a smile". This line is from Dairanger's opening theme song.
* The Dairanger's Ludicrous Power, the Dairen Bomber is a reference of Dairanger's Chi-Power Bomber, since the gun resembles the hand's position of Dairangers performing the Chi-Power Bomber attacks.
* After the HVD Chief Clerk was defeated, General Tsu in his rage picks up Kirika from his Girls in Uniform collection and nearly throws her, but then stops and apologizes. It's worth noting that since his thing is bad guys, as most of his figures are female villains. The red figure looks like Princess Chimera from *Dynaman*, while the black figure looks like Farrahcat from *Bioman*, and on the right is Mele from *Gekiranger*, which is a limited edition release. Behind him likewise are heads of both Bio Hunter Silva and Nefelura on his shelf.
* At the end of the episode, when Nobuo asks the visitors about Dairanger, the visitor then mentions about Dairen'oh, Won Tiger, Chi-Power Bomber and JuuKouKiDen.
* The ending theme for this episode is *Go! Love Sick*, an insert song from *GoGo-V*.

## Notes

 File:Scg051013 2152 12-1-.jpg
* Keiichi Wada who portrays Ryuuranger in Dairanger, does the original voice when he returns to normal. He doesn't show up in the filming, but he appears as a still image as Akagi's role in Gosei Sentai Akibaranger.
	+ Coincidentally enough, Keiichi and Masato Wada's surnames are written with the same kanji.
* HVD stands for Holographic Video Disc, an optical disc that has a 6TB capacity and might be a future standard for Quad HD and Ultra HD. Needless to say, if HVD is actualized very soon, it will surpass the Blu-Ray format in terms of quality.
* When Akibarangers received a business card from Malshina, the business card was said a new group name Baros LOL and her title was "Female Commander". The address in 0-4-7, Mousou ward, Irokoi block. Irokoi means "bewitching love".
* Some of the comment words are flying when HVD Chief Clerk was transported to the delusional world. The comment was written "It's over!!", "Malshina has arrived!!", "LOL explanation", "Akibarangers has arrived!!" and "Sutema" in Japanese.
* When they look up for page about Akibaranger, the site was actually a Mikiqedia, which is just a Wikipedia site with W flipped over and p is mirrored into a q.

## DVD/Blu-ray releases

*Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger Season 2* Volume 1 features episodes 1-3: *Ep. 1: Delusional War*, *Ep. 2: Chinese Delusions*, and *Ep. 3: Martial Arts Delusion*.

AkibarangerS2 DVD Vol 1.jpg*Akibaranger* S2 Volume 1, DVD coverAkibarangerS2 Blu-ray Vol 1.jpg*Akibaranger* S2 Volume 1, Blu-ray cover