"Go Go Powerful Rangers" What the...? and updates

I don't regularly do these kinds of posts, so I'm going to make this an exception! 

If you haven't been watching season 2 of Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger which is known as Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger: Season 2 (非公認戦隊アキバレンジャー シーズン痛(ツー), then you are really missing out on what is looking to be another very great season! Just like the first season of Akibaranger, season 2 is geared towards more mature audiences for fans of the Super Sentai Series who used to watch it as kids.

I'm not going to give too much away, but season 2 takes place in an alternate world where certain things that happened in the first season didn't happen and the original Akiba Blue, Mitsuki Aoyagi was chosen to go to America to work for the Pentagon instead of Nobuo. In the previous episodes, we have had Kiba Ranger and Ryu Ranger from Gosei Sentai Dairanger make guest appearances as well as Mitsuko Horie, Yuko Yamagata, and even Koichi Sakamoto who is best known for his work as a fight coordinator and director for various shows in both the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai Series as well as various shows in the Power Rangers franchise!

Anyways, on to the reason that I decided to make this latest blog post. There will be some minor spoilers for those of you who haven't watched episode 5 of Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger: Season 2, so if you don't want to be spoiled, you might want to skip ahead. I'm also not going to spoil the entire episode either so please keep that in mind! (SPOILER WARNING!!!!)

Luna Iwashimizu, the new Akiba Blue who replaced Mitsuki Aoyagi saw George Spielburton (A combination of the directors George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton) playing with some Zyuranger figurines and Nobuo Akagi finds out that somehow, Super Sentai's history was changed to being from the United States instead of Japan under the name Powerful Rangers. Dragon Ranger and Tyranno Ranger, now known as Green Powerful Ranger and Red Powerful Ranger attacks the Akibarangers and eventually had to retreat.

Back at the Sentai Cafe which is the Akibarangers headquarters, Kozukozu informs everyone else that somehow reality had been written that Powerful Rangers is the source of the Super Sentai Series instead of it being the other way around with Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger being the first entry which was made from it's American version without permission! (End of spoilers!)

This episode to me played off of the whole "Power Rangers vs. Super Sentai" situation which has been going on within both fandoms in a very comedic and great way. I can understand why the Power Rangers brand name wasn't used again to an extent even though it was used by Ryuji Sainei who made a brief cameo appearance in episode 2 of season 1 of Akibaranger since he voiced Jack Landors, his Power Rangers counterpart in the Japanese dub of Power Rangers SPD. But for the long time fans of Power Rangers that have next to no knowledge of the Super Sentai Series at all whatsoever, they will get quite a few laughs!

It was very strange and weird seeing those things reversed, but it was also funny that Powerful Green Ranger and Powerful Red Ranger as well as the Akibarangers acted exactly just how Power Rangers fans and Super Sentai purists act whenever they get into one of their many debates over "which one is better" and captured that very well in my opinion. 

For those of you who have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, the term Super Sentai purist basically means that the person believes Super Sentai to be better than Power Rangers and that Power Rangers is inferior to the Super Sentai Series or vice versa. Power Rangers purists are pretty much the same way except that their love for Power Rangers does tend to make them closed minded which happens among people in the fandom, but not all Power Rangers fans are like that though however.

I like both Power Rangers and the Super Sentai Series and just don't understand why we can't all get along and learn to like both! Anyways, I promise to try and keep this blog updated regularly even though E3 is right around the corner. So if I don't update the blog right away, don't worry about it since I do have a tendency to get sidetracked. I might not be able to post about everything that happened at E3 this year, but I'll certainly do my best! May the power protect you, always! 

New Hikounin Sentai Akibaranger promo streamed

Just recently, the official Akibaranger website posted the second promo for the upcoming Hikounin Sentai Akibaranger: Season Two which starts on April 6th on BS Asahi which tells us the story for this season which takes place in an alternate universe or parallel world 9 months after the Evil Group Stema Otsu Corporation have been defeated by the Akibarangers!

There will also be plenty of guest stars who have worked on previous tokusatsu shows like Yu Kamio who played Dr. Maki from Kamen Rider OOO, Keiichi Wada, who is best known for his role as Ryo, Ryuu Ranger from Gosei Sentai Dairanger who also made a guest appearance on Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, Sakina Kuwae, best known for her role as Natsume Masaki from Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger, Ichiro Tomita, otherwise known by his stage name MoJo who performed the theme songs for Battle Fever J, Dai Sentai Goggle V, and Kagaku Sentai Dynaman, and Yukio Yamagata who is best known for performing the theme song of the 25th anniversary of the Super Sentai Series, Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger will all make guest appearances.

At the near end of the promo, we are shown the imaginary legends that will be appearing for this season!

Dragon Ranger and Tyranno Ranger from Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger

Black Condor and Blue Swallow from Choujin Sentai Jetman

Deka Yellow from Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger

Bouken Pink from Gogo Sentai Boukenger

And Kibaranger from Gosei Sentai Dairanger

For everyone out there who doesn't know about Power Rangers, Dragon Ranger and Tyranno Ranger had their footage from Zyuranger used for season 1 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as the Green and Red Rangers, and Kibaranger had his footage used for season 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as the White Ranger. The 5 main suits from Zyuranger were used for all 3 seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers until the annual suit change began with Power Rangers Zeo which was a loose adaptation of Chouriki Sentai Ohranger!

Anyways, who else is psyched about season 2 of Akibaranger besides yours truly?

Details of Akibaranger season 2 have emerged!

All of you may remember back in early January of this year, there was an official announcement that a season 2 of the comedic parody of the Super Sentai Series, Hikounin Sentai Akibaranger would be happening and that not much else was known about it!

Now we have more information about the upcoming season as well as the premiere date!

The second season officially called, "Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger: Season Two" (非公認戦隊アキバレンジャー シーズン痛(ツー) will be debuting on BS Asahi which is a broadcasting satellite, as well as Tokyo MX starting on April 6th. The good news is that almost all of the original cast members from the first season will be returning. The bad news is that Kyoko Hinami who is now best known for her role as Mitsuki Aoyagi will not be returning!
Unfortunately, the reason that Kyoko has chosen not to return for season 2 is unknown and left to fan speculation at this point! And as you can imagine, the fans of the first season aren't taking the news very well and are just as amazed and shocked about this as yours truly.
Replacing her will be 14 year old Shione Sawada as the new character, Luna Iwashimizu. And joining the cast for the 2nd season as the new villain is Ryo Horikawa who is the Japanese voice actor for Vegeta in the original Japanese dub of Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, and Dragonball Z Kai as well as Makuramon on the original Japanese dub of Digimon Tamers and as Akumaro Sujigarano on Samurai Sentai Shinkenger as General Tsu.
There's also some new changes to the Akibaranger suits including a garter belt on Akiba Blue's legs, Akibba Blue and Akiba Yellow are sporting new 'hairdo's' for their new outfits, and Akiba Red has an armor upgrade in the form of an Aoi looking girl!

TV Nihon will be subbing Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger: Season Two since they did sub the first season as well as the announcement about season 2 back in January. So be sure to go to TV Nihon to download the fan subs as soon as they are released. Still no word on if Over-Time will be subbing Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger: Season Two at this time.