Recap / Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger S 2 E 05

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Tropes

• Celebrity Paradox: American director George Spielburton is played by Koichi Sakamoto, who was mentioned in an earlier episode as a Sentai director.
• Cute Monster Girl: Tsuu Shogun makes clear his preference for this type of villain, compared to the bossy Lady of War types.
• Evil Counterpart: Akina Maihame is a rival to Luna who is under the wing of the Big Bad, just as Akagi and Yuko are trying to brig Luna onto their team.
• Fleeting Demographic Rule: Subtly Lampshaded, with Malshiina only mentioning that “a pair of dinosaur guys showed up”, which leads Tsuu Shogun to create a Trinoid, since she provided no details.
• Given Name Reveal: Tsuu Shogun’s real surname is revealed to be Ushirozama.
• Mythology Gag: Akina wins over the director by doing the Queen’s dance of greed.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In so much as Luna can be considered a hero at this point. Her belief that Sentai is adapted from an American show rewrites reality among these lines.
• Only in It for the Money: Luna will only work with the Akibarangers due to a contract with her agency, and even then, only when she can get paid.
• Shout-Out:
  • Aside from Powerful Rangers, this episode has an American successful director named George Spielburton. Who made a successful alien movie called E.T.E.
  • The brief discussion of Gaoranger being the first Super Sentai and being an unlicensed foreign knock-off refers to a Fan Dumb portion from Korea, who were annoyed when the broadcasters replaced actual Power Rangers with Sentai starting with Gaoranger, leading many to assume it had been replaced with a knockoff.
• Truth in Television: Akagi says that the Zyusouken is valuable because it can reproduce the sounds from the toy. While that may seem trivial with Heisei-era Tokusatsu toylines, back in 1992, this was a rare occurrence.

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