Luna is leaving the team?! Moegi is MARRIED?!  Akagi’s paradigm is harshly shifted at the start of the fourth episode of Akibaranger Season 2.  Nothing seems to be cheering him up lately, and even his precious Aoi-tan is under fire from a vicious new monsterkin (with a very diabolical special power.)  Will he be able to hold his team together, and keep his own delusions fueled enough to save the day?  Yep! Probably!

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So Luna is off the team (though we all know that didn’t last long with Aoyagi in S1 so don’t hold your breath.)  She wants to focus on being a great idol and the life of a Sentai teammate just doesn’t give enough time for uploading videos to Nico NicoTube.  Despite Hakase Hakase Hakase’s insisting she come back , Luna seems fairly certain she’s not ready to drop her dreams just yet.

Meet the monster of the week, as he does his best Fr. Guido Sarducci.  The lesson here is that Aoi-tan seems to be the only thing holding the denizens of Akiba together, and that’s obviously totally sinful!  He transforms into a humorous take on the Sun Vulcan “Monger” monsters, a giant Smartphone Monger, capable of spreading spoilers directly into the heads of unsuspecting Otaku and altering their perception of Aoi-tan.  The Pastebin notes on the show give some great insight into this joke, be sure to give them a read.  The Sun Vulcan fight that Akibared and yellow have against the goons early on is spot on with its editing and style, throwing the show back about 35 years for a few hilarious moments.

Finally the big secret Moegi has been keeping is let loose in this episode, and it’s more or less what I predicted…she got married during the break!  Yamada Yuko is now Yokoyama Yuko, and her strict no-nonsense mother-in-law has forbid her from otaku behavior…so she’s keeping it on the sly!  Akagi is a little heartbroken he didn’t make the invite list to her wedding, since apparently everyone else knew about it but him.   I’m really glad this reveal was something sort of “normal” for the world of Akibarager.  If she had been pregnant with Kibaranger’s child or been replaced by some kind of alternate dimension look a like I would have not really be surprised ..but Moegi is now two for two on “domestic” episodes (after the great season 1 episode featuring her mother.)  For a yaoi obsessed manga-ka and cosplayer she’s able to ground herself far better than Akagi, and shows a kind of maturity that balances her nutty side perfectly.

The battle against the monster of the week takes an AWESOME turn when Malshina shows up touting the fancy new “Moya Moya Z-cune”, a repainted version of the Moe Moe Z-cune the team uses to transform.  And at Akagi’s suggestion Malshina does just that, transforming into a buxom super villain suit with her fashion sense.  Malshina grows ever more interesting as this show’s “Goldar”, the villain you can always count on.  Sexy, smart, silly and now, super powered.  Oh, and the sound effects her transformation and final attack make are priceless.

In order to jumpstart the team’s delusion engine, Moegi knuckles down to drawn some boy love manga.  With her new mother hovering around the house, she sneaks Akagi in as her personal manservant (and shibari model), to create a masterpiece in ink.  By the time she’s done we’ve learned a very cool secret about her new mother in law, and she’s finished one of the most inspirational manga’s Akagi had ever seen…especially since it was about him!  Yes, she wasn’t drawing boy love…it was the story of Akagi and his waifu, Aoi-tan.  I won’t say anymore, the sequence is really quite good.  And at the end of it…We finally get eyes on the fancy new power up! Super Akibared is born!  Akagi’s delusions have never been stronger, nor his love for Aoi-tan!  Luna even returns (No spoiler there…but it’s yet to be explained why she returned).  Things seem to be going great for the team at the end of this story arc, and the preview for this week’s episode look mega promising.  More Jason David Frankranger action (they HAVE to be making some kind of Power Ranger reference…maybe eventually) with Zyuranger being teased, and who knows what else.  If this season is about the same length as season 1, then we’re almost halfway done already!  The answers are coming slowly, and I’m looking forwards to each one.