Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger Episode 8 - The Roads Forged Through Painful Special Training Lead Down The Road of Becoming Official To a Conspiracy - Review / Thoughts

I can't believe it's been 8 weeks (almost 9 now) since Akibaranger first came to our screens, but is it finally showing signs of slowing down in terms of producing quality episodes?

That's the question I have been asking myself, as they certainly seem to be getting less enjoyable than before, and this episode is no exception. The thing that makes me (and others I assume) like the show so much is for all the crazy and silly things that happen, and the kind of things the Akibarangers themselves say and do.

You have the delusional Otaku Akagi who is just obsessed with Sentai, Yumeria who loves to cosplay and write doujinshi, and Mitsuki, the most serious member who likes martial arts (and to a lesser extent Anime and Sentai as well). Together the 3 of them have made for quite a hilarious trio, and for differing reasons they each have their own quality and charm that makes the episodes enjoyable.

Sadly though since bringing the element of Malshina and the delusions in to the real world, a lot of the comedy seems to be disappearing, and the character's personality seems to be shining through less. Yumeria and Akagi don't seem as crazy or deluded anymore, and Mitsuki, well, she is pretty much the same since she was mainly the most serious character anyway.

The problem is, when you have a parody series that is mainly supposed to be used for laughs, trying to drag a more serious element in to it is the last thing you want to do. I admit I was really interested to see how things would be once things entered the real world, but I hate the feeling that the characters are getting less chance to be their crazy selves, and instead are trying to play up the more serious angle too much.

Not that they are completely erased or the humour is gone entirely, that would be extremely misleading, it's just that compared to at the start it certainly is. As a result, the episode quality has unfortunately started to dip a bit, and in my honest opinion this episode was no better than average, something I am rather sorry to say considering how much enjoyment I have had overall from the series so far.

I would definitely like to see the character's personality play more of a role again, and also a few more Sentai cameos would be nice too. But I have far from given up on the series, and I still have hope things will improve again, so I still have to recommend the series and advise you stick out what could very well be just a minor blip along the road.