Ep. 3: Martial Arts Delusion

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

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 .
 * 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.

Errors

 * to be added

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''.