Ep. 2: Chinese Delusions

Chinese Delusions (妄想拳劇) is the second episode from Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger Season 2 and marks the debut of Luna Iwashimizu as the new Akiba Blue.

Synopsis
Discovering Akibaranger has become official at the cost of Dairanger, Akagi tries to fix matters; but must ultimate reteam with Moegi and an idol wannabe to deal with the new threat to reality.

Plot
Calling Hakase about the Akibaranger merchandise he just saw at the toy store, Akagi finds a strange salesman offering a suspicious merchandise who is revealed to be a monster named Chief Clerk Blu-Ray. Nobuo confronts him as Akiba Red but he finds him overpowered by the monster and sent flying backwards and crash into RyuuRanger of the Dairangers, who believes himself to be China Red of the Chūka Sentai Chinaman, a mascot team of a Chinese restaurant, sporting a similar design to Dairanger's pre-production form. Akiba Red finds himself into a confusion with it until Blu-Ray finds them, and Hakase manages to get Akagi out of the delusion just as he realizes that the Dairangers had indeed lost their official status.

Akagi then heads to the karaoke bar with Hakase and Kozukozu to confirm his suspicions, unknowingly crossing paths with the man behind it. Believing that things may return to normal with Blu-Ray's defeat, the trio decides to have the Akibarangers reassembled. However, Yumeria still has not returned and Mitsuki cannot be contacted, and upon coming across Luna Iwashimizu, an aspiring idol and Akibaranger fan, they recruit her as the new Akiba Blue. As she believes it is all part of a TV show, right down to the transformation into a redesigned Akiba Blue costume, Luna joins Nobuo against Blu-Ray and overwhelms him until he sicks the disturbing Oneeders on the two Akibarangers.

However, Yumeria returns soon after from her business trip and joins the others as a newly designed Akiba Yellow. Despite an out of synch introduction with Luna's terminology of their arsenal, the Akibarangers manage to defeat Blu-Ray with the Inordinate Cannon. However, RyuuRanger does not return to normal and the Akibarangers realize that something else is behind the Dairangers' demotion to unofficial status, and things get even worse when Kiba Ranger appears and attacks them claiming that he has a score to settle with them.

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)
 * General Tsu: Ryo Horikawa (堀川 りょう)
 * Tazuko: Yuki Ueda (植田ゆう希)
 * Salesman: Beauty Kokubu (ビューティーこくぶ)
 * KibaRanger (Voice): Wataru Abe (阿部 渡)
 * China Red (Voice): Tomokazu Seki (関 智一)
 * Chief Clerk Blu-Ray (Voice): Kappei Yamaguchi (山口 勝平)

Tropes and References

 * The episode title is a reference to Dairanger, as much of the series has Chinese influences.
 * Due to the Akibaranger taking Dairanger's position, the main Dairangers themselves are reduced to local heroes called "Chinaman", in reference to their rumored original/pre-production name, Chuuka Sentai Chinaman
 * Supposedly, this episode mocks the Internet rumors that Gosei Sentai Dairanger is going to be called Chuuka Sentai Chinaman. The original title was actually Chuuka Sentai Daikenger.
 * ChinaRed says that he's a "real mascot chara" and that there's no one inside the suit, but he stutters and delivers Chinese food, so in this reality he's probably just an otaku like Nobuo who's lost in his delusions.
 * Also, ChinaRed is delivering gyoza, which was Ryuuranger's main job. His goal was to make the best gyoza in the world, which was even the plot of the Dairanger's tribute episode in Gokaiger.
 * As the effect from Akibaranger taking Dairanger's position, the Dairanger's DX Dairen'oh was replaced by Akibaranger's DX Delusional Combination AkiVulcan Robo, a parody of Sun Vulcan Robo.
 * At the karaoke bar, the songs Nobuo and the others played are titled "Gosei Sentai Akibaranger" by New Jack Takurou, the original singer of the Dairanger's opening theme. The three versions are the original version, the version with footage of the singer, and the version from the TV show. The first line of the song was "Iiits a delusion!! (Mon mon monmon)" (Mousou daaa! (mon mon monmon)).
 * Nobuo finds General Tsu when he overhears him singing "Ginga Honey ", the insert song from Denziman. Tsu sings out "You've come from across the galaxy" to which Nobuo responds, "No, I didn't!". Nobuo recognizes the song was used only once and says that Tsuu is a connoisseur, which in Japanese is pronounced as "Tsuu".
 * There is a slight irony in Tsu's interest in "Ginga Honey"; his actor, Ryo Horikawa, originally portrayed Vegeta in Dragonball Z while the singer of "Ginga Honey" originally was Ryūsei Nakao, who voiced Vegeta's boss and major DBZ villain Frieza.
 * In the Japanese text, it says that Takemoto, Watanabe, and Sakamoto did the first episodes of Shinkenger, Go-Onger, and Gekiranger respectively, but in reality, all three first episodes were initially done by Watanabe.
 * During his first rollcall, Nobuo recommends the obentou from Beauty Zonnette's Kitchen Gynamo. This obentou was appeared in Megaranger VS. Carranger movie.
 * AkibaBlue's rollcall phrase is a reference to Dairanger and likewise states the final part of the roll call as Akagi does the proper Akibaranger one ("Five stars shining in heaven"); this is due to reality's rewriting leading Luna to believe that Akibaranger was indeed the Super Sentai season of 1993.
 * Kibaranger appears in this episode, with an Akibaranger A logo instead of the tiger emblem on his chest coin.

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''.