Ep. 7: Race Deludedly, Itashar! Break Your Limits!

Race Deludedly, Itashar! Break Your Limits! (妄走イタッシャー限界突破せよ!) is the seventh episode of Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger. It partly reveals the origins of ©Na and the MMZ-01.

Synopsis
After somehow escaping the Delusion, ©Na opens up her own Sentai Cafe in Akihabara. Even worse, she has taken Hakase hostage. Can the Akibarangers stop her plans, and what is the connection between ©Na and Hakase?

Plot
At Café Himitsukichi, Akagi, Mitsuki, and Yumeria tell Hiroyo about Malseena entering the real world. Hiroyo is further puzzled after seeing Yumeria's drawing of Malseena, which matches an illustration of her done by her father, Takehiro Tsuzuki, who designed the MMZ-01. Later, the café receives a basket of purple flowers from Malseena's upcoming evil maid café Warukichi. Akagi, Mitsuki, and Yumeria race to the café's location to confront Malseena, who informs them that contrary to Akagi's beliefs, she is not a figment of his imagination. She then tells them of a vampire attack at Akiba Square across the street. The trio then run to stop the vampires from harming innocent civilians. When Malseena fires at them, they change into the Akibarangers to engage her in battle. However, Mitsuki interrupts their roll call when she notices that their arch-nemesis is nowhere to be seen in the delusion. While this is going on, Malseena is seen handing freebies to people who put on vampire teeth for the act. In the delusion, the Akibarangers confront a group of Shatieeks led by Yoyogi Sujibokehashirigumo, a spider-like Chief Clerk latched on the back of a Shatieek. Using his enhanced physical abilities, Yoyogi disarms the Akibarangers of their MMZ-01 units before swallowing them, forcing the trio to summon Machine Itashar to chase after him. Meanwhile, Malseena invades Café Himitsukichi and knocks out Kozkoz before incapacitating Hiroyo with sleeping gas and abducting her, revealing herself to be Takehiro's creation. Impersonating Hiroyo's voice in the communicator, Malseena sets up a trap by encouraging the Akibarangers to increase their Delusion Power to catch up with Yoyogi. Back in the delusion, the Akibarangers combine their Delusion Powers to eliminate the background and focus on Yoyogi, who changes into a giant spider during the chase. Itashar Robo engages Yoyogi in battle, but the Chief Clerk traps it in a pile of virtual debris. Yoyogi drops a giant fireball for the killing blow while releasing the three MMZ-01 units. In an act of desperation, Itashar Robo punches through the wall upon contact with the MMZ-01 units, causing it to enter the real world. Yoyogi also exits the delusion, but Itashar Robo destroys him using a rifle formed out of a sign board. The Akibarangers then confront Malseena, who is holding Hiroyo hostage, but they suddenly see their normal selves before disappearing into the MMZ-01 units. Akagi, Hiroyo and Yumeria wake up from their delusion as Malseena releases Hiroyo before walking away, having completed her objective of making the Akibarangers break the wall between delusion and reality. Hiroyo tells the trio that with their delusion entering reality, they have now become real superheroes. As Malseena does not show up for a while, the trio continue to live their normal lives as they read news reports and tweets on the Akiba Square incident. Back at the café, the trio happily watch Z-Cune Aoi and the Legendary Door on Blu-ray when the phone rings and Yumeria answers it. She then informs Hiroyo that a Toei producer Hideaki Tsukada is on the other line, much to everyone's shock as Kozkoz throws a bowl of snacks in the air.

Cast

 * Nobuo Akagi: Masato Wada (和田 正人)
 * Mitsuki Aoyagi: Kyoko Hinami (日南 響子)
 * 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)

Suit actors

 * Akiba Red: Sanshiro Wada (和田 三四郎)
 * Akiba Blue: Haruka Oshima (大島 遥)
 * Akiba Yellow: Fusayo Fujita (藤田 房代)
 * Chief Clerk: Tomohiko Akiyama (秋山 智彦)

Tropes and References

 * At the beginning of the battle, Nobuo states his favorite character from Hikari Sentai Maskman was Commander Sanjuurou Sugata.
 * The stand full of figurines that Hakase is holding is a set of Bandai's Girls in Uniform line of Super Sentai and Rider heroines; in particular she holds one of Beauty Zonnette
 * When one of the Droans starts spinning a Pink Ribbon, it is reminiscent of its usage as a weapon of Goggle V
 * When defending Hakase from ©na, Kozukozu grabs the Laser Magnum, the close combat weapon of the Maskmen.
 * The guy reciting the scene alongside Mitsuki and Yumeria is Keiichi Sato, character designer of Akibaranger (and also of Z-Cune Aoi)
 * On Akagi's cellphone the cited source is IC Sports, a parody of Daily Sports, one of the largest newspapers in Japan. IC is a reference to Denzi Dog IC, a robotic companion of Denziman.
 * There is an obvious parody of Twitter as well as clients for the tweets:
 * tikupple for keitai: Twitter for iPhone
 * tikuut dock: Tweetdeck
 * keitai web: mobile web (twitter's mobile web)
 * The Toei Producer Hideaki Tsukada is credited in the making of Toei shows such as Kamen Rider W, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger and Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger.
 * "Break your limits" in the episode title is similar to Go-On Gold's roll call phrase, "Break the Limit".

Songs

 * Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger (opening)
 * Heroic Lily
 * Ashita wa Akiba no Kaze ga Fuku (ending)

DVD/Blu-ray releases
Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger Volume 3 features episodes 7-9: ''Ep. 7: Race Deludedly, Itashar! Break Your Limits!, Ep. 8: Bonds of Lame Training! A Fork in the Road to Official-ness!, and Ep. 9: Lame Sentai Disbands''.