Crosses the Line Twice: Akagi failing to save a mugging victim? Funny. The mugging "victim" picking up his bike and throwing it at the mugger? Absolutely hilarious!
In the same vein, Akagi falling for Malshina disguising herself as Sayaka once? Shocking, twice? Funny. Thrice? Hilarious.
Faux Symbolism: The Mooks are monster heads (styled after salarymen) on top of civilian-looking outfits. Working-class uniforms to be precise.
Kozukozu's dancing is usually played for laughs, even turned into a Funny Background Event sometimes. Then came the Wham Arc, with Marushina invading the cafe... and Kozukozu actually takes up arms and battles her. And loses badly. Yet, some time later, she's back on her feet, dancing for her customers like nothing happened. Heh. Bet a lot of you are feeling really bad right about now.
The whole plotline about the Akibarangers trying to appeal to Toei to get their own TV show could be considered a minor one of these after it's discovered that they already have one, it's the show you're watching, and the very company they were pinning all their hopes on is messing with their lives for fun.
Nobuo's "so expensively cheap" line in #1 is ringing uncomfortably true now with the prices of the official merch — a working scale MMZ-01 will run a fan $150, while the S.H.Figuarts Itasha Robo is set to go for $450. In fact, that very line is being used in advertisements for the Itassha Robo.
The Reveal that the Akibarangers already have a show and it's undergoing a massive retool stops being funny and starts being prophetic due to the fact that their official counterpart is undergoing that same thing. Whether it was as drastic as in Akibaranger is up for the individual to decide.
The episode where Mitsuki reveals she's leaving the team — only to add that it's for a martial arts camp and that she'll be back — stings a little bit with the knowledge that Kyoko Hinami will not be returning for season 2. The damage is thankfully lessened that she is back for the 1st episode of Season 2, which was explaining why she wouldn't be in the team anymore: Due to massive Retcon, Mitsuki was the one being recruited by the Pentagon instead of Akagi. It also explains why she has longer hair in the reshot scenes, despite the glaring continuity error when these scenes are spliced with the original S1 scenes.
The ending of season two has the spirits of the deceased Akibarangers stating that should there be a demand for a third season, Saburo Hatte could find a way to bring them back. As of 2023, there's no third season.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: The Prism Ace being a parody to the Ultra Series and a satire of Chaiyo Productions, along the fact that he was defeated at the end brings to a more meaningful level that as of 2017, Tsuburaya Productions had officially won their long legal battle against Chaiyo and even collaborated with Toei (the very company that owns Super Sentai) in producing the Kaiju Anime Kaiju Decode.
Nichijou had the infamous Overly Long Gag "Hakase de nyan!" "Moe desu!", stringing together three words we hear a lot in this series.
The popularity of Akibaranger had gotten it extended by one ep - which wasn't really in the gameplan, so they're making it a Clip Show. Which of course is done by lots of other shows for padding. It's just ironic that an "unofficial" Super Sentai is getting an unofficial last episode.
Episode 1 had the villains acting under a fake company named for the Marudeyouna Worlds (read: Pocket Dimensions) of Mahou Sentai Magiranger. It's not just foreshadowing the existence of the Delusion World, but the nature of the show itself.
#6. Yumeria is writing a yaoi doujinshi involving someone called Grey.
At an early press conference for the show, Nobuo's actor reportedly asked if there would be Akibaranger Ranger Keys and was quickly shot down. But eventually... it happened!. note Counts as a Defictionalization, but sadly won't work on ANY Mobirates.
So, Hiroyo is a “professor” type character from a “supposed” 37th Sentai series who has a secret alias, is played by a popular seiyuu, and her voice is used in the Akibarangers equipment? Sounds an awful lot like a certain mad scientist from the official 37th series, doesn’t it?
The Akibarangers fight inside of their delusions. Or, for a more idealistic way of putting it, they're using the power of... IMAGINATION!
Les Yay: In Episode #10 with Hiroyo and Kozukozu, Mitsuki and Yumeria cosplaying Z-Cune Aoi Scene. Then Played for Laughs in #12 when Yumeria tries to shake up the formula for their very reality by doing this with Kozukozu - and it turns out she liked Yumeria for real.
Memetic Badass: Nobuo Akagi. His love for Sentai is basically a proof for his awesome prowess!
Memetic Mutation: Come the season one finale, Saburo Hatte has taken Kamen Rider Decade's place as the person to blame any time anything goes wrong.
Moral Event Horizon: Malshina crosses it in 2-10. She cruelly uses General Pain to steal his knowledge on Sentai villains and ultimately turns him into a normal dentist. Next, she brings back Delu-Knight... while making him completely subservient and willing to go through anything for her. Oh, and it's implied all this killed Saburo Hatte and wiped Super Sentai off the face of the earth. Wow... just, wow...
And, like many things in Akibaranger, this is revealed to be a subversion General Pain is an Author Avatar of Saburo Hatte, who was severely weakened, not killed. Malshina's true plan was to take his place as the most powerful being in Super Sentai.
Replacement Scrappy: Luna could be seen as such compared to Mitsuki being the Only Sane Girl and being into martial arts which provides good fight scenes. In comparison, Luna is more ditzy and less 'sane' than others, giving a new flavor but in the same time, detracting those who liked Mitsuki. It could also be intentional. The Sentai franchise has replaced characters and their actorsmid-seasonin the past, as didPower Rangersat least oncenote Albeit the character in that last one was a case of Real Life Writes the Plot as Valerie Vernon contacted leukemia and Kendrix had to be written out; Vernon recovered and Kendrix was resurrected at the finale.
Shallow Parody: How some people saw the Powerful Rangers, who acted nothing like the characters they were trying to spoof.
Squick: The Season 2 mooks. Would you want people with half male, half female faces with no sense of personal space around you?
The revelation about Yumeria's mother near the end of #5, namely the fact that she had been dead for five years prior to the series' beginning, and the scene with Yumeria and her mother was Yumeria celebrating her birthday "with my mother in my mind". Considering that this series is mostly a comedy series, it sort of comes out of left field.
Mitsuki's farewell in the 1st episode of Season 2, with everyone waving good bye for her and wishing her well. The tone got kind of more somber than usual.
The very end of Season 2, which reveals that Nobuo, Luna, and Yumeria really did die at the end of episode 12 and were allowed to return as spirits for the recap. At the end, the first Yellow Four, Time Fire, and Abare Killer arrive to tell them it's time to go, with Hiroyo and Kozukozu, not knowing they're there, nearly crying at their mini-shrine General Pain created before they force themselves to cheer up.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Having the team becoming official at the cost of replacing Gosei Sentai Dairanger. It would've made a lot more sense for the team to become official at the cost of replacing Chouriki Sentai Oh Ranger and do a Take That! at the misconception that said series almost killed Sentainote While the series did have very low ratings, there were no plans to cancel Sentai at the time OhRanger aired.
Tough Act to Follow: Season 2 isn't as beloved as its predecessor, as several fans believed that season 1 stood well enough on its own and continuing the series made it stale.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Violence-wise it's pretty much the same as regular Sentai, but things which wouldn't be kid-friendly include: Female suits designed for constant Panty Shots and Fanservice, the team getting drunk to power up, Red openly admitting to having a robot fetish, a monster which strips perverts naked, and the main villain of Season 2 suddenly crying out in orgasm from the sex he's having in the Delusion World.
Woolseyism: The Over-Time sub turns the 2chan references into 4chan references, ie "nukonin" into "newfag."
. See also its battle mix