OK, fellow tokusatsu nerds, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that Toei, master of all things Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, have swallowed a pill of sense and placed their hatred of the internet aside in the service of all things related to spandex-clad live-action heroism. Rather than scouring clean the channels of Youtube from all evidence that its properties exist, Toei has instead opted to stream three episodes of Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger, the hilarious parody show that tickled sentai nerds' nostalgia bones last season. Even better, the episodes (embedded below), are fully English-subtitled. Wonderous!

Now for the bad news. In a reversal of the usual trend for Japanese media and international streaming, the videos are locked out to North American and European viewers, and are only open for users located in Asia. The other bad news is that the subtitles aren't exactly great, and conform to the low standards applied to the so-called "HK-subs" stereotype.

It's not all bad, though. Getting around the region locks is easy enough for curious westerners to accomplish, and it's always gratifying to see Toei perform even a token gesture towards getting its tokusatsu properties more exposure overseas, especially something as niche and nerd-targeted as Akibaranger. Who knows, maybe it's a sign of future plans for the franchises.