First Impression: Go! Go! Loser Ranger!

We join the story thirteen years in, after a giant floating fortress appeared in the sky and a horde of formidable monsters…challenged humanity to a stadium battle? Earth’s heroes, the colorful Power Rangers Dragon Keepers and their Rangers Force, have been defeating the wannabe invaders on a weekly basis ever since, and now it’s time for the 999th Sunday Showdown! A young man with bags under his eyes and even more bags on his back rocks up to the stadium, keen to see the heroes in action—but not as keen as the Ranger Force youths who give him the Health & Safety spiel a little too up close and personal. Turns out, they do more than just recite the fine print and actually protect audience members from the monstrous Dusters as well, black and white-clad foot soldiers known only by a letter of the alphabet. Only, well, these enemies are not so monstrous after all. And the Sunday Showdown? Well, it’s all for show. The monsters’ bosses were all taken out in that first battle, years ago, and as terms of the truce, the surviving alphabet mob has had to fake a weekly confrontation with the Keepers ever since. Only, Duster D is getting a little tired of it all (it wasn’t even his shift!), and decides not to dematerialize as usual and teleport back to the fortress when the Keepers use their Dragon Beam. Instead, he will stand alone against the rainbow of Keepers! He will show them what monsters are really made o—or maybe not. D bursts into a cloud of dust after a blow from Red. Only, he doesn’t rematerialize in the fortress with the others, but instead, in a back alley somewhere? And wait, why is his black and white skeleton costume suddenly looking pretty human? Is he—???

Ok, that was a lot more fun than I was expecting! The first half or so is just parodic enough in its sendup of tokusatsu series to foreshadow the sudden perspective shift to the side of the villains and the reveal that the Sunday Showdown is a hoax. Although predictable, the twist is still satisfying, largely because of the way the “monsters” struggle to fulfill human expectations when it comes to fearsome enemies. These extras are working hard to give the audience a decent show, even if no one appreciates their artistry. The humor is low-key, but lands decently enough. Nothing that had me in stitches though. The animation is energetic and consistent, and the interplay with tokusatsu tropes and aesthetics, quite fun. The OP and ED are good too. If this was all there was to the episode, though, I’d likely recommend it for fans of the genre and bow out from watching further myself. Fortunately, there’s a little something more to this, or rather, two little somethings. The first is the rather sinister undertones to the Ranger Force girl who crops up several times, promising the potential for an intriguingly layered character. The second, is the final scene, which has me totally hooked and looking forward to where this will go next. Nice save, director-san! (I hope the post-credit puppet scenes continue too–very Nier: Automata.)

Go! Go! Loser Ranger! is streaming on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in Europe & the UK.

claire
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3 thoughts on “First Impression: Go! Go! Loser Ranger!”

  2. Hmm, this sounds pretty good! I’ll definitely put this in my Spring line-up. I tend to like comedies, and I also tend to like these power ranger spoof anime series too.

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