Go! Go! Loser Ranger!

Episode 5

I was a little wary of this week's episode of Go, Go, Loser Ranger!, at first. While I get the importance of using Fighter D's new role as Hibiki's doppelganger to establish more of the weird and absurd inner workings of the Dragon Keepers' operations, the circumstances of D's new digs don't make for the most gripping television on first blush. The drab and claustrophobic underground bunker where all of the recruits live is certainly oppressive, but it's not very fun to look at. On top of that, a good chunk of "Fighter D, as a Part of 'Ranger Force'" consists of one of my least favorite stylistic tropes in anime: introducing a bunch of brand-new characters one right after the other with little more than a one-liner and a big, obnoxious title card telling us each person's name. The whole thing made me feel a bit like I was stuck in the opening level of a much less fun rip-off of a Danganronpa game—and since none of these new Dragon Keeper Recruits get anything at all to do this week, I couldn't even get excited about seeing what all of these newbies are going to get up to in future episodes.

It's a change of pace and tone from the first four episodes of the season that I just wasn't a very big fan of. Then, we are introduced to the Feral Monster Lady who has apparently been living in Hibiki's closet for some time, and suddenly all was forgiven. Look, she's no Power Chainsawman, alright, and it's too soon to say how successfully G!G!LR! will capitalize on all the cool-story potentials this new character has regarding worldbuilding and Fighter D's ongoing development. Still, D's new frenemy is a Sexy Skellington Murder Freak—and so far as I'm concerned, literally any show would benefit from including at least one of those in their cast.

It should also be mentioned that we get to know the Pink Dragon Keeper a whole lot better this week, and, yeah, she's a dang-ass freak of a whole different variety to Feral Monster Lady. The comedic shenanigans of D trying to keep Hibiki's sister from finding out about his new “roommate” are funny enough on their own but it's also fascinating to see how the trauma that Hibiki talked about last week shaped his and his sister's lives in distinct ways. Hibiki has not given up on clinging to his ideals of justice and morality, even in the face of the Dragon Keepers' corruption. Sesera, on the other hand, seems resigned to her complicity in the Keepers' evildoing, going so far as to ask Fighter Hibiki whether his quest to take down the Keepers will give him the strength to fight her eventually. D doesn't have any problem with that, obviously, but one wonders if this conflict was one of the reasons that Hibiki was so willing to pass along his entire identity to someone with less personal ties to the enemy.

Or, maybe, Hibiki was starting to sense that his dear older sister has a penchant for getting a little too, er, “excited” when he manages to stand up for himself. Yeah, from pretty much the moment Sesera arrived on screen, I was wondering when the “She's definitely got inappropriate lust for her little brother” shoe was going to drop, and G!G!LR! didn't let me down. Or maybe that means it did? I don't know, y'all. Anime has warped my brain so much after all of these years that I'm having a hard time gauging what a “normal” level of incest is in my media, anymore.

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Go, Go, Loser Ranger! is currently streaming on Hulu in the United States and Disney+ in other regions.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.