Alternative title(s): Sentai Daishikkaku
Manga Adaptation by Yostar Pictures
Streaming on Disney+/Hulu

Premise

Thirteen years ago, Earth was invaded by the evil Monster Army, intent on enslaving mankind. Fortunately, a team known as the Divine Dragon Rangers rose up to confront the invaders and defend humanity down to this very day. At least, that’s how it appears. In reality, the Dragon Rangers defeated the Monster Army long ago, and have continued to stage the attacks to enhance their own power and prestige. One downtrodden mook, disgusted at this state of affairs, vows to rise up and destroy the rangers.

Zigg’s verdict: Stupor Sentai

When writing on the blog we’ve often discussed how bad comedy anime don’t really have jokes, but more vague gestures at the idea of a joke – you provide the framework, then sort of just point at the collection of tropes rather than actually go to the trouble to set up lead-ins, punchlines et al. Well, Go Go Loser Ranger is the equivalent of a vague gesture at the idea of a spoof or satire – there’s a few concepts that could make for decent jabs, but mostly it’s content to let them roll on by while plucking the lowest hanging fruit.

That’s a shame, because the core idea here is actually pretty clever. A corrupt Sentai in league with the bad guys to essentially turn the basic premise of the genre into a grift is a nicely subversive, borderline cynical take on the material. It’s a shame then that otherwise the show opts for the most basic, paint-by-numbers jabs. Recycling your monsters? Heroes pulling a giant cannon out of nowhere? These are tropes that Super Sentai itself has been goofing on for decades, so the simple callouts contained here hardly constitute especially biting commentary.

In fact, like a lot of the genre parodies we see in anime, there’s a persistent unwillingness to truly bite the hand that feeds. Too often the punches feel pulled, either out of deference or out of disinterest. The weird presentation doesn’t help either – you’d think that the reveal of the ‘twist’ would be something you’d at least build up to, but instead it just sort of leaks out in small dribbles, diluting any impact it might have. The show is visually solid at least and I like the Dragon Rangers’ Sentai meets Gatchaman outfits, but overall there’s just not enough sizzle here even if you do have an affection for the material.