Go! Go! Loser Ranger!

Episode 6

“1 Plus 2 Equals… Threat!” is one of those episodes that throws a bunch of the Go, Go, Loser Ranger! cast into a big, thirty-minute-long action sequence to show us what they're made of. On the plus side, this gives Fighter D and his new comrades a chance to show off some quick thinking and teamwork skills that will surely come in handy down the line, and it doesn't lack entertainment value, either. The downside, though, is that the show chooses to set this big action set piece in a nondescript parking garage that spends most of the episode covered up with smoke. Also, some glaring editing issues only serve to take you out of the moment more.

The other plus side, however, is the fact that we get introduced to yet another badass gal who would just as soon crack your jaw in half with a spin kick as look you if you don't pay her some damned respect and use the proper honorifics. Given the combined Cool Factor of Kanon Hisui and Fighter XX (aka “Feral Monster Lady”), who am I to claim that this episode of G!G!LR!” isn't a five-star masterpiece?

Okay, sure, it's technically my job to say that, since this episode is far from a masterpiece, but still, let it be known that I have no intention of getting on Hisui-san's bad side. I deal with enough pissed-off high schoolers as it is, and with summer fast approaching, the last thing I need is to spend the next few months looking over my shoulder in anticipation of a lethal axe kick to the spine.

In general, I like the concept of “1 Plus 2 Equals… Threat!” more than the execution. On paper, it is a great idea to team Fighter D up with some of the new recruits we got introduced to last week and develop their characters even more. In practice, there isn't much more to Kai, Angel, and Sojiro that you can't grok from their character designs: Kai is an overconfident alpha male; Angel is kind of meek and reserved; and Sojiro…has a mustache, I guess? The same goes for the lower-ranked Rangers that pose as monster foes in the training battle that takes up the whole episode. Yumeko remains as enigmatic as ever, Shun Tokita is as aggro and as dumbo as ever, and Hisui is, as we already established, a perfect queen who is incapable of doing wrong and has no reason whatsoever to come find me at my home to exact bloody vengeance.

The point is that, while the characters all do their part in the big back-and-forth battle, most of them haven't become compelling enough yet to carry a spectacle-heavy showcase like this. It doesn't help that the spectacle in question gets brought down by some of the sloppier action and editing choices we have to put up with. First of all, when Fighter D and the other Cadets explode those convenient fire extinguishers to throw off the Rangers, the resulting cloud of foam haze sticks around for a long ass time. In a manga, where you can flip through the pages in a matter of seconds, this would be an easy thing to ignore. When translated to animation, though, it results in the already dreary and confusing parking garage setting looking even worse for, like, half the danged episode.

I also can't help but pick some nits about the way that F.D> got Angel to draw him those portraits of Shun and Hisui to use for his shapeshifting gambit. Earlier in the episode, it seemed like only a few seconds passed between Angel getting called over and the extinguishers exploding. Then, in the flashback, we're supposed to believe that all of the chaos and laser fire just stopped for several minutes so Angel could whip up two lifelike portraits of their foes. I know we're not supposed to take anything in a show called Go, Go, Loser Ranger! all that seriously, but c'mon y'all. We can do better than that!

If it seems like I'm spending an awful lot of time on the negative stuff, this week, it's only because the stuff in this episode that works only does so at a very basic level. It keeps the show moving with a big training episode that helps us get to know the cast a bit better, and it technically accomplishes that job. It's a perfectly serviceable way to kill a half hour of time on a weekend but it's also far from Loser Ranger!'s best material.

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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.

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