Go! Go! Loser Ranger! (2021)
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Volume 1
Author/Artist: Negi Haruba
Publisher: Shounen Magazine Comics
Synopsis:
Years after the Villainous Army of Evil was defeated by the Dragon Keepers, the low-level Footsoldiers are kept around to maintain the fiction of an ongoing war, but a single rogue Footsoldier sets out on a one-man mission to avenge the years of subjugation and humiliation.
Story/Characters:
If you've read my reviews of the anime adaptation, you know how much I like this series, so it's little surprise that I would go out and get the original manga. I was about in middle school thereabouts when Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers first started airing in the States, so sentai stories aren't quite as resonant with me as it would be for Japanese people who grew up on the stuff, but the show managed to leave enough of an impact that I do enjoy series that play with the subgenre. In my review of the first season of the anime, I likened this to The Boys in how it subverts and deconstructs, but this isn't nearly as focused on shock value, though it can get quite violent at times.
I like how both the concept of the sentai series and the hero show get played with. The Sunday Battles are purely performative and the quasi-immortal Dusters have to subject themselves to this ritual humiliation every week while our villain protagonist D is one of the few who still holds on to the Villainous Army's mission. The story proper kicks off when D opts to stray from the herd in a bid to take down the Dragon Keepers himself. I do love that D is through-and-through a low-tier mook woefully ill-equipped to realize his grand ambitions. This is where the two lower-ranking Rangers D meets at the beginning of the first chapter come into play. You have the cold and calculating Yumeko on the one hand, who shares D's desire to destroy the Dragon Keepers, and on the other you have the idealistic Hibiki who wants to reform the organization and make peace with the Kaijin (or "Invaders" as seems to be the official translation).
This first volume establishes the setting and D's quest for revenge, sets up Yumeko and Hibiki as potential collaborators, then puts him on his first mission to retrieve on of the Divine Tools (the Dragon Keepers' primary weapons and the only thing that can permanently kill Dusters like D) with the Red Team's Tokita as a starter antagonist. It does a good job of getting you hooked. D makes for a fine underdog as a petty villain up against much bigger bads.
Art:
If you're already familiar with Haruba's work from The Quintessential Quintuplets, then you know his skill as an artist, but this is a very different sort of story, so it demands a lot more of him to deliver the big action and I'm quite happy to say that he delivers admirably on that front. There are a number of nice comic beats as well, particularly when Yumeko's constant killing of D turns into a joke. (One of my favorite panels in the whole series is her casually lopping off his head for back-sassing her.) I mentioned before how D is a petty villain set against much bigger bads and Haruba does a good job of getting you to feel that even a punk like Tokita is so much more of a serious deal.
Conclusion:
If you're just thinking about Haruba from The Quintessential Quintuplets, you may find yourself hesitating before picking up a story so wildly different. I'm glad I came across the anime first and only later realized this was his story, but I'm pretty sure curiosity would have got my foot in the door regardless. Even if you're sick of all the deconstruction and subversion going on in media these days, you should still consider giving this a shot. This one starts strong and leads to even greater things down the line, so I'm quite happy to have this in my collection and recommend it for yours as well.
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