Go! Go! Loser Ranger! (2021)
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Volume 2
Author/Artist: Negi Haruba
Publisher: Shounen Magazine Comics
Synopsis:
The Dragon Keepers must deal with the fallout of Red Keeper having lost his Divine Tool.
Story/Characters:
We start off with a meeting of the Dragon Keepers and their seconds-in-command. Red's second sees an opportunity to have a go at the top spot and we get to see how our hero of justice takes such challenges to his position. Of the seconds (Junior First Class to use the Rangers'terminology), probably makes the best impression here. (We already know Yumeko from Yellow Team and I'll come to like Green's second Hisui quite a bit as she becomes more prominent in the story.)
The temporary solution to the current situation is to clamp down on the Dusters a bit harder with a couple Rankers from Blue Team to keep an eye on them. We then learn that Rankers are given replicas of the Divine Tools, so they've got teeth to them as far as the Dusters are concerned. It doesn't take much of a push to cow them, though. However, Blue is concerned that by throttling the power of his Divine Tool when taking out the rogue Duster from the other day (to limit the damage to Red HQ), he might not have gotten the job done, and so sends one of the Rankers, Hekiru, to investigate the surrounding area.
Our true hero, D, is of course not dead. He was able to successfully fake it thanks to explosives provided by Yumeko, but even for an immortal, the ordeal has taken a bit out of him. And who should come across him but Hibiki? D continues to regard him with suspicion for being so eager to make nice with a Kaijin like him, but Hibiki is nothing if not persistent. They're interrupted by Hekiru coming onto the scene. Hibiki tries to throw him off the trail, but it doesn't work and a fight ensues. As if his Divine Tool Replica wasn't enough of a threat just as a melee weapon, it also grants him the power over acid, manifesting in this goop that grossly drips off of him. His personality matches his appearance as big slimeball with a hyperactive victim complex. Lovely.
During a pause in the battle, Hibiki reveals his backstory as the son of some peacenik fruit-loops in a cult that ultimately got them killed. It explains a lot about the way he sees the world, and why he's got a few screws loose. (Speaking of screws, screw his dad for that incident with the kitten. A-hole. >_>) Hibiki has a plan, and I'll leave the details of it to be a surprise for you if you haven't read/watched yet, but the goal is to have D impersonate Hibiki and infiltrate the Rangers while Hibiki does his own thing to try to fix the rot in the organization.
This results in D (as Hibiki) joining the Cadets up for the Bailong Exam to become a Ranker. We get quite the assortment of characters here, many of which will continue to be relevant to the story up to the present. If maintaining cover among all these unfamiliar faces (who all know Hibiki) wasn't enough of a challenge, there are further wrinkles when D discovers that Hibiki's sister is the Pink Ranger and that Hibiki has been keeping a rogue Duster in his closet. Oh, what fun.
Art:
We get a lot of new characters this volume and Haruba does a good job of making them all visually distinct enough to tell apart. You may think this is an obvious thing, but not all artists can pull this off (see the Only Six Faces trope). The Hekiru fight is rather interesting visually, and he's incredibly gross. We haven't revealed the name of the Duster in the closet yet, but I really like her design. The two-page spread for her reveal shot is great.
Other:
We have some early concept designs for some of the characters. A lot of them changes quite a lot in the final version, but a few are pretty much the same, like Shippou. Haruba clearly knew what he wanted there. ^o^
Conclusion:
We get plenty of nice twists and turns this volume. Hibiki's backstory has a huge influence on the story and I rather like the arc that's getting set up here with the Bailong Exam. If the first volume succeeded in hooking you, this one should serve to reel you in. The infiltration angle was already established before, but playing it up is a great move that adds to the intrigue. This volume is good in its own right, but what it's setting up is even better. Be sure to add this one to your collection.
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