After binge-watching the classic Ranma 1/2, I was afraid I would need to binge-watch Inuyasha to make a new positive post about an anime I like.
Luckily, my friend showed me this series because I was so tired of the same bland anime shows that are either Isekai.
Loser Rangers was an anime I did not expect to get hooked on.
The show knows how to keep you hooked without resorting to constant fan service
Which, for me, is a massive plus.
Moreover, Loser Rangers is full of interesting plot twists, deep lore about each faction, and 3 distinctive characters that drive the series forward.
Today, I wanna recommend an anime show that I highly recommend anyone to watch.
I’ll do this by not spoiling too much about season 1, and give a brief summary of the “three main characters”. I say this in quotation marks because it’s not technically right, but as the series progresses, you’ll understand why I am structuring my post around the characters I’ll mention.
GGLR > The Boys
Loser Rangers’ concept is very similar to that of The Boys.
While “the boys” deal with the corrupted Justice League, our main 3 characters face off against the corrupted version of the Power Rangers.
Also, the Red Ranger is a clear inspiration from the character Homelander from The Boys.
- Both serve as the leaders of the League of Heroes based on their original counterparts.
- Both share similar, somewhat mental issues (don’t worry, Red is not drinking milk)
- And, they’re both overpowered
The only other thing that is similar is that both use social media and hero merchandise.
But besides that, Loser Rangers diverges from its main inspiration, in a good way:
No current day “politics”
I don’t know if you’re Left or Right wing, but unless you’re a radicalized moron, you would most likely be happy to know that this show is not going to lecture you about its current day “politics” which long ago passed beyond the point of no return.
No showhorned DEI characters.
No “oh look, Nazi stuff, VERY BAD!”
No awkward forced relationships.
Just characters developed carefully to make the plot more interesting.
Also, since it’s not trying to catch current trends, it doesn’t feel like the show ever runs out of material like The Boys had ever since season 4.
Characters stay “in character”
I can stress enough how The Boys went with a set of characters that started on in one way, and in later seasons, they abandoned their own development for some DEI reason or whatever.
In Loser Ranges, characters don’t have this kind of issue at all.
Sure, we are only at season 2 (relative to the post’s date), but as far as to goes, we have yet to see how deep the rabbit hole goes in a world dominated by powerful rangers.
Varied cast, but not too wide
The comic book of the original The Boys series is more of a “parody” series about superheroes gone bad, and making fun of every popular hero that is known in Marvel & DC.
So, when the show occasionally remembers that it revolves around those same heroes, it makes use of them by presenting them as a “cameo” for a couple of episodes.
Such example of this is Spider-Man knockoff version, where he is displayed for 1 or 2 episodes, and then he’s gone.
Loser Rangers don’t have the luxury of selecting a wide range of characters to parody, and it benefits the creator to focus on the minimal characters he has in comparison.
For Negi Haruba, one such way to expand the cast & world building is by creating both factions that have their own unique goals.
The Boys, in comparison, only has “the boys” versus any MOFO that is remotely a “sup”.
The rebellious Trio (MINOR-SPOILERS)
So now I wanna move into the main section of my recommendation.
The 3 main characters that drive the plot forward.
Each character has their own reasons to rebel against the status quo.
Each one has a unique personality that is not only different from the other, but also stands out from the anime cliché personalities.
Fighter D 💀
🐟 outta Water type
Starting with the actual main character of the series is Fighter D.
Fighter D is a low-class monster whose original purpose is to serve the high-level monsters, or “boss monsters”, as they say.
They’re essentially the henchmen that are usually easily handled in the middle episode of Power Rangers shows.
In the case of the Loser Rangers, the Dusters are fully controlled by the Ranger Force.
They’re forced to participate in a weekly show where they get stylishly defeated by the Power Rangers.
Fighter D, who’s sick and tired of playing along, decided to run away from the hellish life & declared to take revenge on the Ranger force.
For that, he has to live among humans which he never had a chance before.
Fighter D serves as the viewers’ lens on the world on GGLR, since he’s not familiar with the human culture, let alone the Ranger Force’s complex organization.
In short, everything new to him is new to us.
An MC with no Harem
Yes, I will point this out as a positive and buzz off if you think otherwise.
A lot of anime shows, especially the Isekai genre ones, tend to create wish-fulfillment MCs that are surrounded by young women to fill the void in the story.
And.. I’m sorry, but if you resort to constant fan service because your have no confidence in your story direction and world building, then you’re not really trying to make something creative.
Fighter D, being a monster first and foremost, has no understanding of human culture.
He’s not being paraded by women all around him, and even when he’s in a situation where he “should” react to a feminine gesture, the sign usually flies over his head.
And just to clarify something to anime fans out there:
It’s not that I detest fan service because it shows anime characters doing sexy things. If fan service is done to be a part of the story, that’s good. But when it has 0 purpose there, like in most Isekai shows, then we have a problem.
Yumeko Suzukiri
In the first 3 episodes of Loser Rangers, Fighter D meets with the first non-Dragon Keeper (i.e., a Power Ranger) human, Yumeko Suzukiri.
Yumeko’s voice, done by Yumika Yano, is calm yet oddly soulless.
As we later progress with Fighter D, we realize that she wants to help D defeat the Dragon Keepers.
But the thing is, she’s very vague about her reasons to help D in the first place.
The mysterious one
Yumeko is a high-ranking Ranger for the Yellow Battalion. So her knowledge about the Ranger organization is quite extensive compared to other characters.
However, Yumeko’s goals are not as clear as Fighter D’s, and her public persona & interactions with other characters are always bleak & soulless.
Her soulless eyes and artificial carefree demeanor perfectly capture a character that forces itself to wear a mask daily.
This makes viewers like me get excited whenever we see Yumeko on screen.
We want to know what she knows, and we want to know what she hides from everyone.
This meshes well with Fighter D’s “🐟 outta water” archetype, as he’s trying to understand who this blonde chick is and why she keeps avoiding the real questions.
Expect plot twists to occur when she’s on screen, that’s all I can say without spoiling too much
No Nan-dere cliché ⁉ 🤩
One of the most overused anime clichés has got to be the female Nan-dere personalities like:
- Tsundere
- Yandere
- And all that other crap I don’t know about
These Nan-dere personalities are often used as a template to fill in some female characters a show will use to get more attention from the viewer.
But anime shows that actually have interesting characters and world-building don’t need to resort to these templates.
Yumeko is a prime example of a character who doesn’t fall into any of these clichés and yet can still steal the spotlight from the main character, without switching to a bikini suit for a beach episode.
And I am probably going to regret this, because I am sure that there’s gonna be a 🏖 episode. It’s anime, it’s gotta have at least one cliché.
If it’s not gonna have, consider this text to be overwritten with another phrase section for Yumako.
As for 02-06-2025, there’s neither an episode nor a chapter that features this trope.
Yumeko Suzukiri’s character is more than meets the eye.
Speaking about eyes 👁🗨👁🗨, in the manga, Yumeko’s eyes completely capture her internal emotions.
Having no Pupils at all and very subtle eye bags that showcase a character with a troubled past who deals with stress constantly.
And all that stress is contained inside those eyes, while masking under the role of a high-ranking ranger with a carefree demeanor
Hibiki Sakurama
Sakurama appears in the first episode alongside Yumeko; these characters get to know Fighter D and are willing to help him.
But their reasons for helping him are where they diverge.
And where Yumeko’s eyes look bleak, Sakurama’s shine and hide nothing from 💀 D-kun.
What makes Sakurama stand out?
The opposite of Yumeko
Sakurama serves as the complete opposite of Yumeko.
He’s naive and barely understands how the current world works, yet he hopes monsters coexist with humans.
His kind soul, compared to Yumeko’s tainted one, is what allows Fighter D to naturally trust him.
As of this date, we have yet to see where Sakurama’s route, or to be more exact, what fruits it will bear.
Just a guess without spoiling too much, but I think Sakurama’s goal might actually come true—he’s got a real knack for gaining the monsters’ trust.
The hook of the Show
This hook of the show, at least for me, is these 3 main characters that have their own backgrounds and goals.
Their goals meet at a crossroads, and that connection helps drive them both toward success.
While 💀 Fighter D serves as our view of this twisted world,
Yumeko 👱♀️ will surprise us with her backstory & the truth behind the Rangers.
And Sakurama will be there to show everyone the light of hope he carries.
Outro
In my opinion, Loser Ranger, or Ranger Reject, is a hidden gem 💎 among the many anime and manga that have been released lately.
There’s no self-insert characters, and the show knows how to keep you hooked on what’s gonna come next.
Personally, if you get hooked on the show as well, I recommend you also give a shot at reading the manga, since sometimes the shows mix events from the original part of the manga to fit their budget and animation cost (I guess).
So when I read the manga, some story parts felt more cohesive than the anime.
This does not mean that the anime ruins the pacing of the story, but manga has a more natural flow to it when it comes to feeding you with information about the world and plot points.
Anyways, hope ya’ll try something different that isn’t Rent a Girlfriend or anther damn Isekai.
Because if you prefer to watch these shows, the Red Keeper will have to.. 💢💥
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