Go! Go! Loser Ranger!

Episode 12

Man, it's amazing how much the whole vibe of Go, Go, Loser Ranger! improves when we get to go back into the light of day and breathe in some of that sweet, fresh air of The Lands Beyond the Parking Garage. All of the return to the surface world at the end of this episode, combined with the opening flashback to Fighter D's creation and life as the performing puppet, make for a season finale that allows this show to feel like itself for the first time in many weeks. It only further convinces me that the laboriously dragged-out nature of this whole Cadet Arc was the show's biggest misstep. That said, I can at least see where the show felt like it needed to end up to move F.D.'s story forward, and I am genuinely excited to see where his quest for vengeance and freedom goes from here.

Still, if it wasn't a bumpy road to get here. On an emotional and thematic level, this arc's lopsided writing and pacing means that "Never Stop, Fighter D!" sometimes feels more like a mid-season finale than a proper resolution to a whole first season. We've only just barely gotten to know the Cadets that F.D. has allied himself with, and the Dragon Keepers themselves felt like an afterthought most of the time. Even Keeper Blue, whose death at the hands of F.D. and Peltrola is the big climax of the season, didn't end up making much of an impression. A part of that is due to G!G!LR! leaning into one of my least favorite action-anime tropes: Only giving us the bare minimum of a character's backstory in the moments immediately before they are killed off. It also doesn't help that we ended up spending so much time running around in that damned parking garage that we barely got to see the Dragon Keepers function as a maliciously omnipresent unit of dark justice before the show started killing them off. Also, why did Fighter XX get introduced back in Episode 5 if she would barely get anything worth doing for the next seven weeks?

If I had my druthers, this season would have had room for at least one more storyline that helps us establish the new status quo now that we've gotten all of this table setting out of the way. Heck, even one more episode would have had time to get the job done. The Dragon Keepers would get more time to do their thing; we'd have more than just coy teases about what Yumeko and that one Red Junior Ranger dude are up to, and the story would get a more satisfying push of forward momentum going before leaving us to wait for the next season.

That said, even though I was occasionally frustrated with how this first season chose to spend its time, I can appreciate the value of establishing D's growing bonds with his new teammates, not to mention creating the compelling dual conflict against the Keepers and the Boss Monsters alike. Now that we're not stuck in the underground, the show will have plenty of opportunities to flesh this cast out into a more memorable and likable Rangers crew. Most importantly, a second season ensures that we'll get even more chances for Yumeko to sinisterly devour delicious pancakes! At the end of the day, that is all I can hope for when Fighter D makes his glorious return sometime next year.

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

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.