'The Boys' Meets Power Rangers in Hulu's 2-Part Dark Action Series

5 days ago 11

Published Oct 18, 2026, 7:57 AM EDT

Jeffrey is a freelance features writer at Collider. He is an MPA-accredited entertainment journalist and a Tomatometer-approved critic based in the LA area. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Radio, TV, & Film and a Bachelor of Arts in Theater.

If you're missing The Boys, it's time to switch gears and head on over to Hulu to watch Go! Go! Loser Ranger! For Loser Ranger, think of The Boys but swapping the Western comic book superhero satire for Super Sentai and Power Rangers-style thematic material. Much like The Boys, Loser Ranger flips the script on popular storytelling tropes. The show delivers a masterful deconstruction of Super Sentai, sending up a group of heroes wearing multicolored latex costumes who defend the Earth while striking dynamic poses. Based on the manga series created by Negi Haruba, Loser Ranger scratches a similar itch if you're done with The Boys but are craving some action.

'Go! Go! Loser Ranger!' Flips the Script on Genre Tropes

Go! Go! Loser Ranger! takes place 13 years after an alien invasion on Earth. The invaders were defeated by a team of heroes called the Dragon Keepers. After defeating the invading army's Executives, the Dragon Keepers subjugate the aliens' foot soldiers, who are called Dusters. The Dusters are the show's equivalent of the Putty Patrollers from Power Rangers. The poor, put-upon Dusters are now forced to perform a reenactment of the Dragon Keepers' defeat of the invading aliens every week, and the Dragon Keepers horrendously mistreat, abuse, and exploit the Dusters through slave labor. Meanwhile, the Dragon Keepers have been transformed into a lucrative multibillion-dollar business. They are revered by the public, and civilians can enlist to join the organization. However, the Dragon Keepers' harsh treatment breeds discontent and rebellion among the Dusters. One of the Dusters, Fighter D (Yusuke Kobayashi), assumes a human form, seeking to infiltrate the Dragon Keepers and dismantle them from within.

Loser Ranger is a dark take on the Super Sentai and Tokusatsu genres. In Japan, the Super Sentai Series is a franchise featuring a story about a team of people who turn into superheroes with powers; they all don color-coded costumes with their own weapons and fighting styles and come together to protect the Earth. The franchise belongs to the tokusatsu genre, which involves live-action movies and TV shows that feature practical effects and colorful characters. While U.S. viewers might not be familiar with Super Sentai, the franchise was later adapted for Western viewers and named Power Rangers, which obviously became wildly popular in America.

In Loser Ranger, the series flips the script on those classic heroic tropes, deconstructing popular genre conventions. The villains become the underdog protagonists, and the so-called heroes usually appear as unhinged lunatics. Loser Ranger depicts the invading alien monsters, or Dusters, as aggrieved individuals, treated as second-class citizens who want their freedom from the oppressive Dragon Keepers. Meanwhile, the superheroes, the Dragon Keepers, are incredibly flawed, disturbed individuals. While the Dragon Keepers are presented to the public as idealized individuals, behind the scenes, they are revealed to be woefully arrogant, greedy, vain, and cruel. A group of malcontents forms to expose the truth behind the Dragon Keepers, similar to how The Boys CIA task force monitors superhero activity and takes action against "Supes" created by Vought International's Compound V.

'Go! Go! Loser Ranger!' Features Its Own Homelander

The biggest similarity between Go! Go! Loser Ranger! and The Boys lies in how both shows depict the figureheads of the Dragon Keepers and the superhero team known as The Seven. Both series reveal the typical heroes of their respective genres as incredibly flawed, amoral, aggressively violent, and sometimes murderous sociopaths. In The Boys, Homelander (Antony Starr) is depicted as an analog of heroes such as Marvel's Captain America or DC's Superman. On the surface, Homelander is the perfect superhero and represents positive qualities. But underneath Homelander's perfect, patriotic veneer exists a darkly narcissistic, unsettling individual who could snap at any moment and cause horrendous damage.

The Homelander of Loser Ranger is Sosei Akabane (Yuichi Nakamura), aka Red Keeper of the Dragon Keepers. As the leader of the Dragon Keepers and the Red Battalion, Akabane maintains a facade as the wholesome, brave, noble, valiant, and courageous leader of his team. However, beneath that pristine facade, Akabane is a violent sadist. In the fourth episode, Akabane brutally beats and murders one of his subordinates in full view of the other Dragon Keepers during a meal. After committing the act, he continues eating his now blood-soaked food after smashing his subordinate into a wall.

Superhero stories usually showcase heroes with sterling qualities and represent the best humanity has to offer. They save people and fight villains because it's the right thing to do. While superheroes in these stories might possess specific flaws, they usually represent the characters' everyman qualities to demonstrate that they suffer from problems similar to those of the common person. The Boys' Homelander and Loser Ranger's Red Keeper do not have those sterling qualities, and their unchecked power makes them highly volatile and dangerous.

'Go! Go! Loser Ranger!' Showcases the Darker Side of Humanity

A figure looking at a giant man in Go! Go! Loser Ranger

Much like The Boys, Loser Ranger is grounded in how both stories highlight the darker sides of human nature. As the saying goes, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The Boys showcases the dangers that result when ordinary people are afforded real superpowers. Superpowers have become a reality through drugs created by science. And what happens when corporations attempt to monetize those individuals? The post-Compound V world of The Boys becomes a system rife with abuse and exploitation that grows steadily out of control. Ever since the monster alien invasion thirteen years earlier in Loser Ranger, the Dragon Keepers' organization has grown into a vast industry. The Dragon Keepers are at the top, and each main member has a personal battalion of subordinates competing for a shot at becoming the next Dragon Keeper. However, only a few of the Dragon Keepers or the Battalion teammates showcase truly altruistic qualities. One of the few exceptions is Hibiki Suzikiri (Daishi Kajita), who seeks to expose the truth behind the Dragon Keepers and find a peaceful coexistence between both humans and monsters after befriending Fighter D.

It's later revealed that Hibiki's parents were deeply religious zealots. They joined a cult that worshiped the invading alien monsters, believing the purpose of the monster Executives was to punish the wicked and reward the righteous, devout individuals, which led to a tragic outcome. The audience witnesses how some of the public reacted to the arrival of the invading alien monsters through Hibiki. Although Hibiki appeared to come from a normal, loving nuclear family, his parents fell prey to the exploitative cult. Now, Hibiki goes on a journey of self-discovery and attempts to think for himself while discovering the meaning of "true justice." Hibiki later forms an unlikely alliance with Fighter D to expose the truth behind the Dragon Keepers' cruelty. With two seasons and 24 episodes to binge, Go! Go! Loser Ranger is the perfect anime companion piece for fans of The Boys, and bonus points if you're a fan of tokusatsu stories like Power Rangers.

Go! Go! Loser Ranger is streaming now on Hulu in the U.S.