From the same mind behind The Quintessential Quintuplets (5-toubun no Hanayome), I was honestly a bit surprised that Negi could whip up a premise this intriguing. Drawing inspiration from Super Sentai (tokusatsu), Sentai Daishikkaku (SD) throws in a fresh twist. Instead of the protagonist being one of the heroic rangers fighting evil, this story centers on a lowly grunt from the enemy faction who’s fed up with constant defeat. Bent on revenge against the superheroes, he infiltrates their ranks, biding his time for the perfect moment to strike.

While the ending of Quintuplets didn’t quite hit the mark for me, there’s no denying Negi’s knack for crafting clever plot twists and unexpected story developments. Quintuplets breathed fresh air into the harem romcom genre, so with a more “serious” work like this, I’m curious to see what tricks Negi has up his sleeve to hook the audience. The opening episode reveals that these superheroes aren’t as noble as we might assume. Take Red Ranger, for instance—his warped sense of justice treats the grunt like a roadside pebble, a mere stepping stone to boost his own fame. The lines between good and evil blur here: the “black” side is now the underdog, oppressed, and suddenly the “villains” are the ones we’re rooting for to win.

As for art and animation, there’s little to complain about. It may not boast eye-popping sakuga like some bigger titles, but the art stays faithful to the manga, and the animation is solid (those smear cuts and effects are top-notch). Yostar, though a Chinese company that funded Yostar Pictures, has built a studio that’s “almost” purely Japanese, staffed with renowned Japanese animators and directors in key roles. In recent years, they’ve expanded into full production. Sentai Daishikkaku marks their first major IP beyond gacha game adaptations, so I’m eager to see how they hold up in the long run—will the later episodes maintain this debut’s quality? :3