Yoroiden Samurai Troopers

Honestly: Ronin Warriors is kind of an awful series. The story is rambling and at times nonsensical [especially the English adaptation], which consistently wonky art and animation. The sound tends to be ridiculous [evil theme music precedes every villian ever] and totally period-80s. The characters are maybe the best out of all of the series' points, with mulleted teenage boys and ridiculous villians that are dopey and endearing. The voice-acting has a few gems: in Japanese, Takeshi Kusao voices the main character, Ryo, and Nozomu Sasaki voices Shin; in English there's Matt Hill as Ryo and Scott McNeil as the warlord Kale. However, the English ... dub also has voice-actors doubling up on roles [Cye and Sage, Rowen and Sekmet, Anubis and other random villians], which makes for a few ridiculous moments where it's so, so obvious.

Also honestly: I love all of those flaws so, so much. I grew up with Ronin Warriors. It's one of the first anime I ever saw, and when I was 11, I was in love with it. Almost 10 years later, I have such a huge spot in my heart for it, I can't do much else except keep loving it. It can be so silly, so strangely suggestive, and yet, so pure and innocent. You can laugh at it for being bad--I do. I very much do. But I also love it because it embraces everything it's trying to be, and it does nothing halfway. If two characters are going to be the embodiment of mere helpless humans that the Ronin Warriors have to continually protect, then they're going to be the most irritating things in the world. If a villain is going to have his heart set on engulfing Japan in darkness, then he's going to cast a massive shadow over Shinjuku and laugh maniacally for a full minute. If a character decides he's going to sacrifice himself for the good of mankind, then by god, his comrades are going to cry gratuitous shoujo-tears while dealing killing blows in an inexplicably naked fashion.

And my love will abide.

Overview:

Since I have lately focused on largely forgotten anime that actually did air on American TV, I decided I really had to do Yoroiden Samurai Troopers AKA Ronin Warriors. This show aired on Toonami in the afternoon alongside DBZ, Gundam Wing, and Sailor Moon. What made this one stick out is that it is several years older than most of the anime from Toonami and really has that vintage 1980s look and feel to it. Although it certainly has some flaws, it is a cheesy fun experience that still commands a cult following in 2014. Actually, it was recently announced that this series is going ... to be re-released on blu-ray!

Plot and characters: 4/10

The plot is that an evil demon was defeated over 1,000 years ago and his mighty armor was divided into 9 separate suits, each having a different element and virtue that it represents. Of course this means that 5 suits end up being used by the good guys and 4 by bad guys because it is fucking MANDATORY for every anime and Sentai (NOT hentai you pervs) show in this genre to feature a 5 man team. It is also pretty much required for each member to have a different color and element, and to strike cool group poses all the time. Of course there is also an animal sidekick and chick to be the team's cheerleader. Even the unconventional 4 man Ninja Turtles had to have April O'Neal. This show really used a cookie cutter 80s formula that will give modern viewers a good look at how pretty much all childrens' action shows looked and felt at that time period. When the armors of fire, water, wind, earth, and void combine together, they summon Captain Planet! Wait! They summon the Inferno Armor! Inferno Armor is what I meant to say! One interesting thing the show did was that even the 4 "Dark Warlords" each had a virtue that they followed. This at least gave it a small bit of moral complexity and not just pure good vs. evil.

Art and sound 4/10

Ronin Warriors featured the same "finisher moves" in every episode which each had the same few minutes of animation used over and over. This meant that an average episode would be 20 minutes with 10 minutes of new footage and 10 minutes of recycled animation used in all 39 episodes. Even shows with larger budgets like Sailor Moon used LOTS of recycled animation at this period, so this was simply accepted as the norm by anime fans. Today we are far more spoiled and would never simply accept a show being this fucking lazy and cheap. The soundtrack is allright, although if you are expecting cheesy 80s songs like Top Gun or Rocky 4 than you will be sadly disappointed.

Overall: 5/10

I gave it an extra point for nostalgia and cheesyness. This isn't a good show, but it was a fun little show back in the late 1990s when I was 10 years old. I'm sure if a kid today watched it, he or she would be like..."The fuck was that shit?!" However, it still holds a special place for me as a silly bit of my childhood.

Here is what is considered a “cult-classic.” Produced by Sunrise Studio 2 (Zeta Gundam), Yoroiden Samurai Troopers or Ronin Warriors has the backing to be a decent anime at worst. Even the staff involved such as director Masashi Ikeda (Gundam Wing, Inuyasha) and with Shinji Takamatsu (After War Gundam X, Gintama) doing storyboard and episode directing, Ronin Warriors has all of the tools to succeed. Finally, the voice acting, both English and Japanese are all known actors in the anime industry.

However, even with a strong company and a strong staff, with terrible writing beyond imagination, this anime cannot make up for it. The plot is ... incredibly simplistic. A demon, Talpa, was defeated in the past, and is coming back with his four evil henchmen to conquer the mortal world. Now, five warriors must stand in his way to defeat him. Going a bit further, each hero possesses an armor of different elements with a virtue, as well as the four bad guys.

Ronin Warriors has typical uninspiring repetitive music, with constantly recycled poorly done animation sequences. For example, the transformations and powers are used over and over again in every episode making up for about 40% of each episode. The rest of the episode consists of no explanation to anything, only the fact that evil is taking over and must be defeated.

What this shows lacks the most is, nothing is original at all. It’s a hero team of five, with a useless female teacher, a useless boy whom always gets in the way, and a crazy animal sidekick (white tiger) that their entire function is to basically be sideline annoyances.

With little to no back-story, awful character development, poor animation, bland music, and horrible writing, Ronin Warriors is a show that must be skipped. Anyone with nostalgia for this show must stay way clear in fear of ruining childhood memories.