Reviews

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.