Quake With Ennui: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers OVAs (PART ONE)
In 1988, a television anime about five bishonen dressed in multi-colored armor, carrying weapons and elemental powers aired on Nagoya Television. This Sunrise-produced series was called Yoroiden Samurai Troopers ("Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers"). It was later localized as Ronin Warriors in the United States, aired in syndication and then on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block. Names were changed, as well as eyecatches and theme songs, but there were few, if any, cuts made to the bodies of the episodes.
There were also three different OVAs produced to continue the adventures of the five heroes: Gaiden, Kikoutei Densetsu, and Message. They found their way to North America and were put in with the TV series on DVD, even dubbed with most of the Ronin Warriors cast reprising their roles.
Ronin Warriors was a big deal to me back in the day. I watched them well before they were on CN. It was the first anime I watched in its entirety. When I found out there was more to be watched, I found some cheap VHS fansubs and bought them. The last OVA wasn’t even fully subtitled, but I watched it anyway. This was before the DVD boxset, mind you.
None of the three OVAs are particularly great. In fact, only the second one can be considered "decent" and the last one is monumentally lackluster. But nobody ever seems to talk about them, and I’ve always told myself I’d review them some day, if only for some laughs.
Ever since obtaining the DVD boxset of Ronin Warriors, I’ve been watching the flip sides of the discs, which have the original Samurai Troopers episodes in Japanese with subtitles. So often, in fact, that I’ve forgotten most of the English dub names. So in an effort to avert confusion, I suggest going to the Wikipedia page where you can convert the YST names into RW ones to follow my reviews.
So let’s get started with the first OVA, a two-parter.
OVA 1: GAIDEN
Episode 01, "Once again! Samurai Troopers"
Our story begins in a dark alley in New York City, where a familiar green armor (the Korin armor) brutally kills a bunch of street toughs who, by the look of things, aren’t so tough. The obviously posessed armor (nobody notices there’s nobody in it?) closes in on two of them and then there’s a pan up for a moment. Then a powerful ghost-like thing comes out of it. He’s very squat, has a big nose and pronounced earlobes.
Hm.
What kind of anti-Semitic show is this? Oh, because he’s in New York, he’s a Jew, right? That’s fucking racism, man. Not cool, Sunrise.
Anywhoozle, the leader of the Samurai Troopers, Ryo, is given a surprised birthday party by his fellow troopers. Sans, of course, Seiji, who went to New York. Ryo notices a news report on Seiji’s Korin armor being spotted in NYC and decides to go there himself. But his friends all anticipated this. Touma goes there first with Nasuti and Jun (nice job taking civilians on a potentially dangerous mission) while Shu and Shin take the plane Ryo’s on. Apparently, Seiji was lured to America by a supposed find of a family artifact. As the plane flies over the city, it’s attacked by Fyvush Finkel and like Sully, the pilot makes a water landing. read more
