Forum - View topicYoroi-Shinden Samurai Troopers (TV) (w/ index).
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 12058 Location: Frisco, TX |
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1st Series: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers (TV) This Sequel: Yoroi-Shinden Samurai Troopers (TV) Source: Original (by Hajime Yatate) Demographic: Shounen Animation Studio: Sunrise Genres: action, adventure, drama, science fiction, supernatural Themes: apocalyptic, demons, dystopian, fighting, gore, magical items, monsters, occult, revenge, samurai, sentai, sorcery, spirits, superpowers, swordplay, transformations Plot Summary: Long ago, there existed an evil spirit that waged a war to conquer the human world. Defeat drove him back to the realm of darkness, but not before vowing to return and exact his revenge. A thousand years later, the world has all but forgotten the name of Arago, Emperor of Doom. When black clouds smother the bright city lights of Shinjuku, and a sinister laugh drowns out the dying hum of electricity, the people of the world plunge into terror, unprepared for the evil spirit's return. Air Date & Platform: January 06, 2026 (Tuesday) Available on: Crunchyroll Episode Count / Runtime: 1st Series: 39 episodes 2nd Series: 12 episodes Total: 51 episodes ---------------------------------- EPISODE INDEX (Clicking on the episode will [eventually] take you to my post that has a summary, comments, and screen-caps) Episode 01: Prologue Episode 02: Armor Episode 03: Link Episode 04: Combat Episode 05: Sadness Episode 06: Restart Episode 07: Memory Episode 08: [url=][color=][/color][/url] Episode 09: [url=][color=][/color][/url] Episode 10: [url=][color=][/color][/url] Episode 11: [url=][color=][/color][/url] Episode 12: [url=][color=][/color][/url] OP1: ED1: ---------------------------------- Although this is a sequel to the original, I'm treating it like Bleach:TYBW and focusing the thread on the new content. Of course, if anybody wants to geek out over the 1st series and compare/contrast, that's cool, too. Given the original came out in the '80s and there wasn't a whole lot of buzz the time it came to North America in the '90s, I don't know that a dedicated thread to the original would garner much attention, these days. If need be, we can always make one just for that. But in the meantime, let's see how Sunrise follows it up about 35 years later. Last edited by Tony K. on Mon Feb 23, 2026 7:20 pm; edited 17 times in total |
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Sweet Saga
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Hi, I'm new here. Just wanted to know if we'll even get to watch this outside of Japan.
So far, I haven't heard of any streaming sites simulcasting this anime with the exception of AnimeBox for Spain and Yamato Video for Italy. Crunchyroll had it on its 2026 list but quickly took it down. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 12058 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Well, that's disappointing. I was actually looking forward to seeing how they could've revamped the show. I started re-watching the original series and forgot how "Sailor Moon for boys" it felt. Crunchyroll has the former available, so maybe there's a chance they'll still show the new one, and it's just some weird last-minute issue or something. I would be surprised if CR didn't try to use peoples' nostalgia to try and boost views for the latter.
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Sweet Saga
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People are thinking it could be some licensing issues holding it back. But the airdate is really close so I'm not sure Crunchyroll will be able to simulcast the first episode on time. Some fans got to watch the first three episodes at a pre-screening event in Japan and most of the reaction was positive. They said that the plot is a lot more complex now, with the new characters having less straightforward relationships with each other.
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 25599 |
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Welcome, Sweet Saga. ANN is my go to source for things like licensing announcements, so if I can't find the information here, it generally means it's not available anywhere... at least in English language sources. Sometimes announcements are made late... even after the show has already started airing in Japan. Bottom line: hard to say right now whether it will get a legit release in NA.
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Sweet Saga
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It's not just NA, no other regions aside from Spain and Italy have announced anything. This particular release has been utterly bizarre. You get the feeling Bandai Namco really only intends to market it domestically.
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Beltane70
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It wouldn’t be the first time that Crunchyroll didn’t get a series until after the first episode or two have already aired. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 12058 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Well, looks like CR added it back, on premiere day, no less.
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Beltane70
Posts: 4182 |
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I’m sure that Sweet Saga just breathed a huge sigh of relief, or will when they see this news!
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 12058 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Episode 01: Prologue
---------------------------------- Summary: 35 years after the defeat of Emperor Arago the Archdemon, a new threat from the Nether-realm emerges and begins to wreak havoc on the modern world. After a demon general is mysteriously taken by one of his own, he is detained by DST (Defense Special Incidents Taskforce) for further examination. When presented with the fabled Jewel of Life, it glows, showing he is a candidate for the legendary armor. ---------------------------------- Comments: I never finished watching the original series all those years ago. It was airing on the late afternoon Toonami block of Cartoon Network, here in the U.S., but I had a lot of other stuff to watch around the same time and could only program the VCR to record one other show. Going back and watching the original in about a week's time, then re-watching Episode 01 of Shin-Den, I think there's a lot of potential for it. To save new viewers the time of having to watch the original series, I'm going to reveal some of its plot/details to give the new one some context. - The bad guys. Emperor Arago was the main villain in the original and had 5 underlings. Shin-Den showed us a new demon boss (rank unknown) named Ramaga, who has 10 (now 9) underlings, the Ten Braves. The fact that there's a second, new, group of demons introduces the possibility of warring factions amongst themselves, which is pretty interesting. What if a scenario like "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" came to pass? - The Samurai Troopers in the original just started off with their armor, and the series never really explains their origin. There are some OVA episodes that came out after the series, but I haven't watched them, yet. But in Shin-Den, the Troopers seem to have this reputation of being public defenders, which I'm pretty sure they weren't in the original (they were secret defenders and had zero publicity). In fact, not only are these new ones publicized, they also seem to be corporate or government-controlled, which has some potential for political satire (I'm thinking Shin Godzilla style). - The original is (mistakenly, in my opinion) tagged as science fiction. But aside from using a computer for an episode or two to detect a demon threat and the armors, everything else in the series is magically, mystically, or supernaturally based. Shin-Den definitely changes that. DST almost feels like NERV from Evangelion in the way it reports, monitors, and even has some anti-demon countermeasures. - And finally, aside from Nasti (the lead-lady who's in charge of DST), it seems every character is brand new, pending on if they decide to show any others, later. Nasti was a young girl (I'm guessing early-to-mid teens, which would put her in her late 40s, early 50s, now). If anything else comes up as new episodes come out, I'll be sure to try and fill in whatever lingering details that might be related to the original series. As for Episode 01 of Shin-Den, I liked it a lot. The original is very cookie-cutter shounen with your fight/monster of the week kind of battles, stock footage transformation sequences, some semblance of idealism about good vs. evil, and some decently animated fights. Well, take all that and flip it on its head. This premiere is brutally violent, tongue-in-cheek with its humor, introduces a bunch of characters, kills off a few others, creates a lot of questions, and looks incredibly slick. The Jewel of Life Nasti has is an artifact from the original series that had mystical powers. In this case, it was able to identify Gai and his virtue, making him a candidate for one who can summon a legendary armor. Each armor has a virtue that's kind of like a personality mirror. Whatever virtue the person possesses will be matched to a specific armor, at least in the original, it did. Feel free to tell me otherwise, if you've seen the original OVA episodes and/or are a Samurai Troopers super-fan and know more about this and I do. Gai's virtue is righteousness. Doing what's right can be a slippery slope. As a demon general, he slaughtered innocents. As a human, he slaughtered some shitty poster boys. The degree of his idealism is strong, maybe even extreme. And it's interesting the rest of the Troopers are just regular people (or maybe ex-demons?). In the original, Aragos' warlords were actually just regular humans brainwashed by evil intentions and Aragos' armors. So far, it seems like another case of "demons are actually humans." Although, you do see what clearly looks like demonic figure in the opening sequence when they start suiting up and invading. You didn't even get to see much in the sense of demons in the original. And if you did, they were mostly covered in shadow and/or armor; no faces or any semblance of demon anatomy, Anyway, Gai looks like he'll be wearing the armor of Wildfire, and thus be the leader. I always linked the armor, color, virtue, and their element with the personalities of the wearer's. Wildfire / Red / Righteousness / Fire already seems to embody the nature of Gai and will only make his spirit burn even hotter, which is fitting. Musashi is Torrent / Aqua / Trust / Water, which we already saw in his willingness to help those trapped kids in the rubble. He seemed hesitant at the beginning, but I'm hoping he'll grow into the role a little more, especially once he gets his armor. We also see a reference to Musashi's older brother, Yamato who looks like he'll be Hardrock / Gold / Justice / Earth. By the tone of his voice in that short flashback, he'll probably be as adamant a hard-ass as Gai, which could lead to some head-butting. And finally, we also got a glimpse of Kaito who looks like he'll be Strata / Blue / Wisdom / Light. I'm doing a lot of cross-referencing between my own memory and Wikipedia, and this is also a lot I'm trying to type up while it's fresh in my head, so apologies if I get things a little mixed up. ---------------------------------- Screen Caps:  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Last edited by Tony K. on Wed Jan 14, 2026 5:26 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Eilavel
Posts: 477 |
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Hmm, I'm interested but the pace was so breakneck that I didn't really feel very invested in all the twists and turns? Will have to see if it can put a bit more meat on things or if it ends up feeling like some 00s Sunrise shows with a kind of hollow constant twisting.
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 12058 Location: Frisco, TX |
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I just finished the original series, not bad for late '80s shounen. It really only developed, maybe, 3 or 4 characters out of the 14 "major" ones, so we'll see if they can balance that out a little better in this sequel. I'm gonna' re-watch Shin-Den Episode 01 just for the tonal shock. I'll bet it's gonna' feel even more awesome, having the original so fresh in my head, now.
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zztop
Posts: 715 |
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The sequel so far has been employing various real 1980s Japanese pop/rock tracks in each episode. Highlights include :
Ep 1 : Sailor Fuku o Nugasanai de/Don't Make Me Take Off My Sailor Uniform - by (now defunct) idol group Onyako Club https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83uFs-o1yBA&list=RD83uFs-o1yBA&start_radio=1 Namida no Request/Tearful Request - by The Checkers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zk_28pjQCA&list=RD5Zk_28pjQCA&start_radio=1 Ep 2 : Tokio by Sawada Kenji https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUfTDQru5yI&list=RDhUfTDQru5yI&start_radio=1 Interestingly, some JPN tweets I found (I think they are from the JPN OG series fans ) have expressed their scepticism for how the sequel is handling things - one person found the nostalgia bait via the 80s songs too "try hard" and cringey, while others condemned the increased violence levels compared to the OG. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 12058 Location: Frisco, TX |
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This reminds me of Star Trek fans who love The Original Series and poo-poo on anything beyond William Shatner and the old crew, or the fans who love the Berman era of Next Generation through Voyager, but hate everything that came after that. There will always be divisiveness and dissension amongst audiences of a franchise where there's a big gap resulting in long-awaited sequels/attempts at soft reboots. Nostalgia will cloud some peoples' judgement, create a subconscious bias, and someone somewhere will find something to criticize. I think it's human nature to feel like "things we remember and cherish" are being "attacked' whenever someone/something new attempts to "sully" our memory of it by altering what we believe is the "true" version of that. After watching the OG series in the past week, but never finishing it the first time I started it, like, 30 years ago, I don't know if that constitutes me as an "OG fan." Did I have to finish watching it when I was a teenager to "qualify" my opinion of it today? If anything, I've come to appreciate a lot of the old gateway anime titles that got me into the medium after re-evaluating most of them as an adult. I still remember the feeling when I saw Ryo summon the Armor of Wildfire (in English) for the first time, and how cool it looked. It literally was "Sailor Moon for boys" to me, the latter of which I had tried watching, as well. But being a teenage boy, I just couldn't get into girls fighting monsters and supervillains. That didn't click with me, back then. But I have to say, after watching Episode 02 of Shin-Den, when I saw Gai summon Wildfire, the nostalgic feeling of awe from 30 years ago came rushing back. It was completely unexpected, and I got really excited to see it. And then he even used an ultimate technique finisher, which looked glorious. There's a lot more I wanna' comment on about Shin-Den in an all-out episode review, but I just wanted to address the whole "nostalgia vs. now" argument. Last edited by Tony K. on Wed Jan 14, 2026 6:14 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 12058 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Episode 02: Armor
---------------------------------- Summary: After eliminating the corrupt Samurai Trooper poster boys, but before he can finish off Musashi, Gai is encountered, then subdued by Ryuusei. Later, it's discovered that Gai is the son of the current demon lord threat, Ramaga, who is planning to use Gai as a vessel. Among investigating the aftermath of another demon attack, Gai, Ryuusei, and Kaito encounter one of the Ten Braves. ---------------------------------- Comments: In the Episode 01 comments, I made a remark about how "cookie-cutter" the OG series was. I stick by that statement and already find Shin-Den a lot more compelling. There was either very little, or no development at all, for a lot of the characters in the OG. But here, you get a dramatic reveal that Gai is the son of the enemy and the tragic circumstance of Kaito becoming a Trooper. Also, we finally get to see some armors and actual animation of the Troopers doing stuff that (hopefully) won't become repeated stock clips. I have to say, I like how Shin-Den is really embracing the destruction and its aftermath. Think about it: if violent, power-hungry demons are invading our realm. You think they won't try to terrorize us by brutally murdering people and blowing stuff up? OG had them show up, but it was always just them fighting the Troopers, and sometimes chasing down Nasti and Jun (the little boy that never really did anything but be a cheerleader for Ryo). They didn't attack people. In fact, they barely even showed regular citizens. And the demons didn't destroy or blow stuff up. Surprisingly, the color scheme still gave the show a dystopian vibe (it was always dark and cloudy), but the overall mood left much to be desired to achieve that dire, apocalyptic feeling. Here in Shin-Den, not only do you have blood and gore, but now we even see corpses being rebranded as demon zombie puppets, and one of them was Kaito's grandma. Talk about dark, when you have to fight your beloved grandma's corpse. We've got a demon spawn with a chip on his shoulder, a kid who just got betrayed by his "comrades," a guy who just had kill his grandma, and we're only in the second episode. The OG crew had no backstories or clear motivations. If anything, I feel Ryo (OG red leader) only did what he did because he was one of the good guys. It's simple, but too simple. The armor summoning was quite the treat, though. I know I mentioned this above, but I got really giddy when the lights, ribbons, and music started kicking in. The modern-style animation with its crisp details and vibrant color made the whole experience feel like it was my first time seeing it, all over again. I'm also really glad to see Ryuusei treat his armor like a legit power-up when he was fighting Gai at the beginning. The combat and movement was pretty limited in the OG series and mostly relegated to finishing moves and the occasional weapon swing on the foot soldiers. I still wonder if Arago will make an appearance, or if Ramaga's group is the clear-cut bad guy group. It'd be really cool if there was dissension and division within the demon ranks and if their power struggle somehow affected the invasion. It doesn't even have to be Arago against Ramaga. Gai seems pretty against his dad, as it is, and to the point where he wants the armor specifically to stop him and his plans. ---------------------------------- Screen Caps:  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Last edited by Tony K. on Thu Jan 22, 2026 2:17 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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