Yoroi-Shinden Samurai Troopers

Episode 5

Aw, man, I hate it when I'm right. Not that it was something hard to call. Virtually everyone watching Yoroi-Shinden Samurai Troopers was side-eyeing Ryusei's place in the narrative—his cool mentor status, his anime coughing disease, and this episode in particular calling attention to the fact that he's been wearing the Crest of Fire from original Trooper Ryo this whole time. Ryusei was always destined to be sacrificed at the altar of upping the stakes, and this week that tragic check is cashed. It's still too bad. He did his job well by being so cool. It's really sad to see him go.

Said stakes have been upped anyway, with big daddy demon Ramaga himself making the scene as of the last episode. That lends this whole episode a sense of escalation. Ryusei isn't getting offed incidentally, he's going down fighting in the hardest way possible. This includes the confirmation that Ramaga himself was the one who poisoned Ryusei, so removing the curse wouldn't be as simple as beating one of his flunkies, and said curse temporarily turned Ryusei into a demon forced to take on his fellow Troopers. There are phases to this whole process, in case anybody would try to claim that the pacing of this show wasn't accelerative.

Though that accelerated pacing does make Samurai Troopers a victim of its own approach in some ways with this character wrap-up. Much of the pathos around Ryusei's impending, inevitable demise is built up through flashbacks to interactions and endearing moments he shared with his teammates… which the audience is only just now seeing. It's been something of an odd artifact ever since this anime debuted its Hyperbolic-Time-Chamber virtual-reality training realm, and how it can montage over whole swaths of growth and breakthroughs for the boys. Now it has to go back to the parts viewers didn't get to see to confirm that Ryusei was a great guy who got along with everyone.

The irony, of course, is that the structure didn't really need to double back to this degree. Ryusei, as indicated by my own affection for him, was already characterized as the cool big bro of the team who would be sorely missed once his doomed destiny caught up with him. Some of the specific little interactions between him and other team members thus come off like laying the tragedy on a bit thick. The only one I can say is essential is, naturally, his connection with Gai, reassuring the former demon of his inherent humanity.

Had the writing actually shown this specific conversation in preceding episodes, it would have hit harder. It would especially have an impact on bringing back the requisite retro song the two bond over—except in this case, that song is "Samurai Heart," the second opening song of the original Samurai Troopers! That's something that works better with a big, momentous reveal like this, so in that case I can understand Yoroi Shin Den holding it back. Still, there had to be a happy medium between building up the flashback scenes between Ryusei and Gai and saving the needle drop for the right moment.

For all that awkwardness around the back-ported teammate bonding, the drama around what happens to Ryusei still mostly hits in this episode. There's a solid fake-out with Shion for a moment (notable now that it seems he'll be replacing Ryusei on the team). And this anime's driving theme of generational clashing informs Ryusei's path to this point—revealing that Ryo chose him to lead the new team, how Ryusei struggled to feel like he measured up to that, and ultimately was driven to self-sacrifice to achieve that worth. And other ideas do properly come full-circle with his demon transformation, allowing for an arc-wrapping mirror of his fight with the demonic Gai in the first episode. Embodying the question of what makes a person human or a demon aligns with that past material. It thus is more compelling than any snippets, solidifying that Ryusei was really, seriously good friends with all the other boys.

The swerve that the nature of Ryusei's curse actually causes him to be killed by Gai when he uses the sacred sword to try purifying him is also a solid knife-twist after all this buildup. Again, I could predict that Ryusei was going down, but the way he did it made it an impact. This lays out pathos for both Gai and Shion to deal with in the rest of the coming series, so I'm nonplussed that the specific connections with the other characters feel comparatively more shallow. The revelations about Ryo even turn out to be pertinent, as this episode's big ending twist after the tragic character death is that the original Samurai Trooper leader is Ramaga! That adds an extra dimension to this show's idea of generations, legacy, and where Gai's coming from in all this! It shows that if Yoroi Shin Den just commits to focusing and streamlining a bit, it could be hitting these highs well every time. But even with some stumbling, this episode still got me feeling feelings for a character death I basically knew was coming, so that's a mark of success, regardless.

Rating:

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Yoroi-Shinden Samurai Troopers is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris loves transforming heroes, but hasn't been able to make time for Toei's stuff recently, so he'll settle for following these Warriors what are Ronin. Follow him on his BlueSky if you're interested in his opinions on other niche nerdery.

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