Yoroi-Shinden Samurai Troopers

Episode 9

"Give us an explanation that makes sense," Shion implores at the beginning of this episode, a sentiment I strongly shared. My complaints about the three-car pile-up of plots and tones in previous weeks of Yoroi-Shinden Samurai Troopers meant I was apprehensive about another addition in whatever was going on with Nasti communicating with the Demon World. Amazingly, the anime actually makes things gel much more comparatively well in this instance. It mostly manages that by shifting to a new stack of plots while lightly acknowledging the elements covered last week, but it generally works. Credit where it's due: they give us an explanation that makes sense!

I had presumed that Nasti's Demon World hotline was going to be a subversion that actually confirmed her innocence—or worse, got a comedic deflation like everything to do with Jun's plots since. But no, it turns out Nasti really has been getting gaslit, gatekept, girlbossed by Ramaga and the jewel's influence, seemingly for years now. I'm still not crazy about the escape clause of the mirror's corrupting powers from a couple of weeks ago, but it does mean this mechanic was properly foreshadowed, as was Nasti's connection to and dependence on the jewel throughout the show so far. This episode highlights that with some choice flashbacks, which is fair in this case, as my initial reaction was thinking, "I wonder if they properly foreshadowed that, I should go back and check." So thanks for saving me some time, Samurai Troopers.

It's solid enough as a plot twist (and better than any of the others from the past couple weeks), but the way Yoroi-Shinden Samurai Troopers brings itself back into flavor country is how it threads that twist through subsequent subplots. It is only a little funny that Kaito's dead rock-and-roll grandma comes back again as someone who was involved in these schemes, but that's one of those bits that the show skims by quickly enough. Rather, the writing uses this as a chance to bring back Shion's issues, now that he knows that Nasti being compromised directly led to the deaths of his teammates (including Ryusei, in the long term). So when there's a follow-up plot twist that Shion also got mind-controlled (in this case, by the sacred sword), it feels like a natural extension of the previous reveal. It's also more thematically consistent: Shion blames Nasti for what happened to his generation of Troopers, but it turns out she was also being manipulated and affected by the sins of the past from another, prior generation. It all runs downhill.

This means the rest of the Shion storyline is one of somewhat circular redemption. The alive-or-not status of his Trooper team is a little too zig-zagged for my tastes, though that might just be because I think they seem cool and would have liked to see more of them. What's important is the contrast between Shion thinking he's got a second chance at saving them, when what he's actually got is more of a shot at penance and redemption. A story of generations necessitates looking forward, after all, so it makes more sense that Shion ends up saving his current team as a priority, alongside Gai affirming his own attachment to the squad. That Shion pulls it off thanks to posthumous help from the armor of his old teammates adds a little poetry to the proceedings, and it ties into the Ten Demon Warriors showcasing their own kind of camaraderie, and how that contrasts with Ramaga just trying to manipulate everyone for his own personal ends.

The discord among the Demons is the one place in this episode where I think Yoroi-Shinden's storytelling remains a bit too messy. There's a bit more context on the difference between the First-Name and Last-Name subgroups, even as the writing still won't fully categorize who's in which crew. But it's nice to see that the Demons support each other even across these apparent divisions. Also, what communication is given happens during a shower scene showcasing all these hunky demon dudes (I haven't mentioned it yet, but Sasuke is 200% my type), so I'll take that.

The fun of the presentation really ups things as the storytelling of Samurai Troopers gets a bit more back on track this week. There's no rock song this time, but the structure and direction can commit to moody when needed, like Nasti being thrown in the brig, and dramatic enough at a moment's notice, like when Gai just chops the heads off all of Shion's former teammates. And Gai's deployment of Platinum-Games-style slo-mo counter-attack time is a pretty sick inclusion to jazz up the big fight here. Samurai Troopers looks like it's going to continue speedily shaking itself up into the next episode, so I hope this week's entry was a progenitor of it, knowing how to better wield that approach, with more controlled chaos than it's displayed in previous weeks.

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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