Ronin Warriors vol. 1-3: The Call, Rescue Operations, and Warriors Reunited! (2001)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Series Concept by Hajime Yatate
Directed by Masashi Ikeda and Mamoru Hamazu
Character Design by Norio Shioyama

Features:

• Reversible cover art
  
• Corresponding episodes of Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers on disc reverse
  

Doc's Anime Warnings:

• Tired "color team" series concept
• Hackneyed dialogue
• Annoying transformation sequence

Rating: 13+

Anamorphic: N/A; presented in original TV aspect.

My Advice: Pass.

Ronin Warriors, originally broadcast in Japan as Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers, is essentially the pubescent male matching set for anime series like Sailor Moon. Not too complicated, and nothing too cerebral, lest they lose the attention of their target market. The series was broadcast in the US relatively unscathed, a small miracle in the anime world. These discs present four episodes a piece of the series, both in its American incarnation as Ronin Warriors, and the original Japanese version on the flip side of the disc.

The story of the series goes something like this: massive evil empire unleashes itself on Earth from what seems to be a parallel dimension of nasties. Tokyo is laid to waste, civilians die by the dozens, and the shock troops of this empire begin to spread throughout Japan. Along come a group of five young men, in strange and powerful suits of samurai armor. They combat the evil forces, get blasted to the corners of Japan by a panicked evil Emperor, and Ryo, the leader of the group, spends the remaining episodes of discs 2 and 3 gathering the troops up again and leading an assault against the empire.

As plots go, Ronin Warriors is fairly generic fare. The five-person color-coded hero team has been done to death since the days of Voltron and Battle of the Planets, though to be fair, the original Japanese air date on Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers is close to coinciding with those series, so maybe it was just an 80's thing in anime. The video transfer looks decent, with little to no visible pops or crackles in the video or sound.

The series is, as a whole, eminently forgettable, though not offensively dull or derivative. Just average. So it comes as little surprise that the folks at Bandai didn't dump a whole ton of effort into sprucing up the DVD presentation. Features are nil, except for the inclusion of the original Japanese version on the flip side. Though given that almost nothing was altered between the two presentations, it seems that it would have been simpler to just include both language tracks on the one side of the disc like most anime. The only other thing that might be considered a "feature" is that the DVD cover itself can be reversed to display the Japanese title and episode names.

With generic anime storyline, mediocre animation, and a fundamental concept that's been played out in dozens of similar series, there's not much to recommend Ronin Warriors. On the other hand, if you're dying for more 80's "rainbow team" anime, this is probably the best you'll get until somebody gives us Voltron on DVD.