Ronin Warriors, Vols. 9 & 10:
Walls Crumble and Fate of Evil (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
  

Released by: Geneon Entertianment (Pioneer)

Region: 1
Rating: 13+
Anamorphic: N/A; presented in original TV aspect.

My Advice: Just barely better than a sharp stick in the eye. Maybe. Unless maybe it wasn't your good eye anyway.

Having gone through the requisite pre-showdown training montage, Ronin Warriors turns the corner into its final stretch, with a massive battle brewing between our young sentai heroes and the evil Talpa. This ultimate confrontation with Talpa on his home turf of the Netherworld promises to be the team's biggest challenge yet, and the fate of the world lies in the balance. Talpa enacts his ritual to merge the Netherworld with the human world, so that he might rule all of creation. With the clock thus ticking, the fights come fast and thick for the remaining handful of episodes in the series.

Of course, this comes none too soon. These shows were already pretty stock animation and art quality when they debuted in Japan...nearly two decades ago. With places like TechTV and Toonami throwing around much more recent animation, this show looks flat-out terrible by comparison. Muted colors, jerky animation, and overused repeat footage (e.g., transformation sequences, most notably, which take up way more time than they should in a thirty-minute TV episode). With these final two discs from the television series, mayhap valuable resources can be redirected towards an anime series that dates from after the Reagan administration.

The final episodes of the series really don't do anything to improve on the formula of the previous eight discs: horrific challenge defeats the warriors at first pass, team reconsiders tactics (maybe some training if there's time), warriors return to give what for to the aforementioned horrific challenge. The scripts for these final few eps also feel unnaturally padded out, as if the show really could've been brought in and put to bed with about half as many episodes, but there was some obligation (perhaps contractual) that required a fixed number of episodes to be produced.

As mentioned above, the visuals are the definition of mediocrity for their era, and unmentionably bad by today's standards. Bright colors bleed into the surrounding picture, particularly with the reds, and the overall picture is awfully dark in the Netherworld, which would be fine for atmospheric effect if it didn't make it damn near impossible to make out detail on any shot but a close-up. The audio is somewhat better, provided you're listening to the English dub, but then you have to deal with some rather irritating voice work. The Japanese audio is tinny and muffled in places. None of these problems lie in the transfer, however. All of this is squarely due to the age of the original. It probably could've been cleaned up with some digital remastering, but honestly, why bother?

Of extras there are none, barring the original Japanese versions of the episodes on the reverse of the disc and matching reversible cover art. While the Japanese originals are marginally better in not having been dumbed down for a younger audience in America, the audio quality suffers enough that it's really about an even swap. If you're a sentai completist, then these discs are probably a necessary addition to your collection (though I suspect only grudgingly). Otherwise, I can fathom no reason to pick these up whatsoever.