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  1. Mugen Ronin Warriors Cartoon Wiki

Ronin is the main antagonist of LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin and a major character in Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. He is a selfish, yet skilled and intelligent mercenary. Based in Stiix with his airship R.E.X., he is hired often by Master Chen for important tasks such as capturing Zane. Ship's assassin, to be used only in extreme circumstances when the ruler is holding a crewmate in captivity. Samurai Troopers / Shuten. ArmourDemonsSamurai ArmorAnimeMobile SuitDarkKarateThe O'jaysTransformers.

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Alternative Titles

English: Ronin Warriors
Synonyms: Armor Legend Samurai Troopers, Samurai Warriors

Information

Type:TV
Status: Finished Airing
Premiered:Spring 1988
Producers: None found, add some
Studios:Sunrise
Genres:Adventure, Samurai, Sci-Fi, Shounen
Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Ranked: #31072
2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Members: 13,924
Ranked #3107Popularity #3669Members 13,924
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Synopsis

Thousands of years ago, the evil emperor Talpa attempted to conquer the Earth. Defeated, he was banished to the Nether Realm and his armor was divided into 9 separate suits. Now, he has returned to conquer Earth, having reclaimed 4 of the suits. The other 5 are in the possesion of those who are the only hope of stopping him: The Ronin Warriors.
(Source: ANN)

Background

No background information has been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding background information here.

Related Anime

Adaptation:Yoroiden Samurai Troopers, Shin Yoroiden Samurai Troopers
Sequel:Yoroiden Samurai Troopers Gaiden

Characters & Voice Actors

Hashiba, Touma
Main
Takemura, Hiroshi
Japanese
Date, Seiji
Nakamura, Daiki
Japanese
Sanada, Ryo
Main
Kusao, Takeshi
Japanese
Rei Fuan, Shu
Nishimura, Tomohiro
Japanese
Shutendouji
Main
Yanada, Kiyoyuki
Japanese
Mouri, Shin
Main
Sasaki, Nozomu
Japanese
Talpa
Sasaoka, Shigezou
Japanese
Kayura
Supporting
Katsuki, Masako
Japanese
Yagyu, Nasuti
Kusakabe, Kaori
Japanese
Kaos
Supporting
Wakamoto, Norio
Japanese

Staff

Ikeda, Masashi
Director
Hamatsu, Mamoru
Director, Episode Director, Storyboard
Chiba, Kouichi
Sound Director
Takamatsu, Shinji
Episode Director, Storyboard

Edit Opening Theme

#1: 'Stardust Ice (スターダストアイズ)' by Mariko Uranishi (浦西真理子)
#2: 'Samurai Heart (サムライハート)' by Hiroko Moriguchi

Edit Ending Theme

#1: 'Faraway' by Mariko Uranishi
#2: 'Chizu no Nai Tabi e (地図のない旅へ) by Daiki Nakamura, Takeshi Kusao, Tomohiro Nishimura, Shigezou Sasaoka, Nozomu Sasaki, Norio Wakamoto, Kaori Kusakabe
#3: 'Be Free' by Hiroko Moriguchi

More reviewsReviews

39 of 39 episodes seen
grendelity(All reviews)
64 people found this review helpful
Overall10
Story5
Animation4
Sound4
Character6
Enjoyment10
Honestly: Ronin Warriors is kind of an awful series. The story is rambling and at times nonsensical [especially the English adaptation], which consistently wonky art and animation. The sound tends to be ridiculous [evil theme music precedes every villian ever] and totally period-80s. The characters are maybe the best out of all of the series' points, with mulleted teenage boys and ridiculous villians that are dopey and endearing. The voice-acting has a few gems: in Japanese, Takeshi Kusao voices the main character, Ryo, and Nozomu Sasaki voices Shin; in English there's Matt Hill as Ryo and Scott McNeil as the warlord Kale. However, the English dub also has voice-actors doubling up on roles [Cye and Sage, Rowen and Sekmet, Anubis and other random villians], which makes for a few ridiculous moments where it's so, so obvious.
Also honestly: I love all of those flaws so, so much. I grew up with Ronin Warriors. It's one of the first anime I ever saw, and when I was 11, I was in love with it. Almost 10 years later, I have such a huge spot in my heart for it, I can't do much else except keep loving it. It can be so silly, so strangely suggestive, and yet, so pure and innocent. You can laugh at it for being bad--I do. I very much do. But I also love it because it embraces everything it's trying to be, and it does nothing halfway. If two characters are going to be the embodiment of mere helpless humans that the Ronin Warriors have to continually protect, then they're going to be the most irritating things in the world. If a villain is going to have his heart set on engulfing Japan in darkness, then he's going to cast a massive shadow over Shinjuku and laugh maniacally for a full minute. If a character decides he's going to sacrifice himself for the good of mankind, then by god, his comrades are going to cry gratuitous shoujo-tears while dealing killing blows in an inexplicably naked fashion.
And my love will abide.
39 of 39 episodes seen
ParaParaJMo(All reviews)
18 people found this review helpful
Overall8
Story8
Animation8
Sound9
Character8
Enjoyment8
Welcome to one of the original modern day cult classics of anime. The licensors originally intended to keep its true title, Yoroiden Samurai Troopers, but because of Saban Entertainment’s two big name titles at the time: Super Human Samurai Cyber Squad and VR Troopers having the names in their titles, they feared a law suit. I know it’s stupid, but this is America we’re talking about. But I think Ronin Warriors is also an appropriate title for our cast of characters. Despite the title and name changes, as well as some other ones in context to the story, it maintains a substantial amount of faithfulness in presentation with character interaction, development, and themes such as friendship and unity. But for what it’s worth, the story is appropriately paced and stunningly engaging. I was really captivated by how much Ryo values his friendship with his teammates, and it was also an anime that had death scenes and showed a naked woman on early after noon television. So some of those qualities were just unique to me during that one summer vacation of 1995. But beyond that, I also loved its approach to the concept of what defines good and evil in a way that my 11-year-old mind at the time could handle.
Of course some major flaws and issues people will have is that the team doesn’t have an official back-story. Such as how and why they got their armors. In the Japanese version, some of the characters are descended from samurai which does give some indication that they were bounded by blood or destiny to become so. But I heard there are some manga material and drama cds that do give some elaboration to this.
Well, to some people the style may not really be unique, but to me when I was getting into anime, seeing the art alone was enough to tell me that I should watch this show. To me, the art was fresh, sharp, original, and distinctive. And for some reason, I still have some of those same impressions to this day though it’s not as strong as it was 13 years ago. Granted the multi-color scheme was very Power Rangers-ish for that time period, I just thought the designs of both the Ronin and Dynasty Warriors brought out a really retro and original approach to the style. I was truly frightened with what the bad guys’ armors looked like and the power it had. And even though the attacks relied on recycled footage, I just love how dramatic they were and how much detail they put into the movement and expressions. The fights at the time were very exciting and high octane for me because like I said, it was something new and it just pulled me in. But I did notice the use of hyper space backgrounds and ever since then as well as in other anime, they still bother me to this day. I want to say more but I’ll leave what I say in relation to this topic for my overall commentary.
OK, the English opening theme was cheesy, but I just loved the guitars. Granted it didn’t have a Japanese feel to it, but I thought it was still hypnotic. But I do appreciate that the dub still kept the original background music soundtrack. I always loved the guitar edition of the first ending theme, Far Away, and I thought it was always appropriately used and it always stuck out to me, as well as other background mixes of the other songs such as Stardust Eyes and Samurai Heart. But when you hear the actual theme songs, they have this certain Japanese authenticity to the show.
The dub may sound cheesy and lame to some people, but I personally still love it to this day. I think the dub is appropriately 90s and I think the accents for some of the characters truly reflected their personalities. I liked Cye’s or Shin’s or whoever you want to call him’s British accent. I think it perfectly brings out his gentle and happy nature. I also loved Jason Gray Stafford as Kento or Xiu. He brought out his party animal personality and I also enjoyed Matt Hill as Ryo or Raioh or whatever pronunciation you want to use. I recognized his voice as Captain N the first time I heard it and I just simply liked him for the role. And the dub voices of the Warlords were excellent and they just brought out the true evil in them. But I also think the Japanese version is also excellent in its own right. I truly enjoyed Kusao Takeshi’s Ryo as well and brought out his qualities in his own right as well as being passionate and commanding. And Wakamoto Norio, who voiced Cell in DBZ I thought was also great as Kaos or The Ancient One, and the English voice actor, Michael Dobson brought a great charisma to that role as well. I say watch both English and Japanese versions not to see which version is better, but to just overall enjoy it.
Well, as you can tell by this review, every time I watch and talk about this anime, the inner child inside me who first watched comes out and talks about his impressions after watching it the first time. I was officially watching anime for barely six months at that point and I thought it was unique to see anime on TV at the time. Keep in mind that shortly after, DBZ and Sailor Moon would soon follow, but would have yet find any mainstream success. The reason why I feel I can’t be outraged over what was changed and edited is not really over the legal circumstances, but I felt that despite whatever changes were made, I personally felt that this anime still had all of its qualities that made it likeable as an anime. I mean, it’s not like any direct Japanese references were cut out. I was captured by how the story wasn’t traditionally episodic as I grew up with American cartoons. I loved the art, the action, the development, the characters.
39 of 39 episodes seen
literaturenerd(All reviews)
8 people found this review helpful
Overall5
Story5
Animation5
Sound5
Character5
Enjoyment5
Overview:
Since I have lately focused on largely forgotten anime that actually did air on American TV, I decided I really had to do Yoroiden Samurai Troopers AKA Ronin Warriors. This show aired on Toonami in the afternoon alongside DBZ, Gundam Wing, and Sailor Moon. What made this one stick out is that it is several years older than most of the anime from Toonami and really has that vintage 1980s look and feel to it. Although it certainly has some flaws, it is a cheesy fun experience that still commands a cult following in 2014. Actually, it was recently announced that this series is going to be re-released on blu-ray!
Plot and characters: 4/10
The plot is that an evil demon was defeated over 1,000 years ago and his mighty armor was divided into 9 separate suits, each having a different element and virtue that it represents. Of course this means that 5 suits end up being used by the good guys and 4 by bad guys because it is fucking MANDATORY for every anime and Sentai (NOT hentai you pervs) show in this genre to feature a 5 man team. It is also pretty much required for each member to have a different color and element, and to strike cool group poses all the time. Of course there is also an animal sidekick and chick to be the team's cheerleader. Even the unconventional 4 man Ninja Turtles had to have April O'Neal. This show really used a cookie cutter 80s formula that will give modern viewers a good look at how pretty much all childrens' action shows looked and felt at that time period. When the armors of fire, water, wind, earth, and void combine together, they summon Captain Planet! Wait! They summon the Inferno Armor! Inferno Armor is what I meant to say! One interesting thing the show did was that even the 4 'Dark Warlords' each had a virtue that they followed. This at least gave it a small bit of moral complexity and not just pure good vs. evil.
Art and sound 4/10
Ronin Warriors featured the same 'finisher moves' in every episode which each had the same few minutes of animation used over and over. This meant that an average episode would be 20 minutes with 10 minutes of new footage and 10 minutes of recycled animation used in all 39 episodes. Even shows with larger budgets like Sailor Moon used LOTS of recycled animation at this period, so this was simply accepted as the norm by anime fans. Today we are far more spoiled and would never simply accept a show being this fucking lazy and cheap. The soundtrack is allright, although if you are expecting cheesy 80s songs like Top Gun or Rocky 4 than you will be sadly disappointed.
Overall: 5/10
I gave it an extra point for nostalgia and cheesyness. This isn't a good show, but it was a fun little show back in the late 1990s when I was 10 years old. I'm sure if a kid today watched it, he or she would be like..'The fuck was that shit?!' However, it still holds a special place for me as a silly bit of my childhood.
39 of 39 episodes seen
WdaCdaShdaDid(All reviews)
1 people found this review helpful
Overall7
Story6
Animation6
Sound6
Character6
Enjoyment9
This series will always hold a special place in my heart as a thing I deeply love, even though it is truly terrible in so many ways. DOOM -copyright the Japanese sub, which is truly a treasure- It was, I think, the second anime I watched, and the first one I ever fell in love with, and the first I ever owned.
The plot is.. largely bad, and it's so obviously built to pad time that it's somewhat laughable. We'll ignore the plot holes large enough to fill the Grand Canyon. After all, that's what the show did. Characters are so dense they could probably stop bullets with it. The dialogue is at times phenomenally stupid and laughably stupid, with occasional bursts of heart. This was first released in 1988, and the art quality (not the style) looks it.
It has every bad hallmark of 80s-90s anime you can think of, even if you ignore the cheeseball dialogue DOOM. Repetitive overuse of the same long transformation and attack sequences (not just calling out the name of the attack and starting it, but actual movement) to cut costs and save time on writing plot by filling episode length. The only show I can think of that was worse with this was the old 'Scooby-Doo' cartoon.
Annoying child character/audience stand-in who serves no purpose other than to be rescued and be a whiny asshat. Lots of damseling the single female character in the main cast. And then adding a female antagonist who also gets damselled a lot. Sentient-ish animal sidekick. Convenient (with the copyright logo) villain dumbassery. A truly random baseball sequence that.. I still don't understand. At all. But you know. Why not? The protagonists are only 14-15 anyway.
That's not to say there aren't some very good plot ideas and episodes in the series. E03, E05, E10, E21, and E32 are particularly close to my heart. I'm biased because I'm a Ryo fan, if it wasn't obvious.
If you're looking for cheese that's so bad it's funny, this skids the line of not quite making it there? Sure, DOOM is added to almost every villain's dialogue at least three times an episode, and the mangst wavers between good fanfiction fodder and true cheese, but well.. This probably is not the corny thing you want to watch for shits and giggles while you get drunk or something. It's too slow most of the time for that. Although if you're watching the English dub, at least revel in the fact that Matt Hill, who voices Ryo, also voiced Ed from 'Ed, Edd, and Eddy'. 'Your mother wears army boots' indeed, my dear, stupid English dub. (what does that line even MEAN I ask you)
The series has a ton of potential. There's a rich bed of Japanese fantasy lore in the show that you don't see in a ton of easily recyclable shonen from the era. I'd love to see a modern adaptation of this. It would be spectacular. Particularly if the main cast got character development. The art, for all that it's generic 80s-90s quality, has a neat style that could do well on a modern show. The armors all have neat designs, particularly the Shiroi Kikotei.
The first ED, 'Faraway', by Mariko Uranishi, is quite good. The rest of the music is forgettable. I seem to vaguely recall that the English OPs were pretty bad, but it's been so long since I watched the dub that it's thankfully faded from my memory.
Honestly, if you aren't watching this for the nostalgia factor, I'd suggest skipping it. It hasn't aged well at all. And are the OVAs bad? Yes. Yes they are. All three of them. Oh you didn't know there were OVAs? How fortunate for YOU.
Unfortunately there really aren't alternatives that hit the same-ish genre spots as this that I'd recommend. Too many mecha or samurai shows are terrible for similar and somewhat worse reasons, particularly from the same era. 'Natsume Yuujinchou' is an amazing Japan-centric supernatural/fantasy show I'd always recommend, but it's not shonen or mecha. 'Macross Frontier' is pretty, with some good plot and mangst, and some great music, even if it does succumb to some typical mecha genre issues. 'Katanagatari' is a beautifully drawn and stylized fantasy samurai-centric-ish show with great fight scenes that embraces the cornball factor, so that might be the best alternative.

Recommendations


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Recent Forum Discussion

I didn't realize how bad this was as a kid, but now..
geearf - Oct 18, 2014
1 replies2 replies
Which anime armor will reign supreme? Come and get to know the best candidates for the title and decide which one should take the glory.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/RoninWarriors

Go To

Why are they 'ronin'? That's a good question.
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Mugen Ronin Warriors CartoonMugen ronin warriors cartoon network

Yoroiden Samurai Troopers Albert king tab pdf viewer. is a 39-episode Shōnen anime produced by Sunrise in the late 1980s; its story centres on a group of young men in possession of transforming mystical armors. Sunrise designed the show to capitalize on the success of another hit show about young men with mystical armors, although Samurai Troopers was made with Sengoku flavor. The series came to the United States in 1995 as Ronin Warriors, where it meshed well during the post-Power Rangers wave. The show's American dub remains one of the least MacekredAnime-to-American TV adaptations of its time in terms of cuts (excluding the name changes).

In the first episode, Master Talpa, the supreme lord of the Underworld—who spends most of the show's first arc as a floating demonic mask—enters the mortal world and invades Tokyo with a horde of demonic henchmen. A handful of people escape the flood of Talpa's Dynasty henchmen; Yuli, a young boy whose parents end up captured during Talpa's invasion, and Mia Koji, a young student-teacher and researcher of ancient Japanese legends and antiquities, are among the escapees.

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Also witness to this event: five athletic young heroes in colorful armor, one of whom—Ryo—wandered into the city alongside an enormous white tiger minutes before Talpa's arrival. When Mia and Yuli are threatened by Talpa's foot soldiers, Ryo and the other heroes step in to rescue them. Talpa sees the five warriors as a threat to his invasion and casts them to the four winds with his supernatural powers. This leads to Mia and Yuli travelling across Japan to find and reunite the Ronin Warriors so they can prevent The End of the World as We Know It. But the young warriors and their friends have more than just Talpa and his low-level goons to worry about: The evil mastermind has four powerful warlords in his employ, each of whom have their own mystical armors that allow them to unleash unspeakable horrors upon the world. (The heroes have Yuli on their side, so things even out.)

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Once the warriors reunite, they venture into Talpa's demonic stronghold and discover the origins of their armors. Long before Talpa came to conquer Tokyo in modern times, a mystic known as The Ancient One defeated Talpa in battle. The mystic sent Talpa's soul to the Underworld, but the warlord's demonic armor remained in the mortal world. As a precaution against Talpa's possible return, The Ancient One melted down the armor, then remade it into nine separate armors. Five of these armors found their way to the Ronin Warriors; the other four ended up with Talpa's Warlords. The heroes press on into battle even after learning the truth, and Ryo eventually defeats Talpa after the power of all five Ronin Warriors combine to give Ryo a new suit of armor.

Several new foes show up after Talpa's defeat to challenge Ryo while he learns to control the the Inferno Armor's immeasurable power. But these villains are a distraction from the true threat: Talpa, who still lives on in the Underworld, and the corrupted Lady Kayura, the last member of the line of Ancients and a force more powerful than even the Inferno Armor. The Warriors decide to strike at Talpa in the Underworld instead of waiting for another invasion, hoping to stop the warlord's schemes once and for all.

Sunrise followed up the series with three OVAs: Gaiden, Kikoutei Densetsu ('The Legend of the Solar Armor'), and Message. Each OVA features their own distinct storyline and villains.

Thanks to its cheesy-yet-enjoyable dub, lack of content cuts, and wide exposure via syndication (and later Toonami), Ronin Warriors helped pave the way for the mid-to-late 1990s anime boom. Bandai gave in to fan demand in the early 2000s by releasing the entire show on special double-sided DVDs: one side contained episodes of Ronin Warriors, and the other contained subtitled and uncut episodes of Samurai Troopers. Bandai later released the OVAs—with their own dub to boot—then eventually released both the series and the OVAs together in a collector's set. The individual DVD releases likewise had a special 'flip' cover where both sides shared the same layouts save for the back-cover text and logos, which stayed in line with each version of the show right down to episode titles and character names. Discotek Media eventually rescued the Samurai Troopers license and released the series and OVAs on DVD; legal issues surrounding the Ronin Warriors dub, however, have prevented Discotek from re-releasing that version.

Ronin Warriors/Yoroiden Samurai Troopers contains examples of the following tropes:

  • The Abridged Series:
    • 'Sage's Mental Notes' is not quite an Abridged Series, but very funny.
    • dutchmcgee101's 'Alternate Ronin Warriors' is not quite an abridged series in the strictest sense, but it is worth a look.
  • Accent Adaptation:
    • Rowen, who is from Osaka, is given a New York dialect in the TV series. When Bandai dubbed the first OVA, his new voice actor dropped the dialect altogether. (Several years had passed between the original dubbing and the OVA dubbing, though.)
    • Cye has a British-English accent to emphasize his polite nature.
    • Talpa has a Welsh accent because..well, why the hell not.
  • Alien Sky: Talpa/Arago's castle looms in the sky over Tokyo, surrounded by greenish Ominous Clouds. Those clouds seem to follow the antagonists wherever they go.
    • The sky in the Netherworld is a golden nebula-scape, one of many signs that our heroes are not in Kansas anymore.
  • All There in the Manual: In-depth background information on the characters and the armors can be found in Japanese publications and official novels written by the show's scriptwriters. While general information about the characters can be found on the Internet, good luck finding translations of the novels that feature the actual stories about the warriors' home lives.
  • All Your Powers Combined: The Ronin Warriors form the Inferno Armor by lending Ryo the energy of their elemental armors. This usually causes them to transform back to the less powerful 'underarmor' forms—less powerful because each of the warriors has shown some kind of superhuman ability while in that state.
  • Ambiguously Gay: The Warlord Sekhmet/Naaza shows signs of this, though the show never draws attention to it. Not only is Sekhmet the name of a goddess, but his 'snake-like' physical traits include large eyes with pink-shadowed lids. A lot of his taunts towards the heroes tend to be a bit suggestive.
    Sekhmet: Feel my venom, biting into your flesh!
    • The English dub may have given his character a deep, manly voice to counteract this.
  • Anime Accent Absence:
    • The few foreign characters who appear have little trouble understanding or communicating with the Ronin Warriors.
    • Mia (or Nasuti in this case), who was born and raised in France, also speaks without any noticeable accent.
  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The transformation sequences use a stock phrase, 'Armor of X! TAO Y!!' where X is the name of the character's armor and Y is their virtue. That 'Tao Y' part was invented for the dub, and it's odd in a few ways:
    • The 'Tao' part is actually Chinese. The Japanese equivalent of Tao, pronounced Do, is seen in the word Kendo. This could be plain ol' carelessness, but considering that the staff went to the effort to give Tao the revised 'dao' pronunciation, it seems unlikely.
    • The 'Y' part uses the character's original Japanese virtues even though the dub switches their English equivalents around.
    • There are two exceptions to this:Rowen says 'Tao Inochi' and Sage says 'Tao Chi'—'Lifeforce' and 'Wisdom', respectively.
  • Back from the Dead:
    • White Blaze pulls this off in both the TV series and the second OVA.
    • Nadia is this in the second OVA.
  • Baseball Episode: This occurs in one of the two closing credits of the TV series. The same scenes are recycled at the end of episode 39.
  • Battle Aura: The nine armors tend to give their wearers this in tense situations.
  • Big Eater: Kento's appetite isn't spoiled by the fact that demons have invaded and Tokyo is in ruin.
  • Bizarrchitecture: One of the hallways in the Netherworld transforms into Escher's famous room.
  • Blade on a Stick: Kento/Shu's Weapon of Choice which also doubles as a three-part staff, a lot of the Dynasty mooks use this as well.

Mugen Ronin Warriors Cartoon Wiki

  • Bottomless Magazines: Rowan never runs out of arrows. Justified, since his armor magically generates an infinite supply of arrows. In one comic, the group decides to see how many arrows the quiver can produce—and they give up on it after Rowan draws enough of them to build a woodstack.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy:
    • Lady Kayura. After the necklace that caused the brainwashing was damaged by Ryo, Talpa resorted to other means.
    • Mukala qualifies for this since he was manipulated and eventually possessed by the Black Armor of Inferno.
  • By the Power of Grayskull!: The series makes extensive use of Stock Footage for transformations and signature attacks.
  • Canon Foreigner: The dub created an exclusive character in Hariel. Meddling executives felt that they needed a new character for the Inferno Armor toy because, in their eyes, the target audience would be confused if there were two Ryo toys.
  • Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Just counting the 9 armored warriors, the only ones who are not Bishonen are Kento (for the Warriors) and Sekhmet for the Warlords (Dais too, if you consider his missing eye).
  • Casting Gag: In the Italian dub, Talpa/Arago and Kale/Anubis are a masked evil Overlord served by armor-wearing warriors and an armor-wearing warrior with supernatural powers. They have nearly identical roles in Saint Seiya as Arles and Seiya of Pegasus. The former has the exact same voice even.
  • The Chosen Many: In the dub version of episode 31, Badamon informs the three Dark Warlords about the Legend of the White Inferno Armor and how Hariel, the first Ronin Warrior, was able to summon its powers. In the original Japanese version, there were no other warriors to have worn the armors.
  • Code Name:
    • The four Warlords have these. You didn't think those were their real names, did you?
    • The Ronins could also be considered to have these as sometimes they are simply referred to as their armor name.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The five Ronin armors are all bright, primary colors. The Warlord's armors tend towards darker colors.
  • Combined Energy Attack: The heroes combine their powers to form the White Inferno armor.
  • Convection Schmonvection: After Talpa splits up the heroes, Ryo lands in an active volcano. His power is based on fire, so the lava makes his mystic armor stronger, but also makes it give off an excessive amount of heat. Anubis capitalizes on this when he throws Mia and Yuli into the same volcano: Ryo dives after them, but realizes that his armor's heat will kill the pair if he grabs them. He transforms out of the armor to save them—which he does—but gives Anubis an advantage in their fight by doing so.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: In the first episode, the Warriors have trouble with a single Dynasty Mook. By the end of the series, they can take out entire armies of them.
    • The series explains the disparity over the course of its run, though. The first episode mook was using Anubis's weapon. It was also explicitly stated that the Warriors grow stronger with every fight. Their fight in the first episode may very well have been their first fight ever—at least with the Dynasty, anyway. In the original Japanese version, Ryo says the fight was the first time he used his Finishing Move. Teamwork also comes into play later on in the show, whereas the heroes spend most of the first episode in a pissing contest with each other.
  • Costume Porn: This show loves showing off the completely kickass armors of the heroes. Specifically, it shows photos of them posing. Cue the Fangirl Squees.
  • The Dark Side: The nine armors of the Ronin Warriors and the Warlords can be used for either good or evil, depending on the will of the user. If evil thoughts cloud one's mind, they can be turned to working for Talpa. (The dub script had several Shout-Out lines to Star Wars in recognition of this trope.) The origins of those armors explain why this is the case: They were all made from Talpa's armor after he was first defeated by The Ancient.
  • Dismantled MacGuffin: The nine armors, which were all made from Talpa's armor after The Ancient defeated him. Inverted, as they actually do something while dismantled.
  • Elemental Powers: The five Ronin armors are based directly on classical elements: Fire, Earth, Light/Lightning, Air/Void, and Water. The Warlord armors are based on the seasons as well as creatures: Spring/Ogre(Oni), Summer/Spider, Autumn/Serpent, Winter/Wolf.
  • Eleventh Hour Super Power: The Armor Of Inferno appears late in the game.
  • Elite Four: The Dark Warlords—Anubis, Sekhmet, Kale, and Dais—serve as Talpa's generals. The Four is a contrast to the Five heroes.
  • The Empire: The Dynasty, natch.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: Tokyo becomes a deserted metropolis in the first episode. Subsequent episodes show only the Warriors, their allies, and the Dynasty's forces roaming around in the city.
  • Epic Fail:
    • In Episode 6, Sage tries to break open the boulder Kento is trapped in with his sword, but bounces off.
    • In Episode 11, the heroes attempt to transform, but nothing happens because the area had a Power Nullifier.
    • In Episode 16, the warriors storm Talpa's palace, complete with Theme Music Power-Up. Ryo proceeds to execute his signature attack on the castle in an attempt to force Talpa out. The music stops and the attack bounces right back in their face.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: This proves to be Talpa's final undoing—specifically, it forces him to hold the Idiot Ball when it comes to Mia and Yuli. Talpa cannot see them as anything other than weak, inconsequential children even after they have saved the Ronin Warriors several times and acquired an artifact that can destroy his power. If he had just thrown the bulk of his forces at Mia and Yuli or brainwashed a human assassin to take them out without a direct confrontation with the Ronin, he would have had little trouble in taking over the world.
  • Evil Is Dumb: Anubis becomes more powerfulafter his Heel–Face Turn, with only a possessed Kayura and Talpa himself being legitimate threats to him. Justified, as he is the strongest of the four Warlords and becomes even more powerful after he takes on the powers of The Ancient.
  • Evil Twin: Red Torrent and The Black Armor of Inferno.
    • Having been created by the villains, Red Torrent also counts as an Evil Knockoff.
  • Eye Catch: In the original Japanese version, different eyecatches were used for different story arcs.
  • Faceless Goons: The regular Dynasty goons are just disembodied spirits in armor. Averted with the Dark Warlords, who are human.
  • Full Potential Upgrade: Ryo eventually gained new swords to go along with the Inferno Armor after his original swords shattered due to the power of the Inferno.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: One of Kayura's transformation sequences leaves her temporarily (and noticeably) nude. The episode with this sequence aired in syndication and on Toonami—multiple times—without any edits.
  • Good Weapon, Evil Weapon: The nine armors themselves—the five Troopers' armors have bright colors, symbolizing their use as virtuous, while the four Warlord armors have more imposing designs and muted colors, the Armor of Illusion having perhaps the most unusual weapon of all. Despite them all coming from the same source, it's rather evident which ones are good and which ones are evil.
    • At one point, Arago creates a sword from the powers of the captured Troopers' armors, which has an extremely jagged edge, playing this trope straight.
  • Gratuitous Japanese: Mostly averted, as the Japanese comes in small, managable bites. The show's dub pronunciation of Ryo (Rye-oh) plays this straight, though.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: When your opponent is an evil spirit in a giant suit of armor, you should know that he will eventually grab one of your friends and use him to club the rest of you.
  • Heroic BSoD: Most of our heroes suffer from this at least once. The most notable case occurs when Dais successfully tricks Kento into thinking his armor is slowly turning him evil—and this was before the Ronin Warriors learn of the armor's origins as part of Talpa's armor. Yuli snaps him out of it.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: The Ancient gives his life to create a path to Talpa's base. Anubis, who later inherits the power of The Ancient, pulls his own sacrifice to save Lady Kayura.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Anubis, Lady Kayura, and—after Talpa betrays them—the rest of the Warlords eventually turn to the good side.
  • Interim Villain: The show put the heroes up against several of these between Talpa's initial defeat and the warriors learning of his return.
  • Last of Her Kind: Lady Kayura is the last living member of the Clan of the Ancients.
  • Little Miss Badass: Lady Kayura is physically twelve years old, but only a handful of the cast can fight her and not get stomped into the ground.
  • Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: When the DVDs were released in Japan in 2003, fans got their hands on posters and limited edition anniversary cards. The latter was only if fans sent in special request cards on time.
  • Limited Wardrobe:
    • When not in their armors, the Ronin are always seen wearing the same civilian clothes. Except for the ending, where the armors transform into monogrammed jackets.
    • Mia and Yuli also tend to wear the same outfit, even if they have access to other clothes.
  • Losing the Team Spirit: Cye, when he hesitates to help his friends summon the White Armor in Legend of the Inferno Armor. It all goes downhill from there.
  • Mad Scientist: Shikaisen's cohort in the first OVA is simply referred to as 'The Mad Scientist.'
  • Master of Illusion: Dais. He puts the nin in ninja.
  • Meaningful Name: Many of the character's names were changed for the dub, while others were left intact.
    • Changed:
      • Anubis — Originally Shutendouji, an oni from Japanese folklore. Guess what armor he wears.
      • Cale — Originally Anubis. His association with darkness and wolves paralleled the Egyptian god's association with jackals and the black of decay. His rename in the Italian dub, Kratos (greek for Power, before God of War made it popular) may fit as well.
      • Sekhmet — Originally Naaza. Naaza/naga is a Japanese word for serpent and his armor is snake-like.
      • Dais — Originally Rajura, being a Japanese word for a type of spider, since he wears spider-like armor.
    • Played straight with the last names of the protagonists, who share the last names and are all descended from famous Japanese warriors. Sage Date from Masamune Date, etc.
  • Merchandise-Driven: The show received brand new Ronin/Trooper action figures in both 2009 and 2011.
  • Non-Human Sidekick: White Blaze and Black Blaze, natch.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Rowan/Touma is said to have an IQ of 250 and his virtue is (originally) Wisdom, yet he tends to make dumb remarks and decisions—such as incriminating himself in the first OVA. Also:
  • Official Couple: Mukala and Nadia.
  • Oh, Crap!: This is the reaction of the Warlords when the redeemed Anubis calls forth his armor again. Fully justified, as he begins to administer pain.
    Anubis: If this is your will, Ancient One, then I shall become the Ogre once again. To arms.
  • Older Than They Look: Depending on how you interpret their physical ages versus how long they have actually been alive, the Warlords and Kayura can both invert this and play it straight. Anubis is physically 17, but has been alive for centuries thanks to the power of Lord Talpa.
  • One-Man Army: Each of the Ronin Warriors are (eventually) capable of laying waste to countless Dynasty soldiers.
  • On the Next: The English dub of the series did not have these. They were left intact for the DVD release of the OVAs, though.
  • Painful Transformation: When Ryo assumes either of his armors, it looks like it causes him pain. The others show signs of this too, albeit to a lesser extent. Ryo is definitely in pain when he is forced to don the Inferno Armor by Kayura and the Nether Spirits, who corrupt the armor in the process.
  • Parental Abandonment: Yuli, briefly, although he gets them back later on. Also, all of the Warriors. They're only 14, people.
  • Passing the Torch: In the spinoff manga, Shin Yoroiden-Samurai Troopers, there are at least three new warriors with their own suits of armors. Too bad the series was cancelled before anything else could be developed.
  • Protagonist Power-Up Privileges: Ryo was the only hero who received a new armor—which he received by taking the powers of four of the eight remaining armors, usually meaning his fellow heroes.
  • Psychosomatic Superpower Outage: Kento loses the ability to summon his armor after Talpa convinces him that the armor is inherently evil.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Anubis dies while performing a Heroic Sacrifice to save Lady Kayura. He had technically redeemed himself by becoming the first of the Dark Warlords to rise up against Talpa, which allowed him to later inherit the power of The Ancient. Consider this a prolonged case, as the previous Ancient One also pulled a heroic sacrifice.
  • Rewarding Vandalism: In the second episode, Mia and the Ronin Warriors steal food from subway vending machines.
  • Ronin: Averted given the name difference. We have both Watson and Doylist explains for how it is averted:
    • Despite the group's name, nothing indicates that they are former vassals of a feudal lord. While ronin does typically refer to a samurai who lost their master, the meaning has become somewhat garbled, in that it could also refer to a samurai who never had a master in the first place. Ronin are also frequently portrayed as being either bodyguards or mercenaries. In one possible interpretation, the Ancient One could be their master, so the heroes did not become true ronin until the Ancient One sacrificed himself to provide passage to Talpa's castle. To justify why they were always called ronin, the Ancient One often did his work in secret, which gave our heroes the appearance of having no master. The heroes also lack a true leader, as they tend to make decisions as a group. They are samurai who act as if they have no master to guide them—hence, they are ronin.
    • The original show was called Yoroiden Samurai Troopers and had nothing to do with ronin. The dub title was most likely thought up as a catchy two-word title that could get the point of the series across, rather than being a title with any deeper meaning.
  • Required Secondary Powers: The Inferno Armor's increased power eventually shatters the swords Ryo used with the Wildfire armor. He eventually acquires the more potent Soul Swords Of Fervor, which can handle the power of the Inferno.
  • Rope Bridge: In the third episode of the Kikoutei Densetsu OVA, Shu, Touma, Nasté, and Jun find themselves crossing one in Tanzania. Naturally, it is cut, and everyone survives unscathed.
  • Satanic Archetype: The show has a ha'sa'tan/Satan equivalent in the form of Arago (Talpa), absolute Emperor of the demonic nether-realms and, in general, the literal adversary of all mortals.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Talpa and the Dynasty were sealed away in the Underworld by the Ancient One over a millennium before the events of the show.
    • Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: But after Talpa was defeated, his armor—which was the seat of most of his power—remained in the mortal world. The Ancient One converted that armor into a set of ten smaller armors to keep Talpa from regaining all his power. Even without the armors, however, Talpa was still absurdly powerful.
  • Sentai: Of both the good guys and the bad guys.
  • Shirtless Scene:
    • Ryo after his nightmares. Also happens to the other four during the final battle.
    • There's also Lady Kayura during one of her transformation sequences.
  • Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: Averted, as the series begins before the official start of the Japanese school year. The OVAs conveniently take place during school vacations.
  • Simple Staff: The Ancient One carries a khakkhara (monk staff), complete with its characteristic rings. But it was not always a staff: When Talpa first tried to conquer the world, the staff was a sword with the rings around the hilt.
  • Sparkling Stream of Tears: Episode 39 of the TV series and episode 2 of Gaiden are quite sparkly.
  • Spin to Deflect Stuff: Kento/Shu does this with his Blade on a Stick. Also happens with the Ancient's staff.
  • Stock Footage: The transformation sequences and their Super Move footage are all recycled and reused throughout the series. Many of the battle sequences are also reused constantly.
  • Super Mode: The Inferno Armor is this for Ryo.
  • Super Strength: All of the heroes have great levels of superhuman strength thanks to the armors. Official canon sources say that Kento is physically the strongest of the heroes, though.
    • Mukala also counts, since he manages to break the chest plate of Ryo's Wildfire armor with his Talk to the Fist tactic.
  • 10-Minute Retirement: After the second OVA, the boys believed they no longer had to be Ronin Warriors because the armors had been destroyed.
  • Transformation Sequence: The warriors putting on their full armor has a sequence of By The Power Of Grey Skull, cherry blossoms, and pictures of them posing before the battle continues.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action
    • The enemies wait to fight a fully-armored Ronin to get a better challenge out of the battle—that, or the actual armoring-up sequences only last mere seconds in the real world.
    • The third episode subverts this: Ryo take the usual stance to get his full armor back on. Anubis does not allow him to pull it off.
  • True Companions: The Ronin Warriors are this to each other, as almost all of them come from various broken homes. By the time the invasion is over, they are practically brothers.
  • 24-Hour Armor: Downplayed. While both the heroes and the Warlords wear their full armor during battles, they wear smaller, form-fitting 'underarmor' for the majority of their on-screen time.
  • Unholy Holy Sword: Played With and ultimately Subverted: The armors of the Ronin Warriors and the Dark Warlords are revealed to be the same, and Talpa reveals that the armors belonged to him to begin with. Dais torments Kento before the reveal with telling Kento the armors have been worn by conquerors. The Ancient however, gives the full picture: yes the armor was Talpa's, all made from his to begin with, but since human beings have free will, any of the armors can be used freely by their wearers for good or evil. The Dark Warlord's armor can be used for good just as easily as any of the Ronin armors could be used for evil. Giving in to evil makes it easier for Tulpa to control you, but you have to be evil to begin with for that to happen.
  • Weapon of Choice: All of the main cast has unique weaponry—katana, yari (spear), kusarigana (sickle-chain), nodachi (two-handed sword), yami (longbow), and many more. Justified in two cases: Shin's family traditionally trained in the yari and bo, and Seiji's family trains owns a kendo dojo. Their associated weapons—trident and greatsword, respectively—do not quite fit, but the training is there.
Mugen Ronin Warriors Cartoon
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Rowan (blue), Naria from the second OVA (blue), Sekhmet (green), and Dais (white). Sage has an Implausible Hair Color, especially in YST.
  • Your Mom: In the heat of battle against Cale, Ryo yells, 'Your mom wears army boots!'
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Mia has the belted dress-shorts and boots version.

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