Anime Review: Yoroi-Shinden Samurai Troopers

Samurai Troopers, or as it was known when it aired on Toonami back in the day – Ronin Warriors, was a show I was aware of, but didn’t get a chance to watch as much of as I would have liked as a kid.

With hindsight and more knowledge of Anime, I recognize Samurai Troopers as being a series that followed in the wake of Saint Seiya, in terms of being a bunch of (hot) teen guys who developed magical powers that allowed them to manifest color coded outfits, which related to various elements, and which they would need to use to battle an apocalyptic demonic invasion of the world. When I saw there was a new series, Yoroi-Shinden Samurai Troopers (or just Shin Samurai Troopers for short) coming out, I decided to add that to my packed Winter 2026 Anime Dance Card. It turned out to be a good addition.

Cast of Shin Samurai Troopers in their armor.

Shin Samurai Troopers is very much a “Next Generation” story – as much time has passed between the first series and now in universe and in real life, and in the setting of the series, there’s an organized Samurai Trooper program put together to battle against the Demon Lord’s army, should he return. Well, he returns, and in spite of humanity’s best efforts, we end up on the back foot, and with a new team of Troopers getting thrown together ad-hoc, when the government selected team turns out to be shitty in multiple ways. So, a new team has to be put together, selected by Nasti (the female lead from the original series), who also have to bring Jun Yamano out of retirement and get together the mystic artifacts they need to expel Demon Lord Arago’s army once and for all.

Sunrise does a great job with the show’s animation, mixing footage from the original series and modern animation together well, along with using new animation that calls back to work from the original series to evoke the earlier generation. The writing is also on point – doing a good job balancing callbacks to the original series while allowing newer fans to follow the story. It makes for a series that, for example, parents who grew up with the original, and their kids who are coming into it for the first time, could sit down and watch together and each would get something different out of it.

Where I think the show stumbles a little is time. Our modern era of short single cour series – or lots of split cour series, means stuff gets rushed. In particular, time that would allow additional development of the villains isn’t present.

The show is getting a second season, and I’m curious where the show is going to go from here. I will be watching the second season when the show resumes in the Summer season.

Shin Samurai Troopers is available for streaming: