Alternative title(s): Ronin Warriors
Anime original by Sunrise
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

35 years after the events of the original series (known as Ronin Warriors here in the US), a new group of Samurai Troopers is assembled to battle invading demons.

Jel’s verdict: I Don’t Belong Here

I have no knowledge or connection to the original series on this, I only watched because it’s directed by Yoichi Fujita (Binbougami Ga, Classicaloid, oh and I guess Gintama and Osomatsu-san). He’s one of my favorite directors and for my money, one of the best anime comedy directors in general. I quickly realized that is not a good way to approach this.

For one, I felt like I was probably missing some kind of context or references to the original that might have been in this prologue episode. What that left me with was a very basic heroic action show, with a very basic “what if the good guys were bad?” twist. I’m not even sure that will matter in the long run, as it seems we will get a new batch of heroes in the true first episode.

If there’s one angle that might work, it’s the fact that our new Red Ranger leader of the group is a demon from the past, and there’s some possible fun to be had with putting a man from the 80s into 2026. I’m not getting my hopes up though, as our actual point of view character is a young man questioning what it means to be a hero or whatever. I’m interested enough to see what the actual first episode brings to the table, but it’s going to be an uphill battle to get me to stick with it.