A dark cloud hovers over Tokyo cutting off power, while the population disappears. Five young men clad in modernized samurai armor, one bringing a giant white tiger, join forces with a teenage girl and a young boy to confront this dark shadow. Oh yes, I forgot to mention there is a traveling monk who wields a staff and is in many ways like a guardian angel to the four boys who seems to show up at just the right time. Together they learn to work together and embody the virtues they stand for: grace, justice, righteousness, trust and wisdom. Welcome to Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers.
At first I wanted to dismiss Samurai Troopers as a bland Saint Seiya clone, but that was before even trying this delicacy of a show. Samurai Troopers is kind of weird though. I can’t call it a straight forward fighting anime in the style of Shonen Jump. I often equate influences of live action sentai shows, or perhaps Gatchaman and Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai where our five heroes come into town ready to go like in any proper samurai, or western film. There is no real aspect of extended training, or a plethora of story arcs that equate an episode count to well over 100, 200, or more. I also get a mecha vibe as well, since the armors are almost mechanical in nature. Plus the armors combine and this was a product of Sunrise, a studio known for many great mech shows including that little franchise known as Gundam. The transformation sequences make me think of henshin heroes, or even magical girls. The stock sequence of the boys transforming is enough to make any proper magical girl shout out… “hey why can’t we get one that fancy?!” Samurai Troopers just is what it is, an amalgam and a great action show in general.
As an action show characterization is in the passenger seat to the fun and fighting. The five youths that are the Samurai Troopers are very cliche in a typical sentai squad kind of way with main hero Ryo taking a majority of the screen time. Seiji, Shin, Sho and Toma have minor arcs of an episode or two, but I wish they could have had more presence. Their main adversaries the Dark Warlords are a quartet of typical badies who are quite sour in temperament… except one. Shiten from the beginning showed to be the outsider, a man of some moral character that eventually sees the light for his past actions. Shiten’s place at the end of the first arc and in the entirety of the second was a welcome surprise and solidified him as a personal favorite for me. In the end Samurai Troopers is all about saving the day, but looking ever so fashionable samurai armor… with ever greater transformation sequences.
Like many shows one can liken it to a ride at an amusement park. The most ideal would be to start at ground level and progressively move up to the finality. Very few anime ever follow this pattern and Samurai Troopers much like a roller coaster starts off building up, waning a little in the middle and then builds ups even more towards the end. Samurai Troopers follows two story arcs in the 39 episode run, though they end up tying together as one. The first arc felt as if it ended quite abruptly and then at the start of the second, at least for me, it took a little effort to get going. Yet after a handful of episodes the story came back to attention. Think of a director in a film calling cut and rethinking what has happened and saying, “hey we could have done this better!” So begins phase two and the true promise of the story of Samurai Troopers would bear fruit.
Many in the west came to know an alternate release, Ronin Warriors, which besides some name changes and some “totally” 90s slang is very faithful to the original. Impressive, plus the cast was familiar as it was accomplished via the Canadian Ocean Group, a very familiar cast who dubbed many shows in the 90s. Short and sweet, simple and straight forward, adventurous fun with action, this is what Samurai Troopers is all about. I also want to give a quick thanks to Ashley Capes from The Review Heap for requesting Samurai Troopers. Visit his site for other great reviews as well!
They’re back! My favorite sentai squad quintet of bird themed costumed, thigh high boot wearing superheroes… ee… maybe ninjas is more appropriate. Does it matter how you classify Earth’s ultimate answer to fighting the evil menace known as Galactor? As if 100+ episodes of action and adventure were not enough it seems our band of heroes get to strap on the capes yet again for another 52 episodes. Way to go! Sometimes one, or sometimes five, Science Ninja Team welcome to your sequel, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman II. Bird!… GO!!
Now here is something for you to ponder. This series is set two years later from the original Gatchaman show, which was how long series one lasted, yet it previewed on screen six years after the initial release of Gatchaman (1972 vs. 1978). Hmm? Oh well better late than never? But a sequel, really? I mean the original show ended with a number of cliffhangers: the fall of Berg Katse and even the death of the beloved tough guy, Joe the Condor being the biggest two. Where do we go from here? Well Joe makes a comeback for a start. WHAT… HOW!? Thanks to a new character by the name of Dr. Raphael, Joe is now a cyborg. Kinda like Casshan… good job Tatsunoko Studio to tie in themes from your other shows. Plus, the Gatchaman crew have new weapons (I miss the old ones!), new mechs to pilot and an all new God Phoenix with a R2D2-type robot (or maybe 7 Zark 7?), plus a new assistant in the name of Dr. Pandora. And lets not forget we need another non-binary type villain of questionable gender to accompany Leader X… enter Gel Sadra.
So with all these new changes, does anything stay the same from before? Well, Dr. Nambu still has that wicked mustache, the minion troops of Galactor still have those nasty green uniforms and Leader X still has that awesome voice, mesmerizing and menacing. Thankfully the feel of the show is very similar to the original as it was produced by the same studio, used the same voice cast and was produced in the 1970s (get funky!). So it’s just a complete carbon copy? Well… not really, but in many ways, yes. It’s been a while since I have seen series I, but wasn’t there more plot that resound around a lot of kaiju type mecha and using the Firebird Technique in the God Phoenix. HI NO TORI!!! And what about a lot of the techniques where they join together that look totally ridiculous, but we love it all because we wish we could do that. Maybe the memory is a little fuzzy… hazy more like it. But one thing I can say for sure, there was hardly any calling out of Bird GO!!! to allow the transformation process into the awesome costumes.
Yet the Science Ninja team are still the same characterizations. Ken is still honorable and cool headed, Joe is still a tough and vulnerable (yet now a cyborg… fancy!), Jun is still adorable and strong, Jinpei is still a goof ball kid (yet his voice has dropped… puberty) and Ryu is still the token big guy and perfect in his own way. The stock and trade quintet sentai squad that is the definition of sentai squads. Now drawn in a little more of a slightly more sophisticated style. The line work and designs are still the same, but comparing 1972 to 1978 shows more fluidity. A great example of my theory of anime of the 1970s, which shows the evolution from the archaic 1960s into the classical 1980s. Now remember it is only a theory and my opinion, it is ok if you disagree. So which do I prefer? Both! TV animation from the early 70s (think Ashita no Joe, Cutie Honey, Aim for the Ace) and late 70s (Rose of Versailles, Mobile Suit Gundam, Space Pirate Catain Harlock) are BOTH welcome in my house.
Gatchaman is one of the oldest series to have influence here in the west. Maybe not to the caliber of say Speed Racer, but for those of you who saw the original Stars Wars film in theaters during 1977, you were in for a surprise. The next year, we would get an adaptation known as Battle of the Planets and with all the Hanna Barbara-esque edits, the original essense of Tatsunoko’s work could still be seen. Much the same way in how I viewed Voltron back in the those innocent days of the mid 1980s. And it would be the mid 80s that G-Force Defenders of Space, another Gatchaman adaptation would grace us here in the west. And being that both of these adaptations were during the so-called wild west period of bringing animation over from Japan, a cult following would emerge for the bird costumed quintet.
As a kid and teenager I mistakingly thought when looking at the show that, “…hey! This is a copycat of Voltron.” I can’t blame my ignorance at the time, but how was a to know that Gatchaman (1972) beat out the like of Beast King GoLion (1981) by a decade. Of course, I know better now. It was Gatchaman itself that would lay the groundwork for the sentai team esthestic that would influence everything from Super Sentai/Power Rangers to mecha shows like Combattler V, Voltes V and GoLion and even shojo magical girls like say… Sailor Moon. Though previously you had titles that featured a team, like say Cyborg 009, Gatchaman would simplify the principle.
And that principle is the stock and trade quintet: The strong leader (Ken), The rebel (Joe), The cute girl (Jun), the kid (Junpei) and the big guy (Ryu). How many times have we seen this combo? I know I have, maybe it has been modified slightly for whatever show, but that is the standard. Everyone brings their individual strength towards the greater group. So the question has to be, why does this Gatchaman team exist? As created by Dr. Nambu with the aid of modern technology and ninja skills, the purpose of The Gatchaman Team is to bring down the evil organization determined to rule the world… Cobra? No, no, that’s G.I. Joe. Try again… how about Galactor? Yeah that’s the way. And with the leadership of the androgynous Berg Katse and the mysterious Leader X, how will Galactor attempt to foil Gatchaman this week?
So why do I enjoy Gatchaman? Well, why not? The premise is simple and fun and at times repetitive. Ken is not a complete goodie-goodie and has issues regarding the whereabouts of his father. Joe, is the prototypical lone wolf, but he is very endearing and his demise by the end of the show brought tears to my eyes. Berg Katse is an interesting villain with a secret of his own. The quality of the animation for it’s day is very fluid and the use of special effects like lighting (with a spot light no less) and explosions (sometimes with psychedelic like liquids) are handled in ways you don’t see in anime today. It was one of those shows that called out to me and I had to answer to it because after all. we all need heroes to look up to from time to time.
The Classic Anime Museum 
You must be logged in to post a comment.