‘Samurai Troopers’ Blu-Ray Review: Mecha Mixed With Samurai

Samurai Troopers blended elements of mecha, sentai, and the samurai into a hugely popular and enduring anime, something this Blu-ray set pays tribute to.

Samurai Troopers dealt with the return of Arago and his Empire of Doom, but five young warriors with mystical Yoroi Gear armor stand against Arago’s conquest.

Even with Arago’s four warlords, each also possessing special armor, the series took an interesting path over two seasons. Dealing with the origins of the armor as well as Arago’s previous attempts at conquering the world.

The nine armors were also a big part of the anime’s backstory, and the timeline of events was quite involved and complex once the series got going.

Naturally, Samurai Troopers also leans heavily into the culture and history of the samurai, as well as legendary demons, and it’s these elements that add to its appeal.

It was also a hugely popular show in Japan, and had an incredibly successful line of toys, and it even came Westward in the ‘90s as Ronin Warriors.

In recent years, both Bandai Spirits and Sentinel have done their own toy lines for Samurai Troopers, with the Sentinel’s figures being particularly impressive. The point being, is that Samurai Troopers still has a dedicated fanbase in Japan nearly four decades after its release.

This merging of samurai and mecha was not a new thing for anime, though, as I have written about this at length in the past, but Samurai Troopers was probably the most overt in terms of its “influences” and actually worked elements of samurai history into the story as well.

The Yoroi Gear the heroes wear was and still is hugely popular.

Discotek

Unsurprisingly, the series supervisor was none other than Ryosuke Takahashi, following on from his successes such as Armored Trooper VOTOMS and Panzer World Galient, Samurai Warriors would also share much of the same production staff.

Such as Norio Shioyama handling the character designs for Samurai Warriors, and giving the characters an almost kabuki-esque quality. Moreover, the first season of Samurai Warriors was directed by Masashi Ikeda, who had caught Takahashi’s eye and had previously directed the Crest of Iron OVA for Galient.

When I interviewed Takahashi, he explained he chose Ikeda for that Galient OVA because Ikeda liked to have characters strike Mie-type poses for dramatic effect, something that he also used a great deal in the first season of Samurai Warriors.

As for this Blu-ray set, it is very thorough. It not only includes the original TV series but also all three OVAs.

The picture and audio quality are also excellent throughout. While there is an English dub, I prefer the original Japanese with English subtitles, which are also included.

There isn’t much in the way of extras for this release, but the fact that it includes pretty much everything in terms of the OVAs more than makes up for that.

Overall, this is the best and most complete release for Samurai Troopers, and at the best possible quality. The series is well thought through and merges elements of the samurai, Japanese mysticism, and mecha very well, so it still makes for fascinating viewing.

Samurai Troopers is available on Blu-ray from Crunchyroll’s online store for $63.96.

Disclosure: Crunchyroll sent me this Blu-ray set for the purposes of this review.

Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently featured in the Giant Robots exhibition currently touring Japan.