This is definitely one of those things I would say was not on my bingo card. At all.
A sequel to Yoroiden Samurai Troopers (Ronin Warriors in the US) was announced on June 11th with this teaser trailer.
Even the official Samurai Troopers website has been updated with this news.
Sunrise has released very little information on this newest series. What we do know so far is:
- The series is coming out sometime in January 2026.
- Apparently it’s taking place 38 years after the original series.
- Only one character has been revealed so far. That character is Gai who will wear the Rekka (aka Wildfire) armor. (If it’s still called that in the new series.) He is 14 years old.
- It’s been stated that people should be able to watch this new series without needing to watch the original show.
For any further information, we just have the trailer to go by. (Fair warning, lots of images below the read more.)
New enemies, a lot of them.
This one stays for a few frames on the trailer from 0:13 to 0:15. (This is most likely the right-most enemy from that group image.)
The enemy Gai is attacking is nearly blink and you miss it at 0:24.
And near the end Gai wields an enemy sword with a guard style that reminds me a bit of the sword for the Yami (Darkness) armor. Hideo Okamoto, the armor designer from the original series, is also working on this sequel so similarities are to be expected. Still I wanted to point it out as something I noticed and found interesting.
And the Rekka (Wildfire) armor is completely different. The swords on the back are more like the Doku (Poison/Venom) armor. Then you take that design and rotate the swords 90 degrees counter-clockwise.
There are lots of other changes to the design of the armor. Previously blue areas are purple and no armor crest this time either. The subarmor, aka undergear, is different as well. Before the colors were white and red, now there is some gray in spots, most notably the hands.
Here is an image put together by emwing of the various forms of the armor from the original TV series through now. (From left to right: original TV series, blu-ray box art, Message OVA armor, New Yoroiden Samurai Troopers manga published in Japan in 1990, and now the sequel version.)
There’s also whatever this item is on Gai’s wrist. Perhaps it’s something new to use instead of, or in conjunction with, the armor orbs from before.
The armors’ virtues now appear on the backs of the characters’ necks instead of on their forehead. Also the virtues are also written differently than what was used in the original series. Some people in the fandom have been discussing this in detail.
XMezumiiru, “They are the original virtues, but they aren’t. The script that they are using is based on the original Chinese seal script, which dates back over 3,000 years. It went out of fashion for anything other than royal documents 2,000 years ago. It currently only used in Chinese-based religious contexts. The original show used modern Japanese character design.” They further go on to say there are errors in the ways some of the characters are written. Again XMezumiiru, “For example, Rei is going the wrong direction. Gi and Shin have extra strokes.” At this time it’s unknown if it’s just an error or perhaps intentionally written that way for some reason we don’t know yet. As I don’t have expertise in Japanese language and its history I’m going to leave that there until we see more.
And of course there are many unanswered questions.
- What service / with whom will the series stream online?
- Will any of the original series characters show up or even be mentioned in passing?
- And if so, when the series is dubbed in English will they use the dub names or revert back to the original Japanese names?
- What the heck happened to the Youjakai / Netherworld since the end of the previous series?
- The destruction in this trailer is much bigger than the original series invasion. So does that mean the new villains don’t need to capture people to help them gain more power?
- Will the villains be human like the first series, or just evil spirits in armors?
- This trailer was shown at an event in Japan after they also showed the 2nd OVA, the one where the first series armors are destroyed. So that’s still cannon with the sequel apparently?
And probably other questions that I can’t think of right now. We all just have to wait until more news and information is released as we get closer to next year.
If you are on Facebook, check out the fan run Ronin Warriors/ Yoroiden Samurai Troopers Facebook page for discussion and images.
For those of you who have been in the fandom before, surprise and welcome back. For anyone stumbling upon this anime series for the first time, a very warm welcome to you from a nice small niche fandom.