| Paradigm Dog | 01-19-2004 04:58 PM |
A number of years ago, I saw Ronin Warriors (aka Samurai Troopers) on its first run on Cartoon Network. Watching and completing the first two seasons, it was an instant classic for me and still remains one of the best anime I've ever seen.
Anyways...OVAs. Big disappointment. I wasn't expecting the most amazing thing given reviews were mixed, but I did expect a lot more. I thought it might be interesting continuing the Ronin Warriors story with some big twists, although in hind sight, the story truly ends best with the defeat of Talpa, and Kayura taking the role of the Ancient because everything comes full circle.
GAIDEN: Terrible plot that has NOTHING to do with Ronin Warriors. I thought of Ronin Warriors as an anime epic, not a episodic cartoon, because that's how this one turned out. And in the end, this didn't have any bearing on the next two OVA series. (except the mention of that pathetic sorcerer.) The only cool thing about this was the sequence involving the Ninjas and starting where the series ends, with Ryo's birthday. yea...Pointless.
LEGEND OF THE INFERNO ARMOR: This story has a great deal of promise, but gets side tracked and its pacing is all over the place. In the end, despite a few valient efforts/sequences, it doesn't feel like Ronin Warriors. As with all the OVAs, you feel more than a little out of the loop. And what's with the world tour. First New York and now Africa? Getting away from the Ronin roots wayyy to much now. They never explained the Black and White Inferno armor very well. Who crafted them, and why did their need to be two exactly? Rivals I know, but why? (I think I'll stick to the idea of Hariel's White Armor and not worry about this whole sun god idea for the inferno)
MESSAGE: Its narration clarifying events of the series was a good idea, but it went too far and ended up being pointless. I was expecting this to be a Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz/Episode Zero in terms of story development, especially given the surplus of narration. (I mean, the Ronin Warriors crew went on to do Gundam Wing as I understand it).
This story completely lost me. The sooth-sayer woman became the focus and the resolution was extremely anti-climatic. So much build-up for nothing. The new armor designs were INCREDIBLE, but they didn't get used. Why did there need to be new armor anyways?--besides the fact that the others were destroyed. You're telling me this woman made the new armor to summon the white one and destroy the world?! ugh. I thought this series would go into WHY they were chosen by the ANCIENT ONE, but it didn't go into that. Just that one breif scene where the Ancient One unearthed the Armor of Strata, which was very nicely done. I don't get why these teens are Ronin Warriors. I guess maybe their families share the curse of their ansestors who were forced to wear the armor maybe, but that wasn't clarified at all. And the idea of it being a PLAY. Cool, (BIG O-like) but didn't make sense in the end. What exactly did all that mean. How does the armor's legend relate to a play--I mean, if it was in a play, how could the armor's power be real?
Sorry, maybe I'm just dense, or don't know the fully Japanese version well enough (I was so used to the dubbed one that I wanted to stick with it--The old dub from the 80s was many times better though. New VAs tried, but couldn't recapture the entire spirit.) but the OVAs seemed pointless/confusing/rushed to me.
My final notes: I can only assume that these OVAs were made quickly in the wake of the popularity of the series and the demand for more. I can appreciate a pure story with limited action, but this had no purposeful action and no strong story to fall back on...just a lot of obscure poetry about the sun and seasons with lots of psychodelic imagery. And, I don't like the fact that all the Ronins live normal lives. I always felt they were more like the Warlords somehow--manifestations of ancient warriors or something to the like. The way they present it in the OVAs, the friendships can be a little too flowery, no offense. I am aware to some extent that this was a series of 'pretty boys' for the female audience like Gundam Wing. However, I never ever thought of either series in that fashion. To say it the cleanest way I can, I just felt of them as totally bad dudes. heh. Lastly, I couldn't get used to the 'correct' pronunciation of Ryo which was Rio. Bothered me. And those jewels transforming them to their under-armor made it a little too 'campy'. It was cooler when they just burst into them like when Ryo first appears in ep. 1: "I'm Ryo...of the Wildfire!"
Well, I hope someone can help. /Thoughts?
Anyways...OVAs. Big disappointment. I wasn't expecting the most amazing thing given reviews were mixed, but I did expect a lot more. I thought it might be interesting continuing the Ronin Warriors story with some big twists, although in hind sight, the story truly ends best with the defeat of Talpa, and Kayura taking the role of the Ancient because everything comes full circle.
GAIDEN: Terrible plot that has NOTHING to do with Ronin Warriors. I thought of Ronin Warriors as an anime epic, not a episodic cartoon, because that's how this one turned out. And in the end, this didn't have any bearing on the next two OVA series. (except the mention of that pathetic sorcerer.) The only cool thing about this was the sequence involving the Ninjas and starting where the series ends, with Ryo's birthday. yea...Pointless.
LEGEND OF THE INFERNO ARMOR: This story has a great deal of promise, but gets side tracked and its pacing is all over the place. In the end, despite a few valient efforts/sequences, it doesn't feel like Ronin Warriors. As with all the OVAs, you feel more than a little out of the loop. And what's with the world tour. First New York and now Africa? Getting away from the Ronin roots wayyy to much now. They never explained the Black and White Inferno armor very well. Who crafted them, and why did their need to be two exactly? Rivals I know, but why? (I think I'll stick to the idea of Hariel's White Armor and not worry about this whole sun god idea for the inferno)
MESSAGE: Its narration clarifying events of the series was a good idea, but it went too far and ended up being pointless. I was expecting this to be a Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz/Episode Zero in terms of story development, especially given the surplus of narration. (I mean, the Ronin Warriors crew went on to do Gundam Wing as I understand it).
This story completely lost me. The sooth-sayer woman became the focus and the resolution was extremely anti-climatic. So much build-up for nothing. The new armor designs were INCREDIBLE, but they didn't get used. Why did there need to be new armor anyways?--besides the fact that the others were destroyed. You're telling me this woman made the new armor to summon the white one and destroy the world?! ugh. I thought this series would go into WHY they were chosen by the ANCIENT ONE, but it didn't go into that. Just that one breif scene where the Ancient One unearthed the Armor of Strata, which was very nicely done. I don't get why these teens are Ronin Warriors. I guess maybe their families share the curse of their ansestors who were forced to wear the armor maybe, but that wasn't clarified at all. And the idea of it being a PLAY. Cool, (BIG O-like) but didn't make sense in the end. What exactly did all that mean. How does the armor's legend relate to a play--I mean, if it was in a play, how could the armor's power be real?
Sorry, maybe I'm just dense, or don't know the fully Japanese version well enough (I was so used to the dubbed one that I wanted to stick with it--The old dub from the 80s was many times better though. New VAs tried, but couldn't recapture the entire spirit.) but the OVAs seemed pointless/confusing/rushed to me.
My final notes: I can only assume that these OVAs were made quickly in the wake of the popularity of the series and the demand for more. I can appreciate a pure story with limited action, but this had no purposeful action and no strong story to fall back on...just a lot of obscure poetry about the sun and seasons with lots of psychodelic imagery. And, I don't like the fact that all the Ronins live normal lives. I always felt they were more like the Warlords somehow--manifestations of ancient warriors or something to the like. The way they present it in the OVAs, the friendships can be a little too flowery, no offense. I am aware to some extent that this was a series of 'pretty boys' for the female audience like Gundam Wing. However, I never ever thought of either series in that fashion. To say it the cleanest way I can, I just felt of them as totally bad dudes. heh. Lastly, I couldn't get used to the 'correct' pronunciation of Ryo which was Rio. Bothered me. And those jewels transforming them to their under-armor made it a little too 'campy'. It was cooler when they just burst into them like when Ryo first appears in ep. 1: "I'm Ryo...of the Wildfire!"
Well, I hope someone can help. /Thoughts?