The anime Saint Seiya, which I discussed some time back here, gave rise to an entire subgenre which I call "God-Warriors" – young people chosen by something on deific level to battle god-level threats, generally in a "Five-Team" configuration. This of course owed a great deal to the "sentai" shows of the same era, but Saint Seiya codified it for its generation and a number of other shows quickly followed – some following its lead, and others trying to take off from it and go in another direction; its influence can be seen in shows as apparently far afield as Sailor Moon and was parodied and/or deconstructed in numerous other shows; perhaps the most successful of the deconstructions or riffs on the theme was Yu Yu Hakusho.
But Saint Seiya itself, though influential, had a number of significant flaws – many of them due to the fact that Kurumada, the mangaka who created the series, was in many ways a one-trick pony, as his later shows such as B'T X demonstrated all too clearly; not only did they have a lot of thematic and action similarities with Saint Seiya, but also the character designs were in many cases essentially identical, with the only changes being which of the five main "faces" got which personality. The Saints stayed almost universally separated from the rest of the world, only interacting with it on rare occasion. They existed in an isolated enclave of their own, either in the Kido mansion or in some remote location or even alternate dimension, battling bad guys whose plans might superficially vary, but always ended up involving a lot of running, posturing, monologuing, and predictable sequences of battle once you'd seen the first season.
It was inevitable that something would come along and do what Saint Seiya did, only better, just as later happened with Dragonball and Naruto. That something was Yoroiden Samurai Troopers (roughly translated, Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers), marketed briefly here as Ronin Warriors.
The Troopers – Ryo Sanada, Touma Hashiba, Seiji Date, Shu Rei Fan (or Lei Fang, or a number of other transliterations), and Shin Mori – were five young men of roughly the same age who were given mystical armor ("yoroi") which possessed the powers of the five elements (Fire, air/space, spirit/lightning, earth, and water, respectively) by a mysterious wizard or wise man called "Kaos" (NOT pronounced "Chaos", but as a sort of cross between "Kos" and "Cows", as best I can describe it). Kaos' purpose was to create five warriors to protect the world from the forces of the demonlord Arago; Arago was a man so evil that he battled his way through the hells and took his place as a demon instead of a damned soul.
Side note on names: The names of the characters were changed for the American version (Ronin Warriors). This was not uncommon in the early years and still happens occasionally today. What was bizarre about this was that they didn't change the names of the characters to "normal sounding" North American Names, but gave them, for the most part, equally unusual names which kinda-sorta sounded like the originals. Ryo kept the spelling but got pronounced "Rye-Oh", Shin became Cye, Touma became Rowen, and Seiji became Sage, while Kaos became "The Ancient One" and Arago became Talpa. While one change made sense (Nasuti, their Big Sis mentor, was pronounced "Nasty", so changing that to Mia was a good move) I never understood the point of those other changes; if they weren't changing them to make them "more accessible" to audiences (this was, after all, in the days before the great anime explosion), then why were they changing them at all??
What made the Troopers clearly different from, and superior to, Saint Seiya, was their connection to the real world. Much of the action of Yoroiden Samurai Troopers takes place in the real world of Japan, and the characters are clearly at home there. These aren't isolated characters who would have to work hard to adjust to regular life; these are kids with regular lives who have suddenly been asked to do something more. We learn a lot about the Troopers as people outside of their armor-wearing selves, and they are interested in doing things that ordinary people do – we see Shu and Shin surfing, for instance, or observe the Troopers visiting a restaurant. The only one who seems utterly out of place is Ryo Sanada, whose family is rarely spoken of and who appears in the middle of Shinjuku accompanied by the giant white tiger, Byakuen.
The five boys also have two other constant companions: the first is Nasuti Yagyu, a young woman (17 at the beginning of the series, when the Troopers are roughly 14-15) whose grandfather was an authority on mystical artifacts and history. She herself is well-versed on these things and often serves as the source of key information for the Troopers. She's also their transportation, as none of the Troopers can drive, so they're always being shuttled to their appointments with destiny in Nasuti's van! While Touma Hashiba is smarter than her (or anyone else we encounter, with the possible exception of Kaos), Nasuti's education, level-headedness, and dedication are key to the success of the Troopers as a whole.
The second is Jun Yamano, a young boy saved by the Troopers and who is in search of his parents, who may have been killed by Arago's faceless warrior troops during the initial invasion. Jun initially seems to be a "load", someone the Troopers have responsibility for but who is too weak and afraid to contribute anything, but in fact Jun is extraordinarily brave for a child of his age (8-10) and there are several key points in the series where it is his actions that help the Troopers. One of the most important was one in which Shu had lost his faith and trust in the armor (due to well-timed revelations and half-truths by the enemy) and could no longer summon it; Jun figured out that the only thing that would snap Shu out of it would be to see all his friends beaten and even Jun threatened, so Jun arranged to get struck aside and pretended to be hurt much worse than he was; this did indeed trigger righteous fury in Shu and caused him to break his self-imposed restraints.
Besides Arago himself, the Troopers have to face his legions of faceless mooks (which are still superhumanly strong and fast, but not bright suits of animated armor) and the Ma-Sho, demon generals. There are four Ma-Sho: Anubis, Shuten Douji, Rajura, and Naaza, each representing one of the four seasons. The Ma-Sho also represent four Samurai virtues, while the Troopers represent the five Confucian virtues. The fact that the Ma-Sho wear armor very similar to those of the Troopers is no accident; it is revealed at the end of the first season that all nine Yoroi were forged by Kaos himself, intended as weapons against Arago… and forged from Arago's armor itself, which Kaos had taken from Arago in the latter's defeat about five hundred years before. Unfortunately, the four Samurai virtues are more easily diverted to use by evil, since they emphasize things like duty and loyalty which can serve any will, rather than moral choices which are encouraged more by the virtues that the Troopers' armor are imbued with.
The Demon Generals are not, in the end, irredeemably evil; eventually they realize how they have been tricked and used. This is one of the primary themes of the series, that people make moral choices and choices have consequences – good and bad. The Troopers sometimes make bad choices which have consequences for many episodes, often because unlike Arago they simply do not understand the full scope of what's going on, and by the time they do understand it, they've already done some things that they probably wouldn't have if they'd known better.
The first season of YST involves the Troopers learning how to fully wield their powers and trying to understand their enemy, Arago; Kaos apparently told them very little, only advising them at key points. According to several sources, the series was only scheduled for one season, and the grand finale was supposed to kill off all of the Troopers and have Jun and Nasuti somehow pull off a last minute miracle to banish Arago. However, toward the end of that season, the producers were told "Hey, you're really popular, let's do another season."
This caused them to desperately stall – re-running Episode 17, when reruns were VERY rare in Japan at that time – and re-writing and re-animating the last episode or two to introduce a complete, pulled-out-of-the-butt deus ex machina, a white armored figure apparently composed of the entire group unified in Ryo Sanada, which proceeds to blow Arago straight back into his own world.
The second season was devoted, to a great extent, to explaining this huge "ass-pull", the armor known as Keikoutei, the Sun Armor. Once Arago was finally (for now, anyway) defeated at the end of that season, YST had three more stories: YST:Gaiden which was a two-part OVA series featuring a mad scientist tampering with Things Best Left Alone; YST: Keikoutei Dentsetsu, which showed the consequences of the existence of the super armor; and finally YST: Message, which … was confusing even to the Japanese.
Yoroiden Samurai Troopers was a big influence on me in many areas, especially in imagery. Kathleen and I introduced the Troopers into our gaming and fanfic world, as the Troopers and the Saints seemed tailor-made as possible friends – there were closely matched personalities and also complementary interests and capabilities. There were several stories, and many games played, around the interaction of the two groups (and, eventually, around how they dealt with the arrival of the most overpowered beings in anime, the Zed team from Dragonball Z… and enemies on their level).
Some of those concepts also influenced my world design, helping to solidify how I wanted to depict high-powered characters who were the chosen of the gods (as did Saint Seiya and a few others). Some player characters in my games got to play on that level, such as Rob Rudolph, whose original version of Tobimar tended to collect destinies the way other people might collect cards, who ended up with a version of the Rekka armor, and Chad Baird, whose one character ended up with the Kongo armor… and who looked in many ways so much like Shu that at one point it suddenly dawned on him, and us, that he was even sitting on the floor in the exact same pose as Shu in one of the posters on the wall, and looked like a mirror of the character.
I can't deny the influence on my writing; this will be clearest in the projected Spirit Warriors trilogy, though some of the most obvious "parallels" actually existed long before I saw YST; (SPOILERS for Spirit Warriors, if and when it's written, so your choice…)
… I mean it -- key spoilers for an entire trilogy to be written ahead. If you want to read them clearly, highlight the very light text seen below...
… for instance, five young people with special powers, created by a mysterious figure who created them for the purpose of opposing an evil utterly beyond the ability of ordinary people to fight, and the five of whom combine into one super-being to be the final weapon against the Big Bad sure sounds like YST, indeed… but it's also the grand finale of the single biggest influence on me of all – E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series.
The manipulative, brilliant, and sometimes creepy wizard, Konstantin Khoros, also existed long before I saw YST… but he was based rather closely on Nero Wolfe not just in language but in appearance (he remains very Wolfe-like in dialogue and in the "voice" I hear when I read his lines). After YST I decided to modify his look, and Khoros became the way he is described in Phoenix Rising, as a deliberate nod.
The music for the show was surprisingly good, especially as it was really a sort of second-string show, not originally intended to be a front-runner; some pieces of music, especially Kaos' theme, have stuck with me ever since, and apparently I'm not alone; some other movies used that piece, including the Hong Kong "Dragonball" live-action movie.
I would gladly give a link to the show, but it was only released in Region 1 once, for a short time, and the DVD set is now stupidly expensive to obtain. I hope that someday it will be re-issued. But if you ever get a chance to watch it, do so. It's one of the gems of its era. (NOTE: Do not watch the dub if you can help it. The dub wasn't bad for its time, but it does not hold up well, and changes some things. The original voice actors with a subtitle are much to be preferred.)
I’m sure you love having random comments added to year-old posts, so I’ll drop mine here 🙂
>What made the Troopers clearly different from, and superior to, Saint Seiya
Those are fighting words! ^_^
Actually, thanks for this and for giving me the opportunity to put down my thoughts about Saint Seiya versus Samurai Troopers. After recently re-watching Samurai Troopers, I came to the opposite conclusion to you, and it would be interesting to explore why.
*The depth and size of the fantasy world.
The thing that really blew my mind about Saint Seiya was how it connected to so many myths and legends. The world of Saint Seiya is *old*, full of stories of battles that are relevant to the current battles. Heroes and villains and gods have been up against each other for millennia, and there’s a continuity from those eras to the present.
The Sanctuary has been around for centuries, the position of Pope passing from one saint to another, waiting for the resurrection of Athena and the periodic battles. Every armour has a potential story and a history. With the addition of the Asgard mini-series, we got the addition of other geographical areas and other mythologies. The number of potential stories is vast; pick an era, a location, and a culture, and you can start to sketch a story that fits comfortably within the Saint Seiya mythos.
The number of *potential* stories is much larger than what Kurumada ever told; I agree with you about his limitations. He created a fantastic arena in which imagination could fly, but he couldn’t fill it up and ended up repeating a lot of beats.
The Samurai troopers, in contrast, seem much more constrained in time and space. Yes, there was the battle with Arago a thousand years ago; but that seemed a one-off rather than a recurring event. And though Kaos is still around and provides a bridge across time, there was no real organisation or group that endured. No equivalent of the Sanctuary that kept up the link with antiquity. The Netherworld was a relatively poor substitute; it didn’t feel alive or full of stories and people. Samurai Troopers felt like one battle in the present with a prequel; Saint Seiya felt like the latest bout in an age-old conflict.
Geographically and culturally, Samurai Troopers were more Japanese-centric, while Saint Seiya hit at least three main cultural beats: Japanese bushi culture, Greek mythology (as re-invented by the Victorians), and the doom-laden tone of Norse myths. I should probably count Buddhism in there as well. Samurai Troopers had brief forays into Africa and the United States, but didn’t present anything much culturally interesting in either.
You mentioned how the Samurai Troopers were in the real world, but this felt artificial to me. Yes, they fought in modern day Tokyo, but the modern world appears mainly as a backdrop setting. The Japanese military makes a trivial appearance and is easily dispatched, and then combat happens in the same style as in Saint Seiya. And afterwards, everyone seems to forget about the huge ghost palace in central Tokyo, and people just move on with their lives. And the troopers end up based in a huge isolated mansion, so they don’t seem to be much connected to the real world (apart from Hardrock, which I’ll get too later).
*The personalities of the antagonists
Saga and princess Hilda: these were great antagonists. The split personality and the controlled priestess. Poseidon was forgettable, though Kanon wasn’t, and Pandora had her moments. These were people who it might be interesting to have a conversation with, who have their own demons.
The chief antagonists in Samurai Troopers were Arago, Saranbo, Lord Saber, Shikaisen, Mukala… Only Lord Saber had much depth; the others were simply evil, in an uninteresting way (or, in Mukala’s case, simply devoid of personality).
What about the more minor antagonists, the main fighters? In Saint Seiya, many antagonists were interesting and even well-intentioned. Most Gold Saints have very memorable personalities. It surprises me how memorable Deathmask was, for instance, though he should have been “interchangeable cackling villain number 3”. Mu, Milo, Camus, Shaka, even Shura and Aphrodite: all have strong traits and features that stand out.
The whole Sanctuary arc allowed the anime to explore the meaning of duty and loyalty: yes, our heroes were on the good side, but the Pope, Athena’s representative on earth, and your holy master you’ve sword to obey, has ordered you to do your duty and kill the bronze saints.
And the God Warriors were just divine 🙂 Nothing to add there. And the Sea Generals were mainly boring, but Kanon, Issak, and Sorrento were very good (I got back and forth as to whether Kaza’s portrayal was brilliant or stupid).
The Samurai Troopers had many faceless mooks, and many opponents barely more interesting (eg Badamon…). Three of the Dark Warlords seemed like they had potential, but it didn’t really go anywhere much.
And then, of course, there’s Anubis and Lady Kayura. No complaints here – these two were great, Anubis particularly. When I’m king of the world and remake Samurai Troopers, the main antagonists will be Anaubis, Kayura, and Lord Saber, with a lot more development of the Dark Warlords 🙂 But three examples over the whole series is too sparse.
*The main characters
The Saints might not exist in the real world, but they had tragic and painful backstories. Mistreated orphans brought up in violent training areas; we know very much where the Saints come from. The Gold Saints didn’t have too much backstories, but the God Warriors all did, and it made them tragic figures as they died.
The Troopers aren’t given backstories. It’s nice of them to want to help save us, but why do they want that? What gave them their armours, their powers, and their desire to continue? We don’t get to see that. Nor do we get much about the Dark Warlords – who were they, what changed them, what might cause them to shift their allegiance. We had a few hints about them, but not enough.
The Troopers don’t seem to have all that much in terms of personalities or much growth, with the great exception of Hardrock, who has a lot of struggles. In fact, I think Hardrock is maybe the trooper who informs your whole blog post: interesting conflicts, variable behaviour and challenges, connections to the real world. In my king of the world Samurai Troopers reboot, Anubis, Hardrock, and Lord Saber are the main characters, along with a more developed Lady Kayura.
My subjective impression is that four of the Saints (all but Seiya) have more interesting personalities than four of the Samurai Troopers (all but Hardrock). Now, subjective impressions may vary, and part of the reasons the Saints have interesting personalities is that they are drawn broadly, almost to the point of caricature – but I feel I’d know how to caricature them, and these caricatures would be interesting, rather than the flatness that I seem to see in most of the Troopers.
*Potential stories, squandered
But my main gripe with Samurai Troopers is that it started a lot of potential stories in very interesting ways, and then seemed to squander the potential entirely or almost entirely. Lady Kayura started well, but ended up as a minor bit player, without developing what the connection with her and the clan of Kaos might mean. The jewel of life sidequest was interesting, but the jewel ultimately seemed more of a macguffin. The white blaze/black blaze substitution seemed to change very little, in the end, undoing the point of white blaze’s sacrifice. The Dark Warlords were underdeveloped (apart from Anubis) and never really contributed much, even though they started having doubts – doubts that could have formed interesting exchanges with the protagonists. In the OVAs, Runa was wasted – there seemed the possibility of a romantic subplot, or at least some tension – Mukala was pretty much a blank. The “are our armours evil” idea was potentially fascinating, but didn’t have much consequences, at least in terms of moral choices for the protagonists.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked Samurai Troopers; I just don’t think it lived up to Saint Seiya, and more importantly, didn’t live up to its own potential.