#yst

[yst-lsd]

All screencaps and gifs were made from yoroi shinden samurai troopers, a sequel to yoroiden samurai troopers.

♡~ Korin

P.S. beyond the first episode // prologue posts, I generally won't be tagging RW anymore; those stans are either here now or they're not... ¯\(ツ)/¯

[shions-ponytail]

Just wanted to share these beautiful fan arts of the og troopers + Kaos by the artist and graphic designer 小真 (SHIN). When will the other 4 appear alongside Ryo? Hopefully soon. Anyway, do check out the artist's works on their website here. Artists and animators from China are some of the best in the industry and I love looking at their works.

[commandernasti]

I think maybe the coolest thing about Yoroi Shinden Samurai Troopers is that it explores a compelling concept floated by the second half of the og series, and expands it greatly: what ideology has the right to proliferate in Japan - Righteous Despair or Radical Hope.

In YST, we get introduced to 3 treasures to summon the most bestest armor that were loosely connected to the historical imperial treasures. The Armor itself challenging its bearer to maintain his composure and hope while literally fighting off the Ghost of Japan's Military History.

Arago's argument for conquering the human realm is that it is the source of all misery because humans just be like that. Ryo's rebuttal is that hope wins because humans also be like that. In the end, hope and friendship win, because it was an 80s Shonen. However.

The OVAs followed up with a pretty clear and solid thesis that the mystical armors themselves - and their representation of traditional might - are a corrupted ideal that should be left in the past. However, the historical and cultural significance won't easily die.

How does one reckon with a history of violence? How can healing and progress truly happen if some are still obsessed with dissecting and renewing those old wounds? How do you rectify all of the death and destruction you cause while trying to protect others?

Well, now we see that the track taken was to push towards more militarization, to place children in the hot seat of the war machine, to divert resources so that they might survive if disaster strikes again, but at such great cost.

Now, a generation of young people are being handed the corrupted treasures once given by The Empress of the Universe Herself [since this is a supernatural Shonen we're talking in the literal here] to don an armor symbolic of that Goddess' power and the imperial right to rule the land.

The sword, mirror, and jewel were once [to greatly simplify things] gifts of love from a holy being to her mortal progeny. The jewel representing rice, growing things, the cycle of life itself. The mirror is Her mirror, so that her descendents might look upon her directly. The sword is Her sword, rarely wielded, but a representation of might nonetheless.

[Spoilers past this point]

The treasures themselves may be corrupted for now, but the sun does break through. The Jewel responding to Gai [essentially saving his life] the sword killing Ryusei [killing him whike he was still human, rather than a corrupted demon]and the sun reflecting on the mirror [saving them all in a clutch moment]. It is bittersweet, but gets the point across. To save the world from evil, they have to turn to something ancient, something that represents more than militarism, but the deep spiritual, human cost of war is still a heavy weight they must bear.

It's not as simple as having the treasures and saying "I'm emperor now, I decide what is right." It has to be about recognizing what is worth protecting, when it's worth allowing mercy and forgiveness, about being egoless when presented with power.

And it's about singing songs together. Because really, what else is better to bring us out of the dark caves on our hearts, than singing along with friends?

[fallloverfic]

Thoughts on 鎧真伝サムライトルーパー | Yoroi Shinden Samurai Troopers, Episode 5: Sadness (what a wild episode alkjdlaj):

It's very interesting to reframe the scene where Gai is shot by Saizo while fighting Ryusei as a flashback moment for Ryusei where he was stabbed with Ramaga's poison dagger. Poor Ryusei. This time he wasn't the target, anyway. But only barely.

AND RYOOOO XD (more on that later) :D And Samurai Heart makes its appearance lol For all the flaws in how Gai is being acclimated to human life by admittedly very young people who have no experience or training in this kind of thing, his relationship with Ryusei continues to be cute.

The OP is so good.

This made me laugh aldjkalj

I am not above saying that after they hit Saizo's shield I said, "Boom" aloud and then "hmm" and then Yamato said this alkdjalj

So now we know there are more youja who can do hypnosis and illusions. But interestingly, whatever Ramaga did didn't make the Troopers' eyes look like Shion's in that flashback:

This might just mean it's a different spell, a different caster, or something about Shion himself made his eyes look like this (e.g., that he has special heritage, either youja or from Kaos). But still, curious. Especially because the eye color is identical to Ryusei being taken over by the poison:

But so far as we know, Shion wasn't infected. So was Ramaga the one who did whatever to Shion, regardless of what it was? Or was Shion just less infected but not enough to be a permanent problem?

Ryusei dispelling the hypnosis reminds me of Seiji fixing Ryo's eyesight with sunlight.

AND WE GET FULL UNCOVERED ADULT RYO!!!

Lookit him. Cutie (though the beard doesn't do him any favors alkdjalj). Looks kind of like Keith from Voltron: Legendary Defender honestly lol But the generic 20th century shounen male lead look is kind of generic for a reason lol I love him :3 And his having a teacherly relationship with Ryusei is sweet. Ryo really trying to help everyone :3 And Ryusei idolizing him T-T Ryo T-T Where's Byakuen????

Also the -presses hard to create symbol- thing is fascinating. They can just... do that to Weapon-Gear/Armor-Gear alkdjlaj What magic is Ryo and later Ryusei doing and how did Shion let it do that alkdjlaj

Ryusei's students trotting quickly to him while Shion slowly walks over alkdjlaj I like the little details.

I admit I don't know Japanese architecture, so this may just be another location they used, but it is quite interesting that they have this vaguely Atlas carrying the world image in the background while talking about what Ryusei is doing on behalf of the world and the other Troopers:

(It actually looks more like Sisyphus with his boulder, and perhaps the double messaging is intended, given what Ryusei is fighting against and ultimately dies to)

Gai and Kaito's relationship continues to be intriguing:

Also highlighting because I wish. They would just. Use 2D. All the time. Instead of the ugly 3D. THIS LOOKS REALLY GOOD! WHY NOT KEEP IT??? It's in so much of the episode too! Along with the bleh 3D. Why T-T

I need to stop shipping characters with death flags. This happened with To Be Hero X, it's HABIT-FORMING alkdjalj

I honestly wasn't planning to ship them in my last fic of these two after Episode 3, but it just happened in that fic and I'm glad the series keeps supplying food for this ship alkdjlaj I think Ryusei is actually talking about how he knows he's dying(?) and he knows Shion is going to be able to stick around/maybe it's meant as a platonic thing but I choose to believe aalkdjalj

The full version of this at last is really adorable lol And the team dynamic continues to be fun:

I know a lot of tokusatsu have a lot of the very anti-climactic posing and stuff (and Yoroiden Samurai Troopers had plenty as well) like "omg you guys... can move????" But this is all very aldkjlaj It's not overly cheesy in a way that's bad, it works, just like YST's generally did.

And oh no, will Shion actually die first and all the promo material with him in the green armor was a scam after all???? alkdjalj

The sword being a fake is neat. Of course a super genius wouldn't just go up to the Youjakai fully half-cocked.

And there it be at last! The Shiroi Kikotei/Armor of the Supreme Emperor!

Still a thing in this story universe (and generally looks the same, plus the cape anyway). And Nasti is very twigged into the fact that Ramaga wants to summon it (and hiding it from Mirei for some reason still). Which begs the question: if Ryo is Ramaga/being controlled by him, and allegedly Ramaga had the other four Troopers, why couldn't Ryo summon the armor like he could before? What stopped him from summoning it to stop himself from getting captured/save everyone else?

Is that where Byakuen went? He escaped with the sword(s) back to the human world?

Presumably if Ryo is just being possessed, and although Ramaga seemingly can use non-demonic abilities maybe through Ryo (or some other person he absorbed/controls, like oh... Kayura maybe), perhaps Ramaga can't channel righteousness like Ryo can and that's why he can't summon the armor. Although this begs the question of what value possessing Gai would have since that would presumably present the same problem. Unless Ryo's body is being used up (as Gai explained) and that's why Ramaga can't summon the armor. And he needs Gai because Gai is a younger meat puppet and so could handle bearing the armor. But how long as Ramaga been unable to use the armor? He wasn't using it in the flashback with Shion and Ryusei's group, though maybe he just didn't need to given how outclassed Shion and Ryusei's group was.

I take back some of the super-cheese comments: Ramaga's reveal, "It was me!" is kind of hilarious alkdjlaj

So this is interesting because we seemingly have an answer to how a human can become "demonic" in this story universe. They get infected with this poison and Ramaga sort of mind controls them into it. And it can be removed without killing the caster, seemingly, assuming Ramaga was the one who did something like this to Gai, as Ramaga was not dead when Saizo removed Gai's demonic powers. Conversely, the Braves were told a false story about how Gai was born/joined them or something. Or, for whatever reason, Saizo was the one who gave Gai his demon powers originally, and so Saizo was the one who could deactivate, I guess? By shooting Gai? Given Ryusei's demon form kind of resembles Gai's, there at least seems to be some connection there.

I still love how much the Troopers love Ryusei. They really do care for him. And we get slightly more than the usual clip show for their memories of him, which is sweet. He really bonded with them in a monthish time. And we do get someone singing Samurai Heart, even if it's not the whole team.

It feels like a callback to Episode 1 when Gai was singing without any backing music, but haunting in a different way.

Having Gai be the one to essentially kill Ryusei is so cruel T-T The plan was nice, though. Gai really does care and can plan things, and all the Troopers got together to help. And Gai was already regretting some of his actions and coming around.

I realized after the fact that I didn't have room in this post to really be sad about Ryusei's death (outside doomed ship stuff and how it affects other characters) but the man's been death-flagged since before the show started, folks T-T We didn't even know Ryusei existed until relatively right before the show started airing: Shion was in all the promotional material as the fifth Trooper prior to and after that, outside the OP. I think we first knew for sure about Ryusei's existence on December 2nd, when his character profile and a preview with him more prominently was shared, and then we had no idea what he was doing other than he appeared briefly in a couple previews, never in armor. You can actually see him in this preview from November 11, 2025:

He's there on the right, out of armor. There are some other shots of episodes that have already released where we (now) know it's Ryusei in the armor, and one where there's someone in green armor on-screen while Shion is standing elsewhere, in a scene from Episode 5 (I use the episode version later in this post). But we didn't know it was the guy in this^ shot in that armor when this preview aired, or even on December 2nd. Even if anyone noticed Shion was not the one in the green armor in that shot before December 2nd, I doubt they made the connection it was "that mysterious brunette with a green t-shirt in one scene of the preview". On December 2nd, we got his character profile and a preview video with him more prominently shown (but still in not much of the video). Even in that preview, he's not in the armor, and Shion transforms with the Weapon-Gear multiple times. And by that point, we'd already seen Shion in a lot of things, in and out of armor. The OP with just Ryusei and no Shion aired at midnight on New Year's Day. And that still had a death flag for Ryusei because, unlike the other five Troopers, he's walking away from the camera with his back to the audience, and his face hidden in the window where his armor is, clearly signalling he's leaving the story and potentially being replaced (as we knew, because Shion is in the vast majority of the promotional material as the one wearing the green armor). There were tons of theories at that point: Was Ryusei evil? Does Shion replace him? Does Ryusei replace Shion? Who knew! And then the ED was premiered before Episode 2 dropped and Ryusei had EVEN MORE DEATH FLAGS alkdjalj Even when I did my very non-academic survey of Japanese fans on twitter after Episode 2, folks were guessing Ryusei might die because by that point we'd all see the ED, if nothing else.

Am I sad, yes (I like Ryusei, he's a great character, it's why I've written 2 and soon to be 3 fics about him). Am I surprised? No. The only "surprise" of any kind was whether or not he'd actually die or just be out of the action in some other way (e.g., too injured, comatose, kidnapped). I even guessed Gai might be the one to "kill" him ages ago, given all the Gai crying previews and the OP (and it makes sense as something typical of the genre to galvanize him on his journey of understanding murdering people is bad). So, given I've assumed Ryusei would potentially die for over a month, I guess my sadness is a bit... less intense because I was preparing for this for over a month.

I will go down with this ship again.

And so the folks who insisted Ryo is Ramaga/his bodysuit were on to something. Though it remains to be seen what precisely is going on. Back during YST, there were a lot of attempts to basically absorb/brainwash/use Ryo in his armor, all of which ultimately failed. Presumably this is not Ryo gone mad with demonic power, potentially after being stuck in the Youjakai for a couple years. The marks on his face and the odd symbols in his eyes likely indicate possession of some kind. So was Ramaga stronger than Arago and the others who tried to take Ryo over? Is this an evolved form of what happened when Badamon tried to overwhelm Ryo for possession? Did Ryo make a deal of some kind to save his fellow Troopers, who are also notably absent, or were they absorbed like Gai did with Nezu?

The alternative theory I still am uncomfortable with is Ramaga was going through all of them until they burned out or something and Ryo was the last one. During YST season 1, Ryo was the last to be absorbed. It'd mirror that. But more likely it's a Gai and Nezu situation, hence where Ramaga got the idea to have Gai absorb the Braves (or at least some of them). My assumption is Ramaga would target Ryo (like Gai later) because he was the Emissary of Fire and thus the one who can wield the Shiroi Kikotei. Which would hopefully mean the other four aren't dead (after all, if the goal is that armor, he still needs the other four to summon it). They're just, you know... sleeping. Or something.

It still leaves open the question of who Gai's father is. Is he actually Ryo's son or Ramaga's son or some other third thing? He still might be some random child that one or both of them got ahold of and took into the Youjakai and indoctrinated. We just don't know. Again, Kayura was kidnapped, too, and Kayura was neither Kaos' child nor Arago's, nor anyone else's.

And what have the Masho and Kayura been up to? Ryo's been running around as either a new dark lord or a meatsuit for one and they're just... busy? With what? Hope this doesn't mean they're dead... Maybe the other Troopers are forming some resistance with them in the Youjakai or something. I kind of feel like this weird poison power is something Ramaga absorbed from Kayura, given how he explains it, and aligning with the Sword of Domination leaves it 50/50 either a Ryo or Kayura thing.

And this also raises the question of if Ramaga targeted Ryusei intentionally because of Ryo's memories of him. Obviously Ryusei was kind of in the way of getting to Shion and they were the only two alive, but we do know Ryo and Ryusei had that connection. Or if it's a demonic Ryo, did he want to kill the last part of him that cared?

I hope this doesn't mean they have to kill Ryo. Obviously death for Troopers is on the table (it was before, even outside Musashi's former team and Ryusei and Shion's former team, as Shutendoji did actually die, much as we dislike remembering it). This is part of why Next Generation stories are so not my bag most of the time. Passing the baton is one thing (which for various reasons can be sad enough), but literally killing off the previous generation is really not great (and we already have Ryusei's "kill me to solve the problem" declaration, don't want Ryo doing that too, or I don't know, dissolving because his body has been through too much once he's freed of Ramaga). Not great at all. We already have 5-8 dead Troopers in this show. I do not want more.

Anywho. ...Episode 6: Restart? Woo? (Which is funny because it's more likely Episode 7 would have a change in OP/ED and more of a restart, but I guess we'll see if that happens alklaj)

Other thoughts:

Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5 (you are here), Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12

Fanfics if you'd like them: Turnabout (set after Episode 1), One Little Did (set after Episode 2), Came this far (set after Episode 3), a Ryusei/Shion Valentine's Day fluff fic, and another Ryusei/Shion university AU inspired by Macross Frontier.

Yoroiden Samurai Troopers fanfic

[kyuuuu]

Final speculation and opinions before airing

General

The director’s other works was Gintama and Osomatsu-san. Osomatsu-san is notable because it’s a sequel for a series with a very long gap, and he managed to make it a huge hit. YST should be in safe hands.

Meanwhile the script writer is the Kamenrider Build writer. I expect peak. His writing should mesh well given that Samurai Trooper is basically a toku.

Ngl I do not like the character designs for the main cast. Apparently the character designer’s selected works are Love Live and the girls there suffer same face syndrome really bad. I give him credit for trying to diversify the designs here. Yuri man forced to draw yaoi…..

I was genuinely surprised to realize that the Samurai Troopers are a thing in universe. They’re not some secret society, they have an actual organization and have canon marketing teams and stuff. This will make things very very different from what we know.

I guess the ogs will appear at some point. Mia already made an appearance.

Gai

Idiot son that I hate

From all the PVs he looks like a standard hot blooded shounen protagonist. Goofy guy.

But he’s also an edgelord? The very first teaser trailer shows him straight up killing someone while saying “Humans are such vile creatures” (人間は醜い生き物だな)

Perhaps he’s not even human... In the official trailer Shion says “That red one… It's a demon, isn't it?” (あの赤いの。妖邪だろう?) (Note: I don’t know if the transliteration is correct. Youja could also mean ‘user’)

If it’s not red herring (pun unintended) it’s likely that Shion is talking about Gai.

Apparently he has a weird taste in food according to his personality description. Maybe this is another clue that he’s not quite human.

Kaito

Idiot son that I hate 2

His interest in rock was inherited by his grannie of all people. Guess that she was a punk in her youth…

It’s interesting that his rock spirit, rebellion against society and norms, is his family’s tradition

Out of everyone I expect him to have a fair share of comedic moments along with Gai since the beans have been spilled that his secret special interest is nerdy stuff like anime. Probably a lot of cringe comedy that will directly target the audience

His brand of true individuality is ironically not his rocker self but his otaku self… Could make a future plot point?

Musashi

Idiot son that i hate 3

The teaser interviews said that he will have a focus in the first few episodes so I guess that he’s the audience surrogate character- a shy newbie who’s unused to fighting

My guess is that his segments would be focused on the world building such as where are the ogs now or what is the public’s reception of the troopers

Notably he and Yamato were raised in an orphanage called the Forest of Wisdom. A bit too on the nose about the connection with Shin, since his surname is Mori (forest) and he’s the holder of wisdom.

Yamato

Idiot son that i hate 4

Not much to say about him honestly. His character seems very straightforward.

He’s probably the dad of the team bc even if Shion is the oldest he does not seem like a person you would want to leave your kid with

I assume Ryusei was originally supposed to be the dad but unfortunately for Yamato he needs to prepare himself to be a single father at age 16.

Shion

Idiot son that i hate 5

It’s Ryusei who dons the armor in the op… So I’m guessing Shion will replace him at some point in the series (I’ll make a lucky guess and say it’s episode 7)

Something to note is that his image color is not green but purple. Given the color schemes of the anime, purple is the ‘bad guy’ color so does this mean he’s an enemy turned ally?

Yet despite this ominousness his character description says that he’s greatly values camaraderie. I imagine him to be the funniest character bc these kinds tend to be obnoxiously caring after switching sides.

Him peppering English in the middle of speaking is another red flag that he’ll be comic relief

[audiodee]

NEVER KILL YOURSELF LOOK AT MY BOY

I'M GONNA CRY

[pentapoda]

Register to vote in the USA, get art

If you register to vote in the US 2024 presidential election, or convince someone else to register (and confirm they really did), then you can send me an art request.

Send me an ask or a tumblr dm:

tell me you registered to vote in the US for 2024

give me a request for one character to draw

fair warning, if the character you request isn't a woman / doesn't present as female, there's a nonzero chance that will change when I draw them. also if you want to weight things in your favor you should request kory and/or jason todd as wonder girl.

small print: i will fill requests as i have time / energy, if i have a backlog, i will pick one i can do. i will stop fulfilling requests shortly after the election, no matter how big the backlog. that means there's no guarantee i'll be able to fulfill your request, but 1) the earlier you register, the better a chance you'll have, 2) even if I don't, thank you sincerely very much for registering.

any details beyond character name will be viewed as optional. i'm offering to draw the character requested. any additional details will be viewed as optional. too many extra details might get the request pushed to the back because even though I said they were optional I'll feel guilty about ignoring them... but, like, you registered to vote and that's fucking great, so you do you.

anyway, point is! register to vote! you're great! I will draw you a thing, time and brain allowing!

[omnicenos-art]

Danica is the character of the month over at @roninversary-brawl so here is my contribution!