Anime Review: Yoroi Shinden Samurai Trooper ep 3 - Raging Serenity

Episode 3 of Samurai Trooper took us blazing down the storyline with the entire team coming together in this episode. A classic training montage leading to a personal reflection and finding oneself amidst the battle for the newest member of the team. To be honest, I think they are jumping way too fast with the story, considering they have 24 episodes in the works.

Yamato Houjou – the “brother” of Musashi arrives and join the team. It was revealed that the two was not actually blood-related siblings, but rather Yamato bestowed the name upon Musashi, making him his brother-in-arms. Yamato is a very outspoken and hyperactive person, always jumping ahead and deciding things by himself. Furthermore, he’s an instant simp. He saw Mirei and immediately got captured by her “assets”. Well, every episode has some “comedic” bits so it is what it is.

We also get a training montage…in Sword Art Online! Yes they really did built an insane plot device: a VR Time Chamber! They were able to put on a Meta Quest, went into Aincrad, and trained in there for a few days which feels as long as a few months since time work differently somehow? And all of the “virtual” training will be transferred to the real world? I know there’s some crazy sci-fi stuff in this series – including magical elemental armor, but this is quite pushing it. With this kind of equipment, why wouldn’t they train up a bunch of peeps who can actually fight with the Under-Gears? or just combatants in general? It seems there’s a lot of plot contrivances setup for all this work.

Although, the struggle for our characters to summon the actual Armor Gear was actually quite interesting. Although this might be just the initial struggle and after everyone successfully transformed for the first time, they would have no problem doing that the next. Just like with Gai and Kaito in this episode. The battle format of this series feels very similar to the usual Monster of the Week style of Tokusatsu – where the demon force and the DST went through their inter-personnel agenda, and then we have an attack that ended just as quickly as it started.

However, this episode did addressed an issue with our protagonist that I’ve raised in the last 2 ep – however their resolution is still unfinished at this time. It is the matter of Gai’s “bloody conduct” in episode 1 where he endgamed a few dozen people. Ryuusei did reasoned that Gai was raised without any value of human life, and that human to him was no different than livestock prior to being turned into a human. So basically they are trying to pull the “didn’t know, isn’t guilty” card. But they also pulled it back a bit by saying if Gai ever committed crimes again, they would not let it go. Gai was also silent during the debate, so maybe he was reflecting on his actions.

Yamato was the spotlight for this week, however Gai was very crucial as well. He’s becoming a bit more aware on humanity, although his attitude is still cocky and arrogant. Maybe he’s starting to understand what it means to be human. Although I don’t know if he will develop some remorse for his action in ep 1, but time will tell. But in this ep, he played a crucial part in unlocking Yamato’s power. He pretended to turn evil and attacked Musashi in order to awaken Yamato’s inner strength. Noone could tell – except Kaito. Kaito has cemented himself as Gai’s rival, and it is possible that he was the only one who knows what Gai was actually planning. So in the future, these two can become bestest rival that bicker all the time.

But Yamato’s power couldn’t awaken just because Gai ragebaited him. But also thanks to his savior in the past. When Yamato and Musashi were young, they were rescued from trouble by a middle-aged man, and those with a keen ears will instantly recognize who it is. Yep, it is none other than Ryo Sanada himself – the original Fire Armor wielder himself. I’m not sure if this will just be a passing cameo or will it lead to something better. Anyway, Yamato recalled his words – that rage is powerful, but a calm and collected mind is strength. True strength comes only when you can control your rage. And that’s what he did. He calmly transform, calmly give Mr. Asshole a shoulder check, and then proceeded to cut the giant monster in half. Absolute cinema, I’d say.

We ALSO get to meet the last “supposed” member of the Samurai Trooper – Shion Ishida. He appeared and instantly wanted to kick everyone’s butts in an intimidating black armor. It seems that he is currently working for a covert organization with an advanced science ninja armor thingy that seeks to wipe out both the heroes and the villains as well. I reckon his past will have something to do with it, as well as Ryuusei, as he seems to know him.

=Aaron=

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