The Ancient One, the beloved mentor of the Ronin
Warriors, sacrifices his life to provide the boys with entry into Talpa’s main
fortress. With anger and resolve in
their hearts, Ryo, Sage, Rowen, Kento and Cye cross the threshold and prepare
for the final battle with the leader of the Dyansty himself. However, Talpa has been playing a long
waiting game and the Warriors crossing into his domain might be the ultimate
trap they didn’t see coming. With the
fate of the world hanging in the balance, Ryo and his friends will risk all to
stop Talpa and his minions…even if that means they have to die to make that
happen. And even if they survive this
ordeal, what’s next for the Ronin Warriors with the dawn of a new day?
In many ways, im really glad this wasn’t the series
finale of Ronin Warriors. Otherwise, it
would have ended on a bit of a disappointing note. Let me say that I am well aware of what this
show is. It’s not meant to be anything
deep or compelling, it’s a straight up action vehicle. It’s a ton of fun to watch but that doesn’t
mean its without flaws. I’ve largely
ignored them til now but this latest set of episodes highlighted those
problems, even if there was still plenty to enjoy.
You know when the Ronin Warriors break off to face their
Dark Warlord Rivals (Sage vs. Cale, Kento vs. Dais, Cye vs. Sekhmet, Rowen
vs…well the cannon fodder (poor guy)), the show is going to deliver and it did
in the climactic final showdown each pairing had. The dark, hellish landscapes that came with
both Dais’ illusions and the fact that the guys are fighting on Netherworld territory
in general returned and stronger than ever.
I particularly enjoyed Cale fighting disguised as a classic, white robe
and red mask sporting Oni against Sage, awesome stuff. I also liked that even with their demonic
power ups, the Dark Warlords steadily lost their battles, showing the powerful
growth of the heroes after all this time.
Even Anubis managed to break free from his Netherworld prison and fight
alongside Ryo for a brief period, brief but great to see nonetheless.
And then Talpa himself got involved and what should have
been a freaking epic battle of the ages began to show signs that…it kind of
wasn’t. A skyscraper sized Talpa vs.
Ryo, the former of whom managed to absorb everyone into himself and regain is
full form, was a great setup, highlighting the ever rising scale of the
conflict. Buuuuut…I’ll be honest, I was
more intimidated and impressed with Talpa when he was just a severed, ethereal
head. His Kaiju version looks unfinished
compared to how everyone else in their armor has looked so far. Not only that, but his dialogue became that
of a broken record, “Give the Armor…I will have your Armor…hahahaha…” Gone was the mysterious figure of doom,
replaced with a lumbering villainous stereotype. And that’s saying something knowing this show
isn’t trying to break any action molds.
Even before he started attaining physical form, Talpa was mopping the
floor with the Ronin Warriors, defeating them in kind of scary ways that made
the battle feel hopeless and dire…that worked far more than the lumbering giant
he ended up becoming.
I’m half and half on the sudden return of the Ancient
One, who spirit appeared to give Ryo some backstory on Talpa and the armor…just
how he created it, not how he passed it onto 9 individuals over a millenia,
five of whom are 5 kids he never introduced to one another in order to prepare
them for a showdown with demons from Hell (no I’m not letting go of that
lingering plot thread). The Ancient One
has been a “get out of jail free” more than he’s needed to be and his
reappearance to rebolster Ryo’s spirit is something Mia and Yuli could have
done in his stead, you know considering they have a much stronger connection
compared to the lack of one we’ve seen with Ryo and his mentor. But whatever, INFERNO ARMOR!!!! Yep, after
all the lingering complaints, Ryo got a sweet power up and managed to blow
Talpa and his castle away in one fell swoop.
The Inferno Armor looks freaking sweet, the ultimate upgrade from the
already cool looking Wildfire Armor. The
day was saved…the end…
But not really cause this is only the halfway mark and
even before a new villain showed up, there were still a couple of
questions. Mostly, what’s happened to
Anubis, Sekmet, Dais and Cale? Are they
dead? The other Armors escaped Talpa to
power up Ryo but the Dark Warlords were still inside him when Ryo struck him
down. Maybe we’ll see them again,
imagine what kind of Armor Ryo would get if all nine were combined. Til then, we got a mini respite before a new
baddie arrived to try and take on the Ronin Warriors. And here is where another problem
emerges. We’ve seen that Sage, Cye,
Kento and Rowen can handle themselves just fine in battle. But now that Ryo has become the defacto main
lead and has the Inferno Armor, they cant do squat without him. Even Saranbo, as disappointing as he is,
shouldn’t be too much of a hassle for a group of guys growing stronger after
every battle with their armor. Honestly
it’s a trope that plagues many of my other favorite Anime: the Senshi cant
defeat a monster of the week without Sailor Moon; no Z Fighter can defeat a big
bad unless his name is Goku. It doesn’t
help that Saranbo kind of sucks and is just another bag of air spouting the
same nonsense that Giant Talpa did an episode prior.
I feel like I ragged on Ronin Warriors a bit this set
and…yeah I kind of did. I’m still
enjoying things and everything leading up to the Talpa battle was really well
done. But after a stumble at the halfway
mark, the show didn’t exactly get back on steady feet to kick off this newest,
post Talpa arc. Maybe I need to temper
my expectations a bit and hope that everything going forward is a much better
rebound. We’ve still got 19 episodes and
3 OVAs to run through. Ronin Warriors
sure isn’t finished yet…and given how things turned out this set im glad that’s
not the case.
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