Ronin Warriors Legend of Kikoutei

I've always had a fondness for power-suits. For as long as I've been an anime fan I truly believed that I was mecha fan all my life but as I've gotten to increase the amount of anime that I've personally watched I discovered that I actually prefer power suits more than actual giant mechs. I just have this silly love of watching the transformation sequences as the human characters equip themselves with these suits regardless if their robotic or medieval in nature in order to unleash their full power. Thankfully you get your share of power suit armour shenanigans in this beautifully animated 4 partova involving the ronin warriors. Ronin Warriors: Legend of the Inferno Armour is a 4 part ova that focuses on the complexity and history of one of the ultimate abilities of the ronin warriors which is the power of the white inferno armour. An ultimate piece of armour that is summoned with the power of all 5 ronin warriors. However, for as powerful as this armour can be, if the warriors aren't careful it can actually lead to the destruction of their entire world especially if it engages in battle with it's counterpart which is the black inferno armour which is conveniently used by the antagonist of the entire ova. The antagonist is an African warrior by the name of Mukala that suddenly arrives in Japan and without any warning and even without any armour starts attacking the ronin warriors starting with Ryo. Ryo and the rest of the ronin warriors discover quite quickly that they are seriously out-skilled and outmatched and when all 5 warriors manage to show up in the very first episode the African warrior summons his black inferno armour to take them on. As the warriors start the technique to summon their white inferno armour, Cye decides to not align his power with the rest of the warriors in order to summon the white inferno armour because he has lost his will to fight and often wonders why he should keep battling to begin with. Thankfully his reservations about fighting saves the world from total destruction because at the very start of the ova the entire ronin warriors team is unaware of what will happen when the white inferno armour and the black inferno armour will battle each other. As a result of Cye's reluctance to help summon the white inferno armour, both Ryo and Sage are sucked into a portal which takes them to Africa where we finally get to learn the backstory of the warrior they're fighting and what they need to do to stop it. As the OVA progresses we also get to see that the ronin warriors learn very quickly that it may not be the African warrior that they have to worry about fighting when they finally understand that there is a true conflict between the power of their armours and their own personal virtues especially when their very own power can be their undoing especially when the white inferno armour is drawn towards fighting the black inferno armour and vice versa and it doesn't really care if it leads to the destruction of the entire world. The anime in itself moves at a really good pace and it doesn't feel too long in the tooth. You have plenty of opportunities to watch the ronin warriors in action even though more often than not they're usually getting their butts kicked by a completely overpowered enemy. It's really an OVA that really focuses on the action without much in the way of character development . The ronin warrior that gets the most character development is obviously Cye because at the start he abandons his responsibilities as a ronin warrior and throws his power gem in the lake, but he ultimately finds his way and his motivation to fight again but his character development helps move the anime along when you need a break from the action and the exposition of the overall plot of the story while the rest of the ronin warriors in Japan try to find a way to get to Africa (Tanzania) in order to help Ryo and Sage. I think ultimately the biggest fault throughout this 4 part adventure is really the main antagonist. He doesn't really do much except battle and be ultimately corrupted by the black inferno armour. He barely speaks, with the only dialogue he uses is summoning the black inferno armour in a foreign language. Even when he isn't fighting he is very stoic but you can tell through his facial expression and body movement that he can be incredibly stubborn and hard headed. His bride to be that Ryo and Sage meet in the African village has much more of a personality and she is the one that provides a lot of the background story about her lover and the legend of the black inferno armour. The action and there is plenty of it is pretty good and very entertaining but there is always a part of me that for all the multiple times that the ronin warriors fight Mukala the ronin warriors would come out on top but it's simply not the case. We do get to see the majority of the ronin warriors use their skills and weapons to the best of their ability but a lot of times they're simply no match for Mukala. It's not until the final battle where we get to see the ronin warriors excel to the best of their ability. There isn't really much in the way of humour but it doesn't really need it especially when the action stays relatively solid throughout the entire adventure. Probably the biggest thing to love about this OVA is the quality of animation. For something that was made in 1989 it looks absolutely beautiful with a lot of beautiful detail to the backgrounds, character designs, and the detail of the armour. It really makes the action scenes pop and you can't help but marvel about how beautiful some of the backgrounds look regardless if it takes place in the city or on the african landscape. The music is a little better than average with the main opening theme being the major selling point with the music through each ova episode being fitting for what is being presented but it doesn't really do much to make it pop which is a crying shame because the music could really shine when it has such beautiful animation to use as it's emotional canvas. I do have to give a lot of credit to the english dub of this OVA. There is a lot of well established mid to late 90's English voice actors associated with this OVA and it was incredibly easy to recognize their voices especially if you watched any of the English dubs of some of the first Gundam anime to hit North American Shores such as Gundam Wing and Gundam Seed. If your also familiar with the CGI shows of Mainframe such as Reboot and Shadow Raiders you can also hear some of the voice talent from those shows as well. Ronin Warriors: Legend of the Inferno Armour is a very action packed and entertaining watch with personally some of the best animation I've seen from the late 80's that would match up with what you would see in Gunbuster or the later episodes of Bubblegum Crisis. It's a 4 part OVA with a plot that is very easy to follow and even if the antagonist is a little wooden and uninspiring it shouldn't hamper your ability to enjoy this little adventure in the world of the ronin warriors.