This January is one of the biggest months for anime in years, with quite a few franchises returning for new seasons. Jujutsu Kaisen, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Oshi no Ko, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, and more are kicking off new seasons to ensure that 2026 is a big year for anime. In a surprise twist, the Ronin Warriors are making a comeback of their own after decades away from the anime scene with a reboot series. While new characters are taking up the armor to fight against a new threat, the villains who are introduced in this series are unlike what has come before them, making for quite the controversial first episode.
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In a startling introduction, the new antagonists of the Ronin Warriors’ sequel immediately cut through the general populace in a bloody manner that proves how much of a threat they are. The new antagonists consist of characters like Nezu, Anayama, Unno, Kakei, and Mochizuki, to name a few, turning civilians into red mist. Men, women, and children are mowed down in such a way that it’s almost hard to believe that this is a Ronin Warriors’ follow-up, considering the original series was skewed toward a younger audience. In a disturbing twist, one of the villains even sings a classic 1980s tune from the Japanese pop idol group, Onyanko Club. You can witness the carnage for yourselves with the clip below.
Ronin Warriors’ Bloody Return
For many anime fans in the West, the Ronin Warriors were their introduction to anime. Arriving on syndicated television in 1995, the armored heroes would eventually find their way to Cartoon Network’s Toonami, helping the Sunrise production to gain an even longer audience. While there have been plenty of examples of anime series receiving revivals in the past, there are few instances of shows that have returned after decades outside of the spotlight. Ronin Warriors has always had a unique place within the anime world, and it seems as though the sequel is continuing this trend.
As something of a comparison, Ronin Warriors’ original villains might not have been decapitating children like this new gang, but they were scary in their own right. Having armor and abilities close to those of the heroes, the likes of Cale, Anubis, Dais, and Sekhmet worked for the evil demon lord Talpa. In this new series, it seems that Talpa isn’t making a comeback this time around, which might actually be bad news for the new kids taking up the mantle of the Samurai Troopers.
A major component of the final arc that brought the original series to an end was the villains realizing they were being manipulated by Talpa and eventually joining forces with their opponents to defeat Talpa. Considering the body count that the new antagonists have racked up in this anime premiere, this might not be the case for the revival. Only time will tell how else this new anime will differ from what came before it.
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