Samurai Troopers re-runs were one of my favorite shows growing up as a kid so I was extremely excited to hear there was a reboot coming out. That being said, NONE of my criticisms have anything to do with comparing it to the original, and you'll find that hype for this show died almost immediately around the 3rd or 4th episode where the plot started to get more and more convoluted while ignoring the rules of the world that it had previously set up.

Over all, it's a show that fails to establish the next generation of troopers, gives up half-way, and brings the originals back in an effort to save face.

In the beginning it starts out strong: Instead of trying to re-introduce the almost 40 year old characters and plot, we are given a world where the previous samurai troopers have faded into legend. For all intents and purposes, they are irrelevant to the plot because it's seemingly set several generations into the future. We then meet a cast of characters who for one reason or another struggle to come to terms with not only their roles as successors to the original team amid a massive demon invasion, but their own personal shortcomings.

Except none of that is focused on instead, the focus is shifted from these new characters to 'how many of the original samurai troopers cast can we wedge into here?'

It becomes such a rush to get the original cast in that they actually kill off what little interesting new-comers they have (minus the new samurai troopers). If that weren't bad enough, each episode completely changes the rules of the world around them and how the characters act to better suit their continued need to bring back the original troopers.

A character is told that he will being great misfortune to his friends.... So he throws one of them off a cliff and when that doesn't work he sells them to the zoo.... Then proceeds to become a NEET LIVING IN THE SAME TRAIN/BASE AS THE REST OF HIS FRIENDS?!

They get a sword that can dispel the villain's evil, instead of dispelling the curse he has put on two new characters, it kills them and 'frees them from their torment'. Okay, that's fine. But when fighting the main villain, it separates the original character who the villain is using as a host from his curse, saving him?

The villain has shown that when he captures previous heroes, he executes them and turns them into puppets... But magically when it looks like the new heroes are going to lose, it actually put them to sleep and they all wake up to help save the day.

They keep talking about saving people, but the villain killed literally everyone in tokyo, the majority into undead puppet monsters that killed the remaining minority and he did this with a flick of his wrist. In reality the only reason they actually beat the villain is because he's so evil he's stupid and just keeps giving them power ups and chances in the hopes to eventually snatching a new host body from them, which at some point you have to wonder why he didn't just.... Lobotomize them so they weren't a threat and then force feed them power ups since all of their power ups don't come from training, but from absorbing the powers of items and demons.

In the final fight, after heaven has told them countless times that they will not interfere in the mortal realm because it would upset the balance and make them no better than the demons.... You guessed it, heaven gives all the heroes a second wind.

Oh and when the villain finally takes over one of their bodies they cut him down like the did the original trooper whose body was being used as a host and instead of saving him it kills him 'because only the leader can separate them'.... Even though the leader cut two others down the same way previously because 'there was no way to separate them'

In the end, in exchange for his sacrifice, heaven brings all of the civilians back to life and resurrects him as what seems like a puppet to begin THEIR invasion of earth.

I an only assume that between the weak reception and 12 episodes not being enough time to flesh out 9 characters plus all of the villains, they decided that bringing back the original troopers might boost viewership.