There are nine legendary suits which, when gathered, make up the armor of the evil emperor Talpa. He has obtained four of these armors and is seeking to gather the other five so he can renew his attempts to conquer Earth after he failed thousands of years ago. The other five are worn by five of Earth’s bravest humans, but when Talpa scatters them across the earth, it’s up to a young boy named Yuli and a student-teacher named Mia to reunite them and stop Talpa’s invasion.

Ronin Warriors is a classic anime that takes the aesthetic of samurai and does something new with it. This series takes extreme pleasure in giving its nine armor-wearing characters particularly great poses to highlight their one-of-a-kind samurai armor. This is especially true of the protagonist Ryo’s Inferno Armor which is basically a samurai armor in mech form, or alternatively, Talpa’s armor which screams evil samurai emperor. Ultimately, Ronin Warriors is a classic shonen about five warriors who live up to the standards of an idealized samurai to overcome great evil, and it’s always a comforting watch.

Heizou Hasegawa is the Chief Officer of the Arson Theft Division. It’s the Edo period and peace reigns thanks to the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate. Even so, there are always people intent on disrupting the peace for their own selfish needs. The man known as Demon Heizou isn’t one to allow crimes to go unpunished. Investigating incidents, taking in criminals, and helping the misguided to repent, Heizou is determined to uphold the law and order granted in Japan during the Edo period.

If you want to enjoy a show about the everyday life of a samurai in Japan when they weren’t busy waging war, then Onihei will satisfy your needs. It’s basically a police procedural with samurai that reflects on its own society and general musings on life. Heizou doesn’t see the world as black as white and is a widely compelling character both to see his views on his society and the human condition and to see how he interacts with the other well-developed characters he encounters and analyzes. Onihei is about as straightforward a samurai show as you can get, and you’re missing out if you haven’t checked this well-written series out.

During the Edo period, there is one group of people capable of saving the people of Japan from invading giant insects: the Insect Magistrate Office. Composed of the finest warriors in Japan, it’s the responsibility of the warriors of the IMO to exterminate the monstrous bugs that plague their land. Jinbee Tsukishima is an aspiring swordsman who joins the Insect Magistrate Office after an accident prevents his father from doing the same and he hopes to play a part in the extermination of insects from Japan.

Mushibugyo props up a ragtag group of samurai, ninja, and priests against giant insects and it’s a complete load of fun. Aside from the general idea of giant bugs being outright disgusting, it’s hard not to enjoy the awesomeness of samurai going head to head with what basically amounts to kaiju. The characters and action carry the outlandish but straightforward plot, and ultimately it lives up to the samurai spirit of protecting Japan against invading forces even if, in this case, they are giant bugs.

Tetsunosuke and Tatsunosuke Ichimura’s parents were murdered by Chosu rebels, a pro-imperial group. While Tetsunosuke is determined to avenge his parents, his older brother is content to live a life free of violence. All that said, Tatsunosuke happens to become the accountant for the Shinsengumi, the legendary samurai group Tetsunosuke happens to want to join to achieve his vengeance. Tetsunosuke ends up joining the Shinsengumi as a page but will quickly discover the price of being a member of the group.

The most famous samurai are undoubtedly the Shinsengumi, a group of samurai tasked with preventing revolutionaries seeking to re-establish the emperor as the true seat of power in Japan. Peace Maker Kurogane depicts all the popular historical members of the Shinsengumi and is truthful to the grey-morality of the conflict between the revolutionaries and those seeking to uphold the shogunate. The main attraction is the development of Tetsunosuke, who matures from a bratty and loud 15-year-old into one of the finest swordsmen in Japan.

Jubei Kibagami is a samurai disenchanted with the politics of feudal Japan. He’s a swordsman-for-hire but finds himself embroiled in the political webs of his country once again when he saves Kagero, last ninja of their clan, from a man with skin-hardening powers. He’s blackmailed with an antidote into helping Kagero figure out the connection between a village-killing plague and the skin-hardening man after he’s poisoned by a government spy. Jubei will find himself pulled in deeper into the political web with every discovery he makes.

It’s hard not to enjoy seeing Jubei, a lone samurai, being a one-man army against a faction of superpowered ninja. That isn’t to discredit Kagero, the poison-testing ninja he teams up with, or Dakuan, the old and clever government spy who helps Jubei out in key moments and even save him from grizzly fates on more than one occasion. Ninja Scroll is a grim tale combining violence, sex, and tragedy to make for a thrilling story.

It’s the Meiji period and the emperor has been restored. As a result, swords are now being banned from Japan and that’s the final nail in the era of samurai, at least for those who don’t rebel. A combination of rebelling samurai, rising crime because of the lack of samurai to enforce the law, and prisons overflowing with those criminals who are caught has made the early part of the Meiji period rather tumultuous. A giant prison is built to accommodate the many criminals and three brothers called Tenka, Soramaru, and Chutaro have the responsibility of ferrying them across the lake and into the prison. There’s more to the job than they expect, the prison is situated where a legendary creature is said to appear every 300 years, and many factions want their hands on it.

Laughing Under the Clouds is set during the downfall of the samurai, but don’t let that fool you, there’s plenty of sword-wielding samurai in this one. The best part of Laughing Under the Clouds is the family dynamic between the three brothers; Tenka, the eldest, feels like he has a responsibility to protect his younger brothers, Soramaru is desperate to catch up to Tenka in skills, and Chutaro outright idolizes his eldest brother. They may be the main focus of the show, but Laughing Under the Clouds also has many other family dynamics in play that make for a show full of interesting relationships.

Afro Samurai’s father was the number one samurai in the world until he was killed by the only man capable of challenging him, the number two samurai Justice. Years later, he has obtained the status of the only man capable of challenging Justice, he is now the number two samurai. Of course, while he wants to get his redemption as soon as possible, he now must contend with the fact that every other samurai can challenge the number two and will be desperate to take that mantle for themselves. Juggling overcoming every other samurai while pursuing Justice will push Afro Samurai as far as he can go.

Surprisingly, Afro Samurai isn’t the only anime to have thought of combining samurai with hip-hop culture, but it seems to be a match made in heaven because it produced another tremendous series. This short series is particularly delightful if you watch it in English thanks to Samuel L. Jackson lending his voice to the titular Afro. It’s a straightforward revenge tale, but stick around for the hip-hop aesthetic and the great fights.

The two legendary ninja clans Iga and Kouga have finally entered an era of peace thanks to the order of the Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa. This temporary peace has an opportunity to become permanent when the heirs to the respective clans fall in love and plan on marrying. Unfortunately, a conflict with the successor of the title of shogun causes Ieyasu Tokugawa to engage the Iga and Kouga clan in a battle royale with each clan representing one of their heirs. The clans will pick 10 of their best warriors to compete, and the winning clan will gain the favor of the winning shogunate. The heirs of the clans, Gennosuke Kouga and Oboro Iga, will have the challenging decision to decide between clan loyalty and personal love.

Basilisk puts a new spin on the classic rivalry between the two legendary ninja clans Iga and Kouga, with a Shakespearean star-crossed lovers tale under the narrative push of a battle royal. The stakes are high from the very first episode combining a tragic love story with the thrilling fast-paced action of the last man standing tale. You aren’t likely to find a lot of anime that will mix these two elements and somehow excel at both, and part of that might just be because you’ll quickly find all the characters embroiled in this conflict extremely compelling.

The Mutsu family is legendary for practicing a unique unarmed martial art called the Mutsu Enmei-Ryu. Throughout history, the Mutsu family has been involved with many historical figures and have fought many great warriors but managed to remain undefeated. Time of Shura is the story of the fighters of the Mutsu family and their adventures.

Time of Shura picks up heavily from Japanese history and has plenty of historical figures like Musashi Miyamoto, the Shinsengumi, the Tokugawa shogunate, and many more. In a show full of samurai, it’s the Mutsu family’s unique unarmed fighting style that stands out the most. There’s a thrill in seeing the members of the Mutsu family go swordless against some of the most formidable samurai ever and come out victorious, as well as seeing the sort of influence and impact this fictional family has had on real-life iconic figures.

Toyohisa Shimazu was on the brink of death when he woke up in a room full of doors. He is sent through one of these doors and emerges in an alternate fantasy world. There, he meets other historical figures like the legendary warlord Oda Nobunaga and the archer Yoichi Suketaka Nasu. They are Drifters and must work together to combat the Ends, historical figures with evil ambitions for the world they now all live in.

Drifters grabs iconic warriors from across history and tosses them in a fantasy setting with elves, dwarves, giants, dragons and basically any European traditional fantasy race you can think of and lets them hash it out in an epic war. The show doesn’t let off either, it seems there’s another epic figure brought in every episode to up the stakes. If the premise of seeing our world’s greatest warriors wield fantasy armies against each other doesn’t excite you then I’m not sure what will.