For whatever reason, this didn't seem to go over very well and the 'Aram Shada' story idea was scrapped.
Still wanting to have a new anime to broadcast on TV and not wanting to let all of this hard work go to waste, the crew tried again.
This time, with the story's tentative / temporary place holder title being
(thanks to damadraws from Reddit for help figuring this out)
"若騎伝ゴーユーV" or "Waka Kiden Gouyou V"
This translates to
若: Young
騎: Horseman, most often used in the word 騎士 (kishi), "knight"
伝: Legend
ゴーユー : It's probably written in katakana for an English-sounding second half of the title.
The word is read "gouyuu", and there are couple different words that's read that way:
豪遊: Living merrily, in an upbeat way
豪勇: Bravery, heroic prowess
So there are a couple different ways this could be translated to English.
Legend of the Brave Young Horsemen V
Legend of the 5 Brave Young Horsemen
The 5 Brave, Legendary Young Riders
etc.
You get the idea. (For the sake of ease I'll be writing it as 'Waka Kiden Gouyou V'.)
There was time spent trying to figure out what "looked" and "felt" right for the characters. This is where we get to see the early draft character art pages from the book Kaitai Shinshou.
This lets us see the fine tuning process.
Some things changed a lot from Aram Shada. Some things were completely thrown away to never be used. Some things were changed only a little bit. All to bring us the earliest look at the Yoroiden Samurai Troopers we all know and love today.
First up (just because) are The 4 Tennou / The 4 Mashou.
(Just so you know, I'm still using both because in a couple of the official YST books they jump between calling them the Tennou and the Mashou.
Why did they do this? I honestly have no idea. What I'm writing here is my own guess. Since I have no idea who worked on these books and why they chose the wording they did, there's no way I can know for a fact.
The feeling I get is that the books that include calling them the Tennou is that before the Shinjuku 1988 invasion, these boys were called the Tennou. When they began Arago's invasion, that's when they were called the Mashou.
When it comes to the extremely few books I've seen including these, the only thing I can guess is that they were made VERY early on during YST being broadcast on TV. And the person who was in charge of writing out the Mashou information had access to sketches that had them labeled as Tennou in one instance and Mashou in another instance. So the person probably shrugged and went 'fine, I'll include both terms, then'.
I could go into such a ramble session on this one detail, but I won't. This page is going to be long enough the way it is without me going on a tangent.)
From the book Kaitai Shinshou, "In the initial plot of "Go-Yu V," the 4 Tennou (the 4 Heavenly Kings) was referred to as "Toratoru" (stubborn), "Bakurai" (depth charge), "You" (attractive / bewitching / calamity), and "Masamune.""
(I'm not going to try and get into all the possible meanings for 'Masamune' 正宗 まさむね, but for the sake of this, and since I know some out there, like me, are curious as to what it translates to, here are the meaning for the kanji.
正 - masa - correct, justice, righteous
宗 - mune - religion, sect, denomination, main point, origin, essence
Make of that what you will.)
We're not given which of the 4 Tennou got which name, so it's anyone's guess.
"As the project progressed, it seems that there was a time when Shuten Doji was set apart from the 4 Mashou.
The rough sketch shown here is the fifth draft, and is based on a draft by Akihiro Kanayama."
These pictures show the progression from 'early design' to 'final version'.
Shuten Doji
Naaza
Rajura
Anubisu
(Yes, I know it's SUPPOSE to be written as 'Anubis' but between that being Shuten's English dub name, and me having spelled this boy's name as 'Anubisu', writing down how it's written in katakana, in everything I've been translating for years, I'm not going to change that.)
Kayura
(Because she has a good bit to her character design, these pictures are thumbnailed. Click on these pictures to see the larger versions.)
Although she first appeared well into the second season / latter half of the series, and she wasn't even a thought in the Go-Yu V/ pre-YST time, I wanted to include her here as well since her appearance went through quite a few changes before the final version.
"The design of Kayura, an important character who appears in the second half of the series, was worked out while talking with Director Hamatsu.
Early on, there was some consideration of using a golden color as the base color for the armor she would wear in battle.
The length of the three pieces of her plate on the chest, of the junihitoe (her fancy 12 layered kimono), and the position of the plate when she is in her armor were also examined in detail."
Secondly, The Samurai Troopers.
Ryou Sanada
In the early stage, his name was
タケ丸 - Takemura
真田 - Sanada
14 years old.
This is the first draft of Ryou. Back then, he was called "Takemaru Sanada".
His rounded face gives the impression of him being a character that was superficial, you know, that he was someone who lacked depth or complexity.
This is the main character and his name was Takemaru Sanada.
He is an energetic boy who loves sports and who is also good at soccer.
He is a hot-blooded, fidgety, and charming person who often makes mistakes because he wants to show off.
By the time of the second draft, his name was changed and the balance between boyishness and heroic elements was adjusted.
Touma Hashiba
In the early stage, his name was
シュウ - Shuu or Shu
伊達 - Date
14 years old.
In the first draft image shown on the previous page, he was given the name of "Shu Date,"
(Yes, you read that correctly. That IS what his name was going to be early on.)
a 14 year old son of the president of a trading company. He's a cool guy with a fighting aesthetic.
As of the second draft posted here, the name was changed to "Touma of the Tenku armor".
Seiji Date
In the early stage, his name was
ゲンペイ - Genpei
千石 - Sengoku
14 years old.
His name in this first draft was "Genpei Sengoku" and he's the son of a sushi shop owner.
His image (aka personality or characteristic) was quite different from that of his father, as "Teyandai" and "Beranmei" were his habitual phrases.
(I had trouble figuring this out but... my best guess is that 'Teyandai', as far as I can tell, was something said in a cheerful manner / something said to cheer up someone else without the word itself meaning anything. Was a big deal back in the Edo Period days of Japan.
Beranmei means 'idiot'.)
His armor was also considered to be "Fuuma," a powerful tornado-causing wind demon.
Shin Mouri
In the early stage, his name was
勘兵衛 - Kanbei
羽柴 - Hashiba
(勘兵衛 = かんべえ = Kanbee although the results Google was pulling up was spelling it as 'Kenbei'. So... same difference?)
16 years old.
In the first draft, he goes by the name of "Kanbei / Kanbee Hashiba," and he's the owner of Tenku armor. He's 16 years old, son of a dojo owner, and has excellent motor skills.
In addition, he was considered the military strategist type of character.
While many of the elements were transplanted to other characters, the detail of him being older than the other Troopers was carried over to Shin.
Shuu Rei Faun
In the early stage, his name was
ガン - Gan
リュウ - Ryou
ファン - Fan
12 years old.
The first draft of his name is "Gan Ryu Fan," and he was the youngest of the Troopers at only 12 years old. Therefore, he was considered an untouchable mischief-maker.
He is a foreign student who is good at Kung Fu and came to Japan to learn Kempo.
Nasutei
According to the book Kaitai Shinshou, the look they wanted for Nasutei from Aram Shada is "an older (bewitching / really good looking) woman".
Version [ A ] is drawn in a "modern style" while Version [ B ] was drawn in the "old style".
However, after Aram Shada was scrapped, the Version [ B ] had that 'certain something' they liked.
And this is how we ended up getting the Nasutei we know in Yoroiden Samurai Troopers.
Jun
This is Mr. Shioyama's first draft (from the book Daijiten / Large Encyclopedia).
Jun appears in the proposal from February 1987, which was done at the last period of the project.
This is believed to have been the original version for him. (The first picture to the left.)
