I found that discussion here is way better than the discussion in the shinkenger thread itself.
Anyway, speaking of 'samurai theme', what kind of thing actually you people are looking for? I thought shinkenger served the theme enough (not to mention the heavy Japanese culture being used here), samurai is about loyalty and way of sword. It may not show the best swordplay ever, but for a kid show, the way the sword fight choreographed is very entertaining for me.
And for me, Takeru's line in ep 47 was one of the best line ever. Samurai is all about honor. And 'lie' is not virtuable, even though it's done for the greater good.
"sonna uso no ue de nani wo shitatte hontouni wa naranai"
I am personally looking for philosophies from Miyamoto Musashi applied in the show, from the Book of the Five Rings (since they are already using the concept of elements, but a different set), where the way of the sword doesn't necessarily need to be a violent one. They didn't do that, which was I guess forgivable for me since I know its too deep for a kid's show and you asked what we were looking for.
The one I was looking for which can be applied was the historical accuracy at least, using weapons based from the Heian-Sengoku period, and not using a bazooka / shotgun. They could have used a musket-like gun instead IMHO. I was also expecting their power-up to incorporate samurai armor instead of a simple coat. Plus their animal-discs really bothered me since I don't remember discs being used by samurai ever, though I guess that is just their modern touch, but it really could have been better.
Concept-wise, they could have focused more on Bushido in the middle of the series which was just filled with fillers, focusing on their willingness to die for their lord and to take their own life in case they are shamed (yeah the seppuku bit was probably removed due to this being a kid's show). I probably watched way too much traditional samurai classic flicks from Kurosawa that seeing the Shinkengers didn't really make me see them as samurai even though they wield swords and they do show loyalty, but being a samurai is more to having swordplay and being loyal, it's about being ready to offer your life and being honorable, at least I got to see some of that by the end of the series.
The bottom-line is, there was too much filler-episodes in the middle, too much Origami which made some just reappear again only for the final gattai (not to mention the clusterfuck that is Samurai Ha-Oh), and too much modern touches that it overshadows the historical context of being a samurai which is of course now just a part of the past in reality. The show really had potential, they could have done a lot of things which would justify being a samurai than merely having swordplay and loyalty, I mean if they missed the opportunity to explore on those context that I mentioned, when else would they use them right? Overall, I did like the show, but it wasn't the best and I wouldn't call it an awesome series.
