Jayden Shiba

"Samurai Rangers, victory is ours!"

- Jayden

Jayden Shiba is Samurai Ranger Fire, the Red Samurai Ranger in Power Rangers Samurai and Super Samurai. He is the leader of the Samurai Rangers. As Red Ranger, he pilots the Lion Folding Zord and controls the element of fire.

Power of the Samurai
Jayden first appears in "The Team Unites," where he and his fellow rangers fight Rofer. He is seen training with the other Rangers and helping Mike to deal with the fact that he must separate from his friends to keep them safe from the Nighlok; he also is seen giving Mike advice on anticipating an enemy's attack and helping Mike defend himself from Rofer. In "Deal With a Nighlok," Jayden helps defeat Doubletone, but actually takes a bit of a back seat to Kevin and Mia in this episode.

Playing with fire
In "Day Off," Jayden stays at the Shiba House, wanting to master the Beetle Disc, while the other Rangers go to an amusement park. Soon after, he hesitates to use it against Dreadhead, doubting that he has the power to do so. He later uses the Beetle to wield the Fire Smasher's cannon mode, having trained himself to exhaustion the night before, trying to master the disc.

In "Sticks and Stones," Negatron reveals that Jayden is keeping a secret from the other Rangers. In "A Fish Out of Water," Jayden gives Kevin a solo mission to go find Swordfish Zord before it disappears. Then, he and the remaining Rangers try to fight Yamiror, but they are defeated by the nighlok's bad breath. Jayden tries to fight anyway and is nearly defeated until Kevin uses the Swordfish Disc to heal the Rangers and negate the Nighlok's stink power.

Later Adventures
In "There Go the Brides," Jayden and Mia try to find the captured brides by partaking in a mock wedding. Mia and Jayden pretend to be the marrying couple twice, and Mia is taken to Dayu the second time. Dayu knows that she has captured the Pink Ranger, so she forces Mia to lure the others into a trap. The Moogers bring in the real bride, who was actually Emily in disguise. She calls Jayden and tells him the real hideout. The Red, Blue, and Green Rangers created doubles of themselves (and a double for the Yellow Ranger) to the warehouse. The Rangers soon surround Dayu and she is nearly defeated by Jayden's Fire Smasher in Cannon Mode, only to be saved by Deker, who takes Dayu away in the middle of their battle and summons Giant Moogers to keep the Rangers busy.

In "I've Got a Spell on Blue," it starts with Jayden and Kevin in Ranger Form, sparring against each other. While the others praise Kevin, Ji initially thinks it is for Jayden. When Madimot invades the human world, he reveals that he took control of the Tiger Zord in the last battle with the team led by Jayden's father. He soon tries to take control of Mike, but Kevin's mind is taken over instead when he pushes Mike out of the way, and is forced to fight the other Rangers. Jayden uses the resist symbol to prevent Madimot from taking over him, too. After Madimot escapes, he soon reappears with Kevin and threatens to make Kevin strike himself down if Jayden doesn't fight him. Jayden uses the resist symbol power to free Kevin from Madimot's mind control. He then uses the same symbol on the TigerZord, returning the Zord to the Rangers and giving Jayden a new zord in his arsenal.

Upcoming Duel
In "Test of the Leader," part of Jayden's secret is revealed: his father sealed Master Xandred away, but not permanently because he wasn't strong enough and didn't master the symbol; Jayden is the same way so far. After a battle with Robtish in which Kevin and Emily are critically wounded, and Deker soon appearing, knocking Mike and Mia out of the way, Jayden runs away deciding to fight the Nighlok on his own as to not let the others get hurt.

In "Jayden's Challenge," Jayden is seen remembering how the others got hurt as he walks by a park. Seeing a young boy crying, he approaches him. It's revealed that the boy misses his father, something Jayden sympathizes with (it's still debatable whether or not Jayden's dad just simply retired from active duty or died fighting Master Xandred after sealing him). As Jayden creates paper planes for the kids to play with, seeing a future he hopes for with no Nighloks, Robtish returns and Jayden tries to fight him and his moogers. Soon the other Rangers find Jayden and help him defeat Rotish. Afterwards, Jayden realizes the importance of teamwork and soon returns to the Shiba house with the other Rangers.

Enter the Dream World
In "Broken Dreams," Master Xandred sends Rhinosnorus to hunt down Dayu, after she refuses to come back to the Sanzu River to work for him. The Rangers confront the Nighlok as Dayu exists the scene with the musician. The males face off against the Nighlok while the girls follow Dayu. Antonio races the fight. Rhinosnorus takes the opportunity to place Antonio under a sleeping spell. The Nighlok leaps into an interdimensional portal to chase after Dayu. In the forest, the Pink Ranger and Dayu's battle is interrupted by the Nighlok. Master Ji informs Jayden about the Dream Spell - the victims start having beautiful dreams, but Rhinosnorous eats his dreaming victims. The Rangers must enter the Dream World to save everyone from being consumed.

Jayden plans to use his Symbol Power to enter the Dream World. Jayden opens the portal, but is only able to keep it open for a short while, so Kevin and Mike go in. Kevin and Mike force Rhinosnorus out of the dream world and and make him flee back to the Sanzu. Jayden watches as Antonio wakes up. Octoroo sees his opportunity to get Jayden and his Sealing Power. Rhinosnorus grows to his large form which leads to Antonio and Jayden morphing into action. The two Rangers summon the Lion and Claw Zords. The zords face off against the Nighloks and Giant Moogers. After a brief battle, the ClawZord performs its finishing attack to defeat the remaining Moogers.

Jayden and Antonio are tired from the battle and sit to rest. Unfortunately, Deker sees his opportunity to challenge Jayden. Deker confronts Jayden and Antonio when the swarm of Moogers enter the scene. Deker transforms into his Nighlok form and defeats the Moogers. Knowing Jayden is still weak, Antonio tries to stop Deker, but he challenges Jayden to a personal duel. Jayden says that he cannot accept the challenge as he is a samurai who protects the innocent. However, Deker tells Jayden that if he doesn't take the challenge, then he will harm random civilians. With this, Jayden accepts the challenge and is given 24 hours to rest. Deker instructs Jayden to meet at the beach.

Duel with Deker
In the "following episode," The rangers discuss Jayden's duel. Jayden informs his friends about the challenge. Kevin is furious about Jayden's decision and fails to convince him to decline the challenge as a samurai does not fight unnecessary battles. Mia stands up for Jayden and tells them that he doesn't have a choice. A frustrated Jayden leaves the room to end the conversation In the forest, Deker listens to Dayu's crying. He tells Dayu about his challenge, Dayu tells Deker that he should've been free centuries ago. Kevin helps Jayden to train to prepare for his duel against Deker. The rest of the gang drink tea in the dining room.

In the morning, Jayden wakes up and heads outside, where his friends give their blessings. Jayden hands leadership of the Samurai Rangers to Kevin and he also gives Kevin the Tiger and Beetle discs in case they need to form the Megazord. Kevin leads the Rangers into battle as Rhinosnorus begins his attack. The Rangers morph into action to face off against the Nighlok. Jayden meets Deker at the beach and morphs. Red Ranger and Deker face off in the ultimate duel. As the fight ensues, neither is able to gain the upper hand and in a final move, Deker strikes Jayden critically, but Jayden drops the Spin Sword and grabs it with his left hand, landing a slash on Deker. Deker feels honored from his defeat as he falls from the cliff. A injured Jayden demorphs and takes in the fact that he won. At the Shiba House, Jayden, now with a broken arm, thanks Kevin for leading the team as Antonio gets dinner for them.

Super Samurai
In "Super Samurai" Jayden leads the team into battle and Antonio finishes the Black Box, giving the Rangers new Zord combos and a new mode: Super Samurai Mode.

Later Jayden gains the power to summon the SharkZord and BullZord. He also gets the Bullzooka. Along with the bull themed blaster and zord, the guardian of the Bullzord, The Grand Shogun grants the Jayden and the other rangers (except Antonio) power to the ancient Shogun Mode.

After Serrator's demise, Jayden's sister Lauren returns after mastering the Sealing Symbol. With Lauren back, Jayden says there can only be one Red Ranger to lead the team, so he leaves the Shiba House. He traveled to the forest only to duel Deker again. After a long battle Jayden manages to defeat Deker. With Deker defeated, he rejoins the rangers.

Personality
Like his Zord, the lion, Jayden is a dedicated, regal leader. He is a man of few words, but when he speaks, every breath counts. He is kind and caring but knows how to be firm when the time comes. He also has a secret that he must keep from all the other Rangers. He will do anything to keep his friends and the innocent out of harm's way; to this end, he initially refused to allow Antonio to join the team, and even attempted to leave the other Rangers and fight on his own.

As of the Christmas special, Jayden is seen having fun and not being so serious all the time, as when he helped Kevin cover Mike in bows and paper, and hung a couple of ornaments from his ears.

Samurai Ranger Fire, the Red Samurai Ranger
As the Red Ranger, Jayden has access to multiple modes.

Trivia

 * The symbol on his helmet (火) is the kanji for "fire". The two stacked symbols on his Shogun helmet are intended to represent the kanji for "flame"
 * Early scripts listed his name as "Reese." Instead, in the end that name was given to a minor character in The Team Unites.
 * In Sticks and Stones it's implied that Jayden has a secret he's keeping from the others. In Test of the Leader, the secret is revealed to be that Jayden's father sealed Master Xandred in the Netherworld, but not permanently, and that Jayden is the only one able to use the same Sealing Character. However a brief conversation at the end of Jayden's Challenge seems to indicate it may not be the only secret.
 * Including his Mega Modes, Jayden has the second most Ranger forms than any other Power Ranger in existence next to Tommy.
 * On a technical level, however, Tommy had five different Ranger uniforms/colors from across his career. Jayden's various forms are all just different versions of his primary/sole Ranger form.
 * Jayden is the first Power Ranger to share his surname with his Sentai counterpart, Takeru Shiba. It is unclear on exactly how Jayden, his father, and his sister have a Japanese surname while they're Caucasian, though this may be because they are of Japanese descent.
 * It is revealed in Something Fishy that Jayden has a fear of spiders, like Shane from Power Rangers Ninja Storm.
 * Like Mack Hartford, Jayden has a gimmick carried over from his Super Sentai counterpart: out of Ranger form, he is seen stoically slinging his sword over his shoulder.
 * He was the first Samurai Ranger to use the Shogun Mode.