Scorch
Explorer
Samurai 7 Review
by Scorch
Depending upon how you look at it the new TV series Samurai 7 is a cool homage to the original movie from Akira Kurosawa or blasphemy of a cinema classic. Personally I am fully in the cool homage camp. How can you go wrong with samurai, robots, and samurai robots… IN SPACE!
For those of you not familiar with the original movie “Seven Samurai” was directed by the late, great Akira Kurosawa. It was released in 1954 and starred probably one of the best Japanese screen actors ever, Toshiro Mifune. In brief it was a story about a Japanese village plagued by bandits. They decide to pool their only resource, rice, and hire master-less samurai (or ronin) to come protect their village and fight off the bandits. The samurai they get are an odd mix, each with his own story. They do not get a warm welcome since the villagers are just afraid of them as they are of the bandits. What follows is a great story about them winning over the villagers and confronting their own pasts while defeating the bandits. This was such a great story that it has been imitated many times since. The two examples that stand out the most are “The Magnificent Seven” (gunslingers protecting a Mexican village in the Old West) and “A Bug’s Life” (CGI insects protecting a colony of ants from a gang of locusts).
Some legal hurdle must have been cleared in Japan since in the past two years we have had two of Kurosawa’s works animated into TV series. The other one being “Kaze no Yojimbo” based on “Yojimbo” (bodyguard in Japanese).
Getting into the TV series itself: the story follows the overall movie plot. The TV show opens up in a future modeled after the warring states period of Japan. A decisive battle in low planetary orbit has massive battleships and battle suits clashing against one another. General Kambei and his faithful pilot, Shichiroji, fight a read guard action as the tide turns against their side. They make a charge against the enemy flagship, fade to black, and we turn the clock ahead several years.
The war is long over and the samurai of both sides find themselves to be a fifth wheel in society. Some of them wander around looking for work, hiring themselves out as bodyguards, entertainers, or assassins. Others turn to banditry, especially those who have had traded their bodies in for war machines. One such bandit band has set its eyes on Kanna village, swooping in every harvest and taking all the rice and only leaving enough for the villagers to survive. Finally getting fed up with the situation, the village elder decides to send out the village priestess, Kirara, to the city hoping that her dowsing abilities will lead her to those who can help her. Attending her on her journey is Rikichi, a farmer who lost his wife to the bandits, and the obligatory cute kid, Komachi.
In the city they find a plague of starving samurai who are willing to take a free meal from the villagers, listen to their story, and then refuse to help them. They are not there for more than a few hours before they are robbed of their bale of rice. Fortunately the thief is stopped by their first recruit, Katsushiro, a young man who has taken up the way of the sword to discipline himself. Kirara’s dowsing abilities lead them to two others. The first is the braggart, Kikuchiyo, a cyborg encased in giant red armor. He is the type who would rather come out sword swinging first. (His brash attitude and tendency to have his head and limbs lopped off had me referring to him as “Bender”). The second is General Kambei, now without his army, just a wandering samurai trying to get by.
In the first seven episodes we are introduced to the other samurai. Gorobei is a samurai turned street performer who will let people shoot arrows at him for the price of a meal (did I mention he is REALLY good at dodging and catching). Heihachi admits he is terrible at sword play but is an expert sapper (siege engineer). Shichiroji, having lost his arm in the war, shows up and joins at the request of his former general. Finally there is Kyuzo, a bodyguard/assassin for the local corrupt government who decides he wants to give up his bloody life and atone for past sins.
As the series progresses our heroes become entangled in local politics as the son of the merchant lord running the city takes a liking to Kirara. Then there are the Guardians, a guild of cyborgs who have a monopoly on the power cells that everyone needs to run their machinery. Finally there is a murder mystery as to who killed an envoy from the Emperor. All this before our heroes get their full complement of samurai and are able to actually leave the city to journey back to the village.
As in the original movie the real fun of this story is watching the interaction between the characters and watching their stories unfold. Young Katsushiro latches onto Kambei as his teacher and in traditional sensei/student manner the general at first refuses but also does not actively discourage Katsushiro from hanging around and benefiting from the general’s wisdom. Brash Kikuchiyo tries a little bit too hard to convince the others that he is a samurai. Shichiroji has to decide between giving up his (relatively) peaceful life as a bouncer at a house of entertainment. Kyuzo decides to betray his former employer in order to fight for a cause though he uses the slim pretense that he wants to be around to kill Kambei after the battle is over. A romance begins to bud between Kirara and Katsushiro that both vehemently deny whenever someone brings it up. Even Rikichi has his moments when he reveals the circumstances as to why his wife was taken by the bandits.
That is not to say there is no action in the show. We get plenty of sword play in the old chambara style of Asian story telling. Don’t expect realism as we see samurai taking down giant robots and chopping anti-tank rounds in half before they strike their target. Studio Gonzo; the animation studio begin Vandread, Gantz, and Blue Sub #6; provides some fantastic animation and CGI effects.
I am not sure if anyone has agreed to distribute the show her in America yet and it will be a while before it comes to our shores since it is still airing on Japanese television. I have only seen the first ten episodes fan subtitled but I am hooked and will be riding the bit torrents to get each new episode that comes out. When it hits American shores I will gladly pick up the DVDs. If you wish to see images from the show go to the official web page at:
http://www.samurai-7.com/index.html
It is in Japanese but the Flash menus are easy to navigate through.
Scorch
by Scorch
Depending upon how you look at it the new TV series Samurai 7 is a cool homage to the original movie from Akira Kurosawa or blasphemy of a cinema classic. Personally I am fully in the cool homage camp. How can you go wrong with samurai, robots, and samurai robots… IN SPACE!
For those of you not familiar with the original movie “Seven Samurai” was directed by the late, great Akira Kurosawa. It was released in 1954 and starred probably one of the best Japanese screen actors ever, Toshiro Mifune. In brief it was a story about a Japanese village plagued by bandits. They decide to pool their only resource, rice, and hire master-less samurai (or ronin) to come protect their village and fight off the bandits. The samurai they get are an odd mix, each with his own story. They do not get a warm welcome since the villagers are just afraid of them as they are of the bandits. What follows is a great story about them winning over the villagers and confronting their own pasts while defeating the bandits. This was such a great story that it has been imitated many times since. The two examples that stand out the most are “The Magnificent Seven” (gunslingers protecting a Mexican village in the Old West) and “A Bug’s Life” (CGI insects protecting a colony of ants from a gang of locusts).
Some legal hurdle must have been cleared in Japan since in the past two years we have had two of Kurosawa’s works animated into TV series. The other one being “Kaze no Yojimbo” based on “Yojimbo” (bodyguard in Japanese).
Getting into the TV series itself: the story follows the overall movie plot. The TV show opens up in a future modeled after the warring states period of Japan. A decisive battle in low planetary orbit has massive battleships and battle suits clashing against one another. General Kambei and his faithful pilot, Shichiroji, fight a read guard action as the tide turns against their side. They make a charge against the enemy flagship, fade to black, and we turn the clock ahead several years.
The war is long over and the samurai of both sides find themselves to be a fifth wheel in society. Some of them wander around looking for work, hiring themselves out as bodyguards, entertainers, or assassins. Others turn to banditry, especially those who have had traded their bodies in for war machines. One such bandit band has set its eyes on Kanna village, swooping in every harvest and taking all the rice and only leaving enough for the villagers to survive. Finally getting fed up with the situation, the village elder decides to send out the village priestess, Kirara, to the city hoping that her dowsing abilities will lead her to those who can help her. Attending her on her journey is Rikichi, a farmer who lost his wife to the bandits, and the obligatory cute kid, Komachi.
In the city they find a plague of starving samurai who are willing to take a free meal from the villagers, listen to their story, and then refuse to help them. They are not there for more than a few hours before they are robbed of their bale of rice. Fortunately the thief is stopped by their first recruit, Katsushiro, a young man who has taken up the way of the sword to discipline himself. Kirara’s dowsing abilities lead them to two others. The first is the braggart, Kikuchiyo, a cyborg encased in giant red armor. He is the type who would rather come out sword swinging first. (His brash attitude and tendency to have his head and limbs lopped off had me referring to him as “Bender”). The second is General Kambei, now without his army, just a wandering samurai trying to get by.
In the first seven episodes we are introduced to the other samurai. Gorobei is a samurai turned street performer who will let people shoot arrows at him for the price of a meal (did I mention he is REALLY good at dodging and catching). Heihachi admits he is terrible at sword play but is an expert sapper (siege engineer). Shichiroji, having lost his arm in the war, shows up and joins at the request of his former general. Finally there is Kyuzo, a bodyguard/assassin for the local corrupt government who decides he wants to give up his bloody life and atone for past sins.
As the series progresses our heroes become entangled in local politics as the son of the merchant lord running the city takes a liking to Kirara. Then there are the Guardians, a guild of cyborgs who have a monopoly on the power cells that everyone needs to run their machinery. Finally there is a murder mystery as to who killed an envoy from the Emperor. All this before our heroes get their full complement of samurai and are able to actually leave the city to journey back to the village.
As in the original movie the real fun of this story is watching the interaction between the characters and watching their stories unfold. Young Katsushiro latches onto Kambei as his teacher and in traditional sensei/student manner the general at first refuses but also does not actively discourage Katsushiro from hanging around and benefiting from the general’s wisdom. Brash Kikuchiyo tries a little bit too hard to convince the others that he is a samurai. Shichiroji has to decide between giving up his (relatively) peaceful life as a bouncer at a house of entertainment. Kyuzo decides to betray his former employer in order to fight for a cause though he uses the slim pretense that he wants to be around to kill Kambei after the battle is over. A romance begins to bud between Kirara and Katsushiro that both vehemently deny whenever someone brings it up. Even Rikichi has his moments when he reveals the circumstances as to why his wife was taken by the bandits.
That is not to say there is no action in the show. We get plenty of sword play in the old chambara style of Asian story telling. Don’t expect realism as we see samurai taking down giant robots and chopping anti-tank rounds in half before they strike their target. Studio Gonzo; the animation studio begin Vandread, Gantz, and Blue Sub #6; provides some fantastic animation and CGI effects.
I am not sure if anyone has agreed to distribute the show her in America yet and it will be a while before it comes to our shores since it is still airing on Japanese television. I have only seen the first ten episodes fan subtitled but I am hooked and will be riding the bit torrents to get each new episode that comes out. When it hits American shores I will gladly pick up the DVDs. If you wish to see images from the show go to the official web page at:
http://www.samurai-7.com/index.html
It is in Japanese but the Flash menus are easy to navigate through.
Scorch
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