areaseven Posted July 10, 2004 Posted July 10, 2004 (edited) Samurai 7 GONZO Digimation/Animax/Sony Pictures Entertainment, 2004-2005 FUNimation, 2005 Directed by Toshifumi Takizawa (Crusher Joe, Dirty Pair: Flight 005 Conspiracy) Rated 13+ for graphic violence, mature situations and strong language. Based on the late Akira Kurosawa's 1954 epic The Seven Samurai. In the distant future, bandits continue to harass villagers into taking their crops within every harvesting season. One village vows to defy the bandits by hiring samurai and repaying them with all the rice they have. Kirara, Komachi and Rikichi travel to the city to find the noble warriors for their cause and bring them back to the village. Story: A- If you've seen The Seven Samurai, you will notice that Samurai 7 has the same story structure. The major twist is that it takes place in an alternate future. The series does a good job in putting in some decent action while keeping the plot intact. So far, three of the seven samurai have been identified on episode 1: Kanbei (the lone warrior with no future), Katsushiro (the young swordsman willing to help) and Kikuchiyo (the somewhat unreliable robot). I'll look forward to seeing the other four in the next few episodes. Animation: A+ Damn...GONZO tries to outdo Macross Zero with some serious mecha action on the opening scene. As with GONZO's other works, the 3D animation is outstanding while the 2D scenes - while not Last Exile material - is remarkably good. Character designs by Takuhito Kusanagi (Blue Submarine No. 6) and Hideki Hashimoto. Mechanical designs by Makoto Kobayashi (Giant Robo, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam). Soundtrack: A+ Kaoru Wada (Ninja Scroll, Battle Angel) and Eitetsu Hayashi (The Dagger of Kamui) deliver an excellent soundtrack that incorporates traditional Japanese instruments. That and some great opening and ending themes by Nanase Aikawa (Inu-Yasha, Kamen Rider Blade) and Rin. Cast Samurai 7 features Masaki Terasoma as Kanbei, Kong Kuwata as Kikuchiyo, Romi Paku (Edward in Fullmetal Alchemist, Katie in Macross Zero) as Katsushiro, Toru Kusano as Shichirouji, Junji Inukai as Heihachi, Tetsu Inada (Harry in Turn-A Gundam) as Gorobei, Shinichiro Miki (Allen in Escaflowne, Kurz in Full Metal Panic! as Kyuzo, Fumiko Orikasa (Chise in Saikano, Pacifica in Scrapped Princess) as Kirara, Chiwa Saito (Anita in R.O.D -The TV-, Lavie in Last Exile) as Komachi, Tadahisa Saizen as Rikichi, and Takehito Koyasu (Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Gamlin in Macross 7) as Ukyo. The Bottom Line GONZO takes a Kurosawa classic and takes it to a new level with Samurai 7. Links Official Samurai 7 Homepage (Japanese) Animax's Official Samurai 7 Homepage (Japanese) Reference Anime News Network Edited October 6, 2004 by areaseven Quote
Wes Posted July 11, 2004 Posted July 11, 2004 How can i get ahold of The Seven Samurai? Is it any good? Quote
areaseven Posted July 12, 2004 Author Posted July 12, 2004 How can i get ahold of The Seven Samurai? Is it any good? Like every Kurosawa film, The Seven Samurai is a masterpiece. The Criterion DVD should be available at Best Buy, Suncoast or any major video store. Quote
BoBe-Patt Posted July 12, 2004 Posted July 12, 2004 so wait, is this a series or a one shot movie? Quote
sJorrit Posted July 12, 2004 Posted July 12, 2004 it's a serie, I've seen the first 4 episodes and I liked it! the mech thinks in it are pretty cool to.. Quote
Aegis! Posted July 12, 2004 Posted July 12, 2004 it's a serie, I've seen the first 4 episodes and I liked it! the mech thinks in it are pretty cool to.. It has Mechas ? Kurosawa+anime+mechas = mmmmm...interesting. The design looks awesome , I´ll have to check it out. Can´t be that bad hopefully Quote
wolfx Posted July 13, 2004 Posted July 13, 2004 it's a serie, I've seen the first 4 episodes and I liked it! the mech thinks in it are pretty cool to.. It has Mechas ? Kurosawa+anime+mechas = mmmmm...interesting. The design looks awesome , I´ll have to check it out. Can´t be that bad hopefully Anything done by GONZO has 80% chance of turning sour by the last few eps of a show. Quote
Aegis! Posted July 13, 2004 Posted July 13, 2004 it's a serie, I've seen the first 4 episodes and I liked it! the mech thinks in it are pretty cool to.. It has Mechas ? Kurosawa+anime+mechas = mmmmm...interesting. The design looks awesome , I´ll have to check it out. Can´t be that bad hopefully Anything done by GONZO has 80% chance of turning sour by the last few eps of a show. Yeah I´ve noticed that trend but if they follow the original story closely then there´s nothing to worry about .......mmmm...wait a sec....THEY HAVEN¨T ! Gues that means this series will be a hit-or-miss kinda series as well (hopefully not) Quote
JELEINEN Posted July 13, 2004 Posted July 13, 2004 I've liked it so far (through ep. 4). I know a lot of people are probably ready to dismiss because it's a cover of a classic film, but it's such a different medium and setting, it comes through more as a homage than a remake. That and people should keep in mind that Seven Samurai has been remade several times already with varying degrees of success (Magnificent 7, Battle Beyond the Stars, and Three Amigos all come to mind). I'm not a Gonzo fan, but they've put out some decent stuff lately (and a lot of crap too) like Gantz and Last Exile. Quote
BlueMax Posted August 19, 2004 Posted August 19, 2004 I just watched the 7th and 8th episodes, and regarding the "shikibirimoto" people (or whatever they are), are they some reference to some real life groups of people, juts like the we need to know a little bit of Japanese folklore to know what is "Momotaro"? Quote
Graham Posted August 19, 2004 Posted August 19, 2004 Looks interesting. Think I'll check it out. Graham Quote
sJorrit Posted August 19, 2004 Posted August 19, 2004 I've seen epi 8 and if those mecha come as models in a 1/100 scale, the would be bigger then gundams Where's bandai Quote
Mellow Yellow Posted August 19, 2004 Posted August 19, 2004 Man, the animation for ep 7 was piss poor. Thank god it's back to normal in ep 8. Quote
BlueMax Posted August 19, 2004 Posted August 19, 2004 Man, the animation for ep 7 was piss poor. Thank god it's back to normal in ep 8. Yes, I totally agree..... seriously couldn't believe how they hit rock bottom... Quote
That NOS Guy Posted August 20, 2004 Posted August 20, 2004 Just exactly how many episodes are there? Being fansubbed right now. Quote
Yohsho Posted August 20, 2004 Posted August 20, 2004 Let's see, I think there are 8 fansubbed right now, and for how many there will be... Let's say 28 eps? Quote
areaseven Posted November 19, 2004 Author Posted November 19, 2004 Now that FUNimation has the rights to Samurai 7, is anyone still fansubbing the series? Quote
Project Phoenix Posted November 19, 2004 Posted November 19, 2004 I found up to Ep.15 in www.torrentbox.com ever since it was licensed. It's in Xvid format though. It seems that somebody is still fansubbing it. Quote
JELEINEN Posted November 20, 2004 Posted November 20, 2004 An enteresting thing I noticed about the anime is that they're keeping a lot of the dialog from the movie, but the context around the dialog has changed. For instance, the cyborg gives Mifune's character's speach on peasants almost word for word, near as I can tell. But, since they changed the events that lead up to that speach, it loses a lot of its meaning, and in fact doesn't make any sense at points. Quote
Sarensaas Posted November 20, 2004 Posted November 20, 2004 Any place on the web that shows more mecha or art from this? Couldn't find anything of the official website or Google. Quote
lord_breetai Posted November 20, 2004 Posted November 20, 2004 I really like this series I've only seen up to 16 though... I like the original movie more though. Quote
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