Samurai 7

Three things. One, I'm a really big fan of periodic adventures. Two, I am a huge fan of the Akira Kurosawa directed Seven Samurai film, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. And three, I absolutely hate Gonzo. They are the ones solely responsible for not only killing my overall interest in anime in general due to their insipid storytelling, joyless, mean-spirited and bitter characters, and their garish, irritating art style and visual effects that tries to be nuanced and cutting edge, but they have set the bar low for what made anime so unique during its biggest point here in the ... United States in the late 90's to roughly 2006. After they caught recognition for Last Exile, Gonzo's ego and confidence skyrocketed, and in my opinion, every succeeding title got worse in all of the aforementioned points. Samurai 7, while I don't think is their worst, is still probably one of the most offensive revisionist storytellers (though not as stupid and banal as making The Count of Monte Cristo into a damn blue vampire in Gankutsuo) they decided to put their grubby mitts all over.

STORY 6: In this degree, it follows the original source material well enough and is probably the most positive thing I will say about it. The only addition is the water priestess, Kirara, a water priestess from the Kanna Village, has taken it upon herself to search for ronin to save their town. It's pretty well-paced, I'll give it that. Perhaps if the main cast was represented in a more competent fashion, this could've been an even stronger plus. There is an even amount of focus from the heroes to the antagonist, Ukyo. The plight is pretty well laid out, what with the looming empire's reign stretching far throughout the continent. I really did like Ukyo's gradual rise to usurp the throne from his adoptive father, that was probably my favorite part of the show. more on him later. A shame that I could not take this empire seriously, because I am so distracted by the goofy-looking technology. Which leads me to the art and character designs.

ART 4: Gonzo's signature art style and atmosphere just kills everything for me, and Samurai 7 was the title that I finally just got fed up with it. I won't even get to the character designs yet and just rant for a bit about this show's setting. I know that as a director and production crew, you want to try something different as opposed to just giving everyone more of the same. But with a story that is so enriched with drama and impact, why in the holy mother of grilled cheese would you integrate a steampunk-inspired, futuristic dystopia complete with flying samurai hover units!?!? I could write a book about just how silly this looks and no matter how much I tried, I sputtered everytime one of these mechanical, armor-enforced teapots clumsily loomed into frame!! The CGI animation is not as bad as it was with Blassreiter (made years after Samurai 7), it's just distracting this time around, especially during the final episodes where a bunch of stuff comes crashing down. It's possible to mold two different settings into a new hybrid. Saber Marionette J does it well enough. Perhaps it is such a stark contrast to go from industrialized chaos to serene rice fields, the only reason to bully around the farm folk is just to be a jerk with too much time on your hands.
The character designs border on being alright to absolutely silly in regards to our main seven characters. Only Kambei, Shichiroji, Kikuchiyo and Katsushiro visibly resembled samurai while Gorobei, Heihachi, and Kyuzou's wardrobes and hairstyles looked like a cocktail mix of from Trigun, Last Exile, and Cowboy Bebop drank and vomited up all over my screen. And what the hell was up with Kyuzou's hair!? Was he supposed to look like an intimidating toadstool?
SOUND 6: The English dub of the show is pretty good (I don't often say that about Funimation dubbed titles) and the musical scores throughout are well done. Chris Sabat shines the brightest as Kikuchiyo as the character ranges from rambunctious in some episodes to anger and frustration in the series' darker periods. The other VAs, as said before, are good, but seldom stand out.
CHARACTERS 4: To avoid going into yet another lengthy tirade, I'll try and keep this one to the point of the good and the bad:
THE GOOD: I really liked Ukyo, as also said earlier, and felt he was a strong antagonist for the series. Instead of just acting strictly out of angst towards his origins, it felt deeper and more twisted the more he spoke. Almost Tim Burton-esque, Ukyo also proved to be even more of a chaotic threat than his father, who wasn't quite as ruthless.
And as for the Seven, Katsushiro stood out as he gradually became more of a seasoned warrior, growing up from the untested and almost childlike idolization of samurai at the beginning. I also enjoyed Kirara's little sister Kamachi quite a bit and was sad when next episode bumpers were no longer done by her writing letters about the unfolding events.
THE BAD: Kambei and Kirara were the most annoying characters in this show for me, which is ironic. Let us start at the begininng when Kirara is recruiting samurai and Kambei tells her he's a failed samurai. So what does she do? HIRES HIM!! Kirara is simply thrown in the show to have a female lead. Nothing she does has any bearing on the plot whatsoever and her presence only serves as cheap romantic fodder between her, Kambei, and Katsushiro. It's underdeveloped and uninteresting, to say the least. Kambei is one of the more ineffective leaders I've seen since Rodimus Prime. He lacks screen presence, is way too stoic to have a pulse much less a decent personality, serves as a poor mentor for the young Katsushiro and often gives the kid mixed messages and treats him like garbage.
Kikuchiyo was the only other expressive character off the top of my head. Shichiroji mostly provided punchy one-liners and traded philosophical nuggets with Kambei, but nothing else noteworthy later on. Heihachi seemed to be the ONLY character who lived by a bushido/samurai code (you know, like death to traitors), but was overruled by the worngfully arrogant Kambei, who at two points in this series shows mercy to people aiding in the destruction of the Kanna Village or treason!! What kind of crappy samurai is this guy?! No wonder you lost the war!! Gorobei was also there and he was the token weird character that was supposed to be the life of the group, but I found him unpleasant and his attempts at humor just left me annoyed.
OVERALL ENJOYMENT 5: Even if I take my bias aside, Samurai 7 is just barely mediocore and is just another one of the bloated, overproduced Gonzo titles that flooded this market way too much. I found it watchable, and the story was well enough for me to get through, but awful lead characters like Kambei and Kirara are major setbacks in my humble opinion. Gonzo's art continues to be my biggest gripe with this company. I just could not sink my teeth into the futuristic/rustic setting of a story that didn't need such asthetic enchancements when it needed to simply rely on solid writing and character building to set the mood, not god-awful quasi-technology. Samurai 7 was the beginning of the end for me and my personal relationship with newer anime titles that would be bookended by Casshern Sins years later and watching so many Gonzo titles in such succession, hoping for something tolerable has left me in the callous-covered, bitter husk of a man that I am today. I'm still sad that they are producing the anime cut scenes for BlazBlue, that just pisses me off, I hate it!!! Have a nice day

The original reason why I fancy anime is because I simply love the action and the fighting sequence. Don't get me wrong, I am not a sadist or even a masochist it's just that I fancy the animation as well as the realism of it. In fact that's the reason why I really enjoy SAMURAI 7. I daresay, for those who haven't watched this anime, they might assume that this is an ordinary samurai themed anime. Well you are in for a big surprise! This is not a just samurai themed anime, it's a sci-fi action themed anime. That's the perk! It's different from any ... other samurai themed anime (correct me if I am wrong).

This series is adapted from a classic movie entitled SEVEN SAMURAI or SHICHI-NIN NO SAMURAI by Akira Kurosawa. The main difference is the science fiction setting, as the series feature mechas, flying castle and other futuristics elements . The most noteworthy example is Kikuchiyo who has a mechanised body. In addition, the motley crew of seven samurais in this series are Kanbee, Gorobei, Heihach, Katsushiro, Kyuzo, Kikuchiyo, and Shichirouji. They are expert in different fields . For example, Heihach is an expert in mechanical items and object and Kyuuzo and an expert swordsman. In addition each character has different background, history and purpose to fight. The antagonists in this serial is known as Nobuseri and they are one heck of an enemy. These are not ordinary enemy, they are armoured with high-tech weaponry and armoury. BTW, there is a hint of romance in this anime however it is obscured by the main theme (war and survival) of this anime.

Starts off very interesting; considering this is roughly based on one of the greatest movies of all time I expected no less. Not a fan of the shitty robot-CGI that was consistently employed in anime around this time, and this had a lot of it. Gets stronger and stronger through the middle, by this time you start getting really invested into the story and characters. The villain, IMO, is very good and fits the theme; the main problem is the protagonist that emerges is far from his "equal" in terms of personality and depth. So by the end I was almost rooting for the 7 ... Samurai to lose due to main character falling flat. The ending did NOT leave me satisfied and I regretted how poor of a turn the latter half of the anime took.

Akira kurosawa's seven samurai is considered one of the most influential movies of all time beside that it's one of my favourite movies and that's what happen when somebody ruin one of your favourite movies and turn it into garbage seriously what were the staff members thinking when they remade this classic into anime ,so what we have here ,the original story is set in feudal Japan, it's the story of seven samurai recruited by the farmers of a small village to defend it against a horde of bandits the story was simple yet it was a great commentry on Japanese society and cast ... system as well as a great tale of heroism and sacrifice, it seems that studio gonzo thought the feudal Japan setting won't do well so they decided to change the world building into something post-apocalyptic mixed with some sci-fi and historical elements and what a mess they had created the setting is among the dumbest I've ever seen there is no explantation to the this world physics how could a sword cut throgh a giant mecha ,how could normal human defeat these gigantic machine the settings are silly and random at best also why the nobuseri need rice while they are just robots who need fuel and energy not rice to keep them alive they should have replaced it with something equal to the level of this advanced technology like a precious fuel or energy source ,also why in this world you need even swords where you have all this machines and robots .seems the studio want to have futuristic setting yet they still need the historical setting but they miss both of them ,then we have the animation which is a big pile of trash they used too much ugly CG and ended up with ugly backgrounds and mecha design, the art style is shit most of the characters look like video game characters or rock and roll band memebers,kambie and gurobi look like thugs,hihachi look like a mascot, kyoso look like a video game character and oh the most memorable character kekuchyo (who played in the movie by the legendary toshiro mifune)is now a robot,thankfully what redeem this anime and prevent it from turning into a big pile of shit is the characters who are (despite their shitty design)are diverse ,great and memorable from the veteran warrior who despised war after he experienced its brutality to his old buddy during war time to the rocky warrior who is trying to live up to his family name, to the rebel against the social system who crossed the lines between casts to the badass warrior who only want to have a good fight against a worthy opponents these characters may look stereotypical but remember that this movie is what established them as archetypes ,one notable thing about this show is that it doesn't hesitate to kill some of its main heroes when they face an impossible situation, however the characters lost a lot of their charm and depth due to the dumb settings ,as for the soundtrack nothing is memorable maybe the best thing was the ending theme.
overall samurai 7 was an ambitious attempt to introduce one of the most hailed cinema classics into anime medium but it failed to capture the spirit of the movie because of its ugly art style and ridiculous settings ,I think this anime would have done much better if it was set in the historical time period of the original movie it would be much more successful maybe it would have became among anime classics like cowboy bebop and princess mononoke, it is a good anime but why would you watch this inferior version of the story when you have the superior version ,just don't waste your time on this anime go watch the movie and you won't regret that.

I really liked the first episodes, however, as I continued watching it, by the 8th or 9th episode I managed to get why so many people were giving it low scores.

Many characters feel empty and underdeveloped. There were some interesting ones like Kikuchiyo and Ukyo but they weren't able to redeem all the others.

Many characters get straight up weird when the story is near its conclusion, and it has so many loose ends.. it makes you wish that they'd made it only 12 or 13 episodes long.

It has some CGI and for 2004 it looks pretty lit, however, the quality is not consistent. Every now ... and then, It turns into one of my Paint drawings I made back when I was 11 or 12.

I didn't pay attention to the OST, but I think it's pretty good. I really liked the opening and ending songs.

I enjoyed watching it, but that's it. It's not great and not that bad.
They could've made it better.

EDIT: Grammar and dumb stuff.

This is fine anime at best. I was hoping for much more but you know it's what it is. The best part of the anime was the music 2nd place would be the art style. Everything else it's at best ok. Character development is not fun at all, don't get me started on Kiara's semi-main character, it's hard to like her even a bit, she is like a flag on the wind. We have two well-written characters, Kikuchiyo who is the brightest and most likable Samurai, and Komach sister of Kiara. She also is BFF with Kikuchiyo. The rest of the characters are just generic, ... plain. The story is well-written, and it holds up I enjoyed it - don't expect anything too deep about it. Overall it's a fine anime and I can easily recommend it as a guilty pleasure.

MAL doesn't allow me to give half of the points so I gave it 7 but a more suitable/proper score would be 6.5.
Art is solid 8, music solid 8, characters 5,
story 6.

Watch it if you want to watch "something" but don't have anything specific in mind yet.

This show is somewhat underappreciated for what it was; The way it was produced was noticeably small and focused in a lot of aspects but for what it is, it has a consistent blueprint as a show and progressed into something larger and more refined in comparison to its meager beginnings.

Animation (6/10) - It is a noticeable early 2000s anime by the way its aesthetics and animation quality was presented; It had a cookie cutter production value and easily on par with the shows from its time. Although to its credit, a lot of their action scenes has smooth movement flow on it, and ... that would be its saving grace because it adds onto the detail for what it is.

Storyline (5.5) - Its storyline feels small and too linear. Although it is consistent but it feels like, if this is a bigger anime production like the sorts of Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, et al. The story of Samurai 7 would just be an arc from it. It was so underutilized, for the potential its idea has. The pacing as well feels a bit slow. Other than that, it had an alright and followable story.

Soundtrack (5) - Its soundtrack is very limited, in terms of songs; It only has like, three or four songs on its holster and the rest are just instrumentals and BGM utilized on the show. Although it has a noticeable pattern of using Traditional Japanese theme on their soundtracks list so, props for that thematic effort.

Overall Rating: 5.5 out of 10

I review this as 'average', but it's sort of an overall score of a series that has highs and lows, and it tended towards being better at the beginning than at the end. I will say it's difficult to give an overall score, because I have to rate the fact that I found some parts really boring against the fact that some parts were pretty cool.

I do get the feeling that the real highs are the stuff it takes from the original, but there are also some character moments throughout that were entertaining and even touching. I have not seen the original though.

I do think ... the overall story is interesting and the conflict is one worth depicting.

But it's also slow-paced and meandering, and the action throughout was quite disappointing: swords are waved around and mooks die, rinse and repeat. Lots of the time it feels like stuff is happening to fill out air-space.

All in all the good parts are not exactly amazing, and while nothing is atrocious the show is pretty boring a lot of the time. Check it out if you are interested in a samurai show, but don't expect too much.