Samurai 7 - Reviews

NO SPOILER REVIEW.

THIS IS A REVIEW AND IT DOES NOT CONTAIN THE SYNOPSIS ALREADY CONTAINED ON THE MAIN PAGE. 

None of this is copypasta, this is my actual review.Also, comments are welcome as far as helpful, not helpful etc, do not flame me or disrespect me.  I spent my time writing this to help others.)

And lastly, if you dont like my review.  WRITE YOR OWN!

Story:

Although I still doubt the necessity of the bandits being mech I think without thier presense some of the other characters and setting would be lacking.  This is probably one of the only things I did not care for in this anime.  I just think seeing sword on sword action is more appealing personally.  But the fact that the main antagonist is are gigantic mech's makes the story pretty remarkable.  The plot is well deveoloped and the characters are all involved throughout.

Animation

There is  80% standard animation to 20% CGI ratio within the anime series which really adds to the anime and isn't overdone.  The fight senes are pretty amazing and the characters are dressed and move well.  There was only maybe one or two episodes that seemed to have an animation substitute and it's pretty obvious.

Sound:

From the complete series dvd collection I watched some of the sounds when the character was facing away from the 'camera' were very quiet at some points and slightly hard to hear over backround music/ambience.

Other than that the sound effects are awesome.  The voices are done well and completely match the characters and help you get absorbed into the anime as a whole.

Characters:

The balance of personalities in this series is pretty remarkable.  Everyone has a role and purpose.  The diversity between all of the characters adds to the appeal.   The storyline and character development all ties in nicely to motives of characters as well as thier personalities.

Overall:

The series is worth watching.

I hope this helps some of you without including spoilers because this is my first ever review that I wrote and it's kind of nervewrecking for me and I tend to overthink, but I wanted to try it out.  Regardless, this anime is pretty awesome and you should watch it.

"But you don't have to take my word for it" -LeVar Burton, The Reading Rainbow Guy

Alternate titles include: Badass 7, The Seven Badasses, The Magnificent 7 Badasses, Seven Badass Samurai and Seven Samurai. Other titles include most (If not all) the following: "7" or "Seven", either/both "Samurai" and "Badass".

Straight up, I've never seen The Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven. But from what I've seen here, they're probably filled with awesome badassery.

And you know what? That's justified in the first three minutes of the first episode. I'm not going to explain it, as that'll take away some of the fun but it's definitely one of the coolest scenes I've seen in anything that relates even remotely to samurai. The fights continue to drive the point home, as when the sword swings, the body count rises and style ensues. They are good at what they do, and it shows; every battle is fast and furious, slicing and rending in a cacophony of destruction. But it isn't all about samurai and swords, as there are the mecha with swords. Robots (Or drones, can't really call these one samurai) roughly the size of a human to literal samurai mecha the size of the stuff you see in Gundam. But this is an era with guns, which... sometimes lose to katana. It's not historically accurate in that aspect, but it doesn't need to be.

If there isn't a fight going on then there is most likely some story progression going on (Some fights do advance the story; bonus!). And by story progression, I mean some slow story progression. This is especially for the first few episodes where the samurai are being gathered. I personally didn't mind it, as I loved the setting of mecha/technology fused with feudal samurai. As well as I don't mind the actual process of it all. It's bound to get on a few people's nerves, but it does pick up. Past that, the story kept it's hold on me.

Feudal Japan fused with machine technology makes for a great setting, and Samurai 7 does that justice. Mechanical samurai roam the streets, bandits are the same (And the bandit leader looked particularly cool) and even the humans don't shirk of style. But the seven samurai in particular look stylish, and their swords (And spear) having different styles is a nice touch. Just had a bit of a problem with a few of the CGI scenes and a few other scenes in particular, which didn't look as good as the other scenes (For both CGI and non-CGI in comparison to their respective designs and not as a whole). Overall, loved the design, the look of the characters, the style of everything and the scenery. One last thing on animation; there's that title card in the middle of the anime, for a break I guess, which got me every time.

When I get an anime based in the samurai era, I expect some music that fits the era and that's what's given. It's brilliant and yet not overwhelming, which helps to immerse the viewer into the anime. The OP I enjoyed greatly and the EP as well, it's not hard rock and not entirely like the background music but it works. As well as the voices, which were pretty great.

I loved the characters in this series, and not just for the badassery of the seven. Everybody has a purpose and it's just fun to see them in action and how some of them change throughout the series, specifically Katsushiro. He's the most innocent of the seven and to see him kill a man or machine for the first time is truly shocking. That's no spoiler, as they all kill things, but that first kill is truly something. Otherwise, loved the comedic banter between Kikuchiyo and Komachi and oddly enough, Ukyo. I didn't like him much at first, but he grew on me.

I'm a fan of samurai and action, and even slow-paced stuff at times. Samurai 7 does those three genres great justice, and most likely does justice to it's source material. It's filled with hope and sadness; action and chaos. Showing that war is hell and that it can change hearts and minds, not simply fighting with the body but with the spirit and ideals.

Aside from dragging story between ep13- 19 It portrays the enjoyable and amazing show or should i say old but gold? The Interesting fact about Samurai 7 is character development between characters and ways of the samurai. If you think mc is a young samurai you need to watch until the end. The girl character is very entertaining and who would thought she like......{spoiler} XD

This was an enjoyable story to watch unfold and develop.

Plot and character development was done very well, each character had a good amount of background explained and each hero was well rounded. Wacthing the interaction between them all was well done.

Animation was good as well even though there was a miss between some sword swings and where they actually connected, but other then that is was nice.

Soundtrack was done well, enjoyable intro music and story music was great. Could'nt really get into the ending theme.

Overall I would definitely watch this one, it was fun to get into.

Secret Santa Review! Happy New Year to All!

Granted I know this is a bit late, but better late than never I suppose. Also this is my first review so please bear with me!

Story- 6.5/10

Based on the film ‘Seven Samurai” by Akira Kurosawa, the anime Samurai 7 takes things in a slightly different approach and adds a huge sci-fi factor. I have never seen the original film, but after watching the anime I’d really like to. The plot is pretty straight forward; find samurai to defend the village. There are just enough twists and turns to keep the plot interesting though. The story isn’t the main point though as the characters and actions are what took the spotlight for me.

Animation - 8/10

The animation is per Gonzo and here they do a really good job, though it’s not their strongest effort. The characters are off model sometimes and the CGI for me did take a little getting used to it. The CGI however for the mechanical samurai bandits was fairly nice after growing accustomed. The character design for the main characters and world/ setting design are all very well done for the most part. Some of the side or incidental characters did have some weird looks to them, but it didn’t really bother me that much. The action scenes, and there are quite a few are animated very fluidly for the most part.

Sound - 8/10

The background music and side effects where done very nicely. The background music definitely captured the essence of the time period, despite it taking place in a sci-fi setting it has that old school samurai era/action flick feel to it all. The opening theme, though not overly spectacular is pretty good as well and I liked the animation for it. The ending theme is a bit slower, and I didn’t like it as much as the opening, but it was still a nice listen. The voice acting in the Japanese version was also done very nicely and my standout favorites were Romi Park as Katsushiro and Kuwata Kong as Kikuchiyo.

Characters – 8.5/10

This is where the series truly shines. We have a hodgepodge of different personalities with varying backstories and abilities. Much of the cast is fleshed out and it was fun watching them play off one another and learning to work as a team. The side cast is also pretty well put together with Rikichi being my absolute favorite from the side cast. Some don’t receive as much development as the others, but the one who I found stood out from the crowd as far as development went, and my personal favorite was Katsushiro. He learned the most and grew the most. I would have liked more backstory or development for a few of the main samurai as we never really got to learn how or why they became samurai and they didn’t show much in the way of development. Kanbe is a cool character but why did he become a samurai? Kikuchiyo aka ‘Nunky’ was a very funny character and we did get some insight into his backstory, but he never develops passed a funny and bumbling archetype. However I liked all of the characters aside from the villain Ukyo, which I guess is what was intended.

Overall - 8.5/10

Overall I had a lot of fun watching Samurai 7 and it is now a new high favorite. The characters and the action really made this one into something special and the entertainment factor is extremely high in this series. The aesthetics via the animation and voice acting really helped boost my enjoyment as well. If you’re looking for a fun and heartfelt show with a lot of depth, some great action scenes and good characters, though a bit lacking on the story front than look no further.