Samurai 7

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Samurai 7
The seven recruited samurai
GenreAdventure, Fantasy, Mecha
Anime
Directed byToshifumi Takizawa
StudioGONZO
Released June 12, 2004 – December 25, 2004

Samurai 7 (サムライセブン, Samurai Sebun) is a 2004 Japanese anime series, produced by GONZO and based on Akira Kurosawa's popular 1954 movie Seven Samurai. The series was directed by Toshifumi Takizawa and its music was composed by Kaoru Wada and Eitetsu Hayashi. There are 26 episodes, each costing around ¥32,500,000 ($300,000USD) to produce.[citation needed]

The series premiered across Japan on the anime satellite television network, Animax, as an exclusive high definition CS-PPV broadcast, and was also later aired by the network across its other respective networks worldwide, including Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America and other regions. FUNimation has acquired the dubbing rights for the North American release. It is airing in America through the Independent Film Channel (using FUNimation's dub) since April 2006 and in high definition on Dish Networks Animania HD channel (also using FUNimation's dub). It has also been broadcast across Canada by specialty channel Razer and across Hong Kong by TVB Jade.

Plot

Samurai 7 tells the story of a rice village, Kanna. Every year during the harvest a group of bandits come and steal away almost all of the rice that had been harvested that year. Not only that, the bandits are becoming more demanding, now taking women and children in addition to rice.

The elder of Kanna Village has decided that to protect the village they must hire samurai to fight against the bandits. However, the village has no money and thus must find samurai willing to protect the village for a payment of rice. Three members of the village leave to attempt to recruit samurai. They travel to the city and search for samurai willing to work, and after finding several samurai and having a few encounters with the local government they return to Kanna village to prepare defenses against the bandits.

The samurai train the villagers in the use of bows, building walls, and construct a giant ballista to defend the village against the bandits. After successfully defeating the bandits, the samurai then launch an attack upon the capital to defeat a power hungry ruler who has recently risen to power as Emperor. After heavy casualties for the samurai, and the near-destruction of Kanna village, the capital is finally defeated.

Characters

Main article: List of Samurai 7 characters

Episodes

Main article: List of Samurai 7 episodes
Cover art to Samurai 7 Volume 1 DVD.

Differences/similitudes with the Seven Samurai film

The main difference is the science fiction setting, as the serie features mechas, flying castle and other futuristics elements (the seven samurai still simply use katanas, and display surhuman strength which allow them to fight mechas). Notably, Kikuchiyo (the once-peasant samurai) has a mechanised body.

As far as the plot is concerned, the biggest difference with the film is the extension of the action before and after the defense of the village from the bandits (the serie, of course, is several times longer than the film). This introduces a complete political aspect to the intrigue, linking the fight for the village to the rise and fall of Ukyo as the country's leader. This is a important stride from the film, where the battle is of no significance and glory.

On the contrary, the roles of the samurais are close to what they are in the film, keeping most of the dynamics between them. Notably, the same 4 samurais (Gorobei, Kikuchiyo, Hayashida and Kyuzo) die in the battle, an unusual pattern for an anime.

Also, Kirara and Komachi are exclusive charactes of the anime. There are no priestess in the film, and no love triangle either.

Theme songs

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