Samurai 7 Vol-2 (2004)
Released by: Funimation
Animation Production: Gonzo
Running Time: 105 Minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

After falling for the beautiful show that is Samurai Seven I thought this would be a good time to pick up on our review for the second volume in Funimation’s domestic release of the series. Last time our heroes were busy trying to recruit capable Samurai to help them in their mission when suddenly the city’s merchant warlord commands that they be hunted down, which brings Kambei in contact with a young impossibly skilled samurai assassin.

Now, with their hunters momentarily out of action our group of samurais and farmers concentrate again on the recruitment of respectable samurai to help them in their mission against the bandits.

Story

"After the mysterious murder of the Imperial Envoy in the Magistrate's home-with a bloody sword as the only clue-a citywide hunt for all samurai begins. With a high price suddenly on their heads, the band of a samurai must quickly escape the city.
" -- DVD Box

Review

This second volume in Funimation’s release of Samurai 7 features episodes five through eight in the series, which include:

Episode 5: The Drifter
The farming community that sent the original delegation to hire the samurai for protection against the bandits is now beginning to question their idea. Meanwhile our heroes may have found another member for their group, but will the mechanically inclined and skilled wood cutting expert samurai, Heihachi, join them?

Episode 6: The Fool
The Imperial Envoy has been assassinated under mysterious circumstances, with the only clue to his murderer being a samurai sword. Now a citywide hunt of all samurai ensues to find the perpetrator of the crime. If our heroic band of samurai doesn’t act quickly they will also get caught! Their only hope lies in escaping to the underground world beneath the city, but can they make it there in time?

Episode 7: The Friend
With the eyes of the city everywhere our samurai group decides to go to the Village of Healing where one of Kambei’s old friends resides in hopes of finding assistance in escaping and completing their mission of saving the farmers from the bandits that are taking all their food.

Episode 8: The Guardians
After escaping from the Village of Healing our heroes find themselves with a new ally in the form of Shichiroji, who was Kambei’s old war friend and fellow combatant. Will he make a difference when our heroes find themselves in the underground lair of the mysterious Shikimoribito? What terrible secrets will they uncover?

After an amazing start this series continues to impress by building on everything that was established in the first four episodes, adding to it and starting to move beyond it. The main story, the recruitment of seven samurai to help protect a farming village from a small band of bandits, continues to be the central focus of Samurai 7 with these episodes, but little by little and with the help of some neat plot twists and developments the narrative begins to shift minimally into some new directions that promise to surprise us and show us a new dimension to the cast.

With episode five we basically pick up the story exactly where we left it as our heroes continue to search for other honorable and skilled samurai to help them in their mission. As in the previous four stories they manage to find one who fits the bill perfectly and brings a new set of skills necessary to the success of the mission. While the story is similar in format to the previous ones it does a great job at holding out attention by introducing the very likeable Heichachi and employing some amazing use of color to depict the setting sun that is so prevalent throughout the episode.

With episode six the writers of Samurai 7 finally break out from the story structure they have been using up to this point and decide to take a more liberal route by pulling the cast from their recruiting mission and dropping them into the midst of a city ruled by martial law, thanks to the assassination of the Imperial Envoy by a samurai (which was the catalyst for the order to hunt down all samurai in the city). This change leads to more interesting possibilities story-wise and sure enough it’s used to its fullest potential. Now instead of walking freely trying to talk others into working with them our protagonists are forced into becoming fugitives and using their skills for immediate survival rather than helping the farmers, which although at this point becomes secondary, remains the main objective.

From there on the story becomes a rollercoaster ride that will take our heroes to the village of healing where they will find their 5th member and then to the strange underground lair of the Shikimoribito, an enigmatic race of people whose life are dependent on the rice grown by farmers from villages destroyed by the bandits who now live peacefully with them. What they discover at the end of their journey in episode eight will rock the foundation of their mission and give them a better understanding of who exactly it is that they are fighting on behalf of the farmers.

On the whole this set of episodes was a ton of fun to watch and made me even more interested in this series than I initially was. Moving the plot away from recruiting samurai and into more action-laden territory for the time being kicks things up a notch and give Samurai seven the spice it needed to really make it a stand out title. There was one unexpected surprise that had me worried for a portion of episode seven however and that was the sudden (and drastic) drop in the quality of the animation. During the first half of this particular chapter the animation goes from detailed and stylized to something that barely resembles anime and is almost cartoon-ish in nature. Not sure what the reason behind the scenes for this was, but thankfully it didn’t last too long.

That mishap aside the production quality here is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and the show is filled to capacity with brilliant visual effects, amazing background layouts and scene layouts that are truly awe-inspiring. As with volume one I found myself enjoying the visuals here more than I normally would with a title like this because so many scenes are unusually rich in detail and quiet movement that give the show a unique life that truly jumps out from the screen. The colors tend to lean more towards the neutral end of the scale, but this works well in that it makes the under-used pastels stand out even more, adding to the richness of the drawings and background paintings.

The soundtrack here again relies heavily on traditional sounding Japanese music, which sets the mood of the show perfectly and add to the presence of the Samurai characters that are its focus. The opening and closing themes didn’t really catch my attention though and felt for the most part as adequate, but ultimately easily forgotten pieces. The voice acting on the hand is as usual, with a release of this quality, outstanding. The casts do a fantastic job at bringing their characters to life in both the Japanese dubbed and English dubbed tracks.

On the product front Funimation did a particularly nice job with this one. The DVD box cover features Katsushiro in a painted portrait that is very different from the typical art that adorns anime products domestically (the other side of the cover has a larger piece of art that depicts our heroes fighting off their enemies). Inside there is a nice-sized booklet with tons of artwork and line drawings from the series as well as interviews with the production team. The DVD itself includes a couple of extras including clean versions of the opening and closing themes, character profiles and promos for other Funimation releases. The quality of the audio and video transfers is without equal with everything sporting a beautiful crisp quality to it.

Final Thoughts

This is an unbelievably good show that will command your attention from start to finish. Whether you enjoy samurai stories or not and whether you’re familiar with the original movie this series is based on or not this is a must-watch. I look forward to checking out volume three and seeing where the writers take us next.

Very recommended for all anime fans.

Jeffrey Couto