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Samurai 7 is an anime remake of Seven Samurai, down to the names of the samurai.
Being an anime retelling, however, it also has Humongous Mecha that get cut in half with katanas.
It is far Better Than It Sounds.
When the Nobuseri bandits prey upon the village of Kanna, the poor villagers — out of fear of starvation — send their water priestess to the nearest city to hire as many samurai as possible to protect them. The villagers will offer the samurai all of the rice they can eat in exchange for their services, but what samurai would hire out their swords and their skill for rice?
In the aftermath of a devastating war, samurai strive to find meaning in their lives. It is through protecting the village of Kanna that the seven samurai who take up the villagers' offer find that meaning — and more.
Now with a character page that needs some love.
This series has examples of the following:[]
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: The katanas in this series cut mechas in half. That is only the start of things. The first cut you see in this anime is a mecha getting torn clean in half, interrupting its cannon fire. The second involves Kanbei diving off of a reconfigured mech sword made into a ship, plummeting down in complete freefall, and cleaving a battleship in half at the center. The notes for the show actually describe Kanbei's weapon as an anti-tank sword.
- Adaptation Expansion
- Affably Evil: Ukyo kind of qualifies. He makes some pretty amusing comments and has a certain foppish style and seems liked by his Paid Harem and he turns out to be a quite cunning villain
- Afraid of Blood: Implied with Heihachi, who has rather odd reactions whenever he gets cut.
- Agent Peacock: Ukyo is one of these of The Chessmaster variety.
- Ambiguously Brown: Kanbei and Gorobei who according to Word of God are supposed to have respectively Hispanic and African features.
- Armor Is Useless: Lightweight mecha are cut down like flies by ordinary arrows.
- Arrow Catch: done by Gorobei, both for entertainment and in battle.
- Artificial Limbs: Shichiroji has an arm that is armor plated and shoots grappling hooks from the fingers
- Audible Sharpness
- Badass Longcoat: Kyuzo.
- Badass Normal
- Bamboo Technology: Heihachi's massive battleship-piercing crossbow. How did they find a tree so big to make the "arrow", it's not our business.
- Barehanded Blade Block: This is rather justified and plausible since Kikuchiyo's sword is so wide Kambei can catch it without cutting his hands.
- Because I'm Jonesy: How Uyko knew Kanbei wasn't the one who killed the imperial envoy.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Tessai to Ukyo who treats him like dirt.
- Berserk Button: Normally, Heihachi is a happy-go-lucky pacifistic guy, but he really hates traitors because he was one during the recently ended war, and it resulted in his whole unit being killed.
- Given that he used to be one, Kikuchiyo is infuriated whenever anyone acts oppresive or inconsiderate toward peasants
- Ukyo really hates machine samurai.
- BFG: The Benigumo (red ones) have shoulder compartments with basically a shotgun, with eight barrels. Four rows of two. And even the man portable ones are shoulder mounted and look more like WWII artillery.
- BFS: Even those gundam sized mechs use both hands to use a large handle. About 40% of the sword is the handle. The red ones have a shield and a smaller sword, but it's still huge.
- The mech swords even come equipped with jet propulsion and cockpits, to be used as emergency aircraft.
- Bishonen
- Bittersweet Ending. Most samurai die, but the village is saved and villagers celebrate their victory with the survivng samurai and Kanbei, Katsushiro, and Shichiroji move on with their own lives, which isn't too bad. Also, Kirara is written off as unfit for being a priestess, Katsushiro is alienated from her and Kanbei adds yet another defeat to his already long list.
- Black Dude Dies First: This despite the fact the first to die in the original film was Heihachi
- Blade Brake - starting with Kambei in the first episode.
- Bloodless Carnage: Most of the battles are like this due to the majority of the bandits being full body converted mecha. Even when human pilots are cut into pieces, the explosion of the mecha usually mask all the gore.
- Bodyguard Crush
- Boomerang Bigot: Heihachi hates traitors, though he was a traitor himself. This is likely because he himself was a traitor. He is militant about it due to unresolved guilt.
- Bratty Half-Pint: There's two, though Okara is more of a brat than Komachi
- Bring My Red Jacket
- Broken Aesop: Kambei's famous last line, "The farmers have won. Not us." is said at the end with only a small fraction of the gravitas of the original, due to the differing characterisation of the villagers (who are shown to genuinely care for the samurai) and the overall shift in the tone of the story that places the samurai in a much more heroic light.
- Bulletproof Human Shield: Subverted Katsushiro accidentally kills Kyuzo when firing a machinegun at a soldier in front of him, as the bullets go right through the soldier into Kyuzo.
- Calling Your Attacks: Mocked by Heihachi.
- Allow me to introduce you to WOODCUTTER STYLE!
- Used seriously by Shichiroji: "Secret Technique: Tatami Counter!"
- Camp Straight: Ukyo
- Catch a Falling Star
- The Chessmaster: Ukyo
- Chainsaw Good: Kikuchiyo's sword occasionally crosses into this.
- Cool Sword
- Curb Stomp Battle: Early attempts of the farmers to fight mecha with pitchforks and firewood axes result in this. Also leading to prime examples of There Is No Kill Like Overkill as the mecha respond by smashing the farmers with swords the size of your average train car.
- The Dandy: Ukyo.
- Deadpan Snarker: Okara.
- Death by Adaptation: Gorobei is a very clear-cut Type II
- Death Seeker: Kambei
- Debut Queue
- Defector From Decadence: It's never stated outright, but besides seeing Kambei as a Worthy Opponent, Kyuzo seems to have joined the heroes based on disgust for the dishonorable behavior of his fellow samurai under Ukyo. Also, in a way the Guardians qualify as well, since they turn out to be former samurai who chose a less villainous path than the Nobuseri.
- Diagonal Cut
- Did Not Get the Girl: Though Kambei silently acknowledges Kirara's love for him, it's never outright stated, and she remains in the village while he leaves for further adventures. Katsushiro fills Kambei's role in the original, but in this adaptation it is left ambiguous to what extent Kirara returned his feelings.
- Disguised in Drag: Gorobei, Heihachi and Rikichi disguise themselves as "female" traveling performers. Heihachi actually kinda makes a cute girl, but the other two its more like Paper-Thin Disguise
- Early-Bird Cameo: Gorobei is first seen as mere background character, smiling approvingly at how Kambei handles a hostage situation.
- Enigmatic Minion
- Expy: The Shikimoribito look like a taller version of Shy Guy.
- Eyes Always Shut: Heihachi.
- Facial Markings: Heihachi has two whisker like lines on each cheek also Ukyo has red squares on each cheek as do all his city guards
- Field of Blades
- First Girl Wins: Subverted and gender-flipped.
- Five-Man Band: Well, sort of. There's seven of them, but the principle is the same.
- Foregone Conclusion: Toyed with but ultimately played straight. Though they die in a different order, the same four samurai who perished in the original bite it here too.
- Four Is Death: There are Seven main characters but only three survived.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Heihachi.
- Gas Mask Mooks: The Guardians/Shikimoribito.
- Gonk: Lots of these, but especially the bad guys. Really, almost everyone who isn't a main character looks like they were beaten half to death with the Ugly Stick.
- Grapes of Luxury: Ukyo does this a lot.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Several, but most notably Kikuchiyo, who'd been able to survive all previous injuries due to his mechanical body. After the flying-battleship Imperial Capital is disabled and crashes to earth, Kiku prevents it from careening into Kanna Village by picking up one of the giant Nobuseri swords and standing in front of it to slow it down. His ultimate fate? Being melted down into near-nothingness; only his feet remain.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: In the Funimation english dub, Komachi is voice by Sashi, her sister is voiced by Rachel Moore and Shichiroui is Chuck E Cheese.
- Humongous Mecha: The Nobuseri
useare mechs ranging from "bigger than a man" to "Gundam-sized". - Implausible Fencing Powers: To the max and beyond; samurai can slice anything, and deflect energy beams.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: In the English Dub, every episode title begins with "The."
- Immortality Inducer: The throne that preserves the user's life.
- It's Not You, It's Me: At least two.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kikuchiyo.
- Katanas Are Awesome: Ironically, this is the exact opposite of the film the show was loosely based on where no amount of skill with a katana helped anyone against guns at range.
- Kid Samurai: Katsushiro.
- Kid with the Leash
- Kill'Em All
- Losing Your Head: Kikuchiyo.
- Love Triangle: Type 5 — Katsushiro loves Kirara, Kirara loves Kambei, and Kambei acknowledges her feelings but doesn't reciprocate.
- Magnificent Seven
- Master Swordsman
- May-December Romance: Averted in the case of Kirara & Kambei.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: primarily found in Kanna Village.
- Miko: Kirara.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Tessai in respect to Ukyo.
- Names to Know In Anime: Romi Paku as Katsushiro, Takehito Koyasu as Ukyo, Fumiko Orikasa as Kirara.
- As for the dub, we've got R Bruce Elliot as Kambei, Greg Ayers as Heihachi, Christopher R Sabat as Kikuchou, Colleen Clinkenberd as Kirara, Luci Christian as Komachi, J. Michael Tatum as Rikichi
- Neutral Female: Kirara.
- No Transhumanism Allowed: Very much averted, although the thinking behind the trope is in play. The bandits have totally altered themselves and the mooks hunting the protagonists in early episodes also have significant (although much less) body modification. Pretty much, outside of Kikuchiyo, anyone with significant mechanization is probably a bad guy, although Shichiroji does have a robotic hand.
- Not the Fall That Kills You: Averted in episode 2, by grabbing a falling elevator.
- Offhand Backhand: Gorobei likes to do this a lot, only with stabbing.
- Off-Model: Conspicuously episode 7.
- Episode 17 as well
- One-Man Army: Most of the samurai.
- Precocious Crush: Komachi on Kikuchiyo, which also has elements of Cargo Ship.
- Psychotic Smirk: Ukyo's satisfied expression, and it is creeeeepy!
- Recycled In The Future!
- Redemption Equals Death: Heihachi and to some extent Kyuzo, although he never mentions his past.
- Retirony: Subverted with Shichiroji, whose introduction gives all of the classic signs of retirony — he goes on one last mission with his old friend before returning home to get married. Surprisingly, he survives.
- The Rival: Kyuzo, to Kanbei.
- Unstoppable Rage: Katsushiro has a fit of this shortly after the trauma of performing his first kill in combat. In the following battle he turns ape-shit and goes on an all out rampage, much to Gorobei's surprise.
- Ronin: At least half the samurai who eventually join were wandering unemployed warriors before the farmers found them.
- Rule of Cool:
- the last third of the series is full of this, best exemplified by Katsushiro stopping a blast of the Imperial Capital's main cannon with only his katana.
- "They also cut mecha in half with katanas."
- Samurai: Naturally.
- Schizo-Tech
- Spared by the Adaptation: The Village Elder and Sanai
- Subverted with Heihachi. Surpising fans of the movie, he was spared from being the first samurai to die, but he finally meets his end in episode 25.
- Stepping Stones in the Sky
- Stockholm Syndrome: Rikichi's wife and Ukyo's predecessor.
- Survivor Guilt: Kambei
- The Stoic: Kyuzo. It takes something seriously out of the ordinary to throw him off.
- Take a Level In Badass: Rikichi goes from a somewhat pathetic, sniveling guy to a much more confident individual, who while no where near the samurai in fighting prowess, is a very effective part of the peasant rebellion.
- Could also count for the title 7. In the beginning of the series, guns were still a major threat and only Gorobei was fast enough to deflect or dodge bullets casually. In the final assault on the Capital, once the remaining Samurai have resolved themselves to a Suicide Attack... Kanbei, Kyuzo and even Kikuchyo are swatting away hails of projectiles straight up Jedi style.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Kyuzo's only known motivation for joining the group is making sure Kambei lives long enough to finish their score.
- Training the Peaceful Villagers
- Transforming Mecha: The red ones turn from a disk/wheel thing into two humanoids.
- Trojan Horse: used when some of the samurai hide in rice bales to sneak into an enemy base.
- Unpronounceable Alias / Overly Long Name: Kambei is first seen resolving a hostage situation from Kikuchiyo's unwanted interference, under the name... Tenkaiheizaemon Yoshichika.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo
- Variable Terminal Velocity
- Vibroweapon: It's suggested that the samurai are able to cut through the giant Nobuseri by vibrating their swords (by hand, no less). It's noticeable when Kikuchiyo uses a Nobuseri blade to stop the falling capital.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Ukyo's whole plan involves becoming one of these, which he starts doing once he reveals his true intelligence/becomes Emperor, complete with some good use of the New Era Speech.
- Villainous Breakdown: Ukyo in the final episode, although unusually, this moment of insane ranting and violence is followed by him immediately returning to being eerily calm. And then, goes right back to crazy.
- Wave Motion Gun: the Capital's main cannon annihilates the Lead Nobuseri, and a nameless mook.
- Weapon Tombstone
- "Well Done, Son" Guy
- Weapon Tropes: Kambei, Katsushiro, Gorobei, Heihachi - Absurdly Sharp Katana; Shichiroji - Blade on a Stick; Kikuchiyo - BFS, then regular swords (and tree/logs!) after his sword breaks; Kyuzo - Dual-Wielding.
- You Killed My Father: Parodied in the first episode. In order to create a distraction, Kambei accuses Kikuchiyo of being a samurai who killed his father, and Kambei claims to have trained for years and tracked him down before beheading Kikuchiyo (which had no real ill effect, because he's a cyborg).