Search - Samurai 7, Vol. 7 - Guardians of the Rice on DVD

A warning for collectors

Jose Ibanez | Eatontown, NJ | 05/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Volume 7 concludes the spectacular Samurai 7 tv series.

It goes without saying that if you haven't seen the show from the beginning, this isn't the place to start. Go back and watch this show from the beginning. I wrote a pretty in-depth review for the first disc if you're interested.

If you've been collecting the show, there's no reason not to get this disc. However, another version of this dvd exists that comes with a box to fit all 7 volumes. As a collector who likes his DVDs to look as good on the shelf as on the TV, I would strongly recommend the version with the box as opposed to the version without."

A spectacular(at times) finish

Cloud | Canada | 07/31/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I noticed anime shows tend to be categorized within 4 categories: one's that are so popular that even non-anime fans seem to know about it(Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Evangelion); ones that are popular but mainly in anime fan land(Elfen Lied, Vision of Escaflowne, Hellsing); ones that aren't that popular but do have their fans (Tactics, Gungrave, Texhnolyze) while others are just simply awful and nobody should ever watch them (fill in whatever terrible show you can think of). Samurai 7 to me is a popular show but it's maybe not as massive(or well-liked at times).

Here we are: the final battle. Ukyo has sent the Capital, a massive airship and hundreds of bandits against Kanna Village, leaving Kikuchiyo, Katsushiro, Kanbei, Kyuzo, Heihachi and Shichiroji as well as the village itself to fight and win. Not everybody will make it back home though.

Watching the ending to Samurai 7, I got the feeling that the show wasn't a mistake to start watching, yet at the same you're like "well, wasn't as good as I thought it would." The last volume that was really great was volume 4 which now remains my favorite after watching this one. Keep in mind this is the finale so everything is over-the top. Samurai take down huge Nobuseri with one swipe(or about 10) and jump to the next one so you kind of feel like "as if". However it is great action and the CGI really comes into its own here.

It's slight but where it falls flat is where it handles the characters. Throughout the entire show, the samurai never really got any development. Kanbei's the grump, Kyuzo is the silent bad***, Kikuchiyo's the big loud one and that's it. The only one that really gets the slightest development is Katsushiro. Maybe it's the character or maybe I'm a sucker for them but I quite liked Komachi, the high-pitched sister of Kirara.

Another disappoint was one particular character's death. While the order might've changed, the same 4 I believe don't survive the final battle and while 2 have pretty good deaths, one of them was so cheap and bad it was like "they killed them off that way? That's so stupid!" It was incredibly disappointing, especially the way they handle the resolution of the character's main focus throughout the whole series.

The series is definately worth a watch and maybe it's just me but it probably won't be held in high regard like other shows but maybe you'll like it, who knows.

"

Great series.

S. Jones | WA | 08/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Samurai 7 has been a wonderful ride. The story has been engaging the whole way and I haven't been disappointed with a single volume. This dvd was no exception. I won't offer any spoilers except to say that the last episode seemed to fall a little flat to me, but not enough to detract from the series as a whole, and it stayed true to Akira Kurosawa's original 7 Samurai."