FUNimation, the American distributor of many Japanese anime series, has made a deal with iTunes, bringing much of their content available for download. Included is Samurai 7, the animated TV series based on Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.
As a result, Samurai 7 is now available at iTunes for $1.99 per episode. I am, however, fairly sure that this only applies to US customers.
17 February 2007
17 February 2007
Vili Maunula
It seems to divide viewers quite a bit. I for one watched the first episode and simply couldn’t make myself to watch another one. But others have expressed their like of the series.
Of all the discussion we have had of it (more is always welcome! :)), it is perhaps AiYume’s comment from a month ago that to me best summarises it all: “For anime, it was very good. For an adaptation of Kurosawa, not so much.”
This is not to say that anime can’t be better than that — I know a number of anime series that are simply excellent. But most anime, to me, is utter crap, and perhaps when compared to all that, Samurai 7 surfaces as something positive.
I think that I will personally give Samurai 7 another try. One day.
17 February 2007
I am debating on this, but will probably buy them on DVD. It is the completist in me that drives it.
18 February 2007
As mentioned, AiYume’s comment really hits the mark. I have now seen 9 episodes, and to me its not really that bad, but its best to never think of it as a adaptation to the movie. I am not a big fan of Anime, with only Furi Kuri and Full Metal Alchemist in which I watched every episode. So I cant really judge it on any Anime principals, but I am starting to enjoy this series.
There is a new box set, that will arrive in late March in the USA, I may one day purchase it, just out of curiosity. There is already 7 volumes to the entire series out on DVD right now, if your unaware.
15 September 2011
lawless
[Lawless’s brilliant review series of Samurai 7 has now been moved to its own thread. –Vili]
8 October 2011
Vili Maunula
Thanks for your review, lawless!
It was actually only a little over a month ago that I once again tried to restart watching Samurai 7, but this time around I didn’t last through even the opening episode. I’m not a big fan of anime or its conventions, so that might be one reason, or maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood. Well, it’s still there, waiting for me to one day give it yet another try. 🙂
6 November 2011
lawless
[Lawless’s brilliant review series of Samurai 7 has now been moved to its own thread. –Vili]
20 November 2011
Vili Maunula
Thanks again for your review, lawless! This second part reminds me why I stopped watching the series on my first try. The dumbing down of the characters was quite annoying, and I think also I was a little lost at times with the action taking place on the screen.
I’m also starting to think that your brilliant series of reviews would have deserved its own thread instead of being tucked away into this old news article about the digital availability of the series. We could perhaps move what you have written into a brand new forum thread?
This also reminds me that I think I started to watch Kaze no Yojimbo some months ago. For the life of me, I can’t remember how far into it I managed to get before forgetting to continue. It’s been a crazy couple of months (once again).
20 November 2011
lawless
Vili – Thank you for the compliment. If you could move these posts into their own thread, that would be great. I was hesitant to start a new thread since several related threads already existed.
If I ever knew there was an anime based on Yojimbo, I’d forgotten it. What did you think of it?
21 November 2011
Vili Maunula
Strangely enough, I actually cannot move the posts because of the way the forums are currently set up. Even more interestingly, I cannot start a topic under your name without a fair amount of computational black magic. So, could I ask you to start a new topic and copy-paste there what you have written here? Sorry for the inconvenience.
I’m hoping to find the time this winter for an update of the underlying software. It’s the same update that I was planning to do last summer, but which didn’t happen.
As for the Yojimbo anime, I can’t really comment as I think I have only seen three or four episodes so far. That’s another thing I’m planning for this winter.
22 November 2011
lawless
Done!
I don’t know how easy this is to fix, or whether it’s even possible, but copy-pasting text is made more complicated because apostrophes, dashes, and quotation marks show up as gibberish. I had to go through and fix them before posting.
I have seen only the first 2 episodes of it, and it was utter rubbish. They introduced unnecessary characters and unnecessary scenes and the overall effect was awful.