That's the official title, but this is not Seven Samurai, although it is based on Kurosawa's original story. It is an anime adaptation set in a dystopian future in which the world, after the end of a ruinous war, is run by the merchants. Those samurai who became partly mechanical during the war -- call them cyborgs -- have become bandits who regularly confiscate the peasants' crops. The village of Kanna has had enough; their water priestess, Kirara, reveals the way they can escape the constant terror: they will hire a samurai to do away with the bandits.
The story line, in general terms, follows Kurosawa's original, with some interesting variations -- there is an emperor in this one (who, strangely enough, strongly recalls Michael Moorcock's God-Emperor Huon from the Hawkmoon saga), which leads to some very good action with Kanbe, the leader of the samurai, who comes close to being executed. There is also a group of intermediaries/technologists, the Shikimori, creators of the power cells on which the merchants and the mecha-samurai rely, who have their own agenda.
The design concept is a sort of Star Wars steampunk, at least insofar as the bandits and cities are concerned. Character designs are superb, seamlessly fitting together a range from highly realistic to cartoon-abstract without a blip.
Animation is also excellent. The CGI effects are just great, and very effectively used. Battle scenes, as might be expected, are particularly good.
The voice actors are superb, although the character of Kikuchiyo -- the mechanical samurai who winds up being one of the seven -- is pretty annoying: he's a loudmouth, shoot-from-the-hip sort of guy, superbly voiced by Kuwata Kong, but he's a little bit much. My favorites, after Masaki Terasoma as Kanbe, are Romi Park as the young samurai wannabe, Katsushiro (and Park does an amazing job with boys and young men -- she voiced Hitsugaya in Bleach) and Shinichiro Miki as Kyuzo, a deadly man whose goal is to cut down Kanbe, although for the time being they're on the same side.
It's a long story -- 26 episodes -- and there are occasional slow stretches, but on the whole it's an absorbing and engaging series. I'm lovin' it.
From Funimation. Credits can be found at Anime News Network.
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