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July 16, 2004
When samurai universes collide
Caution: spoilers!
So I decided to see what else I misremembered about the original Seven Samurai movie, and pulled it out to have a looksee.
Kanbei's introduction is virtually identical; Katsushirou's is a little differently timed, but fundamentally the same. Gorobei's entry is also basically the same with a bit extra in the series. Kuuzyou's is rearranged also, and Heihachi's entry, which is foreshadowed in the preview, should mirror the movie. Kirara and Komachi are original creations, of course, but Rikichi is a holdover from the movie, where he was a crucial catalyst. It'll be interesting to see if he gets the same story.
The only one that's more than a little different from his movie predecessor is Kikuchiyo. Kikuchiyo's main schtick is that he's not quite like the other six - i.e. he's not born to the samurai caste, but aspires to be one anyway. Toshiro Mifune plays him like a wild man who desperately wants to be a samurai and shadows Kanbei a tad obsessively. Samurai 7's Kikuchiyo is - well, it's not clear if, like the Nobuseri, he was a human samurai who made robotic modifications in order to continue fighting, or if he made the modifications to emulate the samurai. OR if he's a robot who wants to be a samurai. TV Kikuchiyo's speech pattern reminds me of somebody, I can't quite place it...
Interestingly Katsushirou's the only one of the seven who gets, er, some.
I wonder if this will carry over to the series.
And the last line of the movie, which is supposedly very important to the TV plot, is: "The winners are those farmers, not us."
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at July 16, 2004 09:03 PM | Posted to Samurai 7
