December 27, 2004
Samurai 7 ends
The last 2 episodes of Samurai 7 aired on Saturday, and the raws are now available. I've been waiting for these, because now I can start watching again. I almost wish I didn't know how the movie ends because this made me leery of watching after the attack on the village began until I had all the episodes (I detest cliffhangers!). I wonder what other surprises await. and I hope it's worthy. (and I hope they didn't subcontract the animation to a bunch of kindergarteners again.)
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
November 01, 2004
huh. that was easy.
So I decided to buy the legal Samurai 7 OST CD despite the CCCD copy protection on it.
Turns out that "copy control" is a joke. It is hilariously easy to circumvent, and hence it wouldn't bother the pirates a bit. More importantly, it pisses off honest people who actually shell out to buy the legal album. Avex nearly didn't get my money because of this. It's a good thing they've reversed their policy.
I'm not going to explain how I did it, since it would be obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together - and it's not that hard to figure out.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2004
next Samurai 7
Episodes 15 and 16 will air on October 9 [this link good till 10/16]
must not get used to this. must not get used to this.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2004
Sony, Avex turn away from dark side
Happy news from Japan! Music giants Sony and Avex have realized that the CCCD format (copy controlled CDs) is not good for business and are ceasing production in that format. It remains to be seen if this applies only to new releases or if they will re-release previous CCCD releases in regular CD format.
(errata: Avex, not Sony, is the producer of the (previously anticipated and complained about) Samurai 7 Image CD. hence why I care.)
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 05:27 PM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2004
Samurai 7 Licenced
Well, it was just a matter of time. Funimation announced that they had Samurai 7 at Anime Weekend Atlanta, and all the fansubbers working on it immediately closed up shop.
Funimation is... well... not the worst company that could have picked up Samurai 7. (Although I'm surprised that out of the presumably many moneyed bidders, they could have afforded it. I wonder how many employees' firstborn have been promised to Sony.) I personally would have preferred someone like Geneon or Bandai to pick it up as they seem to have a clue about authenticity, but I'm hoping that Funimation does a Fruits Basket on this one. (I'm getting a tad worried that the only series that I can point out as a Good Example of Funimation Not Screwing Up is Fruits Basket.) I can't see how they can local-ize such a thoroughly Japanese series, though, so I'm guessing they'll play it straight. I hope.
Anyway, 11-12 as good a place to stop, seeing as the 7 samurai have been gathered and are at the village. I really don't see how this could diverge any more from the movie plot. so for all those complaining that Funimation has somehow "deprived" them of their right to fansubs, well.... go rent the movie. Heck, go buy it. It's GOOD.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2004
SAMURAI 7 Vol.2 solicitation
CD Japan is taking preorders for SAMURAI 7 Vol.2. Katsushirou is on the cover. The art style is vaguely reminiscent of Yoshitoshi ABe - but fate isn't that nice.
The DVDs appear to be coming out monthly, but at 2 episodes per disc and 5700yen (about $53) a pop - and R2 on top of that - I am going to pass, thanks.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2004
Samurai 7 schedule settles down. I think.
Well, based on the SkyPerfect schedule, it looks Samurai 7 is on a more regular biweekly schedule now. (This link good till 10/02.) I wish my Japanese was better so I could read the site and be sure. But anyway, the next 2 episodes (13 & 14) will be aired on Sept 25. wheee.
...I wonder if Japan has the equivalent of sweeps in the US?
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)
September 17, 2004
UNLIMITED single release
Ask and ye shall receive.... The UNLIMITED[Aikawa Nanase Official Website] single will be released 9/29 along with the Samurai 7 image album. There's something very Zen about the cute little bunny rabbit on the cover.:)
On another note, despite the Samurai 7 site being all Flash, I like the background music, especially the drums.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2004
Samurai 7 11 & 12
Poor Katsushirou. Didn't anybody tell him when he first took up the sword what it was actually for?
But I am ahead of myself. So. The gang finally arrive at Kanna to a less than cheery welcome. As in the movie, certain of the villagers have convinced the others that the samurai are just as bad as the Nobuseri (and the addition of a visit from the Nobuseri didn't help any). Kikuchiyo cheerfully flushes them out, along with - Uh oh. Shino. Frankly I didn't expect her to show up in this, but... well... gwah. And just when things were finally getting cozy between Katsushirou and Kirara, too. 
I also wasn't expecting Heihachi to be quite so ...vengeful (and I hope that what I think I saw isn't actually what I thought I saw
). And it's nice - I think - to see that time and space hasn't changed Manzou. He's a lot uglier than I remember, though.
Episode 12 picks up directly from where episode 11 leaves off, which is a first. Katsushirou has drawn first blood, and he's not real happy about it. For the first time, Kanbei shows a glimmer of the fatherly warmth that Takeshi Shimada brought to the movie Kanbei, both to Katsushirou and to Kikuchiyo - and then proceeds to unite the village as! An! ARMY! Of! ...A LOT!!! (Hmmm. maybe that's why Kanbei is hard for me to like... he does the whole declarations and orders thing in an arrogant kind of way, whereas movie Kanbei's orders were more like suggestions that you darn well better follow if you want to stay alive.)
I'm really quite enjoying how, with more time to devote to character development, each samurai's personality has been upped a couple of notches. In the movie, only Kanbei and Katsushirou (and Kikuchiyo, of course) had any real personality. The others were one-notes - Gorobee was the cheery one, Heihachi was the good-humored one (it was sometimes difficult to tell them apart), Shichiroji was Kanbei's right hand man, and Kyuuzou was the badass. Here, Gorobee is a street entertainer/adrenaline junkie, Heihachi is a happy-go-lucky engineering marvel with a steel-cold soul, Shichiroji has built a happy civilian life, and Kyuuzou is... a badass with style. At the same time, I'm trying really hard not to get too attached to anybody, because I have no idea how this will turn out. From this point on, the body count will start to rise... and even a samurai is not immune to death.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2004
oh those sneaky sneaky media megacorporations
So I went on CDJapan to see if I could preorder the SAMURAI 7 Image Album. And it turns out that it's a copy-protected CD. So even if I pay legal tender to legally own a legal copy of the legal CD, I can't copy the tracks to my MP3 player to avoid having to lug around my CD player.
So I guess I'm not buying it after all.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 04:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2004
different strokes for different folks
Woohoo! My favorite group finished ep 12 of Samurai 7!!! Now I can download it. I know that other group's had 12 out for a day now, but honestly, I like my favorite group (I'll call 'em group L) better.
Last weekend my anime club started showing the other group's (I'll call them group K) subs, and.... while their translation is decent enough, it just didn't have the personality that group L has. For one thing, group L takes care to keep speech patterns as close as possible to the original. If a character speaks broken Japanese, the subtitles are broken English. If someone speaks formally, then the subs are poshed up. More importantly group L seems to have native fluency in both Japanese and English, so their translations flow naturally without sounding stilted or, well, "translated."
I bring this up due to some people's complaints that group L were incompetent because they hadn't been proofreading some of their subs - namely the Kanna farmers' dialogue. This had made me ROTFL because, if anything, it proves that L is doing a good job. If the English were not deliberately broken, it wouldn't be as properly spelled as it is. And if Samurai 7 were licenced, this is what I would want - expect - the professional company to do. Of course there are the occasional typos, but group L's consistent competence makes me more forgiving.
In any case, I don't mind waiting a little longer and being a little bit behind the folks watching group K's subs, because in the long run, I get the better experience. And I also wouldn't ask the anime club to change the subs they're showing because, well, I have the good ones at home.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)
Samurai 7 9 & 10
Was gonna do another 4-pack but my favorite subbers ran into a little hitch. So it's just 9 & 10.
Read more of "Samurai 7 9 & 10" [possible spoiler alert!]
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2004
Samurai 7 11 & 12 this weekend
...according to the SkyPerfect site. It looks like they changed the airtime though. This is kind of unusual, since the last 2 episodes were 2 weeks ago and the previous 2 were 2 weeks before that.
Not that I'm complaining.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 01:11 AM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2004
dissonance
Hm. I finally got my hands on the (a?) full version of Unlimited, but as far as I can tell, the lyrics in the TV-size version aren't even in it. Usually when a pop song is adapted for OP they take a verse and the chorus, but in this case they just took the tune. Most odd. Hope they'll issue the TV-size as a single or a track on the OST (I think it's too much to hope for them to record a full-size TV version).
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2004
Kikuchiyo-size Samurai 7 review!
Now that I've shaken the dust of Otakon off my shoes, it's time to gather my thoughts about the past 4 episodes of Samurai 7.
As predicted in the preview for episode 5, Heihachi is next to join the merry band. His intro is almost word for word with the movie (except for the fact he's cutting wood with his actual sword - tsk!).
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However, as the Kirara-ikkou welcome their 5th samurai, things take an unexpected twist in episode 6 as the Imperial messenger is murdered in Maro's palace. The murder weapon is, conveniently, a katana - which gives Maro the perfect excuse to round up all the samurai in town, dead or alive. Kikuchiyo proves once again that being nigh indestructible sure helps. Meanwhile, Kirara falls off something again (someone tether that girl down!), and this time it's Katsushirou to the rescue. He's clearly getting better at this defending stuff. Will she start to warm up to him?
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I found this interesting because it shows that Heihachi's little paper doll has a sarcastic little face. (No, he doesn't always have a little Kikuchiyo on there! geez!)
See, those little dolls are usually hung from the eaves to ask for rain or shine (Upside down asks for rain, head up asks for sunshine); usually they don't have faces. I guess it shows Heihachi's warped sense of humor at work.
Episode 7 brings in Shichiroji, and .... a new OP sequence! And it's definitely an improvement over the first one, which looked like it was thrown together at the last minute from what footage existed when someone realized "oh yeah, we need something to go under the opening song." 
The animation style went wacky in the first ten minutes, too - I'm not sure if it was supposed to convey the dreamlike state of that particular region, or if the animation QA was just asleep at the wheel. (cf Animation Runner Kuromi 2.) It's as if they were going for the effect of that episode of Samurai Champloo when the marijuana fields were set on fire and everything went groooooovy. I can't figure out if they did it on purpose because the keyframes are still one's and two's.
Shichiroji's situation is interesting. He's the only one who built a life, whereas the other samurai seem content to be drifters. The producers better give him the same ending as movie Shichiroji.
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Does everyone except Kirara think that she and Katsushirou would make a cute couple? Poor Katsu-no-oji. For a chick magnet he's really not very experienced at this ladies' man business.
And I'm not putting in any screencaps of the bath scene because this isn't that kind of blog.
Episode 8 serves to illustrate, once again, that this series is not so much a remake of the movie than it is a deconstruction and reassembly. They've managed to keep the main plot points fairly consistent, while introducing new and intriguing plot elements to stretch the 2-hour movie plot out to 10+ hours. Plus whoever's designing the production is definitely channelling the Star Wars prequel production designers - in a good way.
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(Is it unfair of me to suggest that if Lucas had brought in some real manga and anime writers to work in Episodes 1 and 2, those films might not have reeked as much? But I digress.)
So our heroes, still on the run (I like how I can actually differentiate between the parts of the run), escape to an underground city where even Maro's men don't dare follow. (Well, maybe Ukyou would. But he's dumb.) For the first time we get an inkling that the Nobuseri might not be completely invincible, which is balanced with an unnerving display of just how deeply they've managed to intimidate the farmers. Oh yeah, first blood is drawn from the samurai ranks, and poor Katsushirou gets the short straw. Because of this (or maybe in spite of it) Kanbei finally deigns to accept him into the ranks.
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Now, since Katsushiro, Kanbei and Kikuchiyo were drafted in episode 1, Gorobee was picked up in episode 3, Heihachi shows up in episode 5, and Shichiroji joins up in episode 7, Kyuuzou should finally turn in episode 9.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2004
Flash is evil
Oh cripes. The official SAMURAI 7 site has relaunched and it's now all Flash all the time. Before, at least I could count on the status bar to give me at least a clue about what I was clicking on, but now I am practically blind. What's more, they've replaced some of the kana with kanji, so I'm really struggling with reading now.
Oh well, I guess I'll just have to memorize where everything is and hope they don't redesign again.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)
August 11, 2004
Samurai Seven 7 & 8 this weekend!
Wai! Spoilerstuff for episodes 7 and 8 are up on the official site! No screencaps though. Either Gonzo is behind, or they're trying to keep something under wraps (like, oh... someone's return?) Or they saw my last post about spoilers.
At last count:
Katsushirou, Kanbei, Kikuchiyo, Gorobei, Heihachi, and Kyuuzou (eventually). Just Shichiroji to go!
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2004
What it sez
Turns out that little bit of script on the still between Samurai 7 twofers means roughly "Samurai 7 immediately after this." (kono ato sugu)
GONZO, still having fun. (That's a little Kikuchiyo keychain hanging off of Heihachi's sword hilt.)
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2004
Samurai 7 - 7/24 Episode Previews
Whee! Previews and synopsis of episodes 5 and 6, to air this Saturday, are now available.
I just love how the Japanese anime sites have absolutely no reservations about giving out spoilers. My kind of people.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2004
Aha!
Kikuchiyo reminds me of Gimli!
...what?
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
expressing myself
In case you haven't noticed, I got smilies.
Also, some say Kyuuzou looks like Spike Spiegel, but I think he really looks like the DNA recombination of Vash the Stampede and that chick from Blade Runner.
YMMV...
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
SAMURAI 7 Image Album in September
Listing from CD Japan: SAMURAI 7 Image Album to be released 9/29. Apparently it will have 7 songs by 7 artistes.
...Yes yes, very nice. But when's the freakin' full-sized OP single coming out??!!!
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)
Samurai 7 4
At this rate there isn't going to be much city left when Kirara's done gathering all seven samurai. Good thing Kikuchiyo's there to clean up the mess.
And I was right about Katsushirou.
And Kirara.
Poor Katsushirou.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)
When samurai universes collide, niiban
For the record, here are the names of the samurai, in order of recruiting.
| Movie Kanbei - the leader Katsushirou* - the young one Gorobei - "You jest!" Shichiroji - Kanbei's right hand man Heihachi - the lighthearted one Kuuzyou - the stern one Kikuchiyo - the different one | TV (so far) Katsushirou** Kikuchiyo Kanbei Gorobei Heihachi*** Shichiroji Kuuzyou is most likely to be the last. |
*Technically Katsushirou doesn't officially become one of the seven till the others talk Kanbei into accepting him, which is just before Kuuzyou joins up.
**Katsushirou is the first to join Kirara's group, and because this time Kirara's doing the recruiting, Kanbei's opinion doesn't count.
***Heihachi was spotted in the preview for episode 5 but not Shichiroji.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)
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 09:03 PM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2004
Samurai 7 3
First, a correction - I originally thought that none of the Samurai 7 seemed to be direct parallels of the original Shichinin. I decided to take a look at the original cast list again, and it turns out that their names are the same. Most tellingly, Kikuchiyo was the not-quite-samurai played by a young Toshiro Mifune. I knew there was something special about that boy.
Anyhoo. Episode 3.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)
GONZO having too much fun:)
Episode 3's "next time"* picture.:D
*at least I think that's what it says. I can't make out the middle kanji.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 07:20 PM | Comments (0)
Me want Samurai 7 DVD
According to the Samurai 7 Website, the first 2 episodes of Samurai 7 (unusually generous for a Japanese anime DVD) will be released on DVD Sept 29. There will be a special edition with goodies (about 8000 yen) and a regular disc-only edition (about 6000 yen). At this point it does not look like it will have English subtitles. (I base this on the lack of the kanji for "eigo" on the page.:) )
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2004
Samurai 7 1-2
But does it work? Well, the first few seconds looked like Last Exile and Sakura Taisen collided in mid-air and landed on the Princess Mononoke set. At first glance it's obvious that Gonzo's trying hard - maybe too hard - to create an epic. However, Kirara's quest is noble, and the samurai so far are all colorful and interesting. Kanbei - a cross between Qui-Gon Jinn and Han Solo - is clearly meant to be the lead, and Katsushirou's endearing in a puppyish kind of way, but the crotchety robot Kikuchiyo is by far the most fascinating. In a way he's symbolic of the entire universe that the series is set in. So, yes, it's worth following - just to see what else they come up with. (There's presumably loads of info on the official Samurai 7 site but it's all in Japanese.)
So with an impeccable pedigree, lush production values, and a strong start, the only thing that could hurt Samurai 7 is its insane broadcast schedule - depending on who you talk to, it's two episodes every other Saturday, or alternating two and four weeks between 2-episode blocks. And I thought Chrno Crusade's broadcast schedule was random. In any case, this show will have its work cut out for it just to hold on to an audience.
But despite all the hallmarks of a quality series, I think that the major R1 studios will take a while to decide if they will licence it - at a rumored $300k per episode, it's going to be an expensive investment.
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Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
