Samurai 7



Samurai 7 is an anime remake of Seven Samurai, down to the names of the samurai.

Being an anime retelling, however, it also has Humongous Mecha that get cut in half with katanas.

It is far Better Than It Sounds.

When the Nobuseri bandits prey upon the village of Kanna, the poor villagers -- out of fear of starvation -- send their water priestess to the nearest city to hire as many samurai as possible to protect them. The villagers will offer the samurai all of the rice they can eat in exchange for their services, but what samurai would hire out their swords and their skill for rice?

In the aftermath of a devastating war, samurai strive to find meaning in their lives. It is through protecting the village of Kanna that the seven samurai who take up the villagers' offer find that meaning -- and more.

Now with a character page that needs some love.

This series has examples of the following:

 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: The katanas in this series cut mechas in half. That is only the start of things. The first cut you see in this anime is a mecha getting torn clean in half, interrupting its cannon fire. The second involves Kanbei diving off of a reconfigured mech sword made into a ship, plummeting down in complete freefall, and cleaving a battleship in half at the center. The notes for the show actually describe Kanbei's weapon as an anti-tank sword.
 * Adaptation Expansion
 * Affably Evil: Ukyo kind of qualifies. He makes some pretty amusing comments and has a certain foppish style and seems liked by his Paid Harem
 * Afraid of Blood: Implied with Heihachi, who has rather odd reactions whenever he gets cut.
 * Agent Peacock: Ukyo is one of these of The Chessmaster variety.
 * Ambiguously Brown: Kanbei and Gorobei who according to Word of God are supposed to have respectively Hispanic and African features.
 * Armor Is Useless: Lightweight mecha are cut down like flies by ordinary arrows.
 * Arrow Catch: done by Gorobei, both for entertainment and in battle.
 * Artificial Limbs: Shichiroji has an arm that is armor plated and shoots grappling hooks from the fingers
 * Audible Sharpness
 * Badass Longcoat: Kyuzo.
 * Badass Normal
 * Bamboo Technology: Heihachi's massive battleship-piercing crossbow. How did they find a tree so big to make the "arrow", it's not our business.
 * Barehanded Blade Block: This is rather justified and plausible since Kikuchiyo's sword is so wide Kambei can catch it without cutting his hands.
 * Because I'm Jonesy: How  knew Kanbei wasn't the one who killed the imperial envoy.
 * Beleaguered Assistant: Tessai to Ukyo who treats him like dirt.
 * Berserk Button: Normally, Heihachi is a happy-go-lucky pacifistic guy, but he really hates traitors.
 * Given that he used to be one, is infuriated whenever anyone acts oppresive or inconsiderate toward peasants
 * Ukyo really hates machine samurai.
 * BFG: The Benigumo (red ones) have shoulder compartments with basically a shotgun, with eight barrels. Four rows of two. And even the man portable ones are shoulder mounted and look more like WWII artillery.
 * BFS: Even those gundam sized mechs use both hands to use a large handle. About 40% of the sword is the handle. The red ones have a shield and a smaller sword, but it's still huge.
 * The mech swords even come equipped with jet propulsion and cockpits, to be used as emergency aircraft.
 * Bishonen
 * : This despite the fact the first to die in the original film was
 * Blade Brake - starting with Kambei in the first episode.
 * Bloodless Carnage: Most of the battles are like this due to the majority of the bandits being full body converted mecha. Even when human pilots are cut into pieces, the explosion of the mecha usually mask all the gore.
 * Bodyguard Crush
 * Boomerang Bigot:
 * Bratty Half Pint: There's two, though Okara is more of a brat than Komachi
 * Bring My Red Jacket
 * Broken Aesop: Kambei's famous last line, "The farmers have won. Not us." is said at the end with only a small fraction of the gravitas of the original, due to the differing characterisation of the villagers (who are shown to genuinely care for the samurai) and the overall shift in the tone of the story that places the samurai in a much more heroic light.
 * Bulletproof Human Shield: Subverted.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Mocked by Heihachi.
 * Allow me to introduce you to WOODCUTTER STYLE!
 * Used seriously by Shichiroji: "Secret Technique: Tatami Counter!"
 * Camp Straight: Ukyo
 * Catch a Falling Star
 * The Chessmaster: Ukyo
 * Chainsaw Good: Kikuchiyo's sword occasionally crosses into this.
 * Cool Sword
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Early attempts of the farmers to fight mecha with pitchforks and firewood axes result in this. Also leading to prime examples of There Is No Kill Like Overkill as the mecha respond by smashing the farmers with swords the size of your average train car.
 * The Dandy: Ukyo.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Okara.
 * : is a very clear-cut Type II
 * Death Seeker: Kambei
 * Debut Queue
 * Defector From Decadence: It's never stated outright, but besides seeing Kambei as a Worthy Opponent, Kyuzo seems to have joined the heroes based on disgust for the dishonorable behavior of his fellow samurai under Ukyo. Also, in a way the  qualify as well, since they turn out to be former samurai who chose a less villainous path than the Nobuseri.
 * Diagonal Cut
 * Disguised in Drag: Gorobei, Heihachi and Rikichi disguise themselves as "female" traveling performers. Heihachi actually kinda makes a cute girl, but the other two its more like Paper Thin Disguise
 * Early Bird Cameo: Gorobei is first seen as mere background character, smiling approvingly at how Kambei handles a hostage situation.
 * Enigmatic Minion
 * Expy: The Shikimoribito look like a taller version of Shy Guy.
 * Eyes Always Shut: Heihachi.
 * Facial Markings: Heihachi has two whisker like lines on each cheek also Ukyo has red squares on each cheek as do all his city guards
 * Field of Blades
 * First Girl Wins: Subverted and gender-flipped.
 * Five Man Band: Well, sort of. There's seven of them, but the principle is the same.
 * Foregone Conclusion: Toyed with but ultimately played straight.
 * Four Is Death:
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Heihachi.
 * Gas Mask Mooks: The Guardians/Shikimoribito.
 * Gonk: Lots of these, but especially the bad guys. Really, almost everyone who isn't a main character looks like they were beaten half to death with the Ugly Stick.
 * Grapes of Luxury: Ukyo does this a lot.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Several, but most notably
 * Hey Its That Voice: In the Funimation english dub, Komachi is voice by Sashi, her sister is voiced by Rachel Moore and Shichiroui is Chuck E Cheese.
 * Humongous Mecha: The Nobuseri use are mechs ranging from "bigger than a man" to "Gundam-sized".
 * Implausible Fencing Powers: To the max and beyond; samurai can slice anything, and deflect energy beams.
 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: In the English Dub, every episode title begins with "The."
 * Immortality Inducer: The throne that preserves the user's life.
 * Its Not You Its Me: At least two.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Kikuchiyo.
 * Katanas Are Awesome: Ironically, this is the exact opposite of the film the show was loosely based on where no amount of skill with a katana helped anyone against guns at range.
 * Kid Samurai: Katsushiro.
 * Kid With the Leash
 * Kill Em All
 * Losing Your Head: Kikuchiyo.
 * Love Triangle: Type 5 -- Katsushiro loves Kirara, Kirara loves Kambei, and Kambei acknowledges her feelings but doesn't reciprocate.
 * Magnificent Seven
 * Master Swordsman
 * May December Romance: Averted in the case of Kirara & Kambei.
 * Miniature Senior Citizens: primarily found in Kanna Village.
 * Miko: Kirara.
 * My Master Right or Wrong: Tessai in respect to Ukyo.
 * Names to Know In Anime: Romi Paku as Katsushiro, Takehito Koyasu as Ukyo, Fumiko Orikasa as Kirara.
 * As for the dub, we've got R Bruce Elliot as Kambei, Greg Ayers as Heihachi, Christopher R Sabat as Kikuchou, Colleen Clinkenberd as Kirara, Luci Christian as Komachi, J Michael Tatum as Rikichi
 * Neutral Female: Kirara.
 * No Transhumanism Allowed: Very much averted, although the thinking behind the trope is in play. The bandits have totally altered themselves and the mooks hunting the protagonists in early episodes also have significant (although much less) body modification. Pretty much, outside of Kikuchiyo, anyone with significant mechanization is probably a bad guy, although Shichiroji does have a robotic hand.
 * Not the Fall That Kills You: Averted in episode 2, by grabbing a falling elevator.
 * Offhand Backhand: Gorobei likes to do this a lot, only with stabbing.
 * Off Model: Conspicuously episode 7.
 * Episode 17 as well
 * One Man Army: Most of the samurai.
 * Precocious Crush: Komachi on Kikuchiyo, which also has elements of Cargo Ship.
 * Psychotic Smirk: Ukyo's satisfied expression, and it is creeeeepy!
 * Recycled In The Future!
 * Redemption Equals Death:
 * Retirony: Subverted with
 * The Rival: Kyuzo, to Kanbei.
 * Unstoppable Rage: Katsushiro has a fit of this shortly after the trauma of performing his first kill in combat. In the following battle he turns ape-shit and goes on an all out rampage, much to Gorobei's surprise.
 * Ronin: At least half the samurai who eventually join were wandering unemployed warriors before the farmers found them.
 * Rule of Cool:
 * the last third of the series is full of this, best exemplified by
 * "They also cut mecha in half with katanas."
 * Samurai: Naturally.
 * Schizo Tech
 * Spared By the Adaptation:
 * Subverted with
 * Stepping Stones in The Sky
 * Stockholm Syndrome: Rikichi's wife and
 * Survivor Guilt: Kambei
 * The Stoic: Kyuzo. It takes something seriously out of the ordinary to throw him off.
 * Take a Level In Badass: Rikichi goes from a somewhat pathetic, sniveling guy to a much more confident individual, who while no where near the samurai in fighting prowess, is a very effective part of the peasant rebellion.
 * Could also count for the title 7.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Kyuzo's only known motivation for joining the group is making sure Kambei lives long enough to finish their score.
 * Training the Peaceful Villagers
 * Transforming Mecha: The red ones turn from a disk/wheel thing into two humanoids.
 * Trojan Horse: used when some of the samurai hide in rice bales to sneak into an enemy base.
 * Unpronounceable Alias / Overly Long Name: Kambei is first seen resolving a hostage situation from Kikuchiyo's unwanted interference, under the name... Tenkaiheizaemon Yoshichika.
 * Unrequited Love Switcheroo
 * Variable Terminal Velocity
 * Vibroweapon: It's suggested that the samurai are able to cut through the giant Nobuseri by vibrating their swords (by hand, no less). It's noticeable when Kikuchiyo
 * Villain With Good Publicity:, complete with some good use of the New Era Speech.
 * Villainous Breakdown:  in the final episode, although unusually, this moment of insane ranting and violence is followed by him immediately returning to being eerily calm. And then, goes right back to crazy.
 * Wave Motion Gun: the Capital's main cannon annihilates the Lead Nobuseri, and a nameless mook.
 * Weapon Tombstone
 * Well Done Son Guy
 * Weapon Tropes: Kambei, Katsushiro, Gorobei, Heihachi - Absurdly Sharp Katana; Shichiroji - Blade On a Stick; Kikuchiyo - BFS, then regular swords (and tree/logs!) after his sword breaks; Kyuzo - Dual Wielding.
 * You Killed My Father: Parodied in the first episode. In order to create a distraction, Kambei accuses Kikuchiyo of being a samurai who killed his father, and Kambei claims to have trained for years and tracked him down before beheading Kikuchiyo (which had no real ill effect, because he's a cyborg).
 * Weapon Tropes: Kambei, Katsushiro, Gorobei, Heihachi - Absurdly Sharp Katana; Shichiroji - Blade On a Stick; Kikuchiyo - BFS, then regular swords (and tree/logs!) after his sword breaks; Kyuzo - Dual Wielding.
 * You Killed My Father: Parodied in the first episode. In order to create a distraction, Kambei accuses Kikuchiyo of being a samurai who killed his father, and Kambei claims to have trained for years and tracked him down before beheading Kikuchiyo (which had no real ill effect, because he's a cyborg).