Samurai 7 Review

Synopsis:  

What happens when bandits threaten your village?  You hire 7 badasses to defend it of course!  Samurai 7 is the anime remake of Akira Kurosawa's legendary Seven Samurai.  It follows a water priestess, her younger sister, and a helpful farmer as they try to recruit samurai to defend them from the "Nobuseri." They are samurai who have implanted their brains inside of giant mech bodies (that's right mechs!)  So anyway as the farmers try to find samurai various events occur like their rice being stolen, the priestess being kidnapped by a white faced man (at least I think he's a man), and get hunted down by imperial troops.  The first of the seven noble warriors they find is a child named Katsuhiro (pronounced Katshiro) who's goal is to be a true samurai.  Let me tell you this kid is insane... and then they recruit the fearless leader of the group, Kambei.  He's an older man who fought in the last war, and he also always on the losing side of a fight (which is brutally drilled into your head over and over.) and then the rest of the handy crew is assembled that includes everything from a street performer to a steam punk machine loud mouth.  After all seven have been assembled, its apparently time to turn a small farming village into a fortress of death and destruction.  And then war basically ensues for next 13 or so episodes. 

Plot:
 The driving force behind any show or movie, the plot.  And Samurai 7 is chock full of enough plot to satisfy even the most hard core novelist.  The story is essentially the same as the movie Samurai 7 is based on, there is death love, twists and turns blah blah blah.  To be honest it all felt very cliche of a story.  I honestly did not watch the original movie until I started watching this show.  And Akira Kurosawa's movie is amazing.  It is easily the best movie I have seen in a long time. And Samurai 7 had a lot to live up to.  And for the most part it does.  Many of the same events occur (changed slightly obviously) as well as a few new ones.  The problem is because Samurai 7 is a 26 episode series, there are some sections that became just too drawn out for its own good.  But all in all it has a solid story.

Sound:

I don't really know how to describe the soundtrack to this show.  It is orchestral mixed with traditional Japanese instruments.  And it can work and not work at times.  It adds to the mood quite well during the awesome sword play scenes, but when the show slows down the music tends to make it seem much slower and more boring then the scene really is.  

Look of the Show:

So now onto the part that can potentially make or break an anime, its look and style.  I'm gonna start by saying whoever thought up samurais and mecha together is a genius.  Combining my 2 favorite things into one basically turned this show into pron for me.  The Nobuseri are the mechs (shown below) and they are the antagonists for the majority of the show.  They are samurai who have taken their brains and inserted them into giant armored bodies. Score right? The funny thing is that the main samurai in the show destroy these guys left and right.  The actual look of the mecha is quite unique.  they seem like primitive version of mobile suits from some of the newer gundam series. 


The people also have a rather interesting look.  The show is definitely steam punk themed and they dress accordingly.  The coolest outfit in my opinion is worn by Kyuzo.  The last of the samurai to be recruited, and all around awesome dual sword user.  


As far as action sequences go, the show is very streamlined and smooth.  The fights themselves are like Samurai champloo.  Quick and little over the top movements.  But that's not saying there isn't some parts that are overplayed (it is an anime after all).  There is one episode that is extremely intriguing.  For whatever reason the show takes on a completely different look, almost like that of an american anime company similar to the Riddick anime.  Now alot of shows use this style, but normally its for fighting.  A great example is Naruto, many a time you will see the same style used I guess to save money.  And I actually have no problems with this particular art style... as long as things are moving.  In the more static scenes the art style is just well ugly as hell.  It's almost like after making the entire series the folks at Gonzo went, "Oh Shit we forgot a really important episode" and hired a cheaper company to pound out the show

Overall Rating: 10/10
Despite having a burst of bad animation the show does deliver on looks.  As well as a great story and well developed characters.  Basically you should watch this anime period.

Still workin out the Kinks!

Sorry for the delay on the music review.  I am still workin out the kinks and typos to make this place work best.  So you guys know, the Artist this week shall be Eyeshine! The review will be up by the end of the week as promised (most likely tomorrow).  Until then check out the reviews for the Anime (Code Geass) and Movie (Goemon) for this week.  Also check out my top 5 picks for best Zombie Flick!

Code Geass Review
Goemon Review
Top 5- Zombie Flicks

Again thank you for bearing with me Sympers,

-Your Symper Guru-
Carl Nevill

What Does Every Movie Need? Zombies Obviously Symper Top 5 - Zombie Flicks

#5- Night of the Living Dead

Now this movie is probably on every zombie movie countdown list known to man, several known to monkeys, and a few known to fish.  If you haven't seen the movie, or aren't up on your zombie movie lore then you probably don't understand why this is, and out of the goodness of my heart I shall edumicate you.  This recognized basically as the first zombie movie ever made, plain and simple as that.  It is the movie that now defines what the modern individual thinks of when they think "zombie." For the first time ever the "enemy" in a horror movie was your friends and family that you had been hunky dory with just a few hours before.  So this has to be in the top 5 just because without this movie we would have no other movies in this countdown.  All Hail Origins!  And the best part is this movie is available to watch for free on IMDB! So you don't have to download it or bootleg it.  Because we all know you do.

#4- Dawn of the Dead (2004)

This is the original zombie movie for me.  Dawn of the Dead turned me onto this style of movie and now has become an all time classic of mine.  A remake of the 1978 movie of the same name, this is chock full of plenty o' guts, blood, and injuries a zombie lover will want.  It's directed by Zach Snyder, who would later go on to direct 300 and Watchmen.  Dawn of the Dead is way better then those other films.  One of the best scenes in this movie is when the survivors of the zombie apocalypse try to escape the mall they are in,  and when they drive out in their super shuttles there is what only can be described as a sea of zombies.  And the remaining people have the same natural reaction anyone would have in their situation, start blowing zombies up with propane tanks.

#3- 28 Days Later

I have been in so many debates about this movie my head will explode.  This is technically not a zombie movie. But so many people think it is a zombie flick, I decided to put it on the list to please these people cause I love you guys (Also I don't want to get into this argument for the bajillionth time today).  This is not a zombie movie for 1 reason, a zombie is a person who has died and then comes back to life and starts munching away at everything it sees.  The ...infected... I will call them, are people who simply get blood/spit/bodily fluids of some sort from another infected into their bodies somehow.  There is no death involved.  The infected just become very VERY angry at the world.  And if you haven't seen this movie and you're a guy, your first thought is probably, "This sounds familiar... kinda like (insert girl's name of your choosing here) acts at that time of the month where I curl up in a fetal position and hide away like she is the boogey man," Well to be honest yeah it is kinda like that (That was a joke ladies).  The infected basically start acting like zombies and start attacking pretty much anything they can find.  So it is an understandable mistake, but never make it again.  Either way this is a great movie to check out.

#2- Shaun of the Dead

This movie is hilarious, enough said.  Okay okay I'll tell you more about it. But don't say I never did anything for you.  This is a British film written by Simon Pegg (Shaun) and the Director Edgar Wright.  This was an original of its own because it was the first movie really to put comedy into a zombie movie.  And you know what it... works great!  Shaun is a mild mannered salesman who has the same problems anyone else has.  But when a zombie outbreak is unleashed he uses his trusty Cricket bat to bash zombies in the head.  And if you don't know why they decide to bash them in the head, then you obviously have never seen any zombie movie ever. Now I will admit not all the jokes are for everyone, some a more geared towards people who are up on British humor (me not being one of them).  So some jokes kinda went over my head but I still found myself holding my sides from laughing so hard.  His Co-star, Nick Frost, I found at the heart of many of the better jokes. 

#1- Dead Snow (Dod Sno)

And now we reach the end of our journey drum roll please! Okay it doesn't work as well when you are just reading, actually that just seems dumb, I apologize.  My #1 zombie movie of all time is another foreign film called Dead Snow.  A Norwegian film about none other then Nazi Freakin Zombies! Why am I excited you ask? Because I may not like Call of Duty that much, but when I played the Nazi Zombies mode, my first thought was this would be an awesome movie.  Apparently Director Tommy Virtola had the same idea.  This movie's story isn't really that original.  College kids go on vacation, find cursed object, things come to kill them.  How many times has that been done in a horror movie? Well let us answer this.  How many horror movies you have seen? There's your answer.  But how many movies can you honestly say have nazi zombies? I'm betting pretty close to 0.  And that's a big chunk of the appeal to this movie.  But also as stereotypical as this movie's story is, I found myself interested in the lore of it.  If you have read some of my reviews you know I like when movies and shows integrate historical facts and put a twist on them.  The cursed objects in this movie are treasures stolen by the not so nice nazi brigade.  But you also find out the area was a testing sight for torture methods and things of that nature.  There is one scene that is quite awesome.  2 of the guys try to take on an entire group and actually succeed (but you know of course more show up).  But what really bugs me about this movie is something I find in a lot of zombie movies.  A character always ends up with this big ridiculous gun or a whole butt load of them for no reason at all.  And in this movie, one of the college kids (who are all studying to be doctors I might add) randomly has a huge machine gun hidden under the seat of his snowmobile.  And to add insult to injury what does he do?  He attaches it to the front of his snowmobile! I mean come on somethings are just dumb.  But besides this one random flaw, I really have nothing that bad to say about the movie and I suggest to everyone to check it out. Happy Hunting Sympers!

So here's my top 5 Zombie movies, what are yours? Comment and tell me Sympers

Goemon Review

Synopsis:

Goemon is a movie from the director of Casshern: Last Day on Earth, Kazuaki Kiriya.  It is a film filled with love, fighting, comedy, oh hell pretty much everything that can be in a movie other then zombie alien transvestite cyborgs.  But you never know, that could be the plot to his next movie.  Anyway... Goemon is the name of the protagonist.  He is a self proclaimed master thief, and later revealed to be all around badass ninja.  Now time to brush up on your history because this is a historical fiction movie.  The main plot of the movie revolves around the assassination of Oda Nobunaga, the man who basically thought up the idea to unify Japan.  After his death, his successor, named Toyotomi Hideyoshi, took over as ruler of Japan.  As the rift between rich and poor widens, Goemon takes it upon himself to become a regular robin hood.  He steals from the rich and gives it to the poor (but not without taking some off the top for himself.)  One thing he ends up stealing is a small box nicknamed "Pandora's Box."  After he opens it several unfortunate events start to occur.

Look/Lighting and Such:
I don't know if I can describe this one.  The word I can best use is divine.  I realize most of the backgrounds and such are digital, and I normally don't like that too much but Kiriya makes it work and then some.  There are some scenes in this movie where I almost started clapping at just how beautiful they were.  Now you're probably saying, "But Carl too much of a good thing can be overwhelming and just plain annoying," And you know what my response is?  ...I'll get back to you when I find a good one... But seriously there is so much beauty to be had here it's incredible and worth watching just for the visual amazement.

Now I'm not exactly a fashionista by any means.  If there is a nice outfit in a movie I may think oh that's cool and never mention it again (I still don't see what's so great about matrix leather trench coats).  So if I take the time to mention a great wardrobe, you better believe it has to be good.  Many of the outfits, like the story, are re-imaginings of classic Japanese kimonos and armor.  Many of them consist of eccentric neck or head pieces and are just out of this world on how good they look.  My personal favorite outfit in the movie was Nobunaga's armor.  He only wears 2 types of armor, a red one and more ceremonial silver/white armor. His army and himself all have a very western influence looking more like a Japanese man beat up a European knight, fixed up the armor and the trend spread among the troops.  And it works so well.  When he or Goemon has the red armor I could only think about how awesome he looked and kind of lost focus on what was going on in the story.

Plot:
Ah plot.  Like I said earlier this a historical fiction piece, and also like his last film, is based off an Anime.  Now I will tell you I never saw the original anime because I always thought Goemon looked like a Flintstones reject.  But I do know a bit about Toyotomi and Nobunaga and that time period.  If you know anything about Oda Nobunaga, you know he is not a very nice man.  He is known for being ruthless and cruel and his successor, Toyotomi, being the fluffy teddy bear ruler compared to him.  But this movie does a complete 180 on both personalities.  This movie makes Nobunaga out to be the nice guy and Toyotomi be the insane emperor.  Not to say this was a bad thing, actually I found this quite interesting.  I found the main plot to be a little stereotypical.  Basically it is all a giant revenge plot a decade or two in waiting.

What did interest me is this whole "Pandora's Box" motif they tried to weave into the story.  When Goemon first opens the blue box he steals, you soon find out it is considered "Pandora's Box." Naturally I was excited.  My first thought was "Okay sweet, weaving some mythology into this, Carl likey." But as the movie kept going it was a very long time before they even mentioned the box again.  So my problem with this motif was that it wasn't touched on enough to really be something to get overly excited about.  That being said, there is no lack of plot.  It is kinda like there is several very small motifs that are all tied together very well.  I actually found myself more interested in the origin of Goemon and how he meets Nobunaga than what was going on in the main story in the present.  Again its not breathtakingly original, basically Goemon's family is killed and Nobunaga finds him and takes him under his wing and he becomes a ninja, but it works.


Sound:
There is something I want to mention right off the bat.  There is something about traditional Japanese songs that give me a funny feeling.  Yes I mean haha funny but at the same time they are beautiful pieces of music.  I'm not making fun of them, its just when I hear the odd yelping and humming I do chuckle at first, but then I get into the song. Now there was a point to this.  Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu start to sing a traditional japanese song to honor the troops going to war or something like that..  And the song is (as you can guess by now) very very good.

And now that I have geeked about music lets get back to the important stuff... The rest of the soundtrack Goemon is very orchestral.  And if you read this week's review of Code Geass, you know I have no problem with this.  Orchestra was the beginning of rock (my favorite type of music) and should always be appreciated.  I also felt like the soundtrack took a bit of a back seat to everything else.  Between the visuals and the story, the soundtrack just wasn't that memorable to be honest.  And that really is a shame because it would have made the movie even more magical.

Overall Rating: 10/10
For once the quotes on the box don't lie.  This movie is stunning/astonishing/ however else you want to describe greatness.  With amazing visuals and a solid story this is a definite buy. Especially if you are like me and enjoy a re-imagining of history or another series.  The only thing I wish was that the soundtrack was a bit more assertive.  But either way, Kazuaki Kiriya keep up the good work my friend, and hat's off to your brilliance.  And i look forward to your future movies.

 
Goemon - Teaser

Code Geass/Code Geass R2 Review

Synopsis:
Code Geass is a Sci-fi/mech anime about a feud between a banished prince and the emperor of his homeland, Britannia. The series starts off by revealing that the nation of Britannia has invaded Japan with large mechs called Knightmares. After conquering Japan Britannia strips its citizens of their independance and renames Japan, Area 11 and its people 11's. The banished prince, Lelouch, is hiding with his sister in a Britannian Academy in Japan when he sneaks away to hustle men out of money in chess. Soon he finds himself caught in a fight between Britannian forces and Japanese radicals. While trying to escape he stumbles upon a secret military weapon, a young green haired girl named C.C.(pronounced C2 when the show is dubbed) who gives Lelouch the gift of Geass, the ability to make others follow his orders to the letter. Soon after Lelouch plans to use his power to overthrow the Britannian emperor by becoming the new leader of the rebel forces calling himself Zero. The series then follows Lelouch as he tries to keep his identity a secret, but at the same time lead Japan to a new peaceful world.

Art/Look of the Anime:
Anime is a form of art and this show proves that fact. This visually pleasing anime is probably one of the best and most unique I've seen. From the "beanstalky" people to the mechs and ships everything is crisp and clean. Some animes (especially mech animes) have an issue of reusing shots but this was not the case for this series. Every battle brings something new and usually a new mech or two. This series keeps wowing you with its visuals until the very last episode.

Plot:
This turned out, surprisingly, to be a very interesting story. When I watched the first couple episodes I felt like I knew exactly where the series was going. I thought it was going to be the typical hero rises from the ashes starts kicking some ass and makes everyone happy. But its actually quite different. Lelouch himself doesn't actually do much fighting, he is the brains of the operation after all. But the devious plots he concocts using his geass (a power that lets him have mind control over people he makes eye contact with) as well as those around him seem to just get more and more intense. At one point I found myself thinking "How the Sam hell could one kid think of all this himself?" But the best part is just when you think you've figured out his plan of action the plan goes in a completely different direction. As far as character development is concerned I was intrigued by the depth that the series went into. Whether it was a blood thirsty warrior or the most gentle girl in the world, I found there was at least some small connection I could make with them. The way they also show the little quarks of the characters is very genuine too. Sometimes it really is the imperfections that make us who we are and the series captured that perfectly.

Sound:
The soundtrack to this show is amazing. From the opening theme to the ending, the soundtrack continues to amaze me. Its very orchestral which can sometimes be a bit boring after awhile but the show will throw in a bit more rock, making battles seem truly epic. As far as the dubbed versions go this wasn't really that bad. Of course I always recommend subbed versions just because you get the full experience of the anime the way it was meant to be experienced, which maybe lost sometimes when its dubbed in English. But it wasn't ear shattering when you feel a bit lazy and don't feel like reading.

Mech Designs:
I am a sucker for mech animes. Anything with any sort of giant robot action gets a plus in my book and Code geass delivers way past what it needed to. Throughout the show the mechs evolve in complexity. At first they can't fly and can barely be agile except for a few extraordinary ones but then while the series goes on the Knightmares get flying and more destructive weapons as well as getting faster in general. The mech fights maybe a tad boring but by the end of the first season you get that rush of awesomeness everyone looks for in a mech anime. 
And then it builds on that even more in the second season, so by the end of the show you will see some of the best mech fights you will get to see. Along with the evolving mechs they also have a unique design to begin with. Most of them are bipeds and have a soldier like design. All knightmares also have wheels which enable to do some pretty impressive maneuvers up walls and in tunnels. Another interesting feature I though was a grappling hook like device dubbed a "Harkon" in which the Knightmares use to scale walls, disarm enemies, and use as a back up weapon.



Overall Rating: 9/10
Overall this is a very well put together anime with a great plot and even better look. The only reason this didn't get a full 10/10 is that the endings to the seasons just seem to end. They spend episode after episode building these epic scenarios up for them to just end, 20 minutes into a single episode. Also at some point it's sort of like the creators got bored with the current situation and just decided to switch something else.
***Spoiler*** (like lelouch randomly coming back and claiming the throne of Britannia and Suzaku is all buddy buddy with him suddenly.)
But even with the random switching I do recommend this series to anyone who wants a good in depth anime to watch with some awesome fight scenes and a great story.

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