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 farbetter 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.
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 and he turns out to be a quite cunning villain
Afraid of Blood: Implied with Heihachi, who has rather odd reactions whenever he gets cut.
Berserk Button: Normally, Heihachi is a happy-go-lucky pacifistic guy, but he really hates traitors because he was one during the recently ended war, and it resulted in his whole unit being killed.
Given that he used to be one, Kikuchiyo 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.
Bittersweet Ending. Most samurai die, but the village is saved and villagers celebrate their victory with the survivng samurai and Kanbei, Katsushiro, and Shichiroji move on with their own lives, which isn't too bad. Also, Kirara is written off as unfit for being a priestess, Katsushiro is alienated from her and Kanbei adds yet another defeat to his already long list.
Black Dude Dies First: This despite the fact the first to die in the original film was Heihachi
Blade Brake - starting with Kambei in the first episode.
Blood Less 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.
Boomerang Bigot: Heihachi hates traitors, though he was a traitor himself. This is likely because he himself was a traitor. He is militant about it due to unresolved guilt.
Bratty Half-Pint: There's two, though Okara is more of a brat than Komachi
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.
Bullet Proof Human Shield: Subverted Katsushiro accidentally kills Kyuzo when firing a machinegun at a soldier in front of him, as the bullets go right through the soldier into Kyuzo.
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 Over Kill as the mecha respond by smashing the farmers with swords the size of your average train car.
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 Guardians qualify as well, since they turn out to be former samurai who chose a less villainous path than the Nobuseri.
Did Not Get the Girl: Though Kambei silently acknowledges Kirara's love for him, it's never outright stated, and she remains in the village while he leaves for further adventures. Katsushiro fills Kambei's role in the original, but in this adaptation it is left ambiguous to what extent Kirara returned his feelings.
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.
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. Though they die in a different order, the same four samurai who perished in the original bite it here too.
Four is Death: There are Seven main characters but only three survived.
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.
Heroic Sacrifice: Several, but most notably Kikuchiyo, who'd been able to survive all previous injuries due to his mechanical body. After the flying-battleship Imperial Capital is disabled and crashes to earth, Kiku prevents it from careening into Kanna Village by picking up one of the giant Nobuseri swords and standing in front of it to slow it down. His ultimate fate? Being melted down into near-nothingness; only his feet remain.
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.
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.
Redemption Equals Death: Heihachi and to some extent Kyuzo, although he never mentions his past.
Retirony: Subverted with Shichiroji, whose introduction gives all of the classic signs of retirony — he goes on one last mission with his old friend before returning home to get married. Surprisingly, he survives.
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.
the last third of the series is full of this, best exemplified by Katsushiro stopping a blast of the Imperial Capital's main cannon with only his katana.
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. In the beginning of the series, guns were still a major threat and only Gorobei was fast enough to deflect or dodge bullets casually. In the final assault on the Capital, once the remaining Samurai have resolved themselves to a Suicide Attack... Kanbei, Kyuzo and even Kikuchyo are swatting away hails of projectiles straight up Jedi style.
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.
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.
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 uses a Nobuseri blade to stop the falling capital.
Villain with Good Publicity: Ukyo's whole plan involves becoming one of these, which he starts doing once he reveals his true intelligence/becomes Emperor, complete with some good use of the New Era Speech.
Villainous Breakdown: Ukyo 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.
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).
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