Comic Book Resources

Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: Samurai 7

Samurai 7
Original Story by Akira Kurosawa; Illustrated by Mizutaka Suhou; Translated and Adapted by Yoko Kubo
Del Rey; $10.99

Another manga review this week, but this one’s especially pleasant to write. I knew I had a pretty good chance of liking Anne Freaks because I bought it myself based on the concept. Samurai 7 was sent by the publisher though and that’s more risky. I fail to connect with the vast majority of manga (and of books in general, for that matter) that I’m sent from various sources, but that means that when something hits just right it’s a wonderful surprise. And that’s Samurai 7.

I should start with the admission that I’m not all that familiar with Japanese arts and that includes the films of Akira Kurosawa. I appreciate Japanese film; I just haven’t exposed myself to a lot of it yet. I haven’t even seen The Magnificent Seven, much less The Seven Samurai. I know the basic plot, but the closest I’ve gotten to seeing it played out onscreen is in The Three Amigos with its singing bush and plethora of piñatas. I’m so not capable of comparing Samuai 7 – a space opera adaptation of Seven Samurai – to its source material. I’ve got to judge it solely on whether or not it’s entertaining all by itself.

Even if you’re as unfamiliar with Kurosawa as I am, you know the plot. A poor village is plagued by repeated bandit attacks and hires a group of warriors to fight off the bad guys. In Samurai 7 the village is represented by a young girl named Kirara, her even younger sister, and a middle-aged farmer named Rikichi. They go to the big city to see if they can find some out of work samurai to help them. Since the end of the Solar System-wide war that nearly destroyed Earth, a lot of warriors are unemployed, but most of the samurai that Kirara and Rikichi encounter are just as bad as the bandits back home. That is until Kirara meets a runaway named Katsushiro who desperately wants to be a samurai and is willing to pretend he is in order to get to know Kirara better.

Most of the first volume takes place in the city as Katsushiro helps the villagers find more warriors. Their first find is the disembodied head of a former battle-robot, who’s similar to Katsushiro in that both of them want to help more than they’re able. Katushiro is physically capable, but lacks experience. The robot (named Kikuchiyo by Kirara’s sister) knows how to fight, but can’t without a body.

It’s a slow start to building a team, but it’s a start and together the group is able to recruit a genuine, but reluctant samurai named Kambei who lost all confidence in himself during the war. Once they talk him into it though, it’s relatively easy for them to find the remaining four members of the team.

The last four members all have specialties and distinct personalities that make them interesting, but it’s Katsushiro, Kikuchiyo, and Kambei who are the most fascinating. All of them are wounded in different ways and to different effects; each of them has a chance at being healed through the adventure ahead.

I wish all the major characters’ names didn’t start with “K,” but it looks more confusing in text than it is in the comic. Mizutaka Suhou makes it very easy to keep everyone separate, even as he’s making the entire story funny and exciting. The scenery is a pleasant blend of traditional Japanese and big-budget space opera. The action is fluid and effortless to follow. Character designs are cute, humorous, or way cool depending on need. There’s plenty of butt-kicking, head-whomping, and dismembering going on in town, but once the samurai get to the village for their first confrontation with the bad guys, the action becomes downright thrilling.

I also have to mention the translation by Yoko Kubo, because I suspect that that’s often a major factor in my disappointment with most manga. In Samurai 7, people talk like real people and have distinct voices. There’s also none of the usual, unnecessary exposition as characters over-explain what they’re doing and how they feel about it. I never know how much of that is dependent on the original writer, how much is influenced by the translator, or how much is due to my reading too much manga intended for younger readers. Whatever the normal cause, Samurai 7 isn’t suffering from it.

Five out of five disembodied robot heads.