Usually I am not a fan of remakes, but I did enjoy the Magnificent 7, the western adaption of Akira Kurosawa’s masterwork THE SEVEN SAMURAI. And I did enjoy this re-interpretration of the classic story, though it is a bit surreal. In this Samurai are really supermen that can deflect huge cannon shots with their swords, and their are legions of giant robots, that samurai can dispatch with ease, even though they have powerful weapons. I liked the characters and enjoyed the update.

Kanna Village is being attacked by bandits called Nobuseri, the aforementioned giant robots, who are not in fact bandits, but are actually working for the great lord of all the land. THe priestess of the village (a new character) Kirara, and her little sister Komachi head out with the villager Rikichi to hire samurai with only rice as payment. They manage to find Kanbee a great warrior who attracts the other 7, Gorobei an ex samurai and now street performer, Heihachi, a wood chopper and mechanic, Kikuchiyo a mechanized samurai who was once a villager, Katsushirou a young and untested samurai who could be a love interest for Kirara if he would let himself, Shichirouji, Kanbee’s old adjutant, and Kyozo, who starts out as an enemy, but helps because he wants to fight with Kanbee after all of this is over, he seems the most skilled of all. And then it gets mixed up with political intrigue, and a clone of the leader is named the successor, and kills the leader, and decides to take out all samurai and nobuseri, as well as any farmers who have learned to take up arms.

An enjoyable series, and well done, though some of the strange slow downs in fights were a little annoying. I do enjoy Gonzo’s stuff though.