Samurai Gun Volume 1 DVD Review
© Holly Ellingwood
Ichimatsu hates his day job. He's in love with a prostitute. He's a trained killing machine. His life is a bloody mess. He is...Samurai Gun!
It's the beginning of the industrial revolution and feudal Japan is in turmoil. The ruling Shogun are wielding their abusive powers to instill fear and dominance over their oppressed subjects.
A group of Samurai have banded together and with the development of new weapons and new technology, they have both the will and the hardware to stand up and fight.
Review:
If you've been longing for some serious hard core samurai anime, look no further. Samurai Gun has it all; blood, guts and more. This 13 episode series starts off with a violent bang in the first volume showing us a corrupt world that protects heinous murderers, slavers and worse, all for greed, power and debauchery. Ichimatsu is a man drenched in blood and haunted by a tragic past, yet no matter how much he aches for a life of peace, he cannot let the terrible crimes condoned by the government go unanswered. Sick of death but even more sickened by the vile acts of those he encounters, Ichimatsu picks up his gun again. And if he can't mete out justice, he will at the very least avenge those who were made to suffer.
Samurai Gun is a compelling tale. Though it has similarities in being a historic epic the likes of Rurouni Kenshin, Peacemaker Kurogane, and Samurai Champloo (all of which are set during the same time period in Japan), this new release from ADV doesn't pull its punches with any humor or light hearted antics amidst the grim realities of the age. This is a no-holds-barred anime whose subject matter is as hard hitting as the bullets from Ichimatsu's gun. It has a solid animation style, though not as slick as some TV series I've seen, it holds up nicely with strong line art and good use of shadows. The English voice talent was superb for the characters. I did notice that there were some differences between the English dialogue and the English subtitled version but the spirit of the dialogue remained the same. The hard rock opening theme does a nice job of setting up the hard edge of the series.
I give this anime a well-earned 8/10 kendo swords. It's been a long time since I've seen an unapologetic ruthless action set in feudal Japan like this since Ninja Scroll the movie.
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