What’s the first thing you think of upon hearing about an anime series titled “Samurai Gun“? Do you picture something awesome? Do instantly picture it sucking? Will it be a comedy? Will it rock?
Strangely enough, I didn’t really think about the name too much. I mean, Rachel said “This will suck”, but I was interested in it because there was a cool gun-toting dude with one eye. Let’s face it: eyepatches are cool.
Unfortunately I learned that eyepatches aren’t cool enough to make a series great. Let me explain why (without giving away much of anything):
THE PREMISE:
Samurai Gun’s premise is basically this – with the introduction of firearms in Japan, there was a group determined to topple the Edo government. They somehow “created a new breed of samurai” (that should have been in the marketing) to help bring the government down. The main dude is named Ichimatsu – he has one eye (but isn’t the only eye-patch-wearing samurai gun).
The whole “samurai with guns” angle just doesn’t sit well. The Samurai Guns don’t display any samurai traits – they’re more like superheroes than anything else. Had they made fun of the contrast of samurai/guns, the show might have had a lot more life. Instead, it’s terribly humorless and there really aren’t any characters that we get to know (in order to have much sympthy for).
The show pretty much ends without any resolution (whoops minor spoiler). So what could have easily been a complete series just kinda fades away at the end. Just about the time I started feeling a little closer to the characters, the show was over.
DUB OR SUB:
So I wasn’t really feeling the series – not only due to the story, but alsoy due to a TERRIBLE dub. I don’t mean ‘exaggerated’ – I’m not complaining about the voice actor’s skill. What I mean is that in the dub, the characters curse like crazy. I mean, it was kinda shocking. They say stuff that makes no sense and it felt like something was missing…
From what I understand, the Japanese language doens’t really have curse words. So I KNEW they were making the stuff up in english. Also, the way they talked was very ‘western action movie hero-ish’. I don’t really know how to explain it – it seemed like the english dub writers were trying to appeal to the stereotyped “violent action movie fan” in a way.
So Rachel made it through episode 2 when she threw in the towel. I completely understand why – the way the series started was very “off-putting” but I wanted to give it a chance (I’m always optimistic). A week later I tried episode 3 but decided to do a little experiment. We tried this on “Requiem From the Darkness” and it worked wonders: switch to subtitles and listen to it in Japanese.
And you know what? It worked (like usual). The show immediately got better. Now I’m not particular when it comes to sub vs. dub debates. I can honestly say that whatever makes the show stronger is the way to go. I was actually drawn into the series (rather than ditching it) thanks to the drastic change in translation.
THE LOOK:
The series has a very clean look, although for some reasons the lines can be kinda “wobbley” sometimes. The backgrounds look very good, but I wasn’t crazy about the character designs of the “Samurai Guns” themselves. They look kinda like Gonzo from The Muppet Show 
.
THE SOUND:
I can remember nothing about the music or sound. And I just finished the series this week. Is that bad? Does that mean it’s not memorable? I guess.
OVERALL:
I wouldn’t recommend Samurai Gun – mostly due to the fact that it feels very incomplete. At 12 episodes length with an additional ‘unaired’ story (that takes place roughly around episode 9), there’s a ton of things left hanging around. If the show had a bit more sense of humor about it and the dub were closer to the original dialog, in addition to wrapping up the story it might have been a more interesting anime series.
If you do check it out, make sure to watch it with the subtitles ON!
1.5 out of a possible 4 gummies.
I’m amazed I made it through two episodes of this crap-tacular show. The concept for this series was absurd and made no sense; samurais hunting down evil doers and shooting them…uh, that just sucks. What kind of samurai sneaks up on someone and shoots ‘em in the head? Sorry, but that’s gangsta-ninja style fighting. Ohhh, that’s a good concept…gangsta ninjas….
Gangsta Ninja! LOL
I saw two episodes of this show. I wanted to see the rest, it seemed okay to me. But the Samurai with guns concept was wierd. When I first heard the title, I thought it would be stupid (I have done a lot of research on Japanese culture), but it was actually interesting. The Samurai were supposed to be noble, and I guess the people felt that the Samurai Gun group was noble like the samurai.
Nugget – Unfortunately, it’s not very historically accurate either. But strangely, the ’suspension-of-disbelief’ isn’t strong enough to warrant an alternate world where guns are the main weapon of the samurai.
You might want to check it out anyway – at only 12 episodes, it’s not necessarily a huge time investor, lol.
i never said it had to be historically accurate -_-
This show was great! I enjoyed watching every episode. Something different for a change too.
Samurai Gun is an awesome show and I def recommend. The other guys posting were probably too sober, spark up a billy or something!! ayyye.
Go watch your Naruto and Yugioh!