Product Details

• Actors: Sonny Strait, Inukai Junji, Inada Tesu, Jerry Jewell, Michael Sinterniklaas
• Directors: Toshifumi Takizawa
• Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English, Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Funimation Prod
• DVD Release Date: March 28, 2006
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000CNGBWG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,293 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Samurai 7, Vol. 5 - Empire in Flux" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Funimation Prod Inc Release Date: 03/28/2006

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Proverbial Saying, "The Plot Thickens", April 3, 2006

By 

Antonio D. Paolucci "Collector of Entertainment" (Beaver Falls, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Samurai 7, Vol. 5 - Empire in Flux (DVD)

As the proverbial saying goes, the plot thickens. In all of the first four volumes of Samurai 7, the story stayed pretty true to the classic movie Seven Samurai, only perhaps a little more drawn out and a lot slower. But in the previous volume, the battle for the village was wrapped up nicely and a new storyline was presented (though in many ways it still follows what the movie did, only in a different chronological order).

Now, the mission for Kambei has become save all of the women taken by the Bandits, and that means he must travel to the capital and face the emperor himself in order to do so. In this volume, old enemies presented earlier in the series--and never truly forgotten--are brought back, old allies are mourned, and the samurai are separated into smaller groups.

Like the other four volumes, the action in this volume is still as solid and crisp as it was previously, and the animation is still good, though definitely not the greatest. The 3D CGI, however, is the best I've seen in any anime series. And of course the story unfolds as dramatically as it had before, even with the newly presented plot twists. I felt when the fourth volume ended that the next would be a huge test for the Samurai 7 series, since it was obvious that the objective was to present something new. Luckily, it passed that test and in many ways the story now is more exciting and tense than it was before.

Samurai 7 is definitely one of the best anime of 2005-06, and I think this volume proves that (though I think I remember saying that in my reviews of the other volumes). For any skeptics out there, Samurai 7 was picked up very recently by IFC, a channel that never before had an interest in anime. I'd recommend this volume of Samurai 7 as well as the four previous ones to anime fans who found some enjoyment out of Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece of a movie Seven Samurai. I'd also recommend this series to GONZO fans, as Samurai 7, along with Gankutsuou and Last Exile, is one of the best series to come out of that studio.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent series!, May 14, 2007

By 

Jose Montero Venegas - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Samurai 7, Vol. 5 - Empire in Flux (DVD)

Great DVD for a great series! You should have the collection! The music is great, the menus are excellent, the costumes are very nice, there are a lot of thing to watch in this DVD!

4.0 out of 5 stars KANBEI GOES ALONE, September 13, 2006

By 

Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samurai 7, Vol. 5 - Empire in Flux (DVD)

The village of Kanna has been saved and the bandits have been destroyed for the moment. But as long as the corrupt relationship between the bandits and merchants is allowed to continue, peasants will never be safe. The reason why is that the Emperor and the merchants are able to keep the bandits busy harrassing the farmers thereby keeping these former samurai from turning their swords to a richer catch. Kanbei sets off for the capitol on his own, taking it upon himself to rescue not only Rikichi's enslaved wife but the sister of Honoka, the young girl he met among the Shikimori. Knowing him, he has a plan of attack all mapped out, but the newly matured and battle-hardened Katsushiro and the ever-impatient Kikuchiyo have found it too hard to wait around for news anymore. The two set out to find Kanbei, along with the water priestess Kirara and her little sister Komachi. The effeminate dandy Ukyo is also headed there, with visions of Kirara dancing through his head, as well as seizing the Emperor's power!

This fifth volume of this awesome series shifts the action down a notch, and focuses instead on the politics of the Samurai 7 world reminescent of the first three Star Wars episodes. While this doesn't neccesarily bring the show down, it does give you an uncomfortable feeling that it could run off the tracks of its own ambition. If this is the quiet before a storm, so be it, but if it is the quiet before boredom, woe betide its viewer. The writing is excellent, though I don't know if I see the transformation of Katsushiro from idealistic kid to Clint Eastwood as very believable. I also didn't like the reduction in screen time of the other samurai as Kanbei comes front and center. Still, this is an extremely high-quality anime.