List of Samurai 7 episodes
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Episodes of Akira Kurosawa's Samurai 7.
[edit] Episode 1 - Slash! (The Master)
Begins with an introduction/flashback of "The Great War". Two samurai, Kambei and Shichiroji, are participants in the middle of a huge battle. They make a bold move, though potentially suicidal, to attack the enemy's central base while the others in their group withdraw.
Cut to the present - bandits, giant robots called the Nobuseri, arrive at Kanna Village, a small community of farmers. Seeing that their crop of rice is not yet budding and not yet ready for harvest, they move on. The villagers are still terrified, and have a meeting to decide what they will do once harvest time comes around. The villagers finally decide to send someone to the nearest city to hire samurai for protection, since they cannot fight the bandits on their own.
Three villagers - Rikichi, one of the more able-bodied and younger men, Kirara, the village's water priestess, and Komachi, her younger sister, volunteer to go. In her possession, Kirara holds a water crystal that glows and points, much like a water-finding rod, or a magnet, when good samurai are near.
Once in the city - the villagers are robbed of their rice - their only form of payment to recruit potential samurai - but are helped by Katsushiro Okamoto. Though young and unskilled, he is loyal to the bushido code, and promises to go to the village to help the farmers in their time of suffering. There's one problem - Kirara's crystal does not point to him. Though discouraged, the villagers join Katsushiro, and with their rice returned, keep searching for other samurai.
The group finds one in the form of Kikuchiyo, a man who paid to have his body forged with a huge mechanized exoskeleton, much like the Nobuseri. They come across the huge robot in the middle of a hostage crisis; a deranged man has kidnapped a child and barricaded himself in a small hut. Kikuchiyo, who is brash, foolhardy, and stubborn, declares he will destroy the hut, kidnapper and all, putting the child in danger. Kikuchiyo does so, and to make matters worse, it is discovered that the kidnapper has strapped a belt full of dynamite to his body, warning he will detonate the explosives if Kikuchiyo comes near.
Just when things appear to be at their worst, Kambei Shimada, one of the samurai shown at the beginning of the episode, intervenes. The camera shows another man with short grey hair watching as Kambei approaches. Kambei makes his way to through the crowd, kills the kidnapper, disarms the explosives, and beheads Kikuchiyo (but not killing him), all with a few placed strokes of his sword, successfully returning the child to his parents. After watching these amazing events unfold, Kirara's water crystal glows in Kambei's direction; it has decided that he is the one who will protect Kanna Village. The episode ends with the group chasing after Kambei as he walks away from the battle.
