Heroic television figures dominate this week’s animated home video debuts as anime warriors and space cowboys arrive at retail. Fans can now pick up VIZ’s release of Naruto Vol. 25, FUNimation’s Samurai 7 box set and Bravestarr: Season 1, Vol. 2 from BCI/Eclipse.
Naruto centers on Uzumaki Naruto, a rebellious ninja in training. Twelve years ago, when he was a baby, the evil Nine Tailed Fox demon was sealed inside his body to stop it from terrorizing The Hidden Leaf Village. For fear that Naruto would abuse the powers inside him and release the demon within, a rule was made forbidding anyone to tell him about the events of the past. Now a teenager, our hero attempts to earn the respect of the villagers by training to become the top ninja. Naruto Vol. 25 contains episodes 97-100: “Kidnapped!” “Naruto’s Hot Spring Adventure!,” “Tsunade’s Warning: Ninja No More!,” “The Will of Fire Still Burns!” and “Sensei and Student: The Bond of the Shinobi!” running 88 minutes, the release carries a suggested retail price of $19.98.
Samurai 7 is based on Akira Kurosawa’s classic epic, The Seven Samurai. Produced by GONZO Digimation, the animated show is set in futuristic world that has just seen the end of a massive war. Many villages are being terrorized by Nobuseri bandits, who were once men but modified themselves with machinery during the war to become living weapons. To protect themselves, a group of villagers decide to hire a rag-tag team of samurai. Listing at $49.98, the Samurai 7: Box Set (Viridian Collection) offers all 26 episodes for a running time of 705 minutes.
The last series produced by Filmation and Group W. Prods., BraveStarr follows the adventures of Marshall Bravestarr, who has come to the rough-and-tumble mining planet of New Texas to bring law and order to its people and protect them from outlaw Tex Hex and various other villains who seek to steal the planet’s valuable mineral deposits. He is joined in his quest by the beautiful Judge J. B. and a shape-changing mechanical horse named Thirty-Thirty. Available for the first time on DVD, Season 1, Vol. 2. is a four-disc set that offers 32 episodes for a running time of 704 minutes. Lovers of 1980s animated television can pick up the release for $39.98 or less.
