Ring the AlarmEssay Preview: Ring the AlarmReport this essayI chose to pick a sequence of shots from Seven Samurai directed by Akira Kurosawa. The location is outside of the old man’s hut in the Rikichi village. It occurs after the samurai have confronted the old man regarding the unpleasant welcome of the villagers. The alarm sounds and the men rush outside of the hut to see what is going on. First there is a long shot of a group of men running from the hut. In the front of the group six of the samurai lead the way. Then there is a series of medium close-ups of Kuyzo, Heihachi, Shichiroji, Gorobei, Kambei, and Katsushiro, each running to the village center.
Altogether, this sequence lasts about six seconds long (1:11:16 to 1: 11:22). The music is suspenseful and triumphant. The screaming of the villagers is heard; “please samurai, please” flashes on the screen. Each shot in the sequence lasts from half a second to one second. Together these incite feelings of excitement in the viewer, thus building up a sense of action. From the time of the alarm sounding, we believe that some intense battle is about to unfold. Kurosawa leads us on, using the sequence to make us fall into a state of false alarm as well. The alarm catches us off guard along with the men. It seems too early for a fight with the bandits to occur as we have just been introduced to the major characters. Of course we find in the next few shots that it was Kikuchiyo who sounded the alarm to frighten the villagers as payback for not properly welcoming the samurai.
The Animation:
The art has a great effect on the series, which features a colorful and colourful environment that feels more natural to play, and an atmosphere that works very well with the background music that is a trademark of Kurosawa’s films. The atmosphere is a lot simpler while still having its natural feel and sound, but this is not the case for the animation. It also has the tendency that it takes too long, so it seems that we should stop to take that moment when a silent sequence has stopped. This is what Kurosawa made sure of with his “no” sequence in particular.
The animators also managed to keep the setting interesting, giving us some new ones in different seasons in the animation as well.
The “Light” (Yōkami, Nodai) Animation:
The scene in “Aka the Story”, which is about fighting the titular character, the “light,” is very intriguing because the audience is familiar with the story behind this, but it is different again in this animation. The “light” is also in the middle of the story, which gives you a feeling for the audience, and a feeling for the environment.
The scene at “Dai-gakki!”, where we see two friends from last year fight, are interesting in different ways. The first is that we hear the “saying of a man” sound. To be sure, it’s not a voice actor, it’s purely a recording, and the audio track is not an authentic recording. However, the “saying of a man” is similar to an English recording, in that it’s not the singing of the protagonist but an image of a character. That’s because after looking at the song’s track, it feels like the protagonist was saying this, but in this case it’s actually an image that was created by the video recording. This is because when we look at the two silhouettes of the protagonist, we notice that they seem to be a kind of light silhouette. But this is still not the case for the animation, where they are merely silhouettes which are placed randomly in the shot. The camera feels as if it’s playing with an old and broken animation, so the animation doesn’t move as well.
In the end, “Dai-gakki!” was an interesting piece though, as was “Hikikomori”, the most recent episode. I won’t spoil it, but the animation looks much more appealing and interesting than the previous one. What do you think about it? Does it provide a different mood, or does it simply have similar elements? Sound off below.
This one feels like an interesting concept. It’s interesting to start thinking that the characters themselves are not that complicated to solve, perhaps because it gives them the sense of the world, but rather that the characters are still connected by the universe.
Also, this one can take a little bit of time to complete, as the characters get more advanced through training. However, I don’t think it ever becomes boring because so many of the characters take turns to fight eachOther everyday.
This is more of a series of “dungeon missions”; the main theme in this episode is the “The Story of the Sword”, where you fight
The Animation:
The art has a great effect on the series, which features a colorful and colourful environment that feels more natural to play, and an atmosphere that works very well with the background music that is a trademark of Kurosawa’s films. The atmosphere is a lot simpler while still having its natural feel and sound, but this is not the case for the animation. It also has the tendency that it takes too long, so it seems that we should stop to take that moment when a silent sequence has stopped. This is what Kurosawa made sure of with his “no” sequence in particular.
The animators also managed to keep the setting interesting, giving us some new ones in different seasons in the animation as well.
The “Light” (Yōkami, Nodai) Animation:
The scene in “Aka the Story”, which is about fighting the titular character, the “light,” is very intriguing because the audience is familiar with the story behind this, but it is different again in this animation. The “light” is also in the middle of the story, which gives you a feeling for the audience, and a feeling for the environment.
The scene at “Dai-gakki!”, where we see two friends from last year fight, are interesting in different ways. The first is that we hear the “saying of a man” sound. To be sure, it’s not a voice actor, it’s purely a recording, and the audio track is not an authentic recording. However, the “saying of a man” is similar to an English recording, in that it’s not the singing of the protagonist but an image of a character. That’s because after looking at the song’s track, it feels like the protagonist was saying this, but in this case it’s actually an image that was created by the video recording. This is because when we look at the two silhouettes of the protagonist, we notice that they seem to be a kind of light silhouette. But this is still not the case for the animation, where they are merely silhouettes which are placed randomly in the shot. The camera feels as if it’s playing with an old and broken animation, so the animation doesn’t move as well.
In the end, “Dai-gakki!” was an interesting piece though, as was “Hikikomori”, the most recent episode. I won’t spoil it, but the animation looks much more appealing and interesting than the previous one. What do you think about it? Does it provide a different mood, or does it simply have similar elements? Sound off below.
This one feels like an interesting concept. It’s interesting to start thinking that the characters themselves are not that complicated to solve, perhaps because it gives them the sense of the world, but rather that the characters are still connected by the universe.
Also, this one can take a little bit of time to complete, as the characters get more advanced through training. However, I don’t think it ever becomes boring because so many of the characters take turns to fight eachOther everyday.
This is more of a series of “dungeon missions”; the main theme in this episode is the “The Story of the Sword”, where you fight
The Animation:
The art has a great effect on the series, which features a colorful and colourful environment that feels more natural to play, and an atmosphere that works very well with the background music that is a trademark of Kurosawa’s films. The atmosphere is a lot simpler while still having its natural feel and sound, but this is not the case for the animation. It also has the tendency that it takes too long, so it seems that we should stop to take that moment when a silent sequence has stopped. This is what Kurosawa made sure of with his “no” sequence in particular.
The animators also managed to keep the setting interesting, giving us some new ones in different seasons in the animation as well.
The “Light” (Yōkami, Nodai) Animation:
The scene in “Aka the Story”, which is about fighting the titular character, the “light,” is very intriguing because the audience is familiar with the story behind this, but it is different again in this animation. The “light” is also in the middle of the story, which gives you a feeling for the audience, and a feeling for the environment.
The scene at “Dai-gakki!”, where we see two friends from last year fight, are interesting in different ways. The first is that we hear the “saying of a man” sound. To be sure, it’s not a voice actor, it’s purely a recording, and the audio track is not an authentic recording. However, the “saying of a man” is similar to an English recording, in that it’s not the singing of the protagonist but an image of a character. That’s because after looking at the song’s track, it feels like the protagonist was saying this, but in this case it’s actually an image that was created by the video recording. This is because when we look at the two silhouettes of the protagonist, we notice that they seem to be a kind of light silhouette. But this is still not the case for the animation, where they are merely silhouettes which are placed randomly in the shot. The camera feels as if it’s playing with an old and broken animation, so the animation doesn’t move as well.
In the end, “Dai-gakki!” was an interesting piece though, as was “Hikikomori”, the most recent episode. I won’t spoil it, but the animation looks much more appealing and interesting than the previous one. What do you think about it? Does it provide a different mood, or does it simply have similar elements? Sound off below.
This one feels like an interesting concept. It’s interesting to start thinking that the characters themselves are not that complicated to solve, perhaps because it gives them the sense of the world, but rather that the characters are still connected by the universe.
Also, this one can take a little bit of time to complete, as the characters get more advanced through training. However, I don’t think it ever becomes boring because so many of the characters take turns to fight eachOther everyday.
This is more of a series of “dungeon missions”; the main theme in this episode is the “The Story of the Sword”, where you fight
Seven Samurai