Star Sword Seven: The Age of Violence

***Star Sword Seven: The Age of Violence*** is a 1990s adult animated live-action space opera film. This film is a spinoff that is loosely connected to the Knife Fight City Cinematic Universe. Due to the fire and bankruptcy the KFCCU copyright was up in the air by the 90s, so though the movie is a spinoff there were no direct ties to the actual main line films. This film serves as a visual companion to the experimental album by the same name. Not much is known about the album as this film is the only place such an album was ever mentioned. Not much is known about the movie itself, as it was an OVA that never saw theatrical release. Only DVDs of it was circulated within the most hardcore fans of the KFCCU.

## Plot

The film follows the original Knife Fight City plot almost beat by beat. The unnamed protagonist had to compete in a tournament of blades on earth to liberate the galaxy from the tyrannical grasp of BPL Inc. The BPL Inc. has maintained control over the galaxy for centuries due to the fact they held six of the seven Star Swords. Most of the film is thus dedicated to the protagonist traveling through the galaxy tracking down the last Star Sword. Upon finding the Star Sword, Star Sword Seven, the protagonist returns to earth and enter the tournament of blades. The protagonist had to go through six champions, each a pawn of the BPL Inc. and a holder of a Star Sword. The protagonist ends up slaying all of them and taking control of the galaxy.

## Production

Originally the movie was to be live action. Due to the difficulties of using wire-work to film the zero-g sword fights, the decision was made to shoot these scenes in low-earth orbit on a decommissioned Skylab space station. While the scenes where completed with minimal fatalities (only four stuntmen perished, one to stab wounds, two to decompression shock and one to food poisoning) tragedy struck when the planned resupply was destroyed during the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Thanks to tight budgeting, the orbiting sound-stage had insufficient emergency supplies and all 36 crew members asphyxiated, fortunately they where mostly interns, and the main cast survived. The shooting was supposed to resume on earth after the main cast recovers but they were subsequently hunted down by the dead interns' family members. With half the movie done however, the studio decided to fill in the blank with animation instead. This led to some unintended comedy, as some parts of the film just abruptly cuts to animation from live action with no transition.

## Music

Due to the fact that no copy of the original album is ever found, it is difficult to say how many songs were actually in this movie. One could argue thus this is a story album, with the smooth transitions between each song. Parts of the soundtrack seems to emulate 80s hair metal, paying homage to the original films. The motif from the Knife Fight City theme can be heard multiple times. The rest of the sound track is fairly diverse, ranging from industrial techno to nu metal.

## Release

### Home Media

Less than 100 copies of the film was released on DVD, due to the fact this was mostly a fan project with minimum budget.

## Notes

This film is currently considered lost media, as the original color cels and line cels of the animation was lost during a house fire in 2003. Subsequent accidents resulted in the destruction of the story board and most concept arts. The original render of the film was lost due to a power outage. There are no known digital copies of the film, the DVDs being the only legitimate copies. It is unknown how many of these DVDs survived.