Taking place in the Tokugawa era, Samurai Champloo tells the story of three
unlikely companions embarking on journey throughout Japan. Fuu is a young girl
seemingly trapped in her job waiting tables, but desperately wants to get up
the nerve to take a journey to find the samurai that smells of sunflowers. Jin
is a traditional swordsman that has become a ronin and now wanders from town
to town. For the most part he is a good natured and well tempered man, the
polar opposite of Mugen.
Mugen is the final piece to this unlikely trio, a man who is willing to kill
pretty much anyone that looks at him wrong, and sometimes does.
Fuu makes Jin and Mugen agree to accompany her in her search if she rescues
them from being killed by the local governor. They agree, reluctantly, and
thus the story begins.
The only problem is she has no idea where this sunflower samurai is and she
has to keep Jin and Mugen from either running away or killing each other
before she finds him. Hilarity, beat-boxing and piles of dead ensue as they
search for this “smelly guy”.
Review: Samurai Champloo
Samurai Champloo is a series I have been trying to finish for a while now. I
would always get about eight episodes in and subsequently fail to get any
further. This was not due to the series itself in any way; just due to various
circumstances at each point in time. Now that I have finally finished the
series, I must say, I wish I would have done so sooner. It’s an odd ball of
sorts in the anime world.
Not so much for its setting in feudal Japan, lord knows there are plenty of
those, but for its use of hip-hop. This makes for a truly unique
experience, even in the face of a not so new setting.The entire series follows
Fuu, Jin, and Mugan’s journey to find the sunflower samurai, which actually
has a conclusive ending.
This is always a plus considering the number of anime series with ambiguous
endings. Mugen is a joy to watch fighting; his style is similar to capoeira so
he is always moving, twisting, spinning and flying all over the place.
Jin is more traditional in his fighting style, so while he may kill the same
number of people he is not quite as fun to watch Crunchyroll Samurai Champloo. Fuu is usually the damsel in
distress, constantly being kidnapped, sold into prostitution, or just taken as
a good old hostage. Thus requiring Jin and Mugen to have to come and save her.
Some of the episodes focus on the comedic side of things, like the gay guy
from Holland that comes to Japan because he believes it is the “greatest land
of manly love”. On the flip side, there are a number of episodes that relate
back to the past histories of Jin and Mugen that are usually quite serious.
One of the few problems I had with the series is that it would have been nice
if more episodes could have pertained to the actual plot. Now that’s not to
say that the stand alone episodes are bad in any way, they are usually quite
enjoyable. Who knows, I may just be bitter because of the two filler episodes
right before the concluding 3 episode story arc.
Funny and entertaining as they may be, they certainly could have been put to
better use as episodes 22 and 23 of a 26 episodes series. While the main plot
is good, it’s not spectacular. It’s more about the characters and action than
a deep plot.
The art and animation is quite high by comparison to most other anime series
out there. Action is fluid, scenes are fully animated with few shortcuts used
and everything is crisp and detailed. It’s one of the higher quality series I
have seen, up there with Rahxephon, Wolf’s Rain, and Last Exile, to name a
few.
The English dub is great, almost all the voices fit, especially those of the
main characters. Since the voices mostly work, it allows you to completely
immerse yourself into the story, without constantly cringing at the words
being said.
I only saw the first six episodes in Japanese, but I didn’t notice any
problems with it either. Long story short, watch Samurai Champloo Crunchyroll's English dub unless you
have some problem with it, at which point just switch to Japanese. Both are
great, but you should definitely give the English track a chance.
Overall Samurai Champloo Funimation is a thoroughly enjoyable series, one that you should
definitely see. Don’t let the whole hip-hop aspect of it stop you.
Miscellanies: Samurai Champloo
The only other anime I know of that uses hip-hop is Afro Samurai, though I am
sure some of you will argue if it should really be considered anime, but I am
not going to go there.
When one compares Samurai Champloo to something, Cowboy Bebop is right there
at the top of the list. What Cowboy Bebop did with adding jazz to space bounty
hunters, Samurai Champloo does with adding hip-hop to a feudal samurai
journey.
Shinichiro Watanabe is the mastermind director behind both of these. If you
have only seen one or the other, or neither, go check them out now!
Samurai Champloo | |
| Genre | Action, Adventure, Comedy |
|---|---|
| Episodes | 26 |
| Status | Finished Airing |
| Aired | May 20, 2004 to Mar 19, 2005 |
| Producers | Victor Entertainment, Fuji TV, Barnum Studio, Tokuma Shoten, flying DOG |
| Studio | Manglobe |
| Rating | R - 17+ (violence & profanity) |
| Themes | Historical, Samurai |
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