Monday, January 16, 2006

Samurai Champloo


Samurai Champloo: 26 episodes at 25 minutes apiece
Genre: Samurai Action

Art and Animation: 4.5
Story and Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Sound Design: 5

Now here is an interesting series from the director of Cowboy Bebop. Mixing hip hop and rap in the samurai era of Japan. The series revolves around three characters. Fuu(the girl), Mugen(the break dance fighter), and Jin(the one with glasses). Fuu coerces the two guys into a hunt for the Sunflower Samurai a mysterious person who wronged Fuu in the past. This is a journey anime. That is the entire series focuses on these three characters traveling across Japan. That's the basic premise of the series.

As this is a journey anime the three characters travel across Japan. Along the way, small pieces of the characters pasts are revealed. It is interesting to note that the characters really do not grow during the series. They are the same people in the end as they were at the beginning. Don't take this to mean that they don't learn more about the world because they do. What it means is that their personalities don't undergo a drastic change throughout the series. Mugen will still be the rougish smart-ass, Jin the honorable samurai, and Fuu the young girl looking for adventure.

I'll leave the overall stories of each episode for you to find out. As the characters travel they meet new people and are put in sticky situations. Fuu gets kidnapped a lot and the guys save her. Mugen looks for women, Jin fights his past, all the while some deadly powerful assasians are after their heads. Add in a little mystery and some goofy if not wacky episodes. A couple of episodes will seem like a waste(fillers), but they are still fun to watch.

The animation is silky smooth. Fights scenes flow with a beautiful grace and elegance. Colors are bright and every character has a distinct look. Throughout the quality remains consistent. This anime had some seriously high production values. There have been some complaints that the animation style changes in some episodes. This is due to the directing styles of each episode director and it's really not all that noticable. Another pearl is the sound design. The music is incredible. I searched out the soundtracks as soon as I heard the first episodes music. Hip hop and rap are the name of the game here. Many great beats and instrument solos throughout the series keep everything fresh. Most of the spoken music is in Japanese, but it is very well done. The emotions provided by the music are wide and varying. You most likely have heard of some of the artists. Fat Jon, Nujabes, Force of Nature, and a few Japanese artists. Voice acting isn't bad at all. Both dub and sub are well done. The dub has familiar actors, you'll recognize Steven Blum. He voiced Spike Spiegal in Cowboy Bebop and takes the role of the much like Spike, Mugen in Samurai Champloo.

Overall, this is a great anime series. A must see for nearly all anime fans. Some of the middle episodes will feel like filler, but keep watching and you'll be rewarded with fascinating action scenes and amazing music.

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This will be my archive. I will update as often as possible with reviews and previews. Also, I will be posting general comments about the world of anime, movies, music, video games, and television. Expect a lot anime though.