Anime Review: Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo was created by the animation studio Manglobe, which has had no popular anime except Samurai Champloo sadly. However the creator Shinichiro Watanabe was the guy who also created the iconic anime "Cowboy Bebop"! if he made an anime that good, then Samurai Champloo will follow suit as well! The anime series was started in May 20, 2004 and ended March 19, 2005 with 26 episodes. Now to start off, whats so great about Samurai Champloo? well because of its "cross-genre" work of media, blending the action and samurai genres with elements of slapstick comedy. Now there is samurai animes with humour, its nothing new, but it has a dynamic theme. Samurai Champloo is set in Edo Period Japan, however it has mise-en-scene, dialogue and soundtrack which are unique. Unique in a sense that its use of elements of hip hop culture, particularly rap and the music it has influenced, break dancing, turntablism, hip hop slang, and graffiti. You heard "Rap in my anime?!!" your thinking? hehe read on...

The story set in Edo Period Japan focuses on the three Primary Protagonists Mugen, Jin and Fuu. We see Fuu first working in a tea house on a nice hot summer day. However trouble breaks out, she accidentily spills tea on a man, and boy, is that man upset! Why he is threatening to sever her hand! somebody help her! "tch" goes a man across the room, the man of course is none other then Mugen, a wandering Vagabong Warrior. Mugen proclaims his authority over the sitation... with a swift action of his "champuru kendo" and kills all the armed men, while breakdancig, pretty awesome eh? Mean while a corrupt lord is seen in his Horse cart on the other side of town pestering the poor. He is guarded by 3, thats right 3 samurai and everybody is afraid of their power. However one man bravely steps forward, braverly? nah thats the wrong word, hes just taking a stroll. You can barely see his face being covered by a straw hat, but he projects a large killing aura. The lord commands the 3 samurai to attack the mysterious swordsman, however as soon as they commence there three way attack, they are decimated instantly with a single stroke of the blade. In his flawless and swift attack his straw hat drops revealing his identity the ronin, Jin.

Back to the tea house, there is alot of dead bodys and only the boss is left. The boss begs Mugen to spare his life and gives him the intrest of fighting a strong oppenent. Mugen is intrigued, he likes a good challenge. As soon as this is said a mans shadow appears from the door, Mugen turns around and meets his ultimate rival throughout the anime, Jin. Their hearts start racing and Mugen and Jin lock themselves into a battle which can only be discribed as a "Storm of Steel". Jin uses flawless kendo trying to finish the battle in a single stroke, where as Mugen is a whilring tornado, where all his moves are unpredicatable. Their match ends at a halt when the tea house burns down from the boss escaping. They get captuted, but Fuu helps them escape and they kill everybody. Fuu then says she wants their help to find a swordsman that "smells of sunflowers". Fuu demands they do not fight until she completes her goal and they settle it on a coin toss. Heh heads? I guess these two polar opposite swordsman must work together with the catalyst which is Fuu on a journey of Adventure and Excitement. How can these three even work together with such opposing personality and traits? heh they don't! because this is a champloo!

Mugen: Mugen was a former pirate in the past, however because of a series of unfortunate circumstances he finds himself a vagabond journeying through the land of Japan seeking excitement. He uses a sword called "Typhoon Swell" and his primary fighting style is a swordsmanship style he calls "champuru kendo" which is an Highly unorthodox swordplay and a fighting style based on breakdancing and uses capoeira when unarmed. Mugen is a highly capable fighter who is incredibly agile being able to attack from positions unheard of before. His unorthodox style is impossible to predict and catches his enemys off guard making it a dangerous style. Mugen is quite Rude, lewd, vulgar, and nihilistic, heck he is somewhat of an antihero. He does not take orders from anyone or nobody, get in his way and he is going to cut you down. If you seem strong he is going to test his skills on you and hes gonna enjoy it!

Jin: Jin was a former Samurai Level practioner of Kenjutsu the sacred art of Kendo in the past. However because of a series of unfortunate circumstances he finds himself a ronin a wandering swordsman with no guided path searching for a better life. He is an extremely skilled swordsman, using swift, refined, orthodox moves of the Mujushin Kenjutsu discipline. Everytime he swings his sword it is for a reason, he predicts moves easily through the movements of the oppenents and is a genius of the sword. If he is disarmed he falls back on and uses Jujutsu techniques to disarm his oppenents. He possesses a strong sense of honour and is shown to have a kind nature underneath his calm exterior. He is the exact polar opposite of mugen, their fighting styles are different, Jin does not like to kill, where Mugen does. Jin wears blue and Mugen red, Jin ties back his hair, Mugen has an afro, the list goes on...

Fuu: Fuu is the leading lady of the show, a fifteen-year-old girl of samurai lineage, but brought up in poverty. If you left Jin and Mugen together alone in a room, you can bet they would be locked in a fight to the death! that is why this cute girl Fuu is here to act as a catalyst between these two violent chemicals. She is always seen breaking up fights when they occur between Mugen and Jin, which happens alot. She shows some romantic intrest to them both, but does she like smart men, or srong men? Unlike Mugen and Jin she does not know any sorts of swordsmanship or martial arts, however she does have a tanto. It was a gift from her father, and she has a mission to find the "samurai who smells of sunflowers" however she does not even know what one smells like! Her personality is much like the bossy girl, but can be a dim klutz at times. But she has 2 of the finest bodyguards working for her Mugen and Jin though.

The animation is pretty much flawless, I had found it a hard time to actually knock the animation rating on any part. The colouring and shading is so smooth and crisp! whenever you see the samurai champloo break scenes it shows some wonderfull hip hop and rap styled graphics in the background. Animation does not only have to be high quality but creative as well, just by looking at the opening scene, many differet types of graphics media are being used. Just look at that animation GIF above? look how quick and sharp the animtion sequences are in the fight scene. You actually see every sword dlash and its trejectory in the air, there is no black screen, with blade slashes throughout the screen. You can see everything clearly and there is also a high degree of detail in the characters expressions and backgrounds as well. You have just got to watch Samurai Champloo for the fight scenes, they are set at day or night and animated beautifully!

Ah the music, we have finnally reached one of the key reasons for Samurai Champloo's success. Now I am not a personal fan of Rap music I will admit, I detest it, Hip Hop is a little bit more bareable. However when I saw it in Samurai Champloo I was blown asway at just how well it flowed with the anime. It is an anime set in edo period japan, but there is rap, Hip Hop and gangsters everywhere! yet it does not sound out of place amazingly!. Ussually when a japanese anime uses foreign music it fails to make it work well with the anime flow. However in Samurai Champloo the rap and Hip Hop and perfectly intregrated into the anime sequences it feels right at home!. The music has such a rythmetic beat, its so lively and so smoothly delivered. Your listening to the music and your thinking "Damn! this sounds good im suprised!". Samurai Champloo will be the only anime ever in existence to have Rap as its primary music perfectly.

Samurai Champloo in alot of ways is just as good as Cowboy Bebop. The characters in Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo are unique and duel opposites in nature that makes their interactions both hilarious and intresting. Their plotlines are simular in seperate storys but one major core storyline that binds everything together. Cowboy Bebop uses American Bebop Jazz, while Samurai Champloo uses American Hip Hop and Rap. The anime does not have to have a perfect plot line, or a perfect music sound track to earn a 10/10 rating. No, you see the anime just has to succeed in its fundemental aspect from its creation, to be entertaining!. However even I have to admit ,that not every single episode in the anime is entertaining, I did find some boring. A 10/10 anime must constantly throughout the series be top quality and samurai champloo falls just short. However still watch the anime because you might be different.