Samurai Champloo - Reviews

Well hey all gangsta’s!…. that was completely and utterly messed up. I will try not to do that again. But anyway, I actually loved the mixture of Edo style imagery and the hip hop rap even though a bunch of people would probably say it doesn’t fit. Unfortunately, some of the characters don’t work for me since they seem very out of place. Characters that start raping out of nowhere and those that start talking like gansta’s sometimes make me want to bang my head into the wall. It may fit really damn well with the show but I still want to smack my head into the wall. I did like the main characters though… some a lot more then others.

Mugen was actually my favorite character. He was pretty bad ass and could take down almost any foe that stood against him. His style of fighting isn’t the normal samurai style but more of just a way of living. To a samurai, the sword is something to live and die with, so he does have a little of the samurai spirit but a samurai also has honor and tact for the most part. He has none of that. He will do as he pleases without any regard to those around him, even starting fights just for the sake of showing how bad ass he is. He loves the spotlight and sometimes I can picture him similar to Black Star from Soul Eater where he would yell out ‘I’ll kill you’ even if he’s supposed to sneak up on them. That personality I would consider childish in some cases but in this, I actually see reasoning behind it. He want’s to be the best he can be and to fight someone when their back is turned may be a disgrace for what little honor he has.

On the other hand, Jin has much more class to him as a samurai. He was trained professionally and you can see that when the two fight. The styles actually look extremely different as Jin has more of a stiffer pose to him. His background is a pretty tragic one but seems much more common in samurai movies then Mugen’s story line. I can see where Mugen and Jin get onto each other’s nerves. It does make for a very interesting story line when the two need to work together to get out of a bad situation. Most of the time its purely luck based.

The last main character is sadly the one I like the least. Fuu is a bit, well, I don’t exactly understand why she’s there in the first place. She’s childish, annoying, and whines a hell of a lot. She gets kidnapped almost every single time by the guys that just want to rip Jin’s and Mugen’s heads off. Only a couple times she actually has some marret to the story as she’s most likely the person who can trust others. She is the reason the other two are stuck together but her reason for going on this journey, namely finding a samurai smelling of sunflowers, really has no real fruit to it. You would understand once you watch the ending.

The animation is rather good, though sometimes can be a little… bla. Manglobe has a thing where they will have really good animation for most of the anime but in some parts, it lacks the beauty the other scenes have. Characters sometimes feel like they are also way to detailed as if the artist was trying to make the show look extremely detailed but it makes the characters look off when it doesn’t happen all the time.

The English voices are actually really well done and I think that’s partly because of the rap and pop culture references. Jin is silent and Mugen is a badass gangster. The voices work so well that I have to say its one of the best I’ve seen in a while. Even Fuu who is pretty annoying actually has an ok voice. I give the main music props for being one of the most memorable to me. I can’t not think about that fun style of music.

for an early 2000's anime this sure has some SMOOOOTH AF fights and fight music

Story:

The overarching story was very enjoyable however they did get sidetracked quite often. Individual episodes taken as is were great but when you put the entire series as a whole it becomes difficult to watch in one sitting as each episode relied on being seperate from the others. If you plan on binge-watching an anime SC is not for you, but if you want to watch an episode a day or week then it's perfect.

 Animation:

As with many anime of this genre the conflict scenes are prioritized to a point where there is a noticable drop in quality for the remainder of the series, however, this is only because the action scenes are just so badass. There are some cringe-worthy moments but these are few and far between.

Sound:

This anime uses hip-hop music from all around Japan and makes it fit into the setting so well even those who don't like hip-hop will appreciate the music.

Characters:

Fuu: Fuu is only there to keep Mugen and Jin from killing each other and to be kidnapped with very little purpose otherwise.

Mugen and Jin: These two are what make Samurai Champloo so great. Between their dialogue and general badassness there is hardly a boring scene.

Samurai Champloo is a very fun anime.  When I think about it, it is the same kind of "fun" that Black Lagoon brings, or maybe Durarara.  It is episodic, and I normally HATE episodic anime.  Normally anime like this crush any chance of a good story developing.  However, this one didnt try to be anything more then what it was.  This made the anime awesome.  It meant to be this way and so it was easy to enjoy.  Sure there was the main story about the samurai who smells of sunflowers, but it was just a bunch of entertaining small stories along the way.  It was good that way.  Like I said before, this had very much the same simply fun appeal that Black Lagoon had.  Just have fun with it.  Sit back relax and enjoy the things they did well.

Story:  like I said, episodic.  It had the main story but intentionally filled itself up with other stuff in between, but nothing seemed wrong with it.  Not like those anime that are episodic and then expect to be awesome.  This one rose above those kinds of anime.

Animation:  Really crazy, there was one episode early on with a really wierd animation style, but other than that it was pretty good.  9 for being solid and making the action seem like action.

Sound:  some of the soundtracks were pretty good, but it seemed like it could use more in some places and some were out of place.  misplaced and maybe a little scarce is the reason this gets a 7

Characters:  being episodic doesnt mean that characters cant have development.  There were small arcs for Mugen, Jean, and Fuu.  It worked out well.  In the end I also really enjoyed the relationship between the 3 companions.  They each had their own  very uniqe and rather entertaining personalities.  A 10 for the great characters, development and relationships.

Overall:  the end was really sad.  I didnt want it to end.  I loved the characters and how things turned out.  Dont get me wrong, the end was just how it should have been.  I think they did a great job of ending the series.  I was just sad to be done.  It really was a fun anime.  Not perfect, but just freakin fun.  9 out of 10, go check out Samurai Champloo.

Disclaimer: I dropped this anime at episode 18. It became boring so I stopped. Sorry. I feel that everyone is gonna hate me for this review now...

Story and characters:

Well, this is an episodic anime so the story is simple. Jin, Mugen and Fuu travel Japan in search for the samurai who smells like sunflowers. Every episode is a different journey. The only fact that I liked is that this anime focuses a lot on character development (mostly Jin though...) There are lots of historical references but unless you already have some previous knowledge, you won't notice it at all. If you don't like episodic anime (like me) this anime is not for you.

Also, this anime TRIED HARD on comedy, but I felt it to forced.

Animation:

When I first saw this anime I thought the battle scenes were well made. When an encounter occurs the music and pace change. But once I got to episode 10, I got used to it, so it kinda lost all spark it had before. The rest is just a realistic animation of japanese society in the Edo era. There are no animation mistakes but it still felt a little plain for me.

Sound:

Ok, so this is it's main strength. I decided to watch this anime because EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET was praising the Nujabes (a hip hop composer who died in a car crash). And don't get wrong, the music was superb, but, I think the music is more of a stand alone. There are animes were the music is linked to a strong memory which makes the music better. But, this wasn't the case. My favorite tracks of this anime are defininetly it's ending and "Who's theme". If you don't like hip hop I don't think this anime is for you though. This actually shows that if it wasn't for the music maybe this anime wouldn't have been succesful...

There are animes were the music is linked to a strong memory which makes the music better. But, this wasn't the case.

Overall:

Give this anime a chance but if you start losing interest just drop it. This isn't an anime for everyone but if you liked the music you should check out the OST in YouTube or listen all of Nujabes albums.