Afro Samurai

When he was a young boy, Afro witnessed his father be cut down in a duel at the hands of a man known only as Justice. After taking the life of Afro's father, Justice cast aside his Number Two headband and took the Number One to claim its godly powers as his own.

Years later, having obtained the Number Two headband which grants him the right to challenge the Number One, Afro moves forward in his hunt for revenge on the man who murdered his father. There is just one thing that stands in his way—everyone else in the world! Though the Number One can only be challenged by the Number Two, the Number Two can be challenged by anyone. As his enemies gather to try and take the title of Number Two, Afro must fight through a myriad of foes and obstacles if he hopes to reach the Number One and claim vengeance once and for all.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Afro Samurai Main

Ninja Ninja Supporting

Jinno Supporting

Justice Supporting

Otsuru Supporting

Sasuke Supporting

Brother One Supporting

Rukotaro Supporting

Yashichi Supporting

Sword Master Supporting

Kajita, Kouji Producer

Okiura, Taito Producer

Kasama, Nobutaka Producer

Kizaki, Fuminori Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jan 19, 2026

BoxingtonTeeth

Recommended

I think it has a bit slow pacing-wise, but pretty okay considering it only has 5 ep
Animation: very fluid and oustanding Music: its fine, nothing special. Characters: aside from Afro, the main character who is interesting the rest of the characters are really okay-ish, but not really interesting. Story: its pretty decent, again with the pacing, it gets kinda boring, but still its interesting.

This is definitely a niche anime, not that many mainstream anime watchers will like it, also it's an american-japanese production, so that's another reason why people might not like it, as the Eng Dub is the version mostly availible

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 19, 2025

treklof

Mixed Feelings

STORY
Afro, after seeing his father get beheaded by the #2 headband holder, goes on a lifetime quest to avenge his father by killing the new #1.

ANIMATION
Incredible choice of artstyle and direction, where the animation matches the dark, deranged, and gritty world the anime takes place in. The fight scenes do feel "American" in the sense that certain scenes consist of incredibly quick cuts from one place to the other, being very zoomed in on the fighting. I personally find this incredibly annoying as it makes it near impossible to keep track of a fight choreo, of which they paid enough attention to in order to ... have them stand on its own.

WRITING
Not great. Afro is one-dimensional x1000: we only see a 1-minute clip of his father dying, and that's supposed to make us understand his actions. While watching, it feels like the show does not know whether it wants you to take it seriously, or to know that it's parodying an anime trope and wants you to laugh.
Ninja Ninja is a useless addition but a necessary one, as Afro is a dull character: he only cares about avenging his father's death and will kill whoever he sees (these two do not lead to one another in any way) to get there. The villains are shallow, not getting much of an introduction or backstory, merely being put down as pylons for Afro to get knocked over. Afro has stupid amounts of plot armour, seemingly resetting his bodily harm taken in a fight when the fight scene ends??? Numerous times Afro is beaten the hell up with blood everywhere, and the next scene he just walks off unscathed? And the examples just go on: the backstory to make a connection to characters is only given about one second before the backstory becomes relevant, and the backstories are incredibly short and useless. Makes it feel like the flashbacks are purely to serve for another reason to kill someone, not to increase the viewers' understanding of any characters.

OPINION
I enjoyed parts of this short anime, but most of the time watching it is relatively boring. The boredom comes from the lackluster writing, as the show attempts to throw everything at you to keep your attention: naked women, people having sex, gore, bodies splitting apart. The characters are relatively bland (Ninja Ninja plain annoying), the story doesn't really go anywhere, but the artstyle, OST, and atmosphere are incredibly well-done.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jan 23, 2025

Giratinaswrath

Not Recommended

It's a 4.

Ok, look. The action scenes are pretty great! I can see why this gained a cult following. Everything is snappy and nice to look at. It's just cool. The art has some decent style!

However.

Every other aspect of this show is lacking. The writing, the characters, the worldbuilding. All of it is very bad. At first I thought it was a parody and it does seem to poke fun at the concept in noncommittal, unintelligent, transient ways. All of the ways in which it is a parody is played off as "Haha look this helmet is kinda funny right? LOL" and then it ends. ... BUT EVERY OTHER PLOT ELEMENT IS GENERIC AND PLAYED STRAIGHT. Nothing seems to follow logically in the story and random story beats pop up out of ALMOST nowhere, having been set up the scene before in the same episode. The character reactions and behaviour don't make sense, rationally or emotionally. The show will throw up a 5 second sappy scene and expect you to feel sad about it 3 minutes later. Which is not helped by the unconvincing actors/dialogue. I came in knowing it was an english original, but I was second guessing myself because so many of the lines and so much of the voice acting feels exactly as if it had been poorly dubbed.

Again. This show is really nice to watch for fights. But that is it. You might have more fun watching a youtube compilation of top 10 epic anime battles from your favorite shounen. The rest of the show is unbelievably shallow and hard to sit through.

WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Afro Samurai Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Luna - Dec 11, 2013	84 replies	by Konatose »» Nov 10, 2025 9:30 AM
	Poll: Afro Samurai Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 ) hznu - Nov 29, 2008	51 replies	by Konatose »» Nov 10, 2025 9:29 AM
	Poll: Afro Samurai Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 ) hznu - Nov 29, 2008	87 replies	by TheStarscream759 »» Sep 24, 2025 5:46 AM
	Poll: Afro Samurai Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 ) hznu - Nov 29, 2008	50 replies	by TheStarscream759 »» Sep 23, 2025 6:39 AM
	Poll: Afro Samurai Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 ) hznu - Nov 29, 2008	63 replies	by TheStarscream759 »» Sep 21, 2025 2:55 PM

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