Samurai Champloo

This show could have been something special on the same page as such classics like Ninja Scroll(NOT THE TV SERIES), Samurai X OVAs, Rurouni Kenshin, or Basilisk.

Samurai Champloo could have been great like the classics above, but it ended up like Samurai Deeper Kyo. Just average, nothing special. There was nothing really special about the show. The characters were interesting, but not compelling. By the end I didn't really care that much about anyone of them. The mix of comedy was the one pretty good part of the show. The music was just bad, no make that terrible. The action never got me excited. ... The animation was very good I'll give it that everything about that was great.

Now for the worst part the story throughout the 26 episodes were a big let down. The story had no real drama or drive, it never gave the characters any real emotion, and the ending was just plain anti-climatic. I like when shows end without no real resolution. It happens a lot in romantic anime, but even their character evolve and come to some sort of ending when the series ends. Samurai Champloo just ends without any king of resolution.

Overall a decent anime series, but also a disappointing series.

I just finished watching Samurai Champloo, and a few things come to mind. One, I originally watched the series because of a profound enjoyment of Shinichiro Watanabe's other directorial effort, Cowboy Bebop. On the surface, Champloo seems a lot like Bebop - a stylized fantasy view of a typical genre mixed with a contemporary and unique soundtrack.

For Watanabe's shows, music plays a vital role in expressing the atmosphere and character of the setting, and is very much a character in and of itself. Such was the case in Cowboy Bebop, and Samurai Champloo attempts to do the same. Only, this time, Champloo comes short of ... Bebop's example, and fails in a few ways.

Story: This is the story of three wanderers who meet up and join forces to search for a "samurai who smells of sunflowers". I won't give away much here, but I found the plot to be incredibly disjointed and hollow. The only real antagonists make themselves known within the last 6 or so episodes of the series, and most of the preceding episodes are pretty much filler. This is a series that could have benefitted from a shortening in length to perhaps 13 episodes to preserve plot integrity. The last handful of episodes redeem the plot somewhat, but a handful of awesome doesn't quite make up for the bucketful of yawns that precede it.

Art: I found the artwork in Samurai Champloo to be pretty good as a whole. The swordfighting scenes specifically are fantastic, and motion is fluid and exciting, particularly when Mugen fights someone. Thumbs up here.

Sound: As mentioned before, Watanabe's previous work, Cowboy Bebop, successfully married jazz music with sic-fi to create something altogether unique and creative. Champloo attempts to do the same with samurai and hip-hop, but the end result doesn't impress as much as one would think. A much better effect could be had by just watching the fight scenes of this show while playing a Wu-Tang CD. Sometimes the music does not fit the scene, and sometimes the music for a dramatic scene is a bit too subtle. Hip hop as a genre really shouldn't be subtle, and the high hopes promised by the opening theme are not lived up to by the background music. Also, should the ending theme have been a sappy J-pop song? If you were gonna do the whole hip hop thing, go the whole way.

Character: The three main characters are interesting, but I cannot give too high a score here because there really isn't a lot of development of any antagonists. All of the character-moments of the series involve the three heroes, and while they are fairly developed, it seems as though some questions are left unanswered. Each main character had a serviceable background story, but their pasts seemed glossed over a bit. Some funny moments are had at the expense of Mugen particularly, and the different natures of the protagonists lead to some memorable scenes. However, as I mentioned before, these characters are the ONLY ones that are developed. Some characters appear for an episode or two and are never explained or developed in the time that they're there (the secret policeman comes to mind)

Enjoyment: After all the nitpicking, I enjoyed the series, mostly because of the few awesome tense moments and the sword fighting. This series has a lot of flaws, and is overall a disappointment for those expecting another Cowboy Bebop, but low expectations and a taste for fluid fight choreography can garner a good bit of enjoyment out of this series.

Overall: I'd say rewatchability is about medium. I wouldn't mind watching some of the major fights again, but unlike Cowboy Bebop, there are definitely skippable episodes upon rewatching for this show. Although enjoyable, Watanabe van do better - which leaves me still searching for the perfect samurai anime.

-GODAMNIT ITS BORING-
[review by a non fanboy] [contains early game of thrones spoilers]
Samurai Champloo, the alleged little brother of the classic anime Cowboy Bebop. Both works rely heavily on music, are episodic and have a very similar feel to them but, if you ask me, Champloo is just Shinichiro Watanabe's bastard and not the good - Jon Snow type but the Tommen Baratheon overly-calm-and-boring type.
I generally really like episodic shows; (1)they aren't addictive so you can do things between episodes besides biological functions, (2)the characters' personalitites are well-explored so you get to see many dimensions of their personality, (3)the interactions between the protagonists can be ... lovingly repetitive without getting annoying and (4)the anime may span many many episodes, i like that. Well, Champloo only (over)does the first of these.

1-It's not addictive sure, but for me it was one of the few anime that i felt the need to drop (but i couldn't i'm a completionist); the story was so basic and advanced like a very slow snail. After getting to know the characters and what their adventure was about in the first few episodes, essentially nothing happened until the last 3 episodes or so, except very few episodes that gave some background story about the protagonists or had an interesting supporting character. I get that the show is supposed to be calm and chill but this got to the point of being a total bore.

2-The characters personalitites are extremely basic (check their entries they're tiny) to the point that they can be fully described with 2 words. Mugen - Impulsive, Irritable || Jin - Reverse Mugen || Fuu - Hungry, Determined (in that order). Also i have to add that they are all very stubborn. About their past, we learn very basic things, where-what-why leave. People from their past come for 1 episode and dissapear again.

3-Well just as the characters themselves, the interactions between them are also very one dimensional and annoyingly repetitive. Typical Interaction: Mugen does something, Fuu reacts to Mugen's action, Jin gives zero fucks.

4-Well i do like my anime bigger but this wasn't the case for Samurai Champloo thank god, I would've killed myself if this crap was even 1 episode longer. In this case actually, i think it would have been preferable if this series was shorter, since all those pointless filler episodes would have gone down the drain and the interesting stuff would have remained, making the watching experience actually bearable.

Overall an anime with great animation, sound and potential but terrible execution. Tons of filler, unexplored plotlines and a very weak and basic narrative. One of the most boring anime i've seen, only comparable to Gantz and some hentai. I don't recommend watching it but hearing the OST is a good option.

I promised to some friends that some day I would do a review on Samurai Champloo.
And well, since the dough for the Nikuman is still rising, I might as well do this now. So, where to start?

First of all, if you visit my profile you'll find out rather quickly that I'm not a big fan of Watanabe Shinichiro. Or his works. Still, I try to rate it as objective as possible. So, lets get started already.

The first point on my list would be the story aspect, which I split up in three sections (something I'll do for every category, be prepared): The actual story, the ... setting used, as well as the execution of said story.
Story 2/3: As you know from the synopsis, Fuu is searching for a 'samurai that smells like sunflowers'. Why she does that is left in the dark at first, but is a pretty promising start. It leaves a lot of options where to go with the story, and grabs your attention. On the other hand, this plot isn't anything special either, we have seen this plot before, and I can guarantee, we will see it again.
Setting 1/3: I am a weaboo. And I f'n love japan, I love the Sengoku era, I love the Meiji era, so what could possibly go wrong, right? To be honest, while I like this time setting, I never felt like Watanabe made much use of it. It might as well have played in renaissance europe, or in space, or in medieval america or parts-unknown. It wouldn't make any difference to the story except the samurai being a knight, panther warrior, astronaut or whatever.
Execution 1/3: Just like in Cowboy Bebop Watanabe nearly spends no time on developing his characters or story, but instead focusses on pointing out the differences between that time depicted and our own time, which he describes as better (Sidenote: Our time is not better than the past, each time has its own problems to tackle. But this is a discussion for some other time).
The story is mostly episodic, with moreoften than not episodes, which absolutely do nothing to the overaching plot. So overall, lots of episodes felt to me like a total waste of time.

So the overall story score is 5/10 (No, this is no error)

The Art. This section contains the character designs, the Backgrounds, as well as the fluency of animation (especially in battlescenes).
Character designs 1/3: To be honest, the character designs are the worst part of this anime, because quite frankly, they look unproportional. Especially Fuu's and Jin's heads.
I feel like Jins head is way too thin for his body, while Fuu on the other hand has a rather broad head. Your typical head would be like 1/3 of the shoulders, but Fuu's head is big enough to fill over half of her shoulders. Jins head on the other hand is thin enough to only take 1/4 to 1/5 of his shoulders. This looks really weird (for reference, I took ep 25 7:17 as example).
Also, in contrast to the background the characters are quite pale, with their skin being nearly white. The characters are (thats hard to describe, I hope I can get this across correctly) outlined pretty sharply, so they look like cut-out figures running over a paining. Which is a rather good transition...
Background 2/3: ...because the background seems like a drawn painting which uses oil colors. Well, I'm not much of an artist though. Why is it not full score? Because I miss some clear contures. Even on distances like 10 meters or so, most objects are depicted as rough outlinings.
Animation 2/3: This is probably the point I pondered on the most. So I will start the simple part. Outside of battlescenes the animation is just as good, as you'd expect. It isn't mindblowingly good, but it does it job. But now the fightingscenes... (again, I took ep 25 as reference) For some of the scenes I were pondering whether this is 2 or 3 points, and for some I were pondering whether I give 1 or 2 points... First of, the battle scenes are rather americanized. What does that mean, you wonder? The battleanimations certainly look flashy and all, but to a point where they sacrificed realism for action. Pretty much the same way as Hollywood does on a regular basis. As a kendoka myself, I obviously disliked that fact. Scenes I remember clearly are for example running on the sides of buildings, cutting whole stones with a kama, or single animated strikes with 3 or more after images of attacks. Don't get me wrong, other anime do this, too. But those aren't set in a (pseudo)realistic Meiji-era japan.

Thats not too shabby for the art works at least, 6/10.

The soundscore is pretty obvious. Voice acting (since I nearly never watch dubs, I'm just rating the japanese ones), BGM/OST, and OP/ED.
Voice acting 2/3: With Saber as one of my favorites one would think, that I throw all rationalism out of my window right now, but unfortunately I dislike Kawasumi Ayako in her role as 'Damsel in distress'. It doesn't really fit her image, but obviously she's a good enough voice actress to make it at least work. Nakai Kazuya on the other hand is just as great as always. I mainly remember him from Gintama (Hijikata), and well... there is absolutely nothing I could criticize here. He hits the role of Mugen perfectly. Period. Sato Ginpei on the other hand is rather unexperienced, and for his particular role he works pretty well. He doesn't seem to emotional, but I can't remember Jin having emotional lines to begin with... Same for the rest of the cast, they definitely do their job good enough to not drag down the anime, but they don't blow off my head either.
BGM/OST 0/3: I think I should mention this first - I.am.not.a.Hip-hop.Fan. Now it's out. Nonetheless. Anime like Peace Maker Kurogane prooved for me that Hiphop-Meiji is a viable combination, if used correctly. And as you already can guess from 'if used correcty' I don't think that Samurai Champloo did a good job with it's OST. Rather than supporting the themes or situations of the anime, the OST just went off and did its own thing. To put it simply, I felt like watching an anime, while at the same time having a random Hiphop CD in my CD Player. The music and the pictures were never in sync, at least thats what I feel like. Especially as fighting themes the BGM used felt really misplaced (I don't even need to write this anymore, but again ep 25).
OP/ED 1/3: As mentioned earlier, Hiphop and Meiji is viable. Unfortunately I seriously disliked the OP 'Battlecry'. So much, that at some point I started skipping it. However, even though it is not my taste, I feel like it fits the anime. The EDs on the other hand are more to my taste, even if just by a small margin. Still, I rarely listened to any of those, so I won't dwell to long on this.

Of course, the score went a bit down because music taste is subjective, but I think I tried my best to stay more on the objective side of things. Overall 4/10 for the Sound.

Next is the characters-section... Short spoiler, I never came to like any of those characters.
However. I rate for the initial character design, their development (both characters and relationships), as well as the relation/interaction between the characters.
Initial character design 2/3: The anime starts with a cast of three completely different characters. Ditzy Fuu, mysterious Jin, and wild Mugen. They all have their points of interest, vived backgrounds, and are overall well rounded. Again though, without blowing your head off of excitement. The same goes for the introduced side characters. the episodes in which they appear deliver adequate information on their backgrounds, as well as reasons etc.
Development 1/3: I... just wanted to write something witty, but I can't come up with anything! To be honest, if I compare the start and end traits of the characters and relations I reach just one conclusion: Next to nothing changed. Don't get me wrong, they definitely developed, but I don't feel like they would act different from before.
Relations 2/3: Well, I already mentioned that all of the maincharacters act and think completely different. This obviously ends up in pretty interesting interactions as well. Unfortunately those interactions are as old as anime. Or even older. None of the situations are new or groundbreaking, but they are not bad either.

So overall, its 6/10. (I don't want to compare the cast of Champloo and Bebop, which is pretty much identical)

Finally, my Enjoyment. This is the only section which is, and always will be, completely subjective. I decide on how much I liked what I saw, how much I want a continuition (or in ongoing anime how much I look forward to the next episode), whether or not I would recommend it to friends, and whether I would woatch it again (and how often i would watch it again).
So, much ado about nothing...
Did I like it? No.
Do I want a continuiton? No.
Do I recommend it? Depends on who asks me, but I wouldn't recommend it to most people I know at least.
Would I watch it again? Please.
So, Enjoyment ist pretty much 1/10. I can't remember myself even smiling once during this anime.

But here's the point. I don't really feel like rate something bad, just because I dislike it.
For the overall rating I won't use my own Enjoyment, but an average of 5 pts.
Just for reference, an enjoyment of 1 would result in an Overall score of 4.4, the maximum enjoyment would result in an Overall score of 6.2.
As usual I appreciate feedback to improve my reviews.
And now, my dough is done, time to eat.

Oh, tl;dr:

Story 5/10 - Mediocre story of a girl searching a certain person.
Art 6/10 - Fluent animation with unrealistic movement
Sound 4/10 - Good voiceacting, but no synergy of sound and picture
Char 6/10 - Well round cast, without much development.
Enjoy depends on watcher.

Just like Cowboy Bebop, Watanabe once again leaves us an anime that has almost no story and intense amounts of filler episodes. The action sequences are phenomenal, but I cared next to nothing about any characters in this show.

Bebop is almost all style and little substance, and so is Champloo. I wish Watanabe would care more about his stories, instead of focusing on useless filler content that neither increases character development or pushes the tale forward.

Almost every character in this show is static, and virtually none of them are memorable (there is no Radical Edward)

Watanabe’s attempts at backstory fail because they still give ... you little insight, or just cliche insight into the characters. The animation is top notch, very fluid, and just like Bebop there is a fair bit of witty banter, but this can’t entirely save a series. Regardless, it was a fun ride, and it’s certainly a very watchable anime.

I seem to be one of the few people that loves short anime programs, considering the love for shows like One Piece, Naruto and Bleach all which have countless episodes of nonsensical filler that I simply don’t enjoy. If you’re going to make an anime with only 26 episodes, a large amount of them shouldn’t be filler. Virtually none of Berserk is filler. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has 64 episodes and I honestly wouldn’t consider any of them filler.

Brought to use from Shinichiro Watanabe, who most people will remember for Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo is a fantastic looking fusion of Feudal Japan with a contemporary feel, but what lies underneath the surface?

The plot begins when Fuu Kasumi, a waitress in feudal japan, is living a fairly normal life...riiight before the brash and arrogant vagabond Mugen decides to crash there for some tea, bringing in quite a few mooks and then our other male lead, the straight faced and cool Jin, to end up entirely wrecking the place and nearly getting them both executed. With some words and some coin flips, Fuu hires Mugen ... and Jin as her bodyguards while she journeys the land to find a mysterious sunflower scented samurai.

Story-wise, the show is primarily episodic, but tries to have a building plot throughout it involving the sunflower scented samurai and Jin's past. To be honest, though, this mostly ended up amounting to nothing in the end, as the stuff teased in the ending is largely obvious before it even happens and does not amount to all THAT much, mostly on the Jin/Mugen side. This might not be such an issue, except the series tends to tease it out quite a lot over the course of its show, which makes it feel like it is trying to build up to more: This makes the episodic nature feel a bit less fun and the self-contained plots trying to lead into this end up working less. It was particularly tiresome to see the end of the show use this to poor effect, as dramatic leadups to the finale get interrupted halfway through for silly and bizarre episodic plots, which severely hurts the overall narrative and really helped tarnish the story for me. It gets buoyed up by many of the episodic plots being quite solid, at least. One issue is that all of this makes the show very slow feeling, which also hurt it for me.

Character-wise, the main trio of Jin, Mugen and Fuu are all pretty well done, although I feel Fuu could have gotten a bit more focus/depth to her. Jin and Mugen's sharp contrasts nonetheless mixed with many similiarites is a very effective use of the having characters be Foils, although I feel both Jin and Mugen suffer slightly from the plot's developement. The one shot characters are hit and miss, with some great ones like Sara and the gay Hollander, some good-but-not-amazing ones like Mukuro and some really memetic ones like Francisco. The hits weren't large enough to help compensate for the pacing issues and lack of overall strong narrative.

One of the issues I overall had with the show is that the investment I had in the characters was somewhat limited by how the show did not explore them a ton, feeling a bit more like a "monster of the week" style show. Probably one of the bigger examples of this is Jin, as there was a lot of potential to explore the ramifications of his past, but it ultimately mostly gets some token stuff in the story before the admittedly quite cool fight at the end. Fuu also did not get as many focus episodes as I would want and remains a bit too static throughout the series.

One thing this show undeniably has is top notch presentation. The artwork, even about 12 years later as of this writing, is superb and rivals or surpasses a lot of anime that has come past it, with interesting and well drawn character designs for both the beautiful and ugly alike, very well choreographed (although sadly usually short) fights, great facial expressions and even the ability to adapt the style to do things like show traditional Japanese artistic styling. This is combined with a really superb score: Pretty sure that everyone knows about the hip-hop beats and stylings, but less known is that this show actually incorporates a lot of traditional Japanese folk into the mix, and then when you get to some of the combat tracks which can range from graceful to rock, this show spans an impressive amount of genres and manages to do them all quite well, with the OP "Battlecry" being especially memorable with the striking visuals, and an impressively graceful ED.

Still, while the impressive visuals are really nice, the story ends up lackluster, and helps limit the investment of me into these characters by hurting how much I can connect to them because of the shallow exploration of their characters. If you want an episodic, sometimes wacky, sometimes action-y show, then Samurai Champloo will meet your desires, but if your interest lies in the set up they provide in the story and how it evolves in the story, you will find yourself disappointed. It is, if nothing else, enjoyable.

Unfortunately I have to disagree with the other glowing reviews. I found this anime rather uninteresting. The characters were somewhat interesting, but I get the feeling that they are not unique at all. The story is also straight forward as well. While the way it is told is certainly unconventional, I found myself bored due to the slow pacing of this anime. The sound is nice and fits well with the respective scenes in the anime though. My personal enjoyment was not very high and I struggled to finish the early episodes.

What happens when you mix the Japanese history with contemporary music, season it with average characters and sprinkle it with a bland story? Yes, you get Samurai Champloo!
I will not lie. I really expected a lot from this anime and the first episode was everything I could ask for. But then things started moving down hill from there. No, rather it snowballed with every episode and by the time it came to the foot of the hill, it was just another anime......

Since this is mostly going to be a negative review, I'll keep it as short as i possibly can.

Story :
Nothing new. Samurai Champloo ... has a very plain(read: dull,boring) and predictable story line.
No plot twist (if one can call it so) will surprise you. At no point in the story does anything, and I mean ANYTHING unpredictable happen. Considering this is a Shounen, maybe I should have seen this coming.

Art:
If there is anything positive about Samurai Champloo it is the art and in particular, the animation. Most of the fights are pretty well animated and the art is nice and clean. I don't really have a lot to complain here, so moving on.

Sound:
Uncertain. Why you ask? Does todays music suit an anime about Samurai, I don't really know.
I didn't loathe it, but neither did I like it. So - uncertain.

Character:
Perhaps this is what let me down the most. You have your stereotypical protagonist Mugen, who is brash, dim witted except when it comes to fights and a loud mouth. You have his "opposite" Jin, a character who is a loner,well mannered and an equal when it comes to fighting strength.
And not to forget the bubbly, comical girl Fuu,who is the glue which holds these two together.
Yes, your everyday Shounen setting. And since Samurai Champloo is only 26 episodes long, neither do the antagonists make any sense nor do they do they have character.

Enjoyment:
Hardly any. Just because the fries look crisp and golden that doesn't make them tasty. Just because an anime has been rated highly that doesn't necessarily make it enjoyable.

Overall:
Samurai Champloo is a potpourri of everything I don't want to seen in an anime. Lousy story, weird music, and detestable characters.


But then again, just because I didn't enjoy Samurai Champloo doesn't mean you won't like it..................

"Why did we even go on this journey in the first place? I can't remember."

Certainly not the strongest words to end a series on unless you are shooting for a piece of existential film-making. But honestly, Mugen is just about dead on with this assessment of the events that took place prior to Samurai Champloo's conclusion- a conclusion that comes with so little suspense and tension, you could have guessed it after the first few episodes. Not to mention the central driving mystery of the show is spoiled about five episodes before the climax!
What the plot is is your typical ragtag adventure story and ... perhaps one could argue its not so much about the conclusion as it is about what happened to our protagonists throughout they travels; the point of the journey is not to arrive. And truth be told, some of these little stories are quite entertaining. The show is at its best when it is getting goofy and letting it's obviously diverse set of influences (music, sports, street art) shine brightly. Adversely, it is at its most contrived and tedious when it is spouting the same samurai period-piece tropes that are a dime-a-dozen in the anime medium.
Much like its spiritual predecessor, Cowboy Bebop, Champloo is crafted with a strong sense of style and an emphasis on music being a way to convey story and emotion. It works well and is entertaining when it strives to do this but when we are left with somber silence and slow paced exposition, things get pretty directionless and bland.
Where Cowboy Bebop was host to a roster of entertaining characters with rich backstories, populating an inventive and bizarre world, Samurai Champloo features a smaller cast with less humanizing detail written into them and a setting that has been well-tread at this point. I did appreciate the nods to historical accuracy and the brief narration of the history of Japan, but in terms of drama created by the atmosphere of a unique setting, it just can't compete.
Its a bit damning that show show will probably always be unfavorably compared to Cowboy Bebop, but the thing is they are just too similar for the viewer to not instantly draw comparisons.
What is handled very well is the fight scenes. It is almost justifiable to forget about the story completely and just soak up the eye candy that is these frenetic and superbly animated sword battles. The creators clearly have a love affair with the concept of the unbeatable swordsman and it appears that far more care was put into these choreographed dances of death than the rest of the show. For all that Mugen may lack as a character, he is fully realized as a furious, agile, improvisational fighter.
Its a quality show for those who are looking to see some badass fighting set in a traditional Japanese backdrop, with bits of comedic and musical flare peppered in. It just doesn't pull off the drama of this tale, which could have been very engaging, with much finesse.

Samurai Champloo knows very well what it is and doesn't try to pretend to be anything else. Its episodic nature, simple premise, and one-dimensional characters is a structure that many anime series have implemented. Since its overarching plot doesn't garner a lot of focus and attention, the anime puts emphasis on its character interactions with amusing and chaotic situations. But what makes Samurai Champloo stand out from the rest is that it's not afraid to experiment in its style. Employing a killer score inspired mainly by hip-hop and rap, among other genres of music, and an oddball mix of genre conventions and settings, each arc ... feels separate yet highly digestible due to its familiar subject matter and straightfoward characters. It's easy to see how this anime has become a keystone series in anime culture.

Despite having said all of this, personally I can't say I loved this series. I was looking for stronger plot resolution in terms of character and some arcs fell completely flat. I actually would have liked to see more eccentricity in its style and commitment when it came to creating unique settings and situations. Still, some scenes gave me absolute chills with its beauty and mastery.

If one were to look at the series just as a product of its time, I believe that people would either view it as a masterpiece or a mess. Time has helped us understand the greatness of Samurai Champloo but a passage in time also means a change in the landscape of anime. In the media world of today where story is king, series such as Samurai Champloo simply fall to the wayside. For its time, Samurai Champloo was pretty revolutionary anime series. Today, it serves as a lasting example of what anime can do in terms of style.

This review only applies for the first 6 episodes of the series, it does not constitute for the overall experience of the anime itself and it will be comprised of what I liked/disliked about the anime and the reason I have had dropped it for.

The story focuses on a shounen group trifecta, the unnecesarily wild character that will beat everyone in his path, the guy that is calm and collected and is always respectuous & a clutzy girl that follows them around because she needs them. The premise itself is really simple and it's nothing that interesting within of itself. Basically what you'd expect out ... of shounen generally. The story however is incredibly predictable because the characters are very generic, but is that okay? I mean, it's an action anime, the characters aren't exactly what shines in this type of anime.

Well, then.

One thing I did really dislike was the fact that, they are samurai. all the fights are decided by using a blade, you won't escape those fights without cut limbs most of the time, that much is to be expected, the results of the fight should often be bloody and really savage, yet, sometimes when people got slashed, the anime just changes to a still frame while the person screams in pain. Sure, there are people who get cut or slashed or stabbed with a sword and there's some blood here and there, but the action is focuses mostly on how awesome the two main characters are and the fights themselves don't display the brutality that would only be natural to be under this type of fights. But the show has picked the safe approach with its fights. The type of fights that wouldn't remotely gross out anyone watching them, so the casual viewer would be like, fuck yeah. The art style of the show is pretty decent looking, I only wish it was used to display some more realistic sword fights. Also the sound of the show is probably not gonna bother you in any way, but don't expect it to be something I'd listen to outside of the show.

The characters in the series are very generic. As I've said earlier, the main characters are a shounen trifecta, the three C's, the calm, the clutz & the courageous. Can't fail with that. And the episodic characters you will run into are like this for example: guy who is ugly and got a huge body being able to kill everyone goes rampage, but wait, someone, obviously a young girl, isn't afraid of him. OH NO WHAT IS GONNA HAPPEN NEXT? You can pretty much guess yourself. The characters don't shine in any way. They're just very generic and their genericness makes the series really predictable. Basically none of them stand out and are formulas that have been used since the shounen genre existed. Basically the characters also went on the path of a safe approach. The least likely path to ever come across an interesting & unique character. There was one episode out of the six where a more unexpected type of character was introduced, which was silly and I enjoyed the fact that they have had done that, but giving away details on him would be a spoiler. But generally the overall approach is still as safe as possible which didn't really make them entertaining.

Personally, the fact that the series was so average and didn't have one single thing I could name its own original idea, pretty much made me drop it. Nothing in these 6 episodes got me invested as everything I've seen in it was something I've seen through other series. You might enjoy Samurai Champloo if you're a person that doesn't watch much anime and is like "yo look, it's an action anime, yay". It uses safe formulas that have worked for most other series in its genre, so this show might interest you then. But otherwise, at least from the first 6 episodes, there is nothing that really shines through with an unique perspective and almost everything is done in a safe manner. If you're really into shounen it could also be a good choice for you since you know more of what to expect and how it all could unfold. But if you're not into shounen, it's a definite no, because the series is very shounen-ish.

There are a lot of problems that permeate Samurai Champloo and take away from what could have been an awesome, stylized adventure through late nineteenth century Japan. These problems are not large, but together they detract from the experience. Samurai Champloo is of course a well-loved anime, and far be it from me to harshly review it, but I shall because that is what I do.

The story of Samurai Champloo is something that is hard to explain in very long and drawn out terms. The series follows three characters, Foo, Jin, and Mugen, who are each outcasts from their respective walks of life. Foo is ... just an average girls whose father left her and her mother died. Jin is a samurai who killed his master and is now being chased by the students of the dojo in retaliation. Mugen is a criminal wanted for killing the people on a sugar boat. They come together through a huge coincidence and join forces through the bitchiness of Foo. Foo as a character is something I’ll later discuss. Foo wants to find the samurai who smells of sunflowers and employs the help of Jin and Mugen who don’t like each other and plan to kill each other when the journey is over.

One of the main things I find to be completely annoying about the series as a whole is how characters are so trusting of these guys who randomly appear to them and want them to do something or follow them. I won’t spoil who every bad guy is, but it seems to me like the writers did not understand that the audience will eventually catch on to the fact that this supposed good guy is a bad guy after the past ten episodes pulled the same trick. While you’re not bound to think of the characters as bad guys sometimes, it’s usually fairly apparent.

Another problem I have is that the episodic nature of the series makes it perfectly okay to watch the amazing first episode, skip the next twenty-two episodes, and watch the well-done final story-arc. The first episode has an excellent fight in it that is unparalleled until the very end. The last episodes are tense and exciting, which is a lot more than I can say for the cream in the middle of the cookie.

The middle episodes range from just plain boring, to pretty good. They are fairly forgettable and unimpressive most of the time. There are never bad guys who are anything more than loud and annoying and the constant eating gets to be annoying. There are some episodes that may resonate with a person (the blind woman for instance) but it is otherwise nothing to write home about.

And I found that the use of a filler episode telling the story of the first eleven episodes was painful. In an episodic show, I don’t think you need to give us a recap of the episodes, because the episodes typically don’t have anything to do with each other and the consequences of actions very rarely resonate later on in the series.

So let’s look at the animation. Well, there’s nothing much to say here. The characters aren’t great looking, the backgrounds are average. Sword fights are somewhat smooth, though can be a little jerky with the movements.

The sound is what really makes Samurai Champloo what it is and gives it its cool style. The opening song is probably one of the easier to recognize openings as far as American fans of anime are concerned. The ending isn’t bad either. But during the show, the mix of smooth rap beats, jazz, modern Japanese music, and Japanese folk music, combine in such a way as to make me feel that without that music to help accentuate the style, the anime would be nothing more than another generic historical piece. As far as voice actors are concerned, the American dub is a safe bet if you don’t feel like reading. None of the voice actors are particularly bad and none of the style of the beatboxing nor rapping is lost in the translation.

The characters are nearly the opposite of the music. They aren’t that great. Foo is annoying and bitchy and gets what she wants and eats too much and is useless. She’s not what you would consider a strong female lead and typically is found captured or crying or something that just makes you shake your head and wish for more of Mugen or Jin. Mugen is not a great character, his rather rude manner isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, but he can be likeable and funny. Jin is also a generic character that has a life of his own because of those comedy moments and his interactions with Mugen. Foo’s bodyguards being from completely different walks of life makes for, as I’m sure you can tell, some funny moments, as well as some violent moments. The only reason that Mugen and Jin are ever good characters that you can remember long after the final episode is the interactions they share. But otherwise, the characters of the show are forgettable. There aren’t any recurring characters but two, and they are just there for comedy. Otherwise, even the final bad guys are fairly shallow in both intentions and emotions.

When I was nearing the last episodes I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to like this anime very much. And then there were zombies. And then I nearly grew to hate it. And then there was a pointless baseball episode. And then I hated it more. But the end did redeem it a lot, and I feel that as an anime, overall, it’s not bad. If taken as weekly doses, it is definitely not going to be unappealing to fans of historical dramas. But if you plan to sit through episode after episode in a sort of marathon, it’s not something you’ll find too enjoyable. It’s just the sheer fact that taken as a whole, Samurai Champloo is both shallow in characters, story, and will never hold a place in the pantheon of amazing anime. It’s merely a distraction, not a great one, but it does have its moments and it has that interaction between Jin and Mugen, well-done interactions at that, and an urban style that it uses to its’ advantage. To me, it felt like Lone Wolf and Cub for the modern age (and there is a point where there is a reference to the classic manga), and it plays out in the episodic nature that the Lone Wolf and Cub manga did. The only problem is that while Lone Wolf and Cub was fresh and amazing to a new American manga audience in the 80’s, Samurai Champloo is nothing more than a generic period drama that is only different in its use of urban style.

So basically, I’m saying Samurai Champloo isn’t something you’re going to remember, though it can be a fun ride for those really starved for some swordplay.

Style : Look, there goes a baseball breaking a tower, unusual dead men digging for treasure, Americans talking like Germans, Germans talking about homosexuality and while all of this happens, there's this hip hop thingy going on in the background. A huge of fan of music maybe, You wonder, (Read in Jin's voice)what's it? Someone's rapping, no wait, someone's on the DJ, fuck, the style of this thing! The greatest weapon in the artillery of Champloo is its undeniable, ravishing and extraordinary style of doing things. There is so much mediocrity overcome, superseded and overshadowed by the style. The presentation is so state of the ... art that caring for the substance is dismissed as petty and, the need of a story? Pfft.

Art/Animation : The animation, even in the Blu-ray I watched, was dated, very. It looks like the producers didn't want to/or were too lazy to up the quality or maybe the original master was lost. In any case, I believe the animation could've been a lot better than the current 'watchable' status quo.

Soundtrack : Feeling a bit dizzy? A bit high or maybe sad? Don't worry, we here have all of it. The soundtrack is, again, one of the ups of Champloo. Its shelf has enough for you to be be immersed in whatever randomness that goes on.

Characters : Here for some of those greatly built characters? One you can talk to, to your IRL/Online friends? Nope, this ain't that kind of anime. Particularly, this is one of those places where Samurai awards you with a slap. The character writing is downright lazy. If you know what I mean, insert one of those "had harder lives, become ignorant and mean over the years" here. The three characters as usual go on a journey and there's nothing much to be cherished in their souls.

Story : The biggest flaw of Champloo is it doesn't get any interesting right upto the latter part of the midway. Samurai Champloo is a remix and mash up of all of Japan, damnit, I get it. But there are so many badly written fillers in there that it is almost unbearable before things start getting interesting. The humour only takes birth in pure form in the last 6 episodes wherein, an amazing episode called "The Baseball Blues" ups your opinion of the show.

Conclusion : Samurai Champloo could've been a huge success and a straightforward classic if it didn't suffer from all that bad vision in direction and writing, in my opinion. It works as a satire for sometime and then falls into pits it stood up against. It hits the jackpot a tad bit too late for the viewer to hold on to it. But when it really does, it almost feels like a miracle. A lot of unnecessary fillers but some of the great ones make Samurai Champloo a hindered yet nearly fulfilling experience.

This show started off strong, and I had high hopes for it after the first couple episodes; the fighting was smooth and stylized, the characters, sounds and environments seemed appropriate, the only flaw was how the main cast got together, and that was forgivable though awkward. This style carried on throughout most of the series, but the last several episodes really ruined the show; It felt like they had a great story, but no real idea how to write an ending.

The show went from pushing realism to extreme cases to fully supernatural feats the likes of which should only be seen in shows like Bleach ... and the anime sin of 'Love and Friendship conquers all'. Many people have compared it to Cowboy Bebop and I'd say that was accurate for a long time. Each episode was basically its own tale, and pretty well done while still adhering to the idea that there was a larger goal.

The first half of the series, and then some, I'd have given an 8/10 easily. But everything fell apart so horribly as they ended their journey that I actually regretted watching it by the end and if that's all I knew of the show, it may have been a 3/10 for cliches, nonsense and sheer ridiculousness of the situations and interactions.

First half=GREAT. Second half= NOT SO GOOD. I was hooked at the first half then second half came, it was a repetitive storyline like recycle.

The storyline got comedy, sword fighting(great) and nice adventure. The characters are all funny as well. Sound is kinda low. Enjoyment is going downhill. The art maybe could be improved but it was OK.

I wanna like this anime but anime like these, it is a borefest for me. Maybe my expectations is too high because of the high ratings. Too bad. If you wanna watch this anime, start with low expectations, maybe you'll like it.

OVERALL: 6/10.

Samurai Champloo is weird, but it works. I wouldn't label it as a must-see show; I would say that it was innovative for its time. I watched parts of it when I was younger and then rewatched it again as an adult. However, I do look back at this series fondly.

- Story. Although there is a main goal introduced in episode one, the show was like a slice of life until everything hit the fan in the last six episodes. Let's just say that the plot takes an unexpected twist on a social/philosophical concept that was not previously foreshadowed. It was jarring to me. ...

- Characters. Besides their overall personalities of stoic, free-spirited, and sassy, the show doesn't dive in too much on character development. Nonetheless, there are episodes that add dimension to them. The most charming element about the trio's dynamic is how they evolve from strangers with nothing in common to trustworthy friends.

- Art. I'm a sucker for distinct character designs with some urban feudal fashion. The actual lineart itself is okay, but not my usual cup of tea. Although the opening is super stylized, the color palette of the show is on the muted or drab side.

- Animation. Good for its time. The no-nonsense fight scenes stand out.

- Music. This soundtrack introduced me and many others to the world of lo fi and chillhop before we even understood what it was. The OST does most of the emotive legwork during scenes.

- Sound design. Meets the bare minimum of sound effects.

- Writing. I watched this in English (my preference for some of Watanabe's works), so I can't comment on the Japanese dialogue. The lines in the dub were fine; people uttered sentences like normal people.

- Emotional impact. While I wasn't a fan of the story relating to the main goal, I was distinctly left with the feeling of wistfulness at the end.

A series of one-off stories where "the journey is more important than the destination". Samurai Champloo's first episode introduces us to 3 intriguing characters. Mugen and Jin who are complete opposites of each other and yet are equals when it comes to fighting strength, however in different ways - and Fuu who is the weak non-combatant out of the 3, but at the same time the driving factor behind the anime's main quest and the wedge that keeps Mugen and Jin from killing each other.

I've got nothing against this anime, it's very much respectable, but that's all it is. None of the episodes really do ... much in building a cohesive world, set of characters or plot and once the series ends, the world of Samurai Champloo has been completely explored. It's small and much less interesting or mysterious as it could have been. Filled to the brim with irrelevant sidequests and environments that never get brought up again. Compared to the classics and greats like Berserk, Vinland Saga and Fullmetal Alchemist for example, this show doesn't meausure up in any of the 3 areas (plot, characters and world building). And sure, you may like anime like this with disjointed stories, 1-off characters and both satisfying sword fights and a resolution at the end in each episode. Fair point, I prefer more "heavy to digest" anime myself and that's fine, but that doesn't mean that I can't bring up this simple structure as a flaw. I'm trying to rate shows from masterpiece to brainless wish fullfilment isekai and this show is simply "good", something you can watch casually. It doesn't have to be a 10, it's ok if you watch shows that are a 6 or so-bad-it's good shows that would be a 0-1. It depends on your taste and I wont call myself superior for watching different kinds of shows, but don't call this show superior simply because you enjoyed it. It's not.

Ohh yeah- also when it comes to soundtrack, I don't like hip-hop, sorry /: There were a few moments that were made funny by anachronistic hip-hop references, but all in all my experience wasn't enriched by it, so the soundtrack wont cause me to raise the rating to 7 and I wont decrease the rating because I dont care about soundtrack and animation that much.

It's me again, writing another review. I'm on fire. Anyway, so many people talk about Samurai Champloo, so I thought, it was time to finally give it a chance.

The beginning was amazing. I love how they showed the characters' lives before they met one another, each doing their own thing. Honestly, when it comes to the story/plot, for me, the start was good and then everything went downhill. This show was mainly fillers honestly (even though it was manga canon) and it barely focused on the actual story. It kept adding new, random people, who have the same goal to kill the characters, and ... the the two main leads always beat them. Then the story starts to go somewhere before it goes absolutely nowhere. For example, Jin was given a love interest in episode 11, I think, and then the girl was completely forgotten about. Jin never even thought about her, and I thought... he had actually fallen in love with her. I mean he did risk his life, fought so many samurai just to help her escape, and they even shared sweet moments. So I was confused when like two episodes later he was in the Red Light District. Like my respect for Jin went so high when he saved the girl, and she was actually a very good love interest for him. But then they just made her into another random, one-episode character who is never shown again.

The plot had too much bun and not enough meat. What I mean by that is that they focused on everything but the characters' background story, the sunflower samurai, etc. Only once in a while we were given actual plot. I wanted more than one or two episodes about Jin and Mugen's background story. More flashbacks. All the important parts of the story are just pushed together in the last few episodes. Fuu finally meets her dad and he dies right after. Everything is so rushed in the end.

Now moving on to characters. I personally did not like Fuu. She was annoying for sure since she neglect to even tell the two male leads about what the name of the samurai was that they were searching. Like how are they going around the country with the two male leads not having any clue besides that the samurai smelled like sunflowers? I mean she's 15 not 5. There should've been a better reason for the three of them to be traveling together. Jin and Mugen are both free birds. They don't seem the type to just listen to a girl, but apparently they did.

Idk, I just feel like one of the biggest reason why this show got such high ratings is because it's an older show with more freedom when it comes to the dialogue and scenes. Definitely, Jin and Mugen carried the show, and the dialogues were funny. Other than that, there was no actual plot besides them helping a girl find a samurai who smells like sunflower. Like just imagine a girl forces you, a grown man, that he MUST help her find a man who smells like sunflowers, and no additional detail is given. LOL.

Overall, I've seen worse shows. It really did have lots of protentional in the beginning. There was room for romance as well (I know the girl was like 15, but at that time, age like that didn't matter). However, I guess I like the fact that she ended up with none of them since they're on another level, and she just nags, gets captured all the time, and then has the audacity to say they're useless bodyguards.

And that's all folks.