Freedom also means being free from things such as religious persecution, racism, homophobia, ableism (prejudice against those with disabilities), senseless violence, and so on. Then there is being free from personal demons.
Many secondary characters in this anime deal with one of the former, while the main characters deal with the latter. Through the main characters, the anime also does a good job of showing how society's problems can create different personal problems for individuals.
Speaking of the main characters, each has their own merits. Mugen has women and drinking as his vices as well as a shady past, but he has a cool fighting style based on break dancing and samarai sword fighting and a nice personal style that is reminiscent of hip-hop culture. He has the most striking character development as he confronts his past and learns to care about more than just fighting.
At first, Jin is the stoic and deadly samurai that most people expect samurai to be. He has movng character development similar to Mugen, except with a tiny bit more humor. Finally, Fuu is a naive yet compassionate and clever girl. Although I wish she could have learned self-defense, her character development is just as touching as Mugen and Jin's, especially as she meets certain people and confronts her past.
Another great aspect of the anime is how it blends past and future cultures together to show oppressive authorities and dire personal circumstances result in cultural movements. The future culture of hip-hop (i.e. graffiti, break dancing, rapping) into the past culture of the Japanese samurais is a very creative feat shown through secondary characters the viewer encounters and through the main character Mugen. There is another notable blend in one episode involving break dancing, samurai fighting styles, a certain sport, and two countries, but you'll have to watch to see what I mean.
Final notable aspects of the anime include the soundtrack and the animation. The soundtrack is a blend of hip-hop and traditional Japanese music and another example of the past and future culture blending mentioned earlier. The animation seems to be inspired by traditional Japanese drawings and paintings and is very well done, but there are a couple times it gets a weird modern psychedelic tinge.
The only flaw is one episode that seemed totally out of place with the others. It had to be the weirdest filler episode I have ever seen.
In spite of a little bit of weirdness, this was a fantastic anime. I recommend it to those who enjoy action-adventure samurai animes and anyone who enjoys hip-hop culture. I wouldn't recommend this to younger audiences due to the strong violence, drug and alcohol use, and sexual situations.
