In a nutshell, Samurai Champloo follows a young girl named Fuu, accompanied by swordsmen Mugen and Jin, on a epic journey through Japan´s edo period in search of the samurai who smells of sun flowers. It is basically a road movie that features many things you don´t come across in anime that often.
After i first watched the show in 2007, it topped my all time favourite anime list and is still very much in my personal Top 5. Here is why: I can´t think of any important aspect that i feel was executed poorly.
First of all, how the in the beginning somewhat benign overarching plot slowly builds into something that´s greater than our protagonists journey itself was quite breathtaking to me. In a very clever way, every decision Fuu, Mugen and Jin make has a severe influence on many other people the trio meets along the way.
Second, the character development is superb. Over the course of the 26 episodes, we get to witness how an extremely naive 15-year old girl develops into a more mature and serious young woman without ever losing her charm and how two samurai who just outright hate each other slowly but surely learn to respect one another by learning more about their pasts.
Topic Number 3: Creativity. Mixing many different facets of a modern art form like hip hop into the 19th century of Japan is far from easy, but it totally works here. We see rappers, beat boxers and even an entire episode dedicated to graffiti sprayers blended in with the story, and they never feel out of place. Apart from that, it is sometimes hard to tell whether this anime is episodic or not. While the main plot is constantly present, many wonderful side stories are told throughout the show, naturally giving Champloo comedic, romantic, dramatic and even tragic moments, separated from another by badass sword action!
Last but not least, i wanna talk about the sound. Wow, what a great mixture Champloo´s OST is. As you can probably guess, it is mainly hip hop and features some pretty well known artists like Force of Nature or Nujabes. But even if rap is not for you, you can find some gems on this record. Minmi´s Shiki no Uta is as fitting an ending theme as you will hear, and i especially want to mention a piece called Obokuri Eemui, a traditional (but slightly modernized) Okinawan folk song played in the background of a very important scene. This song just made me enter a dream world and i instantly fell in love with performer Ikue Asazaki, whose music i still listen to frequently when i want to relax.
All in all, i can only elevate this show to the Masterpiece ranking for all aforesaid reasons. To me, it is by far Shinichiro Watanabe´s best work. And yes, i do know he directed Cowboy Bebop as well! Enjoy the journey!
