Story: 3/10
Afro Samurai has a really generic revenge plot- boy's father is murdered in front of him, killer encourages boy to seek revenge, boy grows up and seeks revenge. It's not the worst premise I've ever seen. However, as the story progresses, the premise gains absolutely no depth. There's a hamfisted attempt at pushing a "break the cycle" moral, but it never seems to have any bearing on the plot or the characters whatsoever. The main plot is honestly boring, which is a major negative when considering how much screentime is devoted to it.
The episodic plots are even worse somehow. They don't really have any relation to the plot besides "#2 headband" and they leave a lot of loose ends dangling and plot holes. I found myself constantly confused about where these subplots came from. My guess is that they're mostly excuses for a gore-fest or a really uncomfortable sex scene.
Art: 8/10
The art is very stylized and certainly hard to get used to, but the longer I watched it the more I grew to like it. The use of grayscale is intentional and gives the (copious amounts of) blood a stark contrast. One could also say that it's symbolic of Afro's mindset, and given how artsy it feels I wouldn't argue.
The animation itself is also good. Nothing about it feels clunky or cheap. The blood spurts are definitely Kill Bill-esque, but I believe that's intentional.
Sound: 9/10
The soundtrack is where Afro Samurai really shines. The Wu-Tang Clan breathed life into this thing, giving it a hip-hop feel that isn't there without it. This is one of those cases where the soundtrack actually enhances the series instead of just acting as background noise.
The voice acting was generally very good. SLJ's characters in particular had excellent voice acting. A few side characters sounded awkward, but I've honestly never seen a dub this good. My only complaint is with how godawful the few Japanese words sound when spoken by the English cast, something I've never encountered before.
Character: 1/10
This is the main problem with the series: none of the characters are likeable. At all. Ninja Ninja is annoying, Afro himself is a forgettable silent badass with no redeeming qualities, and all of the side characters and villains managed to grate on my nerves somehow.
To make it worse, none of the characters really experience any kind of development. Sure, there's a limit to what you can do in 5 episodes, but the main character at the end should be different from the main character at the beginning. The only "character development" we get is in Afro's flashbacks, and they really only show him as a kid fostering his hatred and anger. There's also a huge gap in character between child Afro and adult Afro with nothing to bridge it, to the point that I can barely even recognize that they're supposed to be the same person.
Enjoyment: 3/10
I may have enjoyed looking at the art and listening to the soundtrack, but I was bored pretty much the whole way through and I couldn't wait for it to be over. If you're looking for senseless violence and sex, you may enjoy it more than I did.
In closing, I'd only recommend this anime if you aren't interested in plot and don't care about characters. If you just want mind-numbing blood and swords and stuff, this would be a great way to waste a couple of hours. Otherwise, I'd give this a pass.
