Samurai Champloo is a journey. Or in this case you could say the journey is Samurai Champloo. It's not just Mugen, Fuu and Jin going off on a journey. It's us viewers as well. Traveling is all about meeting different people, visiting new places and making friends here and there. But people miss the important part about traveling. The feeling that remains in us while we do the journey and once we end it. Samurai Champloo in that sense has achieved a perfection here. It beautifully showed us how our emotions go about when we travel, albeit in Edo style.
I haven't even stepped into the music category.
The way how events unfold and move forward is so natural and realistic it made me feel as if this isn't an anime. Many people regard anime as an escape from reality, which is definitely true, but there's the other side of the coin. Anime showing us reality in a different way. Samurai Champloo takes the latter route. Either there was an independent episode or there were arcs, both excellently flowed the plot to us and left us in awe of what's next. Some parts made you grit your teeth in suspense. Why? It's because Samurai Champloo knew how to handle the emotion. Not once did I feel as if I knew the outcome of a battle when our two sword fighters were engaged with a tough opponent, and for a media like anime, or action itself for that matter, it's applaudable. Even in the final arc, I was taken aback by who lived and who didn't. No spoilers so don't worry. I was never a fan of Historical anime, but much like Gintama, it was not only bearable but enjoyable. From the first episode to the last, much like it's music, Samurai Champloo beautifully showed us the story it had to tell with one-or-none plotholes and the like.
If you've seen my list and stats, I haven't watched many Manglobe anime, yet I consider myself their fan after Samurai Champloo. The art was breathtaking. I can find no other words to describe it. Maybe groovy I guess? The fight scenes were a huge highlight of the anime, and for great reason. Unlike most other studios, Manglobe knew how to incorporate suspense and awe-inspiring knitty gritty action scenes. And for both of the main samurais, Jin and Mugen, had their own unique fighting style and the animation proved that even further. The amount of detail as well dedicated to the backgrounds and the character design as well were beautifully done.
Samurai Champloo arguably has the best soundtrack of all time. Why? It's because there was one composer who contributed a lot to the anime, Nujabes. Battlecry has become larger than the anime itself and although it doesn't get featured much on any "best anime OP" lists that certainly doesn't mean it's not amazing. If the anime was more popular I'm sure it would get the attention it deserved. The rest? The background music went slow at times and scary at times. It perfectly did it's job as background music, to create a feeling within us which the main activity can't do, ease in emotions in us. Take for example a scene where Mugen was about to walk over to someone in rage, the drum beat that played definitely raised my hair on end.
Shiki no Uta had me dancing, snapping to the beat. I got so engrossed in the soundtrack overall that it took me just a few episodes to learn the lyrics by ear, something that NEVER happened to me before. It wasn't just Nujabes and Minmi doing all the brilliant work on the OP and ED respectively, but the others as well. Never have I ever seen inserted endings go on par with the actual endings, which are already so amazing no questions asked. Another thing, never have I ever turned up the volume when listening to an ED so much while watching an anime episode. If 11/10 existed, the music section and Nujabes himself for that matter, would have it given by me in a heartbeat. Pardon the pun.
If you read my normie opening paragraph at the beginning, you might remember that I said nothing is perfect, even though the concept of perfection, much like right and wrong is subjective. Not being perfect doesn't necessarily mean something's bad too however. In terms of Samurai Champloo, the characters prove that point. The weakest part of the anime (if 8 is considered weak) are the characters. Mostly because of the villains. Let's start with our main characters.
Fuu was very irritating throughout the anime, I found myself rolling over in irritation each time I heard "Himawari o-samurai-san" since it got repeated each and every time in almost every episode. I may sound like I'm exaggerating (which is true) but this was the one thing I got pissed at each time at the anime. Apart from that her performance in the final arc did a complete 180 of my view of her. The episodes leading up to the final arc as well highlighted an amazing new door to her personality in my eyes.
Then we have Mugen. I can see why many viewers would love a character like Mugen especially since he's so badass and in many ways cooler than Jin, ahem, literally. Since most of the episodes revolved around Either Mugen or Jin (with the final arc being the sole exception as it was focused on Fuu, but you could say it was equally focused on all three as well, but as for those two, they) got one episode or an arc dedicated to them each and it kept rotating between them until the end. This was especially good since we weren't tired of following only one person on multiple continuous arcs. His backstory, much like the other two was not the most positive thing you'd hear for a guy that badass, the middle of the anime will explain further if you're interested, I'm not spoiling anything :P. From the first episode till the end, we saw 26 tantrums, but we got 52 epic fights and quotes, literally. Don't go counting up everything now :P
Jin. At first I was on Team Mugen but sooner rather than later I switched to Team Jin. Why? It's because Jin is the literal example of "cool". His backstory isn't lacking either. Rather, on a personal note I found Jin's backstory much more relevant to the plot and more badass than Mugen or Fuu's. Much like his demeanor, he silently crossed the ranks and became my favorite character in the anime. I don't know about most other people, but I loved Jin as a character because he was fleshed out as one himself. The arcs that focused on him focused in his past as well and I feel even though all three characters' pasts were equally explored, Jin's backstory was one that gave out more detail. And sadness too.
Then why an 8? The villains. None of the villains had even half a proper motive for what they did. I expected Sara's arc to give out a well designed villain but unfortunately she too was poorly designed. So much for the drum beats and Mugen's rage. Once again, since there's no context no spoilers. Don't worry and carry on. Apart from that other villains themselves did no better. At best to contradict myself I can say the villains had half a motive but none had a full one. All of them felt cliched in on way or another and since this is the first time I used that word in this whole review that's saying something as well. Nonetheless, if not for Jin and Mugen's backstories and Fuu's final arc performance, even a 7 would be tough to achieve, let alone an 8.
If the score and my words didn't directly show it to you, I'll make it direct, I'm a huge fan of Samurai Champloo. I came expecting something worth a 7-8 and instead got a show worthy of a 10. Faults are present yes, for that I'm willing to slice off 0.4 out of the score, but they're not worth anything more. Story? Excellent. Art? Breathtaking. Music? Listen to Shiki no Uta and let it do the talking. Characters? ..... Brilliantly designed main characters and bad villains I suppose. Nevertheless, to end this on a positive note (if all this positivity and small amount of fanboying weren't enough,) Samurai Champloo may appear to be just your everyday quiet Samurai anime with boring historical references and an even boring sound track, rest assured you will get the EXACT 180. You're gonna get the most hip (and hop) anime you'll ever see!
P.S: Fuu was as she said the only main girl, so waifu corner is now Husbando corner for the second or third time ever I guess. Anyway to make it short. Jin best boy.
"If we were all the way up there, no one here'd look any bigger than a grain of sand." - Mugen
