Even if you could care less what nerdy anime viewers like myself think about you based on your "watched" list, Samurai Champloo is worth watching because it's a really fun and enjoyable show. Much of this is due to the instantly likable trio of Mugen, Jin, and Fu, whose sharply different personalities lead to hilarious interactions. Mugen is essentially an animal in human form, raised on an island for criminals, who says whatever is on his mind and picks fights with people for the thrill of it. Even his fighting style is wild, based more on gut-feeling and the surprise of spontaneity than formal training. Jin is, by contrast, quiet, distinguished (he wears glasses for looks), and concerned for others. Trained in a dojo from youth, he rose to the top of his class and is now (in)famous for his skills and actions. Fu is purposefully mysterious, refusing to reveal why she seeks the samurai who smells of sunflowers, but kind at heart and the one who binds the group together. Each episode (or often two), in Cowboy Bebop fashion, tells a mini-story about the trio's journey and interactions with different people and places. In one, they participate in an eating contest in Edo and show a gay German (great social commentary) around town while avoiding the police attempting to deport him. In another, Jin helps a woman who has been forced to work at a brothel to pay off her husband's gambling debts (and cannot divorce him under Japanese law - again, great social commentary) escape to a women's shelter.
Overall these mini-stories are pretty entertaining, even though they often fail to develop the characters or story in a meaningful way. A lot of the episodes can feel like filler and the show lacks much of a hook or sense of suspense. Consequently, for some viewers Samurai Champloo can be hard to pick up and easy to drop. I don't fall into that camp, but I understand it and think it has some merit. If you don't love the characters and the journey, there just isn't much here for you. I would still recommend the ending (last 3 episodes), which is engaging, plot-driven, and damn good.
Like Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo probably suffers a bit on the story end due to its perfectionist attitude toward animation and audio. The animation is not only outstanding - the scenery is exquisite, the character designs are original and attractive, and the fight scenes are meticulously crafted and realistic - it melds seamlessly with the original hip hop soundtrack, from scene cuts to dialogue to battles, such that the entire show is hip hop, and it wouldn't be Samurai Champloo otherwise. Quality-wise, this OST is one of the very best in anime (feels like an Asian Flying Lotus album and never gets old), right up there with Cowboy Bebop and Wolf's Rain. (For a sampling, check out "Just Forget" and "You (alternate version)"). The voice cast is likewise top notch, featuring big names like Liam O'Brien and Kari Wahlgren, and even bit characters have professional-sounding actors.
More than anything, Samurai Champloo is an amazing concept. Combining hip hop themes with Edo-period Japan works to create a completely original and beautiful world, an escape from your everyday life and your typical anime premise. The cast and dialogue is fun to watch and often funny as hell, and the story is generally engaging and creative. I've seen some tough criticisms of Samurai Champloo, but this is to be expected if you're Watanabe's next big production. To an extent these criticisms have merit, and I would have liked to see more plot-driven writing, fluid storytelling, and character development. But even this could only go so far: at heart, Samurai Champloo is about the ride (call it a "journey" anime maybe), and you either like those or you don't.
