Common Name: Samurai Champloo
Score: 8/10, 5/5
Length: 26 episodes
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Samurai
Summary: Fuu Kasumi has all her life dreamed of seeking a man she can only describe as "the samurai who smells of sun flowers," yet has all but given up on it until her klutzy nature brings her normal life to an end. When he life is in constant peril, she has no reason to not pursue her lifelong dream. How safe her journey will be though depends on the humanity of her unwilling bodyguards: a mysterious, bespectacled ronin (a disgraced samurai) and a madman whose swordplay is more like breakdancing than the traditional styles and schools of kenjutsu (martial arts of the sword).
Review: Standing as a kind of successor to Cowboy Bebop due to the role the famed Shinichirô Watanabe played in the creation of both works, Champloo is in its own right a fantastic show worthy of all the praise it has received, yet it falls short to meet the standards of the titan that came before it. In other words, so long as this title isn't approached with Bebop-tempered expectation, Samurai Champloo is fit to be called a classic of the samurai genre. With that said, the actual review can proceed in earnest.
Samurai Champloo is, at it's core, a samurai story, or rather a mix of different ones. Namely, the concept of the traveling samurai and the redemption of the disgraced ronin are two concepts that have been highly popularized over the years. Each one plays on two common themes that people, particularly western audiences, love: an underdog pitted against an great foe and the knight aiding the damsel in distress. However, much like the Japanese backdrop and the expectations that come with that, these beloved concepts are beaten to a pulp, thrown into the mud, laughed at for how ridiculous they are, and then kicked in the ribs a few more times for good measure by Samurai Champloo's irreverent nature. While it is a samurai story filled with action, adventure, and a sense of honor, it is also a comedy, or more specifically a parody or pastiche of the genre. The show's name is in fact, a hint toward the show's irreverence toward tradition. Champloo, or Champuru in the original Okinawan, is a word that means "stirred" of "mixed-up" according to several sources, but Samurai Champloo connects the word to the Western music style of taking an piece of music and altering it in such a way that it becomes something new and usually very different from the original work, otherwise known as "remixing." It is incorporation of these kinds Western ideals and practices that turns what would otherwise standard samurai tale into something entirely different. Outside of this show, I'd challenge you to find another story filled with beat boxing, rap, graffiti art, vinyl scratching, and breakdancing that can still be called a samurai epic. For Samurai Champloo, traditional standards and practices are turned into something to laugh at. Nothing that could be considered sacred is safe from the irreverent and offensive humor that this show revels in.
I repeat, nothing that is sacred is safe.
In spite of the show's almost childish rebellion toward what is considered "standard" or "acceptable" however, Samurai Champloo is actually a fairly compelling story. When it isn't busying itself with jokes at the expense of Japanese history by incorporating rap and marijuana, there's actually actually some depth to what would otherwise be considered pointless insanity.
This depth that I speak of does not come from the humor that ignores both time and place (though it is no less thoughtfully amusing to try and track when the show actually takes place or where the characters find themselves over the course of their less-than-linear journey), but rather the characters that drive the show's movement. While they are an important part of the show's comedy due to the role each of them plays in their group dynamic, their actual character is far more serious than one might be led to believe. Fuu is, herself, the embodiment of this comedic but deep personality that I speak of. When she's not putting together some absurd plan, gorging herself until she looks like a sumo wrestler, or just acting against the standards of womanhood, she's actually very insecure, anxious, fragile, and cute--attributes that are generally considered feminine. Simply put, she acts dumb and brave and funny as a means of hiding her weaker and arguably more womanly nature, psyching out not only the people she meets but also herself so that she does not lose faith and give up this journey she knows might amount to nothing. The same goes for Mugen and Jin, Fuu's bodyguards and the closest thing she has to friends, in regards to their contradictory natures. Though Jin has little care for the world or his own life, he continues to find reasons to stay alive through his swordsmanship and sense of duty. Mugen, though crass and irresponsible, also has something that resembles a moral code and sense of duty that nags at him to be chivalrous and do good in spite of his seedy past and generally unsamurai-like personality and fighting style. Each one of them has as many good points as they do bad, and it's practically impossible to wholeheartedly love or hate them. Though their zaniness discredits their character, there is undoubtedly more to them that meets the eye.
Just watching them interact with each other is proof enough of that.
Despite it's best efforts and fantastic characters though, Samurai Champloo isn't perfect, and the worst part is that it's not entirely the show's own fault that it isn't. As I understand it, Champloo was originally meant to run a lot longer than it actually did, but was cut short suddenly due to funding or sponsorship issues. So, after 9/10ths of the way through the project, the show's staff were told to end it in far fewer episodes than it needed. So, in the end, the show's finale turned into a rushed race to the end when it was previously engaged with some comedic filler.
Like playing baseball against Admiral Perry for Japan's future.
And that's not a joke. This happens right before the show's final arc.
There was essentially no build-up to this arc either. It just sort of happens and then ends, and I cannot think of any better way to put other than that. That doesn't mean it was necessarily bad, but it noticeably clashes with the movement and tone the show had already established over the previous 23 episodes. While tolerable, the show's ending simply feels like it's lacking because of this clash of tones, yet I suppose it is noteworthy enough to say that they did end it despite the sudden cut-off. In an industry that has more often than not ended even its more well-received and popular series with cliff-hangers and indefinite hiatuses, I suppose it is better that we at least got a semi-satisfying ending than nothing at all. It is, however, a move that did hurt the show as it stood, and made it far less than it could have been. Samurai is, however, well worth the watch in my opinion.