Review of Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo is a work by Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop fame, and like that series, it's a genre mix, Samurai Champloo being a combination of Edo Period Samurai stories and Hip Hop culture. (I will be comparing the series to Cowboy Bebop, as the two are very similar) The story is that of a girl named Fuu who meets two samurai named Mugen and Jin through some shenanigans. The three then go on a journey to find a samurai who smells like sunflowers. Much like Cowboy Bebop, while there is a main story, the series is more episodic, but I think the structure of the seriesis a bit weaker compared to Bebop, as where Bebop felt like it had great episodic tales that also enhance the main story, Champloo has a bit of a disconnect with its main plot and everything else. The main characters do occasionally have developments, but rarely do they service the story. However, the anthological stories themselves are pretty good by themselves. They play baseball once, they do drugs like twice, and sometimes they just fight some people. The main theme of most of them is that of rebelling against societal norms. Many characters represent discriminated groups, whether it be based on beliefs, gender, sexuality, family, or pretty much anything else you can think of. Using the setting of Edo Japan, a very traditionalist time and place, and clashing it with the often rebellious nature of Hip Hop was an excellent idea.

Character wise, I think the series is very inconsistent. Not only in terms of which characters are good, but when they're good. The three main characters are pretty likeable, but ultimately they have little going on. Mugen is the violent and filterless one. Mugen is the dignified one. Fuu is the girl who likes food. That's usually the extent of their character. Midway through the series, there was an excellent two-parter focused on Mugen, showing he grew up on an island where banished criminals lived, and his tendencies are ultimately a result of his terrible upbringing. While a great story, this contributes very little to the main plot, and I can say the same of any episodes focused on the other two leads. This is usually where I'd talk about the main villain, but he only shows up in the last 3 episodes and isn't interesting. I like the police narrator guy, I like the two graffiti guys, I like the baseball player...

The ending was definitely the weakest part of the series. I'm not the kind of guy to base my rating solely on ending, but endings are important, and Samurai Champloo's is 3 out of its 26 episodes, so I was a bit disappointed in how it didn't really tie the series together in any way. The themes of counterculture and going against the norm are only somewhat present, and the last episode feels very rushed. It's about what you'd expect from an ending though, and it's not really bad.

In terms of visuals and sound, I think this series is excellent. The classical Japanese and Hip Hop styles are blended excellently, the animation and direction is great, and so is the soundtrack.

Overall, this is a great series. I will probably rewatch some episodes, but not the whole thing. I recommend it.