Review of Samurai Champloo

My experience in anime revolves mostly around fighting animes, and with that point in mind ill start off by saying that it's one of the best fighting animes I've ever seen. Let's break it down: Story: Rather than being one continuous arc, the series is broken down in small adventures that usually start and end withing the frame of one episode.While some may complain that it's hard to keep track of what has happened in past episodes, I think that for an anime less concerned with feelings and more with fighting, it's an excellent configuration.It also fits well the theme of the anime which, instead ofbeing the heroes' self-improvement and conquests is rather a take on subtle aspects and issues of japanese culture and history, such as Bushido, Baseball, corruption, sexism, honor, The West, and Yakuza. AND FIGHTING!!!!!!! The developpers also threw a recap episode in there. 9/10

Art: Stunning. Absolutely marvelous fighting sequences. I had to wait 120 episodes of Naruto to come slightly close the the fluidity and choreography of the fighting sequences in this anime. The drawing style is also unconventional, rending the ugly uglier and the beautiful more so when necessary, making certain moments look like something you could frame. Excellent. 10/10

Sound: Since the anime is somewhat meta, instead of trying to look serious with hardcore samurai music, it mostly relies on jazz, hip-hop and chill-out music, making it elegant. Also, once, it used beatboxing as backround music. You gotta like that. ;) 9/10

Character: The characters are well defined and have very clear personalities.
The heroes' backround stories are rather frustratingly vague, but if they had more it would've weighed the anime down and detracted from it's intention. 8/10

Enjoyment: I very much enjoyed this anime. It made me laugh, it brought tears to my eyes and it made me stare in awe at the awesomeness of the fighting scenes. It did exactly what it had in mind to do: To make the spectator enjoy it and to plant a pleasant memory in his mind. 10/10

Overall, this anime is awesome. It will satisfy your thirst for fighting in a very elegant and pleasant way, making you sad once it's over. Watch it. Trust me. 10/10