Review of Samurai Champloo

Desperately wanted to love it - desperately trying to Let’s face it, Shinichirō Watanabe could have just made Cowboy Bebop and still been considered one of, if not the greatest, anime director ever. Therefore, coming into this anime, my hopes simply could not be higher. Although this is an absolutely....good anime, it didn’t quite quench my ‘this is going to be on the same level as Bebop’ thirst. Firstly, the music. It wasn’t bad. Carried the anime nicely. Hip hop was used smoothly however, one year later we would really see how an anime can utilise hip hop properly. The story. Personally, I’m a big fan of agood episodic storyline and Champloo, although not mind blowing, is solid. I found the character development slightly lacking however, pretty none existent if I’m going to be honest, but starting with such strong characters it didn’t really matter.

The thing I was most impressed with was the animation style. It has a very cool design. The action flowed fluidly and really engaged you in the action scenes. Honestly, once Mugen or Jin had done their business I was dying for more.

In summary it was a solid anime but I think the hype is much better than the actual show.