Review of Samurai Champloo

My score does seem a little underwhelming but I did enjoy this show. I just had a couple of big problems with it. I think it looks pretty good for 2004. Watanabe is a good director and a lot of the action scenes are well shot. There's one on a boat near the end that I really liked for how it depicted the tight, claustrophobic space Mugen and... uh... well, quite frankly, I don't know the other guy's name... anyway, Mugen and Other Guy were fighting in. As it is known for, the hip hop music and style was pretty good. I'm pretty polarized on Battlecry which, asthe OP, is the defining song from this show. I thought it sucked ASS when I first heard it out of context. After putting it on loop and submerging myself into it, I do like the song... I still don't really like it in the OP form though. Especially around the time you see Fuu's derp face and some off-note piano keys. But yeah, I thought the hip hop music added a lot to the show, definitely gave it some more style compared to if it was using "traditional Japanese music" (speaking of which, though, any time someone was playing a biwa/shamisen and singing, it low-key kinda sucked, idk if that's SamCham's fault or I just don't have the ear for that type of thing, but yup...)

It's kind of a "protags wander around and fuck around" show, so pretty much every character that isn't Mugen, Jin, or Fuu only matter for a couple episodes, for better or for worse.

When they circle back around to ThE gHoStS oF tHeIr PaSt, it kind of falls flat because the only one that really has any pre-established connection to them is Fuu and... I have my reservations about how they played the sunflower samurai storyline. But Jin and Mugen's "ghosts" were just kinda slapdashed into past events of theirs, Mugen especially.

Speaking of the 3 protagonists, how are they?

I enjoyed them, for the most part.

Jin's my kinda guy, straightlaced, glasses-wearing, more "traditional" fighter, that's one of my favorite archetypes for male characters. It's a nice counterpart for Mugen's more roughneck... not traditional style and I was intrigued to see their bromance grow.

Fuu... I guess this is a good time to bring up one of my biggest critiques against the show.

It's not Literally Every Single Woman in the show but there are so many women in this show who are either forced into prostitution, forced to marry people, almost sexually assaulted (in one case, by Mugen), etc, etc.

I noticed it very early on when Fuu got, in back to back episodes, put in a brothel and then human trafficked, but it's almost comical how often women are just treated as sex objects in this show.

There's One female character I liked and it's not even Fuu (speaking of which, I wish Sara was part of the cast for a longer period of time).

Fuu's just kind of a brat and going "erm, why are you guys fucking around, don't you remember OUR BET? Don't you remember DA SUNFLOWER SAMURAI?", meanwhile, she's getting kidnapped for the 17th time

Anytime Mugen or Jin go with a woman or to a brothel, she's all like "hmph! Why would they do that when they have ME?"

>Fuu is 15

Girl, you're not rolling with Diddy and Drake

Speaking of which, I kind of assumed Fuu was, like, 20. I don't understand why they're all so young. Forget Fuu, what do you MEAN Mugen and Jin are 20? TWENTY? These bozos?

Anyway, yeah, it kinda threw me off how they treated women in this show. Didn't like it.

My other critique is with the ending.

Forget the fact that they drop a plot bomb on us and then go "oh yeah, have this shitty-ass NyQuil episode about zombies and an admittedly very fun and very good episode about baseball first", as mentioned above, the "ghosts of their past" don't feel very important because it's such an episodic show.

When Mugen and Jin Finish Their Story, it doesn't feel that big of a deal? Mugen especially, bro should NOT give a singular fuck about this.

Quite frankly, the end of Mugen's battle is ridiculous in its own way but I can't really divulge into more without spoiling it.

Once the sunflower samurai's identity is revealed, it just feels like a very weird "mystery". Why couldn't Fuu have just said that upfront? She knew who he was. She didn't exactly treat it like a big mystery that had to be kept under wraps when she told Mugen and Jin. Was it because it sounded cool? Was it to try and build a false sense of hype when the sunflower samurai's identity was revealed? Why did you do this?

The ending after the dust has settled is underwhelming too. They kind of treat each other like they just finished a group project in high school after randomly being assigned to each other. It's not like I expected a poly wedding ending but it just kinda... ends.

It seems weirdly, acutely aware of how distant the three are from each other despite bonding over the course of the show and idk if that was supposed to be the point but yeah

I know this review's been very negative for a "Recommended" review but I did enjoy it fine enough.

A lot of the episodes are just these characters being thrown into wacky scenarios that usually end in some brawl and that is a good time. I would recommend watching this show. I liked the characters and I liked watching them get into trouble. It's very stylish and holds up to this day.

It's just... damn, do I have some grievances with this show.