Review of Samurai Champloo

In my friend group, we like to debate/argue over which work of Shinichiro Watanabe is better: the space adventure Cowboy Bebop, or the wandering ronin story Samurai Champloo. I've always argued for Bebop, solely for two reasons: it annoyed the Champloo fan of our group, and it had been the only one I had seen until recently and therefore better by default. However, now that I have finished both I can safely say that it... is a toss-up. I'll refrain from making too many references between the two, but overall I can say that both are very good. One benefit that Champloo has over Cowboy Bebopis immediately setting up a story. From the first episode, we are given a Point B to get to: a girl named Fuu is looking for someone and recruits two ronin, Mugen and Jin, to escort her. From there a mix of hijinks, adventure, tension, and connection ensue. Along the 26-episode journey you see the three of them play off each other in both humorous and emotional ways, growing from strangers to friends along the way. Often the three will spend the first third of the episode bickering and split up, only to come back together again to fight a common foe whose members all happen to have crossed paths with the three heroes.

And when those fights happen, they are a spectacle to behold. Watanabe has created many a duel that all hold up in quality, even after two decades of breathtaking fights from other anime series. From the fluid motions of Jin's more formal swordplay to Mugen's wild dance-like style that involves his metal-lined sandals to the different rogues, bandits, and other samurai they face, each fighter's movements make them all stand out from each other. It was hard to believe that the first episode had such awesome battles that were only upped as the series continued.

The group dichotomy of Champloo is another plus in its favor. The trio of Mugen, Fuu and Jin work better than the bounty hunters in my opinion. Mugen and Jin have a shared animosity towards each other that leads to the two butting heads in amusing ways, often due to Mugen's unruliness and Jin's more stoic nature. Meanwhile, Fuu will try to be the voice of reason, only to be brushed off for the time being. Even so, she is easily the glue of the group, and without her journey to find the Samurai who Smells of Sunflowers (say that five times fast) the two ronin would likely have killed each other by the second episode. It's difficult to pick a least favorite, but my favorite is easily Jin. His calm, serious-to-a-fault demeanor belies a character with heart to him, as shown in the way he treats his foes. His moments are some of the best in the series by far.

The main criticism I have of the show is that it feels like it could be cut down by at least a few episodes. This is a strength Bebop has, with its episodic nature feeling like the day-to-day life of bounty hunters looking for the next job. In Champloo, an end goal is given right away, and while the series works well as is there are plenty of episodes that could be cut to speed up the pacing. I find it difficult to decide which to exclude, because in hindsight some of my favorite episodes would count as "filler." It's not the same as the filler arcs in old long-running shounen. The best comparison I can make is to Pokemon. The meat of the show is watching Ash fight the gym battles and earn his badges to challenge the Pokemon League. You can cut pretty much all the stuff between them and you would only miss the occasional new Pokemon caught (let's face it, Ash was never going to Catch 'em All) and "Team Rocket is blasting off agaaaaaaaain!" because, let's be honest, the main thing we wanted to see was the big battles. If Champloo was cut to... let's say sixteen, maybe eighteen episodes, I think it would be a 10/10. At the very least if the two before the three-part finale were removed it would help a lot. Those are fun episodes, but they definitely feel like they were added just to pad the show out.

All in all, this is a great experience. It has as much beauty as you'd expect from a samurai aesthetic put in the Cowboy Bebop art style. Fun characters, amazing action, I'd recommend this to anyone looking for an older series.

Now, if you've completed reading this review, I ask that you help me out. One point of contention in my friend group is which OP is better. Please leave your opinion by reacting with one of the following: "Informative" for Cowboy Bebop's, "TANK" by Seatbelts, or "Creative" for "Battlecry" by Nujabes (rest in peace) from Samurai Champloo.