Review of Samurai Champloo

I always see accusations that this is a well done clone of "Cowboy Bebop" and often I find it hard to deny it. However I think this is because both of these shows do the same things near perfectly, and the loose story that keeps them together is in the same vein. Some of these similarities are a ragtag group of young adults who go on a quest to find someone from a main character's past. Cool chill beats play in the background, often setting an interesting tone for very tense scenes. Slowly on this journey the backstory of the individuals come to light, and theylearn that they were almost fated to be fast friends.

However, I'm going to come out and make a bold claim. Samurai Champloo did it better. Nunjabes' contributions to the soundtrack are the crux of the sounds of this series. The fights were both visually and audibly impressive, where I couldn't take my eyes off the screen when I felt a song crescendo coming up. And the songs are never the same, they are constantly moving, flowing, and shifting to fit the tone and depth of the scene at hand. While this is the standard answer for this series, it is undeniably the best thing this series offers.

This doesn't mean it's the only thing, however. The characters backstories are slowly shown, yet they are given a unique air of mystery. Where sometimes it felt like Bebop would say, "ok this is a Faye/Spike episode", Champloo wasn't afraid to drop hints periodically throughout the series. You'd have gems of recognition for Mugen, Jin, or Fuu. References to their pasts that help build their characters as "already existing" in the world the writers created. They had history that affected their actions now. Where Bebop would only have these histories relevant in these "character episodes," Champloo could bring them up at any time to try and sway the situation in a new direction. I feel this kind of depth is often hard to find.

Overall, this turned into more of a defense of the series as "a clone." Yet, even if all of those arguments fell on deaf ears, this series is a must-watch for an impressive display of sound and art design that should be emulated more often in series to come after it.