Review of Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo is an anime that's highly regarded by the community, but is it worth such praise? It certainly has strong elements; high action with well-scripted fight choreography and quality animation, a sound track that blends together Classical Japanese music alongside modern hip-hop, and a main trio who are as chaotic as they are mysterious. However, these are simply pieces of the story, and while those are certainly important, for them to work to their utmost potential, the pieces need to be held together by a strong glue, and... Well, they're not. This is in no way meant to say Samurai Champloo is a bador unenjoyable anime, however I couldn't help but wonder how much better it could've been if it had more focus, and to emphasize, I'll start with what Samurai Champloo struggles with the most...

Story: 5, Samurai Champloo is the story about a girl named Fuu who "hires" two bodyguards named Mugen and Jin to help her find a man that she refers to as, "the samurai that smells of sunflowers". You've probably noted how I put the word "hires" in quotes in that last sentence, and this is because she doesn't actually pay them. The entire reason the two help her is because they agreed that if she broke them out of their captivity they would do so. However, this was actually my first issue with the entire story. Mugen and Jin actually free themselves on their own, and while Fuu helps create a distraction that does help them escape, I highly doubt that they wouldn't have escaped without that help. More so, while I could Jin as being more honor-bound by the obligation, I have no idea why Mugen, whose catchphrase is literally, "I don't work for anyone but myself" didn't decide to say, "no, thanks" and leave. Especially considering the fact that their group does completely split up to go their separate ways on more than one occasion only to be drawn back together by "fate", which really just comes off as a cheap excuse to bring the trio back together without actually resolving the conflict that broke them up in the first place. Additionally when you factor in the overly vague phrase of "the samurai that smells of sunflowers", and the fact that Fuu refuses to say more about him than this, it really makes you question just why Mugen and Jin decided to stick around.

Regardless, this is only the tip of the iceberg in regards to the problems that exist within the story, as another problem rears its head in the form of the very structure that the story is told through. Samurai Champloo is a mainly episodic story, and these kinds of stories aren't inherently bad, but it's definitely a lot harder to weave a cohesive narrative throughout a series of events that aren't clearly connected. A good example of a story that does a good job at tying together seemingly unrelated events is Avatar the Last Airbender. During big moments in Avatar, you end up seeing a lot of the characters that they've met along their journey, however nothing like this ever occurs in Samurai Champloo, why? Well, probably because characters are killed off for no reason other than because they weren't planning to be used again and unfortunately that's the best answer I have for that question. It's hard to say why exactly they did this, it's possible that the creators thought that by killing more characters, that would make the story more realistic given the time period it was set in, however given the fact that this story is a mix between historicism and modern hip-hop, it's hard to believe they went this route for realism. Ultimately, it's disappointing, Fuu, Mugen, and Jin are portrayed in a semi-mysterious light that makes you want to get to know them more, and instead of slowly developing these characters over 26 ep, it's like everything to learn about each character was crammed into the last 3 episodes.
PS. There are some interesting decisions made with the individual episodes, like one which is told through an incredibly minor character recollecting the episode's events some thirty years after they took place. Ultimately, these decisions just feel unnecessarily experimental.

Art: 9, As mentioned in the opening of this review, Samurai Champloo has some top-notch animation that matches perfect with its high-action setting. Additionally, there are a lot of really creative decisions throughout the entirety of Samurai Champloo, and while I would say a lot of them come off as experimental, there was only one that I disliked, which was using a record being spun by a DJ as a way to transition scenes. It was certainly creative, but creative doesn't always equal enjoyable, and the way it rewinded before the transition just felt overly jarring. Despite this, I still thought about giving a 10 in art because there is just so much going on with the art that is positive, however... the consistency just isn't there. There are so many amazingly well-done scenes that I have to give this at least a 9, but honestly, a lot of the time if there isn't any action going on, the art quality can dip below a 7/10.

Sound: 10, Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have any complaints under a category that I gave 10/10 in, but... there was one particular VA (English dub) who sang a part of the narration for one of the openings, and it was atrocious, worst thing sound-wise in the entire anime. I literally skipped ahead, luckily it was like only in 1 or 2 eps. However, I despite this gave it a 10, why? Well, while I'm not going to go watch the Japanese version to make sure, but I doubt this was nearly as annoying in that version, and outside of that single nitpick, the sound is absolutely phenomenal. This is a soundtrack that I will be listening to for years to come, and I literally can't get the ED out of my head while im typing this. Personally preferred the ED to the OP, and honestly, at first I did NOT like the OP, but it grew on me. It sounded really weird the first time I heard it, but every time i started another episode, I found myself enjoying it more and more. All of the OSTs were phenomenal, and excluding one man who shouldn't have been hired, the VA cast did an exceptional job.

Character: 6, Unfortunately, this is another category that Samurai Champloo suffered in from a result of its episodic nature. As mentioned before, despite the fact that Fuu, Mugen and Jin are introduced as a trio of rather strong characters, they're actually exceptionally flat, and don't have nearly as much history to them as the story initially leaves you to believe. Additionally, when Fuu realizes that their journey is almost over, she points out that none of them really know each other that well, which is exceptionally bizarre. I mean, they've traveled across a decent chunk of Japan on foot and given the fact that they are constantly having to stop to make money to keep journeying, it would be presumable that they had spent at least a few months together... I'm starting to tangent, but the point is that the way most humans pass the time (especially back in those days where you didn't have things like a phone to distract you) is by sharing stories, so its rather ludicrous to think they've come all this way and never asked questions to get to know each other better, and share stories with each other to pass the time on their journey.

Another problem that I mentioned earlier also hurts Samurai Champloo's characters, and that's a combination between the episodic nature and killing so many characters off. Because it's an episodic journey, it's rather logical that many characters aren't going to be seen again, but when you kill off so many characters, it becomes rather impossible to logically make characters appear again. In truth, I can actually only think of 1 minor character that appears in more than one episode (not including characters who appear in episodes that are broken into parts), and while he is ironically my favorite character just because how goofy he was, he was still an exceptionally flat character. Ultimately, despite being a cast filled with flat characters, they're really not that bad, but they could've been so much better with more time and effort put into them. Also, I was kind of annoyed that Fuu's major role is constantly being a hostage.

Enjoyment: 8, I have mixed feelings here. On the one hand, I truly did find Samurai Champloo to be quite enjoyable, but as someone who is always looking for something to learn from everything I watch, I find myself constantly thinking about the ways in which something I'm watching could be better, and thinking about what it could be, and then being reminded by the reality of what it actually is, can be a little disappointing. Additionally, if it wasn't for my desire to write this review on Samurai Champloo, I'm not sure if I would've finished it. It's not that I wasn't enjoying myself, but this was another expense that came from the episodic nature; I never felt like I had to watch the next episode right then and there when I finished the one before because I never really had anything i was looking forward to in the next episode. Personally, I enjoy the kind of story that I don't want to put down, but Samurai Champloo was something that I primarily kept consuming just so I could see if it would change my perspective on it by the time I finished, and I'm unfortunately left with the answer of, No, it could not.

Overall: 8, The most accurate way to describe Samurai Champloo is highly experimental and surprisingly enjoyable. There are a lot of decisions that held this anime back, but on the flip side, there were even more that pushed it forward. I know this review heavily focused on the negative aspects of this anime, but I just found myself constantly wishing Samurai Champloo was better because despite the fact that I was really enjoying it, I simply couldn't be blind to its faults. Regardless of everything said in this review, I genuinely believe that the only kind of person that wouldn't enjoy this anime is the type of person who just doesn't like any anime.