Review of Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo is a classic - glance over any of the reviews and you'll realise that. I love this anime, and on that basis, I can pretty confidently say that unless you dislike violence, you'll enjoy this anime. However, I do have some gripes with the anime that I cannot ignore, especially in the current social climate of things. I'm not going to go into too much detail with regards to the reasons for why the characters in the anime have been cast like this, because if you google "japan misogyny", you'll get a good idea yourself. The main issue, is the sexism in the show.Much like Cowboy Bebop, it is very clear that this show is made with the audience of young men in mind.
Women, except for Fuu (I'm not singling Fuu out for a positive reason either - see below), play a very specific role in the anime. They are portrayed as objects of sexual desire - especially for the two main male characters, especially Mugen. For example - Sarah, the Big Guy's wife, the female assassin in episode two - were all effectively preyed on by Mugen to some extent. Not only that, they have been portrayed in a way that makes women presented in a particular way, in turn under-representing women in the show. To make things worse, the women who are painted to be desirable are not just any women, but a particular type - slim, large chest, pale. Once again, I'm not going to draw any conclusions, but does this formula sound familiar? A quick google of "Edo Female Beauty Standards" will reveal that this combo was NOT actually the prevailing beauty choice of women in the period which Samurai Champloo was set.

That's without mentioning the women that are potrayed WITHIN the brothels. I do acknowledge the Edo period was a period of sensuality and aesthetics, especially with a focus on sex, so a face value critique on the number of brothel scenes cannot be totally legitimate. However, it is quite clear, that the brothel scenes in Samurai Champloo were written from a male's perspective. There is little to do with the actual suffering and issues that WOMEN go through. It is as if the woman's plight non-existent (equality, anyone?). Even in the episode which Jin plays the white knight, we do get an insight into the particular woman's routine at the brothel. Despite this, we are met with a strong tone of indifference and apathy by the woman - it is OK, she's accepted her fate - what looks like calmly because she was "the only collateral" when her husband ran up gambling debts.

Perhaps that's just what happens back in the day, I mean, sexism is all throughout history isn't it? But it is the further context in which it is established is lazy and male-centric. In this particular example, she shows little emotion throughout the whole time about her predicament, in fact, we were supposed to be able to understand that the fact she spent 10 seconds on screen staring into the water under the bridge was enough to predicate suicide, utterly trivialising the sufferings of suicide victims. Then, because of a man who she cooked some eels with, she is suddenly fine to spend (presumably) the rest of her life in the slave trade. Clearly, this is a blatantly underwhelming emphasis on the struggle of women, especially for a show that is so rampant with sex-slavery. She literally needs to get handed an escape rope before even having thought of the possibility of escaping, especially after enduring an abusive husband. Are we really expecting that women are the submissive, dependent types that require men to save them? This is the narrative we are fed - Men are always the subject and women the object.

This is also the same case for Fuu - who is although the main female lead, is also subject to the same prejudices by the show. She is heavily dependent on the men; sure, she's not a samurai and surprisingly easy enough to prey on for whole episodes to be devoted to the men saving her. She's also put forward as the nagging type - the one with the actual logical solutions that Jin and Mugen don't listen to. To make matters worse, Mugen also preys on her, though not in a "desirable" way. She instead serves the model female that is expected not to be attractive enough. Mugen consistently criticises her for her physical attributes. This is a stark contrast to Fuu criticising Mugen for his literally unethical actions.

I'm not saying Samurai Champloo is by any means a bad anime, infact, it is enjoyable when you over look these things. I'm also not hold Samurai Champloo up to the standard of being a social commentary and whether or not it may be critiqued as such is a totally different argument. Instead, I'm arguing for the points that many of the top reviews seemed to have missed. We have these issues on the global agenda, and an anime that "predates mainstream feminism" does not give it a hall pass to being excluded from such a critique. I am simply highlighting that it is important to keep these social issues in mind while consuming entertainment , as it often glossed over, because it is "accepted" as the norm.

Overall, I enjoyed the anime. The story was great, I really enjoyed the overall theme and the connection between the three characters grew palpably in a way that truely made one invested in the show. Further, I love hip-hop so the music was fantastic. The sword play and animation were also bar none - too cool.