Samurai Champloo: Difference between revisions
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At the very end, the three part at a fork in the road. Fuu reveals that the coin she flipped in the first episode was actually heads. |
At the very end, the three part at a fork in the road. Fuu reveals that the coin she flipped in the first episode was actually heads. |
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==Influences and cultural references== |
==Influences and cultural references== |
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Revision as of 11:30, 18 January 2007
| Samurai Champloo | |
| File:Samurai Champloo Title.png Still from the opening sequence of Samurai Champloo | |
| Genre | Action, Adventure, Comedy, Seinen |
|---|---|
| Anime | |
| Directed by | Shinichiro Watanabe |
| Studio | manglobe INC. |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Shinichiro Watanabe (story) Masaru Gotsubo (art) |
| Published by |  Kadokawa Shoten Soleil  Bandai Entertainment  Panini Comics Tokyopop |
Samurai Champloo (サムライチャンプルー, Samurai Chanpurū) is an anime series consisting of twenty-six episodes that began broadcasting May 20, 2004 on Fuji Television in Japan. It was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop fame. The show is set in a fictional version of Edo period Japan, featuring elements of action, adventure and comedy blended with an anachronistic, predominantly hip-hop soundtrack. Its name comes from the Okinawan word "chanpurū" (e.g. goya champuru), which means to mix or blend. Thus, the title may be translated as "Samurai Remix" or "Samurai Mashup", keeping with the series' blended theme.
The show is unique, in that it matches modern Japanese hip-hop music with a stylized form of samurai swordplay known as chambara, much in the same way Cowboy Bebop married science fiction to blues and jazz, and the television series Kung Faux married classic hip-hop with classic kung fu films. Champloo's score predominantly features hip-hop beats by Japanese hip hop artists such as Nujabes, Force of Nature, Tsutchie, and Fat Jon, among others.
The world of Samurai Champloo is often anachronistic. Characters' costume design, attitudes and editing methods reflect heavily towards international hip-hop culture. One of the protagonists, Mugen, even fights in a style that resembles Capoeira.
Furthermore, despite its setting in the Edo period many of the words and expressions used by the characters are modern slang or English-influenced.
Geneon Entertainment licensed the show for distribution in North America almost a year prior to the show's airing in Japan. This decision was based almost solely on the reputation of its creator, Shinichiro Watanabe. On January 20, 2004, it was made public that the broadcasting rights were acquired by Cartoon Network, and the series began airing on the Adult Swim block on May 14 2005, in the 11:30 p.m. timeslot on Saturday nights. On Saturday, November 22 2005, the second batch of episodes (episodes 14-26) began airing at 11:30 p.m. EST/PST, but moved to Wednesday nights at 12:30 a.m. in January 2006. The airing of the final episode was March 18 2006. The show now airs reruns every Saturday night at 1 a.m. on Adult Swim.
Samurai Champloo is set to make its debut in Canada on December 24th, 2006 on the Canadian digital station, Razer.
Characters
Samurai Champloo revolves around the journey of three individuals: The brash, lanky vagabond Mugen, the quiet and stoic ronin Jin, and the young, insistent Fuu.
At the beginning of the story, Fuu helps Mugen and Jin escape from a vengeful local magistrate, and she persuades them, by flipping a coin, to help her in her search for a mysterious samurai who smells of sunflowers. In the progressing adventure she will have the trouble of keeping her two companions out of trouble and from attempting to kill each other.
Like Bebop, Champloo's episodes are mostly self-contained (which has garnered it some criticism), and the show contains an extensive cast. Apart from the main trio, most characters only appear once or twice; rarely more than three times.
Plot
Template:Spoiler-about Samurai Champloo contains many marks of Watanabe's distinct style, which he first realized in Cowboy Bebop. Both anime share a foremost theme: there's no running from the past. There are episodes dedicated to the characters wrapping up earlier history, history that puts their lives at risk.
In the two-part "Misguided Miscreants" (a.k.a. "Dark Night's Road"), Mugen encounters his old gang and becomes involved in a love triangle that quickly turns into a backstabbing contest that results in much bloodshed.
In a number of episodes ("The Art of the Altercation"; "Lullabies of the Lost"), Jin is pursued by students of his former dojo who wish to exact revenge for the death of their master. Jin is reluctant to kill these pursuers.
In the final three-episode arc, "Evanescent Encounter" (a.k.a. "Circle of Transmigration"), both men face their toughest battles, as reprisal for past misdeeds.
Jin is challenged by a master swordsman, named Kagetoki Kariya, who has unfinished business with Jin relating to the death of Jin's master. It is revealed to us that Kariya attempted to gain control of Jin's dojo and to train its adepts for the purpose of assassination. Jin opposes this and Jin's master is ordered to kill him. Jin manages to survive the attempt on his life, killing his master in the process.
Mugen is confronted by three brothers whom he scarred, crippled and drove insane during his days of piracy.
Fuu finally meets the Sunflower Samurai, named Seizou Kasumi, who is actually her father. We find out that the government tailed her in order to find this man, who was once the leader of a Christian rebellion. Kasumi, already terminally ill, is slain by Kariya.
Kariya then attempts to kill Fuu. Jin, who was thought to be dead, appears suddenly to finish the duel with Kariya. In order to defeat him, Jin utilizes the last technique his master taught him: to allow oneself to be stabbed in order to create an opening in an opponent's defense.
Mugen and Jin attempt to settle their score, but fail to do so, as their swords break upon hitting one another. Both pass out. Afterwards, they decide they've lost the will to kill each other. They actually find out that they are very much alike and form a bond of sorts.
At the very end, the three part at a fork in the road. Fuu reveals that the coin she flipped in the first episode was actually heads.
Influences and cultural references
- The recurring character Manzo the Saw, who both appears in and narrates several episodes, is a parody of the titular character from the Hanzo the Razor movies.
- Samurai Champloo is an example of the popular chambara film and television genre--the trademarks are a setting in the Edo Period, a focus on samurai or other swordsman characters, and lots and lots of thrilling, dramatic fights. Chambara was used in the early days of Japanese cinema (when government political censorship ran high) as a way of expressing veiled social critiques, and it is possible to read Champloo as a satire of contemporary Japanese society. The show features cameos by other protagonists of the genre, such as Mito Kōmon in "Evanescent Encounter, Part 1", Ogami Daigoro from Lone Wolf and Cub in "Elegy of Entrapment, Part 1" and "Evanescent Encounter, Part 1", and Lone Wolf and Cub themselves in "Cosmic Collisions".
- In Episode 13 (Misguided Miscreants (Part 1)); Mugen's old pirating partner Mukuro has two ship mates named Ken and Ryu. The names Ryu and Ken together may be a hidden reference to the word Ryukan, which is theirs and Mugen's ethnicity, though it may also be a joke by the animators and script writers on the hit fighting game Street Fighter which has Ryu & Ken as the main characters.[citation needed]
- Mugen's using his scabbard as a walking stick as well as his inverted grip of the sword at the end of episode 14 may be a reference to similar practices used in Zatoichi.[citation needed]
- Watanabe has stated that the movies Zatoichi, Dirty Harry and Enter the Dragon were influences on his work. (Shinichiro Watanabe, "An Evening With Shinichiro Watanabe," Detroit Film Theater, Detroit, 8 Feb. 2006)[citation needed]
- In Episode 5 (Artistic Anarchy), Mugen is heard to mutter "damn, doing it with a squid" while looking at a book of ukiyo-e art. This is probably a reference to a Katsuhika Hokusai piece entitled Kinoe no Komatsu (The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife)
Trivia
- Mugen and Spike of Cowboy Bebop share the same voiced actor, Steven Jay Blum.
- A man bearing Jin's likeness makes a short, non-speaking cameo in an early episode of The Boondocks entitled "Guess Ho's Coming to Dinner." The creator of The Boondocks, Aaron McGruder, has stated that he is a fan of shows like Afro Samurai, Kung Faux and Samurai Champloo.[citation needed]
- The ending theme of the series Shiki no Uta (Four Seasons' Song) is sung by the artist MINMI.
- The ending song in episode 26 is called "San Fransisco" and it is by Midicronica.
Manga
Samurai Champloo Volume 1
TOKYOPOP description: “In a world full of evil, a hardworking waitress, an arrogant mercenary and a mysterious samurai meet. Through a series of misunderstandings, Fuu, Mugen and Jin find themselves running from officials and wanted by the law. Together they form an uneasy alliance to search for the enigmatic Sunflower Samurai. Along the way they come across misleading characters, ninjas, assassins and a prince in disguise. Their journey proves to be nothing less than a roller coaster ride of battles, danger, desperation and companionship.”
Samurai Champloo Volume 2
TOKYOPOP description: “When rumors of a mysterious figure with a vendetta against samurais start to spread, Mugen and Jin volunteer to take care of the killer before the body count rises any further. But after a grueling, explosive battle, they discover that the samurai killer is on a mission of his own--to collect the swords of a thousand defeated warriors! Could this vicious swordsman be the link to the elusive Sunflower Samurai?”
References
Most of the information in this article is sourced from the anime or TOKYOPOP manga of the same name.
See also
External links
- Official sites
- Samurai Champloo Official Web Site Template:Ja icon
- Geneon Samurai Champloo Web Site
- Madman Samurai Champloo Official Web Site
- Fuji TV Samurai Champloo Official Web Site
- Unofficial sites