Samurai Champloo: Complete Series [3 Discs] [Blu-ray]
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- Product Name: Samurai Champloo: Complete Series [3 Discs] [Blu-ray]
- UPC: 704400086595
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- Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Best samurai anime series, period.
From the team that brought us Bebop came an underdog series that shined brighter and longer, but somehow never got Bebop's level of following. (Probably because CN still airs Bebop on AS some 15 years later.) But Samurai Champloo is to the classic samurai chanbara genre what Bebop was to the noir genre; the pinnacle in animated form. Set in feudal, Edo Period Japan, three unlikely protagonists are pitted together on a single quest to make contact with the samurai who smells like sunflowers. Fuu; the fetching lady in need of finding said sunflower samurai, Mugen; an overly confident mongrel who mixes wanton sword fighting and capoeira, and Jin; a defamed ronin incredibly disciplined, handsome and mild mannered. They'll travel from eastern Japan to Nagasaki, coming across all sorts of walks of life from tricks, to ronin, baseball players, Duthmen, ninja Tengu clans, oni clans, zombie clans that survive on wasabi, sell swords, hitmen, old rivals, religious cults, the shogunate, you name it. Samurai Champloo takes a page from Bebop and doesn't discriminate against people, rather it highlights their eccentricities. This is a series that puts a heavy penchant on satire and turns them into extreme cases of characterizations. That sort of hyperbole can be off-putting, but none of it is ever done in an offensive manner. First off, this series fires on all cylinders on Blu-ray. This came out two years before the HD format wars occurred, and it looks like a recent 2017 series! Intentional thick black lines, vivid colors, every.single.scene is intentionally drawn, animated or stylized. This may be the last anime series to have been done in this fashion before full computer coloration of cels started to take hold. The animation is extremely fast paced; blink and you'll miss it. In tune with the style of the series, there's lots of youth counter culture references in Samurai Champloo. Graffiti, beat boxing, basically San Francisco urban youth are anachronistically clashed with Japan's rural undeveloped countryside. The results are sublime. Bebop mixed genres very well too, with noir, spaghetti western, space travel and jazz. In the same vein Champloo truly shines when a modern day reference is made with people in kimonos at a teahouse. The audio is the best. Steve Blum returns as the voice of Mugen, who people will recognize as Spike in Bebop. Beau Billingslea (Jet) comes back for a stint, but the rest of Bebop's cast isn't the main voice talent. But the other voice actors make the English track the preferred option over the Japanese subs. There's two tracks; English 5.1 and Japanese 5.1, with English subtitles. Innately, there are the English subs 1 which will display when there are Kanji or Katakana writing. The menu is very well done and non-obtrusive. I have the Anime Classics edition which has a slimmed case, one wing and three discs. Comes in a slip cover. I simply cannot recommend this series enough. It's tough to catch lighting twice, but Champloo did just that. Scratch that. Champloo stuck a level 5 twister in a bottle with said lightning, and if you like Bebop, Ninja Scroll, Afro Samurai, or other works with stylized combat and bent over comedic moments, you'll adore Samurai Champloo. It is an essential series, even for non-anime fans.
Posted by Morganical
- Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Excellent Series
As far as anime series go, this one is one of my favorites. I think I've watched it a few times through over the years and I still love the action, character work and animation. Definitely something worth adding to your collection if you're an anime fan.
Posted by km2creative
- Rated 5 out of 5 stars
A Good Watch
This was a pretty cool show to watch especially if you liked "Cowboy Bebop" since it was the same creator. Good story and good animation with a great soundtrack!
Posted by bebop
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