Samurai Champloo

Reviewed by Sean McDonald
April 12, 2006

Director: Kazuto Nakazawa Distributor: GENEON ENTERTAINMENT (USA) INC. Genre: Action Age Rating: (Adult language, blood, violence, and sex scenes) Review Rating: 9 out of 10

Fuu was just trying to get by, working as a waitress at a dumpling shop, but her life was completely changed when the shop was visited by two swordsmen. Mugen is a swordsman born on the fugitive island, Ryukyu, and Jin is a former student of the Mujuushin Kenjutsu Dojo. Due to a big misunderstanding their blades clash, but they end up in jail and sentenced to death. Fuu decides to save Mugen and Jin in hopes to cut a deal with them. In return for saving their lives, Mugen and Jin serve as Fuu's bodyguards on a journey to find her father, “the samurai that smells of sunflowers.”

If you like hip hop music and old samurai movies this is the right anime for you. The music, done by Fat Jon, was great, and a different song was always used with every episode. The fight scenes in this anime were as I expected-- amazing. The movements of the characters and how they were able to put the scenes together were incredible. I also liked how the use of non-traditional samurai sword fighting; they were able to show a series of unique weapons that most people are unfamiliar with and how they are used in combat. Really, I found nothing wrong with this anime.

I gave Samurai Champloo a High Evolution Factor rating. The storyline as well as character design was great, and how they were able to connect some of the episodes in the anime to events that really happened in the past was awesome, not to mention the music was cool too.