Samurai Champloo

A samurai anime with a twist.... another gem from the genius Watanabe... he effortlessly blends hiphop and bushido to create the marvel that is Samurai Champloo... this series has something for anime fans of ANY genre.... drama, romance, comedy, parody the works...

You have Jin... the dignified ronin, Mugen, the brash bandit and Fuu... a ditzy girl... thrown together by some odd twists of fate, the three embark on a journey to find a samurai who smells of sunflowers (Fuus father apparently).... Mugen and Jin are forced to come along after they are indebted to Fuu for rescuing them from the government.... (They started fighting in a teahouse where Fuu worked and ended up killing an officials son...).... Mugen and Jin often state that they will kill each other... but are forced to postpone their duel due to the agreement with Fuu...

Anyway... while it sounds all serious... trust me... theres nothing funnier then watching Jin and Mugen bicker... and then survive seemingly impossible odds... bickering all the while... then you have the awesome secondary cast (really a shame that they dont make more appearances....)...

Since this is a work by Watanabe... there will be comparisons to Bebop... which are justified to some extent.... Champloo does with Hip Hop what Bebop did with Jazz.... the characters all have shady pasts.... but thats about it... the characters in Champloo are too far too different and take themselves much less seriously then in Bebop... the 'feel' of the series is much lighter... even in the dramatic moments... which are also much fewer in comparison to Bebop...

Another must-watch by Watanabe...

i am yet to get my hands on this. i've read the manga and i liked it. the cultural references with modern day icons in feudal age japan, it's really funny.

true, some people do call it the spiritual sequel to Cowboy Bebop but after reading the manga, i'd beg to differ with them.

kyo wrote:... the characters in Champloo are too far too different and take
themselves much less seriously then in Bebop... the 'feel' of the
series is much lighter... even in the dramatic moments... which are
also much fewer in comparison to Bebop...

true, i did notice that too. the whole thing is very much lighter in SC than in CB. but im told that there are a lot of differences between the manga and anime. someday i'll get this. someday...

Oooh yeah.... anime and manga are way different... the manga is nowhere near as crazy as the anime... well... its not that far off... but I dont remember any baseball games, crazy Dutchmen, drug induced gallivanting and professional graffiti artists in the manga...

I have always loved what Shinichiro does with his works....he is amazing and bebop is nothing less...maybe the search for the "sunflower samurai" was necessary for three different persona to be together... i think shinichiro pulled a great anime...

one of my favourite anime's!
the plot is really good
and soometimes pointless yet they have made the epis so funny and adventurous
that every single episode is a treat
the only episode you get really whacked out is cosmic collisions

Baseball Blues man.... and that one where the entire town gets high on the fumes from that burning field... was it marijuana or something else? I forget...

yup it was a marijuana field