Samurai Champloo is an interesting series, because it is not always good in the traditional sense. The simple plot revolves around Fuu searching for the Sunflower Samurai, but more often than not, the goal is completely abandoned for several episodes to go on some silly excursion. Where Samurai Champloo is very strong, however, is in evoking certain moods; stylistically, Champloo is incredible, but because there were a few extremely strong arcs, I don’t think you can say that it was a case of style over substance.
Now I know some people are going to say that while some episodes were good, quite a few of them were bad. In fact, I felt this way as well. For a long time, I was unsure where Champloo fell, because memories of the stupid graffiti artists, the continuous Fuu-gets-captured moments used to drive the story, and the flaming Dutch samurai still lingered in my head. So I decided that instead of making a rash decision, I would go through each episode and see if I would consider it very good, good, mediocre, or bad. The results were not quite what I expected. The number of poor episodes was actually not that high. The first episode set the bar quite high, and the series was chugging along nicely until the rut of bad episodes between 6 and 9. However, between 10-17, the series was good and sometimes excellent (especially episode 11). Much of the second half was great, and of course episode 20 and 21 were masterful. Unfortunately, the moments of greatness did hit a few speed bumps, but if you look at the season as a whole, it looks like a great season with a small set of bad fillers between 6-9. By my final tally, I scored the season as having 6 great episodes, 5 bad episodes, 3 mediocre, with the rest good to very good. Because of the way Champloo flows, you have to be willing to simply be entertained, instead of expecting plot movement every episode, but fortunately there are very few mysteries that get posed in the season (Where did Mugen come from, where did Jin come from, who is the Sunflower Samurai, will they find the Sunflower Samurai).
Uneven and unconventional series are always harder to rate, and Samurai Champloo happens to be both. However, I feel that the really great episodes more than make up for the poor ones, and the characters make the series especially memorable. Additionally, the music, animation, production values, and voice acting are all superb. In spite of its flaws, I feel that Samurai Champloo is a series that everyone should check out.
Kabitzin’s Rating: 5/5
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6 Comments
I totally agree; Champloo is that kind of series that needs to be enjoyed for what it is – a loosely related string of stylish vignettes. Expecting plot-driven episodes from Champloo is like demanding high continuity between Azumanga Daioh -unthinkable!
I really enjoyed Samurai Champloo as well. For me it was more of a ’slice of life’ anime (as much as it can possibly be a slice of life with all it’s wackyness), or to put it more accurately… it was ‘what Bakuretsu Tenshi could have been if it had better execution’. Both anime had no real story until the last 2 episodes, and both were just a series of mindless and extremely well animated battles until the end, but Samurai Champloo was far superior in execution.
First, I have to say that I LOVE this series. True, there are some sleeper episodes, but if you have a little patience the series will totally redeem itself. Samurai Champloo as a whole is a true work of art, that succeeds in evoking strong emotions.
BTW… It’s ironic that the reviewer lists Ep. 09 as a bad episode. I felt it was one of the most memorable ones. Mugen’s drug induced psychadelic berserker rage is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in anime. (In case you didn’t notice they were fighting in a burning marajuana field. That detail could be easilly missed as it was presented in quite a subtle fashion.)
Ibe just watched episode 1 to 3 and i think that there are subtle hints of yaoi in the episodes. Is this a yaoi animation, what do you think.
Jarvis, not it’s not Yaoi, trust me. However, there’s an episode with a gay Dutch.
I really enjoyed this anime, very good