Samurai Champloo #1
Pioneer 100 minutes
English/Japanese
English Subtitles
Released: 01/11/2005
Reviewed: 02/08/2005
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Samurai Champloo #1Pioneer 100 minutes |
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At this point in my life, I simply don't have ass much time for anime anymore. All of a sudden I'm not taking four cakewalk classes and one really really hard one, I'm taking four hard classes and one really really REALLY hard one. What purported to be my easiest, and last, semester of college has metastasized into something much more sinister than that. Suffice it to say I will probably spend more time tutoring inner city kids in the next twelve weeks than I will watching any of those crazy programs that get shot over here from the ancient land of the Far East. It's an unfortunate situation, but generally when I have free time now it's taken up entirely by beer. What can I say, I'm Irish. You are not plum out of luck though, fair reader. With the passionate and dedicated roommate that is Jerry Garcia I'm still able to pick up something animated from time to time and provided Joel's in the area it's always a fun night because you can trust Joel to rag on just about anything, and when he rags on things it always makes me laugh. And I like to laugh! I think I've told you all this before. You don't need to hear it again. |
Consider me knocked for a loop that Jerry had something to show that actually turned out alright. Usually he just watches shows where the girls are nurses and the nurses fall down and their skirts fly up. That's a little unfair, I think Jerry's only watched, like, one show like that. But maybe it's the exception that proves the rule. (ir)Regardless, Samurai Champloo is not like any samurai story I've ever seen. The story is not intuitively unfamiliar, there's a scraggly haired asshole and a solemn, quiet asshole and a girl who's stuck in the middle obsessing about a samurai that smells of sunflowers. Through the usual machinations of mistaken identity and the flipping of coins -- which are loser plot devices but I'll let them slide this one time -- all three of them set out on a journey to find the samurai that this girl seems to have an uncomfortable mania about.** Of course, like usual, the two protagonists have a grudge between them that they're forced to put on hold, but keeps coming out in the most unseemly of moments. |
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I'm sure you've heard the same story a thousand times, especially in anime, but it's Samurai Champloo's presentation that really wins it the honors. There is no way to describe this show as anything but a "hip-hop feudal excursion". The director, I don't know if you remember him... (he didn't do much), goes absolutely berserk on the little details of the show, especially the first episode. When the three character's stories first start to cohere, my man Watanabe is jumping between them like a mad man and inserting "crazy fly" record scratches at every moment. Well you know me, I'm a sucker for interweaving storylines and I'm a sucker for a gimmick and I'll be damned if Samurai Champloo doesn't have 'em both. Coming from the man that director Watanabe is, the fight scenes are something that need to be seen to be understood. The scene in the cafe in the first episode of Cowboy Bebop blew my mind in a way I'm still not entirely comfortable talking about in public. I don't think Watanabe's sophomore effort at a TV show has lived up to that standard yet, but let's be generous to him. It's a really freaking high standard and this show has plenty of room to grow. I am 900% less interested in ancient Japan than Joel is and I could still watch this with a straight face. There's something about the combination of oppressive governors and rap cuts that just gets me where the sun don't shine. |
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The music, however, I think might be the show's greatest draw. The background music kind of falters, which it'd be prone to do considering Watanabe doesn't have the powerhouse that is Yoko Kanno backing him up this time, but the opening and ending themes are something that has to be heard to be believed. J-Rap (if you want to call it that, I don't) is ten times more expressive and pleasing to the ear than the current crop of J-Pop wannabes. The ending song, Shiki No Uta, is a sort of rap-R&B fusion by artist Minmi. The song is so melancholy I can't express the feeling it inspires to you in any mortal tongue. T o listen to this women drop from an R&B chorus into straight rap is like hearing the very voice of god himself. I do not think Samurai Champloo is as creative as it could be, but I think it's as creative as it has to be (to keep my interest). Right now I'm doing enough reading on philosophy and sociology to choke a horse, so I'm happy to let that portion of my anime-related life fall to the wayside for a little while. At this point in time I'm just happy to see a well choreographed fight scene between a wiry young punk and an eight foot tall retard. Sometimes all you need out of a TV show, regardless of what side of the world it's from, is to unwind. Samurai Champloo accomplishes that in a way that suits me just fine. As long as Jerry keeps buying it, I'll keep watching. |
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