Customer Reviews

Afro Samurai: Resurrection - Director's Cut

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Afro Samurai has found vengeance, and has sworn off fighting. You didn't think that would last, did you?

Nope, it didn't. And the past catches up to the silent afroed warrior in a big way in "Afro Samurai: Resurrection" -- a wildly stylized, bloodsoaked, wildly anachronistic tale of what will happen after you get your gory revenge. And Samuel L. Jackson fits into the quiet, butt-kicking titular character like a hand in a fine leather glove.

Afro now lives in a temple where he meditates, carves little statues of Buddha, and thinks on his bloodsoaked past (cue wild flashback scene involving crazy ninjas and a river of blood).

That would make for a boring movie, so suddenly Kumo and the sexy, sadistic Sio appear, and steal both Afro's No. 1 headband and his father's remains. With his sword reforged, Afro sets out to reclaim the No. 2 headband so he can challenge Sio, and stop her from resurrecting his father (just so she can torture him).

But regaining the headband leads to a terrible cost -- a kindly man with a little son, haunted by the headband's bloody legacy. And the path to Sio's lair is riddled with grotesque henchmen who are very interested in seeing Afro dead -- and Sio herself plans to use a terrible weapon to destroy the man she hates above all else.

Like "Samurai Champloo," "Afro Samurai" is a stylized story that wears its hip-hop trappings and period Japanese flavour like badges of honor. Or headbands. Whichever. The actual story is rather thin, but it carries a heavy message about revenge -- one you get it, it will haunt you like a bloody ghost forever and corrupt others along the way. Ninja Ninja provides a little humor ("I'm gonna die, man! Or at least have a stroke... I HATE HEIGHTS!") but it can't lighten the storyline.

"Afro Samurai: Resurrection" doesn't hold itself back on the fights -- neatly sliced bodies, fountains and rivers of blood, savage beatings and some really creepy cybernetic/masked baddies who are unafraid to get dirty. The highlight is a balletic nighttime duel between Afro and Shichigoro, surrounded by deadly chains and glowing lanterns, and framed by fireworks reflected in the water.

And it leaves the way paved for a third "Afro Samurai" story. I'm waiting.

Most regular actors are terrible at voice-acting, but Samuel L Jackson could easily make a living at it if he wanted to -- both the deep, gravelly voice ("Watch... your damn... MOUTH") and the annoying jabber of Ninja Ninja. And Afro serves as an excellent anti-hero, who does some truly terrible things but is willing to pay for them.

Lucy Liu does a solid job as well, giving Sio both sensual viciousness and tenderness, and even a sort of moral core ("History will mourn the atrocities you now commit"), while Yuri Lowenthal and Mark Hamill have good small roles. And Liam O'Brian's gravelly/soft voice gives poignancy to his small but memorable role as Shichigoro.

The two-disc edition has a cluster of extras, mostly in featurette form -- a two-part making-of documentary, an interview with the creator, music composition, video game, commentary, and assorted other stuff. Mainly interesting if you really love the movie.

"Afro Samurai: Resurrection" is a solid sequel that shows what happens when revenge is swung back at you. A good, bloodsoaked anime that opens the way for more.

If you could compare the original Afro Samurai to a innovative new game, Resurrection is more of an expansion pack than a sequel. It opens up with a cliched depowering of the hero Afro and rehashes the original's plot with some twists. The quality of the animation is superb as well as the art. The music is good, but doesn't seem to be as good of an effort as the first one. Afro really doesn't go through any significant character development and by the end of the movie is right back where he was at the end of the last movie. Its fun for a rental but I regret buying it. Make sure you watch till the end of the credits for a teaser scene.

Afro Samurai has found vengeance, and has sworn off fighting. You didn't think that would last, did you?

Nope, it didn't. And the past catches up to the silent afroed warrior in a big way in "Afro Samurai: Resurrection" -- a wildly stylized, bloodsoaked, wildly anachronistic tale of what will happen after you get your gory revenge. And Samuel L. Jackson fits into the quiet, butt-kicking titular character like a hand in a fine leather glove.

Afro now lives in a temple where he meditates, carves little statues of Buddha, and thinks on his bloodsoaked past (cue wild flashback scene involving crazy ninjas and a river of blood).

That would make for a boring movie, so suddenly Kumo and the sexy, sadistic Sio appear, and steal both Afro's No. 1 headband and his father's remains. With his sword reforged, Afro sets out to reclaim the No. 2 headband so he can challenge Sio, and stop her from resurrecting his father (just so she can torture him).

But regaining the headband leads to a terrible cost -- a kindly man with a little son, haunted by the headband's bloody legacy. And the path to Sio's lair is riddled with grotesque henchmen who are very interested in seeing Afro dead -- and Sio herself plans to use a terrible weapon to destroy the man she hates above all else.

Like "Samurai Champloo," "Afro Samurai" is a stylized story that wears its hip-hop trappings and period Japanese flavour like badges of honor. Or headbands. Whichever. The actual story is rather thin, but it carries a heavy message about revenge -- one you get it, it will haunt you like a bloody ghost forever and corrupt others along the way. Ninja Ninja provides a little humor ("I'm gonna die, man! Or at least have a stroke... I HATE HEIGHTS!") but it can't lighten the storyline.

"Afro Samurai: Resurrection" doesn't hold itself back on the fights -- neatly sliced bodies, fountains and rivers of blood, savage beatings and some really creepy cybernetic/masked baddies who are unafraid to get dirty. The highlight is a balletic nighttime duel between Afro and Shichigoro, surrounded by deadly chains and glowing lanterns, and framed by fireworks reflected in the water.

And it leaves the way paved for a third "Afro Samurai" story. I'm waiting.

Most regular actors are terrible at voice-acting, but Samuel L Jackson could easily make a living at it if he wanted to -- both the deep, gravelly voice ("Watch... your damn... MOUTH") and the annoying jabber of Ninja Ninja. And Afro serves as an excellent anti-hero, who does some truly terrible things but is willing to pay for them.

Lucy Liu does a solid job as well, giving Sio both sensual viciousness and tenderness, and even a sort of moral core ("History will mourn the atrocities you now commit"), while Yuri Lowenthal and Mark Hamill have good small roles. And Liam O'Brian's gravelly/soft voice gives poignancy to his small but memorable role as Shichigoro.

"Afro Samurai: Resurrection" is a solid sequel that shows what happens when revenge is swung back at you. A good, bloodsoaked anime that opens the way for more.

The top samurai with the afro is back for another round of slicing and dicing galore. Okazaki's "AFRO SAMURAI" returns with the animated film "AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION" that is action-packed and poetically violent.

The popular anime and manga series is created by mangaka Takashi "Bob" Okazaki and produced by world renown Japanese animation company STUDIO GONZO ("Full Metal Panic", "Vandread", "Gantz", "Samurai 7' and many other anime) that brought us the popular five-episode series (aired on SPIKE TV back in 2007) made its return returned with a film in 2009.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION" is an anime that looks absolutely gorgeous on Blu-ray. One thing is clear, the film just looks so much better than the TV series and the film showcases its vibrant colors during daylight scenes, its darkness during the night and most of all, impressive detail in the backgrounds courtesy of its 1080p High Definition (16×9) transfer. The film just looks great!

It's also important to note that "AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION" has quite a bit of talent involved with the look of the film such as character designer and animation director, Hiroya Iijima ("Gantz", "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" and "Black Cat"). Also, art direction from Shigemi Ikeda ("Gantz", "Gasaraki", "Inuyasha", Infinite Ryvius, "Black Cat" and many of the "Mobile Suit Gundam" TV series and films).

The picture quality really brings out the detail of the surroundings, including the rocky cliffs to the disembowelment of several characters. And color from the lush green painted backgrounds, blue skies and huge clouds, villages and buildings to the action sequences which showcases a lot of blood.

"AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION" is just far superior to the look of the "AFRO SAMURAI" television series in picture quality and animation detail.

As for the audio, there is a known issue with this Blu-ray disc. It appears there have been bad discs that were shipped earlier on. On the back of the case, "AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION" is listed as Dolby TrueHD 5.1. But upon playing it on my system, it only came up as Dolby Digital 5.1. Upon further investigation, I have learned that FUNimation Entertainment has been giving a replacement Blu-ray disc with the correct Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack to those who can provide an original receipt (and fax it to the company) and an e-mail of the purchaser's address.

With that being said, I am unable to review the audio based on its lossless soundtrack. As for the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the audio sounds good and dialogue is clear and understandable. Music comes quite clear as well and utilizes the bass quite well. You do hear the swords clanging and cutting quite well on the DD5.1 soundtrack. But primarily, audio is front channel driven and I don't recall LFE being used.

"AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION" is featured only in English, there is no Japanese soundtrack. Voice acting is well done by actors Samuel L. Jackson, Lucy Liu and Yuri Lowenthal. Samuel L. Jackson definitely brings out the believability of both Afro and Ninja Ninja.

Subtitles are featured only in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION" comes with the following special features in 1080p High Definition (16×9) and Dolby Digital English 2.0 audio:

* Afro Samurai: The Game - (11:41) Interview with the staff who created the "Afro Samurai" video game. From the cuts, the music, movement, character animation for the video game and more.
* Enter the RZA - (6:20) RZA talks about how he came up with the music for the film and the various hardware and software used.
* Afro In-Depth - (6:37) Interview wtih Takashi "Bob" Okazaki and how "Afro Samurai" became a manga, an animated series and an action figure.
* Afro Samurai: East Meets West, Part 1 - (19:14) Interviews with creator Takashi "Bob" Okazaki and director Fuminori Kizaki about having more freedom now than when they had with the TV series and now, wanting to blend of the cultures and how they had much more freedom to work for "AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION". Also, interviews with the crew that includes character designs and artistic backgrounds. And also the Eastern staff working with the Western staff.
* Afro Samurai: East Meets West, Part 2 - (25:03) Interview with actor and executive producer Samuel L. Jackson, executive producer Arthur Smith, voice actor Yuri Lowenthal, actress Lucy Liu and the crew from the Western staff.
* Afro Samurai at San Diego Comic-Con 2008 - (8:10) Series creator and mangaka Takashi "Bob" Okazaki, Samuel L. Jackson and RZA at San Diego Comic-Con discussing the series during their panel and also interviews with the excited audience.
* Part A Video Commentary - (28:59) A roundtable video/audio commentary by Director Fuminori Kizaki, Creator Takashi "Bob" Okazaki, Character Designer/Chief Animation Director: Hiroya Iijima, Animation Producer: Yuji Hori and Animation Producer: Kenichi Hayashi. The guys have a fun time watching the animation and discuss what they wanted to accomplish for the film, things that they wanted people to see and taking pleasure in discussing scenes that were well done and more.
* Trailers - FUNimation Entertainment trailers for upcoming or currently released series or films.
* 24-Page Booklet - Also included with the Blu-ray is a small booklet with image boards, color setting, production art, character info. and more!

JUDGMENT CALL:

"AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION" is definitely going to appeal to the fans of the show. It was pretty unique to see the collaboration between the East and the West for this series and I can only hope that GONZO continues to further production of more episodes (note: Okazaki says that what we have seen so far on the TV series and film is such a small part of what he has already written/planned for the characters).

As far as samurai anime goes, "AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION" is a violent anime. Part of Afro's unique fighting style is his ability to slice and dice people with multiple hits with his sword. There are a lot of decapitations, loss of limb and blood featured throughout the series, so for the parents wondering if this film is child-safe, the answer is that this film is definitely not child-safe.

There is a lot of Western appeal and as seen at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2008, this series has its large fandom who love this series. For those who enjoy samurai violence and a samurai anime that is just full of action, there are many positives of "AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION" from its beautiful animation, magnificent art and of course, the music by RZA just adds another positive reason why people the series but also the film.

Also, another major plus is that this Blu-ray goes beyond what many anime Blu-ray tend to have in terms of special features. You get several featurettes and the Blu-ray definitely explores the Japan and American side of their working collaboration. So, there are a good number of special features include on this Blu-ray disc. Picture quality again is gorgeous but with audio, I'm unable to comment because I am reviewing the disc that doesn't have the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack.

But overall, "AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION" is an anime film that features a ton of action, humor and violence. If you dig samurai anime and a lot of fighting and violence, definitely check this film out!

I watched AS director's cut, 2 disc, then this.
The extras were worth it on the original, interesting.

If you're wondering whether the Spike version is mature, it's.

That being said, here's my ode to Afro:

Oh no Afro,
U stuck a sword in his eye,
Blood left & right,
U know he's gonna die,
Swish swish slash,
U won another clash,
UR ribbon's so clean,
Too bad UR heart is not the same.

This story revolves around samurai honor.
It doesn't disappoint.

How does it end?
You must watch as you don't have the #2 ribbon.
;)

You can always tell when I like a movie cause I actually shell out the cash to buy it. Definitely bought this one after seeing it. Much better animation than the first. The fight scenes were fantastic and reminded me of another great anime movie, "Ninja Scroll", although Ninja Scroll was slightly better. The recreation of father afro was done with great results, they made him look especially menacing. I don't know what it was, but Afro seemed a bit more sinister in this one, which is why I think a lot of reviewers here didn't give it 5 stars(though they won't admit it). This was made clearer in the scene where he killed the Samarai he had a drink with in order to get the number 2 headband. By the end however, I realized, that Afro is just a competitor by nature, a pity the sport he plays in demands that he kill in order to win.

If you are an anime fan, this is worth every penny owning. Audio and video are great, story line is great, and yes the english is well done.

The Resurrection was a good follow up to the original in every way. They were a little more wide open with their ideas in this one. There is plenty of blood, guts, foul language, sex scenes and even a little comedy in this one. There is another banging soundtrack to go with this one as well! If you picked up the first one, you will enjoy this one as well. After seeing the whole series, I went ahead and purchased Afro Samurai the game for Xbox 360. I will probably get the soundtracks as well.

Has no where near the level of entertainment value as the first season.
Not even a season really,just a movie.

Afro samurai has got to be one of my favorite anime. when i heard that amazon had afro samurai resurection on bluray for only 10$ i couldnt resist. i sugest buying this anime if your into anime titles with lots of action and comedy. the music in the series is produced by the RZA, and its some of the best.the colors and sound both shine in this bluray title a must have if you like your anime in HD.