Customer Reviews

Samurai Champloo, Volume 1 (Episodes 1-4)

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Samurai Champloo is the long-awaited next project from Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe. His two short films in the Animatrix compilation (Kid's Story and Detective Story) give American audiences a sneak peek at the phenomenal art style of this series, but they barely hint at the jaw-dropping action and unorthodox blend of history and music contained therein.

The first four episodes of Champloo introduce its three protagonists: the vagrant swordsman Mugen, the rogue samurai Jin, and the tea-shop waitress Fuu. This unlikely and volatile trio begin a road journey through post-shogunate Japan (ca. 1780), brought together by circumstances best seen to be believed.

"Champloo" means mixed-up or stir-fry, and that's what this series is: a stylish blend of old school values and situations, meshed with more modern sensibilities, fighting styles, and visual design. Over the lush, dynamic art, a soundtrack of some of the best hip-hop from modern Japan plays. Though it's a noticeable device in the first few episodes, it doesn't take long before the music feels like second nature despite the anachronism.

Champloo is many things: a mature drama, an action series, an uproariously funny comedy and a visual feast. Watanabe-san demonstrates here that the success of Cowboy Bebop was uniquely his, and no fluke - fans of that series will not be disappointed, despite how radically different the two storylines are from one another.

As the first title card of the first episode of Samurai Champloo says, "Just shut up and watch."

"Champloo" is an Okinawan word (more properly pronounced champuru) meaning "mix" or "blend," and is most often applied to traditional food dishes such as "Goya Champloo" or "Stir-fried Champloo." It's basically a mixed stir-fry with a seemly infinite number of potential ingredient, and a very fitting description of Watanabe Shinichiro's new series "Samurai Champloo," an eclectic blend of ancient and modern, hip-hop and koto, and pretty much everything else thrown into the mix.

Watanabe is a heck of a chef, and manages to balance such dissonant elements as a bookish but deadly Ronin (Jin), a wild sword-swinging roustabout (Mugen) and a kooky but determined waitress (Fuu) into a tasty dish worthy of his previous concoction "Cowboy Bebop." Each ingredient supports the flavor of the other perfectly, creating a variety of story possibilities that couldn't be found by following just one personality. Hip-hop music sets the background for a Japan where a wild swordfighter uses capoeira moves to slice and dice with a fury, and an enormous man known as the Oni smashes skulls with his massive club.

This first DVD sets the stage accordingly, with the trio being pushed into an unhappy alliance, attempting to split up, and finding their destinies inexorably intertwined. Fuu leads them on a quest for the "Samurai who smells of Sunflowers," providing the McGuffin that keeps the story moving.

Watanabe's trademark style is on fine display, with smooth animation and a quick and flowing story punctuated with quiet moments of reflection. The story builds at a good pace, allowing all the characters to develop in time. If "Cowboy Bebop" is anything to go by, we can expect quite the ride and explosive finish to "Samurai Champloo"

There's just nothing out there like Samurai Champloo. Created, directed and masterminded by the brilliant Shinichiro Watanabe, it uses hip-hop the way his classic "Cowboy Bebop" uses bebop jazz--not so much as soundtrack music, but as a motif and a defining overall style. Flavored with sassy anachronisms, Champloo is nonetheless set in the last gasp of the era of Samurai Japan, when the boundaries are breaking down on all sides, and three stray-cat kids--a teahouse waitress with a secret, a quiet and deadly ronin with a dark crime in his past, and a tattooed wild boy from Ryuukyuu with a lot to learn--meet and form an alliance none of them expected. Their quest: to find the Sunflower Samurai, for reasons only Fuu (the waitress) knows. Their problem; in their initial battle, neither Jin (the cool elegant ronin) nor Mugen (the island wildboy) was able to so much as scratch the other, and thus was born a vow that neither is allowed to die at the hands of anyone else--forming a strange protective alliance that might even be a friendship. Who knows?
In episodes 3/4 they end up on opposite sides of a yakuza war; they have a long way to go. I promise if you watch this DVD you will want the rest; the visual techniques are outstandingly state-of-the-art, the synch of music and action is top-notch, and Jin and Mugen's swordfight in the teahouse is one of the coolest ever, anywhere, I mean it.

WOW! that's one word that comes to mind. WOW! ever since tenchi muyo was taken off the air, their has not been any anime shows that have interested me. for years i searched, never finding anything worth watching. then, i sort of gave up. i would occasionaly check adult swim for any signs of a new great anime but to no avail. then one night it happened: i saw the second episode of Samurai Champloo air on adult swim. at first, i wasnt paying attention to the words and action. i was looking at what had caught my eye when i was flipping channels: THE ANIMATION! the artwork was incredible!the colors that were used to draw the characters and the world they were interacting in made it seem real. it was almost as if it was a sitcom, with real people. only tis was completly animated. it was eye-popping!then, i started to watch the show itself and the show was great!!! anyway, since then i have been addicted to the series and i have six of the volumes. but alas, the last one (number seven) comes out this month on the 17th. the show is coming to an end. so anyway, im going to write reviews for each of the volumes and rate them. i rated volume one of samurai champloo below:

episode one: tempestuous temperaments- jin, mugen and fuu meet for the first time. mugen is looking for a challenge and hears about three "bad asses" and sends some cowards to go get them. mugen however, does not know that jin has killed them already. mugen mistakes jin as one of the "bad asses" and attatcks him. a brilliant fight insues, and jin mugen and fuu end up travling together.
i rate episode one a 10/10

episode two: redeye reprisal- mugen cut a mans arm off in episode one. in this episode, the man is out for revenge. the man recruits an ogre by the name of oniwaka to help him exact revenge on mugen. also, jin encounters a highly skilled assasin who has been hired to kill him. another great fight. and last of all, our modest (cough) fuu gets smashed.
i rate this episode 9/10

episodes 3 & 4: hellhounds for hire part one and two- the three heros part ways but fate eventually brings them back together. jin is hired by a gang as a bodygaurd. mugen is hired as a bodyguard by a rival gang. fuu is tricked into capture and is forced to work in a broffel house.
i give both episodes 3&4 10/10

thats the end of my review for volume one of samurai champloo.
if you are new to the series check out my reviews for each volume to see if you want to get the volumes. i will say this, they are really expensive. but they are worth the money. i get them at best buy and they are 24.99 plus tax and each volume has four episodes on it. if you have not bought this dvd and are debating weither it is good or not, i reccomend you buy it. i can personally vouch for this dvd. of course, its always good to check other reviews by different people as well.
later.
i hope this review helped.

When I first heard of this I openly mocked my friends that told me about it and the idea. For one, I HATE hip hop. I was an addictions counselor for 2 years and ALL the clients listened to was hip hop. Drove. Me. Mad. Second, I like my anime set in the future.

So hip hop and samurai means obviously this would suck, right? Well... I must admit I am wrong. It doesn't suck. In fact, I just may commit sacrilidge here, but I enjoy SC more than Cowboy Bebop. Everything about this show seems so finely crafted and integrated, I can't even imagine it without the intercut hip hop. The second episode is my favorite on this set, and I hope we see the assasin again. My only complaint is the first episode gets a LITTLE crazy with the "record scratching" effect, but no episode since then uses it so much so it is easily forgiveable.

I've gotten all three SC dvd's that are released in the states so far and it has quickly become my favorite anime series of all time (although to keep that title we'll have to see how the end of this series compares to the end of Full Metal, which I also haven't seen!).

Give it a shot, fun characters, fun adventures and some really cool action.

Unlike the main characters in this awesome anime from the director of Cowboy Bebop and the guy who did the Kill Bill anime short - anime fans will not be left feeling empty. Only longing for more after viewing this first 4 episode filled DVD of goodness. There have been few action-based anime series that I personally could get into after Cowboy Bebop (which I define on my personal preferences as the best series of all anime). Sure, I enjoyed Trigun. Hellsing. Outlaw Star. But none of them held sway over me as much as Bebop did. In clashes Samurai Champloo like the swip of a katana. Leaving you wanting to see more.

The actual DVD itself is done of the same calibre quality of most other popular animes. I personally enjoy watching any action-based anime with English Dubs - and the voice actors in Champloo are pretty much the same ones that did Bebop and other popular anime series dubs. The dubbing is top notch on Champloo so far. The picture and sound quality are also as awesome, especially on a 6.1 Surround/Dolby setup.

The box set is lacking though. The bandana is cheesy schwag, but the collectors box itself is at least worth it, though not worth paying an extra $20 to get it.

If you love action anime, samurai or just were a big fan of Cowboy Bebop - you'll love Samurai Champloo.

First off, I'll admit that the characters themselves are cliche. But given that this is only the first released DVD, I was willing to give it a chance. The animation itself is very stylish and well done as expected from the creators of Cowboy Bebop. And the soundtrack, wow!! The music is what really completes this series. I purchased the dvd with the soundtrack and ended up listening to the soundtrack 4 times in a row. If you like hip hop music and anime, this will definitely appeal to you. Again, while the characters themselves aren't original, the combination of music and animation style make this anime worthwhile. Hopefully, later in the series the characters will grow.

For those that thought Cowboy Bebop was an item I strongly recommend this DVD for them and any anime fan. I bought my copy in January soon after the release and was lucky to receive the free bonus soundtrack, which isn't really that bad. Given that it's hip hop and I'm not much of a fan of hip hop (even then I burned a backup copy to enjoy on the go). I had a friend that made fun of me for my interest in anime (he would keep saying ignorrant rants about pokemon, since thats all he knows), until I introduced him to Samurai Champloo. Now that's his favorite anime, even though it's the only non-video game based anime he has watched. Even my two older brothers who also made fun of me suffered a change of opinion because of Samurai Champloo. Now they won't stop bothering me about when I'll buy the next DVD. So I suggest that anyone interested in anime should take a look at Samurai Champloo, it changes people.

It has come to my attention that Samurai Champloo has started airing on "adult swim", and therefore feel upset that this great anime was pulled out from the not so famous anime world and stuck in the faces of poser fans that use "adult swim" as their primary source of anime,for petes sakes they edit and censore the freakin show. It also upsets me since airing this anime has caused it to become harder to find in local retailers. Another anime that was ruined thanks to "cartoon network" is Naruto, they even edited this one so the U.S. audience can't get the authentic experience. some friends of mine would download the most recent episode as the series progressed in Japan. Now that "cn" has the rights to the series its illegal to download in the U.S. So now me and my friends have to start over from 1, we were on episode 152! DOWN WITH "adult swim", they're ruining animes for real fans.

Samurai Champloo,brought to us by the briliant mind of director Shinichiro Watanabe and great artist Kazuto Nakazawa.Shinichiro also directed the very successful Cowboy Bebop series and Kid Story & Detective Story from the Animatrix(which Kazuto Nakazawa did the art design).Kazuto made the video Breaking the Habit for rock band Linkin Park and the anime scenes of Kill Bill.vol 1. These two masterminds bring a unique view to samurai stories. Upon watching the first episode,we see a unique and great blend of eastern Hip-Hop and great samurai action.Fast paced fighting scenes,a ton of great characters both lovable and hatable.Great moments of action,laughter and excitement.Not suttable for children,Violence,Blood and Bad Language.Still great to me!!!
5 out of 5 stars!!!!

From the director Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Animatrix) Comes a new Hip Anime series featuring yet again a set of Hilarious characters, on a quest to find " The Samurai that smells of Sunflowers " ? Odd but it'll add up as the DVDs are released. Great Sword fights mixed in with as always hilarious consequences and superb Music. Fans of the fabled Cowboy Bebop and Classic Rurouni Kenshin are going to love this. So just shut up and watch! I would also like to add the Series Box and Limited Edition Bandana are well worth getting, the box holds all 7 Volumes.