Customer Reviews

Samurai Champloo, Volume 6 (Episodes 21-23)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Samurai Champloo has already turned into a legend of modern anime. It has everything that makes anime great: solid action, good characters, a compelling storyline with plenty of twists along with a few interesting side-plots, and an excellent soundtrack. Geneon itself has done well in Americanizing this anime by providing good voice-acting.

It's also very unique in that it's based deep in history, the Tokugawa era to be precise, during the time of Japanese seclusion from anyone whom they considered foreign, which was nearly everyone. Yet Champloo doesn't exactly allow itself to fall into the rules of history, or at least it doesn't rigidly follow it. Instead, it uses the history as a sort of background while Champloo throws in all of its wacky little side notes, historical (and ridiculous) events we didn't know about (because they never happened).

This is especially evident in volume six. Though it starts with the conclusion of an episode from volume five, it goes on from there to two "dimension" episodes. The first, episode twenty-two, is a horror story about an ancient buried treasure in which the heroes join in the excavation. It becomes clear from the start that there is something wrong with these miners, and the ending of this episode, linking smartly with the beginning of it, will throw you for a loop, and probably into laughter, if you aren't too serious about your anime. While watching this episode, I kept thinking about H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu Mythos.

The last episode, called Baseball Blue, is strictly based on laughs. Firstly, at this time of history, baseball would have never reached Japanese soil, yet in this episode it has, and apparently samurai are decent players. Another great thing about this episode is the interpretation of the Americans. Watch this episode with an unbiased eye and you'll find yourself chuckling at the parody of us as Americans.

It's obvious that this DVD is meant to be the eye of the storm; the next DVD, which is basically a movie, plays out in three parts, or verses as they call them on Champloo. Some might find this volume a little off, or may feel a little cheated by the fact that neither of the last two episodes are serious in any way. It doesn't further the plot much; we still have no idea whothe sun-flower samurai is, and Jin and Mugen have yet to settle their fued. So I'd only recommend this one for anyone who isn't particular and have already collected the first five volumes. I'd also recommend this one for anyone who liked the way Cowboy Bebop ended, which was similar, with a comedic episode before the final episodes.

The first thirteen episodes were sublime. A few of those that follow never really reach the excellence and craftmanship of the beginning of this series, and most of those 'few' are on this DVD. Episodes 21-23 are found here, and the last two seem soooo out of place it may have been best to leave them off (particularly the surreal and nonsensical mushroom/zombie/meteor episode).

The first thirteen episodes command 5 stars. These weird-arse episodes (#22 and partially #23) are almost the so-called 'jump the shark' moments, but at least the baseball one is still fun to watch. Episodes 22-23 are so far removed from the rest of the series that, as long as you're aware of this simple fact, you should watch them anyway. Then make up your own mind.

first off i would like to say this volume caught me off guard. when i bought it i looked on the back and saw only three episodes, yet the dvd was full price. this would normally pi$$ me off, but this is a really great show. so i thought "the three episodes should be awesome, so it'll be worth it.
but this time i was wrong. the cliffhanger episode was really good, but the greatness stopped there. the other two were not very good in most peoples opinion including mine. they were still alright but not up to the usual samurai champloo standards.
anyway, below are my ratings for the episodes.


episode twenty one: elegy of entrapment part2- this episode finished what dvd five left off. there is quite a bit of shocking scenes(which almost made me soil my pants) but for the sake of fans who have not seen it, i will say no more then i have.
i rate this episode a 10/10

episode twenty-two: cosmic collisions- this episode was one of two that were okay but lacked greatness. the plot in this was odd, and the overall episode kindoff blew.
i rate this episode a 3/10

episode twenty-three: baseball blues- samurai champloo goes cleveland indians on us! our heroes end up playing a high-stakes game of baseball. horrible plot, but some humor.
i rate this episode a 2/10

thats all for this review. even though this dvd had two bad episodes and only three total, i still recommend buying this if you are a fan of the series, but only because you get to see what happens on volume six where volume five left off. belive me, you are going to be shocked!
alas, volume seven comes out 1/17/06 and it seems it is the last one. samurai champloo will come to a close and wrap up the story on volume seven. this has been a good show, and i will probably be depressed for a week or two after i watch it end. i will write a areview on that one as well.
thats all i have to say for now.
until next time.
i hope this review helped.

Great disk, this series should be added to the collection of even the casual fan of anime.

I was shocked by the previous reviews quoting the huge amount of sex and violence. There is no sex, and the violence is really quite tame and stylized. I wouldn't let me 6 year old watch it, but would let my teenager.

With that over with, the series has been following the adventures of 2 ronin (whom are dead set on killing each other) and a female travelling companiion who engaged the two to help her find a mysterious samurai (a task they must complete before they are allowed to kill each other). The character development for the series in general has been quite good. However, this particular DVD does not do much to advance the story arc.

The episodes on this DVD do have some fun times, and are more light hearted than any previously.

1. Part 2 of Elegy of Entrapment. Closes out the cliffhanger from the previous disk, nuff' said.

2. Zombies in Japan: and does that one look a lot like George Romero? Lots of fun and good ghost story, with a great twist ending.

3. Super Historical Samurai Baseball: Couldn't stop laughing historically interesting and ridiculous.

All in all, if you haven't seen any of the other episodes, the two on this disk might make you want to see more. If you have gotten this far, maybe you will be dissappointed that no serious plot points are being resolved going into the home stretch.

This is a great series with excellent production values. Nothing too shocking happens. I highly reccomend.

This DVD doesn't advance the plot very much, but it's very enjoyable and fun to watch! I really enjoyed this DVD and I hope you all check it out for yourself. This gives you a nice break from the plot to just enjoy the characters as they develop their friendship even more. Even though this is filler, I'd really say you'd need to watch this to complete the Samurai Champloo experience.

If your a fan of the series then you probably don't need me to tell you that you need this one to complete the series. This volume has important things going on in the beginning but the last episodes in the volume nothing important goes on and its just filler episodes. That said one of the fillers is a little wierd leaving you with a "wtf?" face and the other filler is about good ole baseball FUNNIEST EPISODE i've seen in the series. If you like the series and like comedy that baseball episode is worth it all and oh yea the good story episodes in the beginning.

Continues where Volume 5's cliffhanger left off; the first episode is a bit serious, but the last two make up for it with a mass amount of crazy Champloo humor.
Zombies, baseball games, and mushrooms - what could be better?

Samurai Champloo Volume 6 starts off with the conclusion of a two part episode in which our three main characters have befriended a blind musician named Sara whose true profession is actually assassination. While Mugen and Fuu continue the search for the Sunflower Samurai, Jin has to fight for his life on a narrow bridge. The second two episodes are not what I would call filler, but it seems as if Watanabe wanted to do some experimental anime reminescent of Oshii, Anno, or FLCL. The first one, in which our band happens upon some ghostly treasure hunters crosses over into the horror genre with some genuinely creepy moments that hint that Watanabe could do a good job in that field if he ever chose to. The last episode here, "Baseball Blues" has a Bebopesque feel to it. Mugen, Jin, and Fuu are conned into playing in a baseball game against some pushy Americans armed with cannons who will leave only if they lose the game. As usual for this series, all Western characters are portrayed as horrible caricatures of their national identity. But it is amusing to see stereotypes portrayed through Japanese eyes.

This is probably the weakest volume of Champloo that I have viewed and for the quality and quantity of episodes here, it hardly seems worth the price. There are some classic moments here but it's just that overall, it's subpar. The action sequences are first rate and the mood and feel created by Watanabe is something unique to his direction. The comedy at times seemed over the top and did not function very well. Still, the episodes were worth seeing.

Let me start by clarifying that I own all seven volumes of the Samurai Champloo series, my favorite anime series. Volume 6 is unfortunately the weakest of the bunch.

Episode 21 is the second part of the 2-part story Elegy of Entrapment. While the story is great, the artwork for some reason was subpar. The characters are not drawn as well as the earlier episodes, and look decidedly odd at times.

Episode 22 is probably most people's least favorite episode, and the story is weird, to put it mildly. Without giving any spoilers away, I think I appreciated the story more after viewing it as a commentary of Japan as the nation that brought upon itself the destruction and horrors of the Second World War. The episode certainly loses much in the Western context.

Episode 23 has a great concept, but the story got sloppy and just seem half-baked.

Every anime series will have several weaker episodes, it's unfortunate that the dvd-release just happened to include 2 weak episodes on a 3-episode disc that cost as much as the other discs, while bad artwork plagues the third episode. It's still decent, but when you compare it to all the other volumes in this great series, volume six falls short of my expectations.

Pretty much a filler disk (other than the first which is a follow up to the previous episode). No doubt if your a fan of the series i say buy it. Yet it really holds no true value or missing pieces to the series as whole.