I absolutely loved Cowboy Bebop and the intertwining jazz music, which truly shone bright. So I fished for some more “stuff” from Mr. ShinichirÅ Watanabe. Coming across “Samurai Champloo” I thought of getting some info about the series before I start. This is what my friend had to say – “I don’t remember the series name but it involved 2 samurai’s. One was strict and the other was a total ruckus but they rocked the house and it was awesome!!”
I saw the first episode and I smiled. It was same with Bebop. The funky factor of the series was evident and the premise of the series was pretty simple – Finding a samurai who smells like sunflower! (Do sunflowers even smell??) So the affair started for 26 episodes and its memory still remains due to the impressive melodic (rap/R’n’B/Blue/hip-hop) background score. I am writing this piece while ear-geared on Champloo music. Lookout for the music in episode 18, the one with all the graffiti fight.
So what’s the stick you ask! A young girl named Fuu is the one who is looking for the samurai who smells like sunflower (evidently her father, oops). She is accompanied by two samurai’s who have a bloodlust for each other but in a very warrior-ish way. The disciplinarian young samurai (Ronin actually) is called Jin (“Jean”) and the carefree one is Mugen. These two promise to help Fuu as she helped save their lives. Now the trio have started their adventure without any clue about the samurai who…you know!!
As you watch, you will notice a lot of anachronistic examples spread across the series. A lot of places may also appear out of time (that’s what anachronism means). Hip=hop culture, rap music, gangsta styled bandits and my favourite – scratching DJ-style. Oh yeah, there are graffiti artists also. The main characters are pretty laid out including their history. Ofcourse this is revealed slowly with the flow of the series but the supporting cast doesn’t play much of a role. They come, they go. Through the journey you will meet few interesting characters such as graffiti brothers, blind musician and the warrior stag beetle. And man can Fuu eat, like hell she can.
Essentially the series get a little heavier towards the last few episodes but the gravity demanded the sacrifice. There are a few loose ends but common stop whining, nothing is perfect. The ending, for me, kind of choked me. I know we are suckers for happy ending especially when we have seen the protagonists go through a lot. But you can’t use that as a pretext and just show anything. Both – Jin and Mugen - get involved with heavy fighting that should have killed them. Alas, the happy ending (Phew). I guess the creator must have had an idea to create a sequel with the so-sequel-ish-obvious ending, but Champloo never got the publicity or rating or both for that to happen.
If you are looking for an anime which is simply chilled out to watch and with great music score– Champloo is your cup of tea else sorry about wasting your time with this. Champloo is about subtle human emotions which are endearing and believable.
To end this, you can watch this series with your kids (or abuse sensitive person) as there are lots of beeps at the right time.
