Samurai Champloo - Complete Box Set
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Actor: Ayako Kawasumi, Ginpei Sato, Kazuya Nakai, Kirk Thornton, Steve BlumDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Dutch (Original Language); English (Original Language); Japanese (Original Language)
Format: Animated, Box set, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 30 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-07-04
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
DVD Reviews of Samurai Champloo - Complete Box Set
DVD Review: Not your typical samurai anime!
Summary: 5 Stars
Mugen is a cocky, rebellious, bandy-legged fighter who incorporates break-dancing techniques into his unorthodox fighting style. Jin is more your typically calm and stoic samurai (or ronin, to be more precise), steeped in martial tradition, who finds satisfaction in the perfect execution of his warrior craft. Mugen and Jin aren't friends - in fact, they are contentious and want to test their skills against each other - yet they find themselves joining forces, thanks to Fuu, an insistent and kinda quirky waitress who inveigles the two into helping her search for the Samurai Who Smells Like Sunflowers. For 26 episodes, the discordant trio undergo many adventures, some serious, some hilarious, some just plain out weird. The only constants are the bickerings amongst the three, the scrounging for food, and the intrusion of modern day sensibilities. Oh, and the rampant butt kicking as done by Mugen and Jin.
On the heels of his popular Cowboy Bebop anime series, Shinichiro Watanabe decided to put a new spin on the samurai anime with his irreverent, hip Samurai Shamploo. Shamploo means "stir fry" or a mix, and this is certainly what this series is about, as it fuses the traditional samurai credo and decorum with the unexpected modern day incursions of hip hop attitudes, beatboxing, street tagging, and baseball. The episodes are supported by cool Japanese hip hop music soundtracks and blazing hip hop scratches for scene segues. Watanabe also makes beautiful use of visual metaphors, thereby adding more depth to the shenanigans. The ripping animation and dynamically constructed fight scenes are guaranteed not to disappoint.
Kudos, too, to the voice actors, especially Steven Jay Blum (aka Daniel Andrews, who also voiced Cowboy Bebop's Spike) as the bestial Mugen. Kirk Thornton as Jin and Kari Wahlgren as Fuu are both excellent. The voice actor for the sometimes series narrator Policeman Sakami Manzou ("the Saw") is also very good.
These episodes are definitely rated PG-13. This anime series doesn't hesitate to throw in scenes of drug use and graphic violence. Some episodes even contain mild sexual scenes.
My favorite episodes are "The Art of Altercation" (for the rapping samurai and his beatbox backup), the atmospheric "Cosmic Collisions" (where the trio fight the undead), the hilarious "Baseball Blues" (where the American pitcher couldn't find the strike zone with the dog at bat, and he ends up inadvertently hitting the mutt - not to worry, no animated dogs were hurt in the making of this anime), and the concluding 3-episode arc "Evanescent Encounter" (where Mugen and Jin are challenged to their very limits, resolve their rivalry, and Fuu at last catches up to the Sunflower Samurai).
Here are the 26 episodes (American titles first, with the original Japanese titles in parenthesis):
"Tempestuous Temperaments" ("Storm and Stress") Episode 1
"Redeye Reprisal" ("Veritable Pandemonium") Episode 2
"Hellhounds for Hire" Parts One & Two ("Tacit Understanding") Episode 3-4
"Artistic Anarchy" ("Utter Indifference") Episode 5
"Stranger Searching" ("RedHeaded Foreigner") Episode 6
"A Risky Racket" ("Surrounded on All Sides") Episode 7
"The Art of Altercation" ("Self-Conceit") Episode 8
"Beatbox Bandits" ("Evil Spirits") Episode 9
"Lethal Lunacy" ("Fighting Fire with Fire") Episode 10
"Gamblers and Gallantry" ("Fallen Angels") Episode 11
"The Disorder Diaries" ("Learning from the Past") Episode 12
"Misguided Miscreants" Parts One & Two ("Dark Night's Road") Episode 13-14
"Bogus Booty" ("Through and Through") Episode 15
"Lullabies of the Lost" Verses One & Two ("Idling One's Life Away") Episode 16-17
"War of the Words" ("Pen in One Hand, Sword in the Other") Episode 18
"Unholy Union" ("Karma and Retribution") Episode 19
"Elegy of Entrapment" Verses One & Two ("Generous Elegy") Episode 20-21
"Cosmic Collisions" ("Anger Shot Toward Heaven") Episode 22
"Baseball Blues" ("Heart and Soul into the Ball") Episode 23
"Evanescent Encounter" Parts One - Three ("Circle of Transmigration") Episode 24-26
Description of Samurai Champloo - Complete Box Set
Shinichiro Watanabe's film noir-ish sci-fi adventure Cowboy Bebop set a new standard for cool in anime in 1998, and Samurai Champloo, an edgy mix of Edo-era martial arts and hip-hop irreverence, is a worthy follow-up. A string of coincidences brings together three misfits in a two-bit tea house: Mugen, a rebellious vagabond; Jin, a taciturn ronin; and Fuu, a nutty waitress. The sardonic Mugen lacks the polish that distinguishes a classic martial artist--he uses break dance spins and flips against his foes. Jin moves with a polish that approaches iciness: When he unsheathes his sword, he becomes a lethal work of art in motion. Fuu forces Jin and Mugen to help her find a mysterious samurai "who smells of sun flowers." As the ill-assorted trio wanders towards Nagasaki, Watanabe treats the audiences to a string of outrageous, anachronistic adventures. In Episode 18, Mugen belatedly learns to read at a smackdown elementary school, while Jin tries to settle the rivalry between the heirs to the dojo of his former sensei. The seemingly unrelated storylines collide in a no-holds-barred graffiti contest featuring Tokugawa rap lyrics, ink-brush tagging, Hiroshima homeboys, and a caricature of Andy Warhol. But Watanabe reveals the hidden significance of these nutty interludes when he brings his picaresque adventure-comedy to a close. Like Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo leaves the viewer wanting more. (Rated 16 and older: violence, violence against women, profanity, brief nudity, sexual situations, alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles SolomonBestsellers in DVD
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