Memory Monday: Week 7

Welcome back to Week 7 of Memory Monday, my weekly segment where I select an anime that has completed airing and write about it. The selected anime might be one that has been overlooked, critically acclaimed, or nostalgic. My aim is to give a different perspective on the show to people who have already seen it as well as give motivation to watch it for people who have yet to do so themselves.

This week's pick is Samurai Champloo.

There will be no spoilers in this week's post.

No spoilers, no problem.

 Number of Seasons: 1


Number of Episodes: 26


Run Time: 24 minutes per episode


Personal Rating: 9/10


You can watch Samurai Champloo on Funimation here (I personally would recommend the dub but the sub is good as well)

Since I've been highlighting a lot of fights from Samurai Champloo, I decided to do this week's Memory Monday on it. I used to watch Samurai Champloo on late night television When I first watched Samurai Champloo, I fell asleep. The next week, I tried to watch it again, and I fell asleep. Because of this I developed an incredibly negative attitude towards the show, deciding that it was boring and a bad anime. I thought that for a show called Samurai Champloo, there aren't really that many fights. Granted, I was young and there is a lot of talking at times, but boy was I so wrong. I gave it another shot when I was older and I found out just how wrong I was. I rediscovered just how amazing it was and why so many of my friends praised the series. So perhaps it was just because I was too young to appreciate it but, now, I see it as one of the best anime I have ever seen.


What It's About:
Samura Champloo takes place in the Edo period of Japan and starts off with a girl named Fuu who is working at a restaurant. There are some rowdy customers who happen to be bodyguards of the governor's son as well as the governor's son himself. They're acting like they own everything and are disrespecting everyone because they can hide behind the fact that they are important people. Just when things are starting to go south, a guy named Mugen walks in and asks to be served but he has no money so instead he asks to be paid with food for getting rid of the guys causing trouble. Fuu refuses and then spills tea on the governor's son putting her in a bad situation where she is almost forced to part with her fingers but then she agrees to Mugen's conditions and he defeats them all in a blink of an eye. The governor's son threatens Mugen by telling him his dad has 3 "Yagyuu badasses" guarding him so he wouldn't stay quiet. Mugen gets intrigued and tells him to bring them to the restaurant. Soon after, a man walks in to the restaurant and after noticing the situation begins to leave until Mugen stops him. He thinks that he's one of the badasses and attacks him. They eventually are arrested and set for execution, but Fuu busts them out under the condition that they help her look for the samurai who smells of sunflowers and thus their journey begins.

Comedy and Action: The Best of Both Worlds
Samurai Champloo is one of the anime where it has a great balance between comedy and action. When you're not laughing at something funny that just happened, you'll be gawking at the fighting going on or engrossed in the story. Samurai Champloo is able to make it so even though at its core it is an action anime, it is able to make the more character oriented parts (with and without the comedy) feel equally as important and interesting as the fighting. It's very impressive to me that an anime can balance story and action so well especially over an extended period of time (26 episodes). While there are certainly anime out there that do the same thing as Samurai Champloo (FMA to name one), Samurai Champloo is one of the anime that stand out as a great balance between the two. Thinking back on it, I don't feel as if any side was emphasized more than the other. Samurai Champloo is probably one of the least misleading when it comes to genres because it really is both Comedy and Action where neither are greater than the other.

A Journey to Remember
Samurai Champloo had a very basic story where the 3 main characters were looking for the samurai who smelled like sunflowers but everything that happened in between that was nothing short of amazing. There were one episode arcs that were unique and hilarious and then more lengthy arcs that were story driven and just equally as amazing. No matter what happened in the episode, it was always entertaining and impressive. I would chalk it up to the characters having great chemistry which I believe is indeed one of the biggest factors, but the stories that were told in the anime were equally as impactful and memorable.



Samurai Hip Hop
One of the more unique factors about Samurai Champloo is the occasional mix of hip hop and punk themes. For instance, Mugen's sword fighting style is incredibly unorthodox and he occasionally uses moves that make it look like he's break dancing. The music used in Samurai Champloo are also reflective of this. The music is very much influenced by Hip Hop and sometimes you even see random characters beat boxing, pretending they're carrying around boom boxes, etc. There's even an entire episode about tagging (using graffiti to sign your name or mark on something) where they used paint brushes instead of spray cans since those don't exist in the edo period. The mixture of modern and the past is always something that is exciting and Samurai Champloo makes it really work.

Characters You Can Care About
If you watch Samurai Champloo, chances are you'll never forget about the 3 main characters, Jin, Fuu, and Mugen. Each are incredibly unique and interesting by themselves but together, they are just great. It goes without saying, but they are one of the main reasons why Samurai Champloo is so great. There's some very amazing dialogue along with deep character stories that makes you feel for the characters and grow more attached to them. Though they're all misfits, they're loveable misfits and that's a part of they're allure. 

Picture Perfect
Samurai Champloo had a lot going for it but one of the biggest things was its animation. It's rare even nowadays to see such fluid, lively animation. There are many signs to tell when an animation studio is cutting corners either due to inexperience or time constraints (I plan on posting about this in the near future) and none of those are in this anime. For this, we can all thank Manglobe and the talents of Nakazawa Kazuto. In my opinion, Samurai Champloo was their best animated work. The style that it was animated in fit perfectly with the characters often producing many memorable scenes as well as allowing for some very unique episodes.

Should You Watch It?
Yes.
I've watched Samurai Champloo at least twice so far and I could definitely watch it again, that's just how good it is. I would recommend this to anyone as long as you're not too young because you might get bored somehow like I did (I still don't understand how I got bored while watching it). Samurai Champloo might not have been on your radar before, but hopefully now it will be.