Samurai Champloo: Why Is It So Good?

   In the year 2005, the anime community had one of their gems; Samurai Champloo come out. Its well written and set in an extremely lively version of old school (Edo) japan. Its storyline is simple, two extremely skilled yet very different swordsmen Mugen and Jin have fate bring them across a young outspoken lady Fuu who helps them out of a tough spot and insist on them accompany her to find the very vaguely named “samurai who smells of sunflowers”. This serves as the catalyst that carries us on a well voiced, animated, and extremely stylistic adventure across japan towards the course of its 20 plus episode run. Here are some of the reasons I think Samurai Champloo is so enjoyable

  1. TONE AND SETTING:

One of the reasons it works so well is that even with its fictional story, its grounded in reality without being overly dramatic or serious. Most films, shows and games based off old eras like this usually take themselves super serious and in the process turn out being bland but, Samurai Champloo is so engaging, vibrant and fun to watch. This shouldn’t make you think this show lacks great dramatic moments because it truly doesn’t and trust me, when they come on, they are so well executed and are great to see. 

  2. TEAM DYNAMIC:

The characters are so likeable and all have their  quirks. On paper, the three travelers shouldn’t work together but their relationship is so fun to watch and I think sometimes it makes the viewers feel like we’re out there travelling with them. This adds an extra layer of enjoyment to the series because you love how dumb Mugen can be, how extremely calm Jin and how Fuu calls them incompetent even though she wouldn’t last a week without their guidance and protection. 

  3. STYLISTIC CHOICES:

This is such a massive thing this anime does and does brilliantly. Each episode has different eye catchers and they all have this swagger to it. The blend of hip hop with edo japan is so good but more on that later. The scene transitions, character movement, use of colors, and the extremely well choreographed fights are a joy to watch and help solidify this anime as a classic.

  4. MUSIC:

The music is something that elevates Samurai Champloo from great to greater heights and when you find out that director of the series Shinichiro Watanabe (who also directed cowboy bebop) wanted to incorporate hip hop to his new series as he felt samurai and rappers were similar in the sense that samurai “..decided their fate with one sword” and rappers “opened the way to their future with one microphone”. His ideology clearly held weight because we see the series being a great blend of hip hop and edo japan. His idea was brought to fruition due to contributions from the late great producer and lo-fi beats pioneer Nujabes, fat jon, FORCE OF NATURE and many more all made great contributions to the general sound of the series with Nujabes producing the super chill opening theme “battle cry” with rap performance from japanese rapper Shing02.

  5. GREAT THEMES:

Even with such a simple premise, Samurai Champloo manages to dwell on so many great themes such as not focusing on past mistakes, destiny, love, friendship, family and even religion. It isn’t afraid to make bold statements from fear of ruining its overall calm and relaxing aesthetic. 

The name “Champloo” can be translated to mixed up and it perfectly summarizes the entire adventure as its a great mix of different things that keep moving as the story progresses. Overall, Samurai Champloo is the perfect blend of everything a good story needs and it isn’t in any way a stretch to call the one season series a perfect anime.