Afro Samurai

His name is Afro.  As a child, his father, the #1 warrior in the land, was killed by a multiarmed gunman named Justice, the #2 warrior.  Now Justice sits at the top of the mountain and can only be challenged by he who bears the #2 headband.  After years of training, Afro has come into possession of that headband and how his path to payback is set.  Legions will challenge, his past will haunt him, but nothing will deter this man from his end goal: kill the man who killed his father.  God help whoever crosses the path of this famous killer of killers, the Afro Samurai.

Afro Samurai is the kind of collaboration I wish we’d see more often in Anime.  You’ve not only got Studio Gonzo at the helm (producing probably their best looking work to date…seriously EVERY Gonzo show should look this good) but you’ve also got the blessing and personal involvement of one of the most bad ass human beings on the planet: SAMUEL L JACKSON!!!  Add in a hip hop and rap infused score from The RZA of the Wu Tang Clan and you’ve got a cross cultural work of art that almost seamlessly blends 70’s Blaxploitation and Spaghetti Westerns with the ultra violent action of 90’s Anime.  It isn’t perfect but it’s still a helluva good time.

On the surface, Afro Samurai is a straight up Action Anime and it hardly presents itself as otherwise.  Sure there’s plenty of reflective flashbacks and continuous questioning of what Afro’s lost in his quest for revenge.  But that takes up about 20% of this five episode Anime’s runtime.  Every other moment is a shinning sword being peeled from its scabbard followed by a limb being hacked off and gallons and gallons of blood spewing. And they are good fights too.  There’s a speed and polish to Gonzo’s work on this title.  There’s no terrible 2D/3D fusion of art styles here that plagues a lot of their earlier TV titles like Hellsing or the first season of Full Metal Panic.  Afro Samurai looks and feels more like an HD version of Ninja Scroll from the 90s.  Never do characters lose proportion or go all raggedy in the middle of a fight.  Every battle is carefully and elegantly choreographed, from personal duels to Afro simply cutting a guy in half because he cant stand to hear boasting.

Having Jackson in the lead role is a huge draw for Afro Samurai.  The man exudes cool in every movie he’s in (even in bad movies he’s usually the highlight).  What’s funny is that as the titular hero, Jackson is very restrained and calm, even when the situation goes bonkers.  Afro is the old school lone gunman from the West, a man of few words and only one purpose: Kill the man who killed his father.  Simple.  While Afro has barely a paragraph of dialogue, his imaginary companion, Ninja Ninja brings all of the personality and hilarity Samuel L. Jackson can bring to any role.  It’s a win/win for the guy: being the quiet lone bad ass while also being the wise cracking voice of reason/comic relief.  While he isn’t in the Anime as much as he should have been, Ron Pearlman brings his ever present A-Game to the Anime’s main villain, Justice.  Like Jackson, Pearlman can say anything and it can sound so cool (“War never changes” anyone?)  it makes his brief screentime all the more criminal.  In a chance to see these two titans of movie making in a scene together, even if it’s an Anime, the moment deserved to be more than a simple final note.

Voice acting, gorgeous visuals and inspirational material aside, Afro Samurai isn’t without its faults and there are a few.  As I said, this Anime is all about the action first and anything else second.  This sadly means that character development is sidelined almost entirely.  Even in the flashbacks, Afro is single minded and focused.  He is the same as a kid as he is as an adult: cold, ruthless and determined to get revenge.  He rarely shows any other emotion and if it happens, he just looks as he always does throughout the while story: keeping the same calm yet pissed off look on his face.  In fact every character kind of remains the same from beginning to end: Afro’s the Revenge Seeker, Ninja Ninja is the cowardly voice of Afro’s conscience, Justice wants to rule the world and Jiro is the equally P’Od revenge seeker who wants Afro dead.  No one really goes through an arc.  Their courses are set and there’s no deviation.  Same is said for the pacing of the Anime. The action is all great but some of the fights tend to drag a bit, as do the flashbacks.  The 5 episode epic could have been trimmed down to 4 and a lot of material could have been fused together (even the flashbacks could have been their own combined episode really).  You feel the near two hour runtime and by the time you’re through Afro’s emotion filled duel with his oldest friend…you get to his final clash with Justice and it just feels so…underwhelming.  Justice should have been more of a presence than the Empty Seven Clan who want Afro dead because…reasons?  Basically, story is kind of out the window.  This Anime knows what it is and it will do it’s best to entertain through it’s main quality alone…in which it does mostly succeed.

Afro Samurai, for all its faults, is a bloody great thrill ride that delivers what it promises: non stop action from beginning to end that’s well crafted, well executed, and oozing with coolness.  Samuel L. Jackson’s turn as the quiet but not to be F’d with titular samurai is a role he was born to play.  Studio Gonzo is at its best with well done fight scenes and gorgeous imagery.  And The RZA delivers an excellent score very much in the vein of Samurai Champloo to great effect.  Collaboration like this with US actors and Anime filmmakers should happen more often.  When great minds from across the globe come together, you get something excellent and thrilling.  And Afro Samurai is both of those in spades.  Well done Gonzo and Samuel L. Jackson.

8/10

Be sure to check back Friday for my review of the follow up movie, Afro Samurai: Resurrection, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.  See ya around fellow Samurai.