The end is in sight as Mugen, Jin and Fuu arrive in
Nagasaki. The Sunflower Samurai is close
but so are a cadre of assassins looking to collect not just his head but the
heads of the traveling trio as well.
Mugen, Jin and Fuu confront their sorted histories one more time,
pushing themselves to the limit to see their long journey through. And even if they survive the onslaught,
there’s still the matter of Mugen and Jin’s unfinished business? Will this story only end if one of them dies
at the hands of the other?
Now that I’ve watched the finale of Samurai Champloo,
I’ve come to realize that one of it’s biggest problems isnt the adventure as a
whole, though some stories were certainly better than others.
No, it’s that with all the lack of build up,
lead in, and Fuu being generally a pain in the ass not revealing what she knew
about him, there was no way the Mystery of the Sunflower Samurai was ever going
to get an adequate conclusion.
And while
there’s still plenty to love about the final five episodes, a lot of that
positivity falls not on the completion of the “main story”, but rather
everything else that’s worked for Samurai Champloo across all 26 episodes: the
action, the music, the animation, the humor and Mugen being Mugen.
We got two last stand alone adventures for the traveling
trio before their final destination.
Of
the two, one was knocked right out of the park (no pun intended), while the
other was…weird.
For a show that seems
so grounded despite the blending of hip hop culture and feudal Japan, an
episode about actual Zombies seems out of place.
At first I thought they’d chock this up to
another drug addled psychedelic romp like with the Ninja Priest Weed way back
when.
But nope, these were undead souls
at the mercy of another one totally deluded in his quest for something he
wouldn’t shut up about and…like I said it was weird.
Far less weird was the Baseball episode.
To see Mugen, Jin and Fuu try their hand at
the foreign sport was a lot of fun, backed by an equally fun guest character
Kagemaru providing some funny Ninja Baseball tactics.
Of course, Mugen steals the show blunt
forcing his way to victory cause if you didn’t know by now: don’t tell him what
he can and cant win, Mugen will make you regret it.
Yeah it might easily be one of the best
episodes of the series and a good last stand alone fun one before things got
serious again for the finale.
Side note: I can see why this episode, along with many,
is a major inspiration for a similar event in The Boondocks.
Creator Aaron McGruder has often cited
Samurai Champloo as a major inspiration for his landmark comic and
cartoon.
So yeah of course Huey would
channel a bit of Mugen in his kickball match when pushed too far, this would be
a good double feature for anyone interested.
Alright, let’s get to the triple sized season finale. While
we learned the identity of the Sunflower Samurai a couple episodes ago: again
shock to no one it’s Fuu’s long lost dad, we only had one episode of backstory
for Seizo Kasumi until now and even fewer hints about the bigger role that led
to his current state of affairs with the Shogunate.
This should have been established way before
and built up in far better detail rather than throwing everything at the viewer
last minute like it suddenly forgot about the reason why Mugen, Jin and Fuu
were on this quest in the first place.
Likewise, Mugen and Jin’s final opponents kind of come out of nowhere.
You can argue we had more clues as to Jin’s
final foe based on the cryptic details about why he had to kill his
Master.
But Mugen, was anyone really
paying attention to the flashback when he and Mukuro hijacked that ship?
It feels so forced and makes me wish that Sara
had survived her battle with Mugen only to be his final opponent, especially
considering she was the closest Mugen had to a true love interest, well her and
that sexy Kunoichi Yatsuha from the fake gold episode.
Basically, the final conflict feels like
forced catch up just to give everyone something to take on in the final stretch.
That said, Evanescent Encounter doesn’t pull any punches
when it comes to the challenge presented to our three leads.
Before this quartet of insane swordsman the
only real threat to Mugen and Jin was Sara.
Here, Kariya can handle both Mugen AND Jin simultaneously while the
unpredictable insanity of the brother Mugen wronged way back when led my boy to
taking some serious battle damage.
Much
of me felt there was no way Mugen, Jin and Fuu were going to bite it before the
end credits but the show really wanted me to believe it, like a lot.
Even poor Fuu took some damage and no matter
how much I don’t like her character, I wanted Mugen to kill Umanosuke.
Shocking no one, the action was excellent,
fast paced, sharp and brutal, perfect for a final boss run.
It was so awesome to see Mugen and Jin employ
their smarts to defeat their opponents like Mugen utilizing his up close break
dancing to break Umanosuke’s defense and Jin allowing Kariya to strike him just
to get close enough for a killing blow.
These two really are amazing warriors and the final resolution to their
own unresolved promise was perfect too, definitely more so than anything
regarding Fuu’s own story.
All of this again culminates in an ending that feels
appropriate and yet, a bit lacking.
Sure
I’m glad Mugen and Jin won their most difficult battles of the entire series
and yet…I don’t know.
Maybe it’s because
Fuu and her Sunflower Samurai pestering annoyed the hell out of me so much
there’s no way it would ever be resolved in a proper manner.
Maybe it’s because a lot of the major
conflicts were brewing off screen and thrown into the mix almost last
minute.
But maybe, just maybe, I want
the journey to continue without Fuu and her Sunflower Samurai baggage.
Yeah, seeing Mugen and Jin part ways as
friends feels more a reward than anything but I could use more episodes of just
the two of them getting into adventures and shenanigans much like the best
episodes of Champloo itself.
As it is,
much like Cowboy Bebop, this is it for the traveling trio and it’s just…ok.
Which I guess can lead into Final Thoughts cause that
sums up Samurai Champloo as a whole: It was ok.
Don’t get me wrong, following up a masterpiece like Cowboy Bebop isnt
easy.
Shinichiro Watanabe doesn’t feel
like he’s trying to top himself in that regard though.
It’s clear he’s having a blast blending
influences from two time periods together into an all around fun action adventure
with sick animation, great action and a soundtrack that often enhanced if not
totally immersed you in the overall experience more than any actual
storytelling.
No Samurai Champloo’s
biggest flaw isnt in it’s presentation or it’s grand sense of fun.
It’s the main plotline and one of the three
main characters.
By the time we get to
the Sunflower Samurai, I really didn’t care how it turned out with him and Fuu
because we didn’t ever learn much about the guy and I never liked Fuu in the
first place.
When it came to Mugen and
Jin, they could more than carry their own series.
Jin’s soft spoken bad assery complimented
Mugen’s wild and unpredictable nature to great effect.
Had the show been about these two rivals
roaming the countryside, getting into adventures together and slowly coming to
earn their respect, it would have been so much better.
Plus with Mugen you can never go wrong with
Steve Blum being an unfiltered wild man who can still dole out the facts of
life like he’s still Tom from Toonami.
Still, I can see why people do love this show and why The Boondocks
takes so much inspiration from it from the action to character designs to the
music.
Is it as perfect as Bebop,
no.
On it’s own, Samurai Champloo is a
fine and mostly fun adventure with the perfect traveling mix for any journey.
So long as you ready yourself for the
possible disappointment of the final outcome of the mainline quest, the journey
to get there isn’t bad at all.
Samurai Champloo reaches the end of it’s journey with a
7/10.
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