Zealots of Nerd Entertainment
Zealots of Nerd Entertainment
Samurai Champloo: A Simplistic Journey, Bittersweet Endings, and a Certified Hood Samurai Story
What makes "Samurai Champloo" stand the test of time, even 20 years after its debut? Join us as we celebrate this iconic anime, reflecting on how the series prioritizes the journey and character evolution over a complex plot! We’ll reminisce about the unforgettable adventures of Mugen, Jin, and Fuu, from gang wars to psychedelic escapades, and even a bizarre yet memorable baseball episode. With a soundtrack by the legendary Nujabes, discover how hip-hop seamlessly weaves through the narrative, enhancing the overall experience and making the anime a timeless masterpiece.
Ever wondered what makes the trio of Mugen, Jin, and Fuu so captivating? We dive into their unique dynamics, exploring how their reluctant cooperation morphs into an unexpected friendship. Comparisons with other beloved groups like Naruto's Team 7 and the characters from "Avatar: The Last Airbender" help highlight the trio's complementary strengths and weaknesses. Through poetic storytelling by Watanabe, also known for "Cowboy Bebop," we uncover the intricate relationships and pivotal moments that bond these characters together, creating a rich, immersive world.
What hidden gems does "Samurai Champloo" hold beyond its surface? We unearth the character intricacies, from Mugen's breakdancing-inspired swordplay to Jin's traditional battojutsu, emphasizing the realistic animation and martial arts authenticity! Delving into the historical Edo period backdrop, we reveal how this setting enriches the series. Finally, we reflect on the show's lasting impact, from its critical acclaim to its availability on major streaming platforms, and discuss how it tackles themes of personal growth, resilience, and the bittersweet nature of life's journey. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the series, this episode promises to deepen your appreciation for "Samurai Champloo"!
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- J.B.
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what's good, nerds? It's jet black extreme, and we are back at again with another episode of the zone podcast. Today's topic is samurai shampoos. Without further ado, let's go ahead and zone in on it. Uh, joining me today? We got kokigasu talus, gundam and playboy and gentlemen, I'm gonna be honest with y'all, it's been 20 years, 2004. That's when samurai shampoo, that's when we were, uh, exposed to it. It's been 20 years now. This uh retrospect, if you will.
Speaker 1:Going back into samurai shampoo, I realized something this is one of those Anime to where the anime is more about the journey than the destination. Because I'm going to be real with y'all, if y'all are tuning in To this anime for the plot, which is, who needs to find this samurai that smells like flowers, and she runs into these two guys, that guys that seem strong enough to help her out on her journey, and if you're looking for a plot, then what I would suggest is watch episode one, then watch the last three episodes, because that's all the plot you're going to get in this show. Everything else is pretty much a one-shot adventure, pretty much endearing us to the characters, which is not bad, because ultimately, this show is goaded for a reason, and let me tell you why now. First of all, it's a simplistic plot of the main trio searching for this man who smells of sunflowers, and it doesn't really kick into the last three episodes, like I said. But the point of Samurai Champloo is that of the journey and the friends that you make along the way. Mugen and Jean were wanderers with no purpose in the beginning, but by the end of helping Fu with her quest, the only take away from it was that they parted ways knowing that they don't feel alone anymore. Plus, sunflowers don't have a smell, so finding a man who smells of them seems pointless. But that's also part of the point being made in this series. For most of these episodes the trio is just getting to some hijinks, whether it's together or in a solo plot line.
Speaker 1:Now, the characters they are likable right out of the gate. You have this vagrant outlaw move in with his self-taught sword techniques that resembles break dancing. I also like how he had his um shoes, his little sandals, uh metal plated, so if someone were to attack him and he uh kind of catch it with his feet, he said like metal plates, like, oh you clever dick. I like that. We have the stoic ronin gene that serves as movement antithesis. And the thing about gene is uh, he, he, um. He is wandering around japan after being forced, uh, to kill his master and he gotta wear glasses to disguise himself. It's almost like, uh, some clark clint type shit to where, uh, you put on the glass and no one will suspect. You take off the glasses, like oh, I remember you now, like really, really okay, I got you.
Speaker 1:And then you have boo, who's the one who bring moogan and gene uh together to help her. She's this cheerful, spirited young woman, jack vultrase, uh tea waitress. But she's also like a wanderer doing odd jobs, trying to get by and together, you know, they just go on this journey to find this guy who turns out to be Boo's father, and she's like mad at him for abandoning her mother and her and, you know, leaving us in squaloralling all that stuff and can't say, uh, it was a pretty good show to where you don't really have to like it doesn't feel like you're doing homework when you're watching this show, like you can just pretty much enjoy for the most part, because, although the plot of samurai shampoo is simple, there's a bunch of themes that the series hit on like you have assassinations, you have gang and graffiti, wars, prostitution, the baseball episode, the psychedelic mushroom episode. There's plenty of moments in the show to where, like you, can just go back and re-watch. That's what I like about samurai shampoo. It definitely have replay value.
Speaker 1:And what also makes samurai shampoo highly regarded in the anime community is usually the fights, the comedic beats and the incorporation of hip-hop music. You know, like beatboxing and whatnot. But after diving back into the series, the best part about it is that you don't need no grandiose mission in life, that you can just create great memories with new friends, with the likelihood of never seeing or speaking to them again afterwards, not because of irreconcilable differences, but a matter of going down their own paths alone. That there's a significance to the insignificant. That's pretty much my general feel of samurai shampoo. Um, opening up to the panel, how y'all feeling about samurai shampoo?
Speaker 3:one word, one entire word. New jubilees yes, one entire word that's resting in power that? That speaks volumes. I swear to god if you did not listen to the soundtrack. This is where music became great.
Speaker 1:What do you mean like the Godfather Lopar?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes, y'all don't understand that music got me through tough times.
Speaker 1:Nah, listen Back in the golden age of Toonami, watching that shit late at night. And then sometimes you hear that opening intro going off and I'm like, oh, hell, yeah, let's go. And then the ending, oh the ending thing, something about. I don't know what you're saying, but you kind of hitting me in my spirit right now with this song, dog.
Speaker 3:Like legit. It's just like okay. Hey, the only other thing we got right now like outside of lo-fi, like legit. If you want to hit it on some real good hits and you're trying to listen to something close to it, just play a Persona soundtrack Like legit. That's why I don't understand this. Right here is what we call the GOAT. This is the GOAT. This is the GOAT. When it comes to anime this is it, this is entirely it. Anime this is it. This is entirely it, this is it like replay value is top notch.
Speaker 3:I will rewatch samurai shim plu all day.
Speaker 1:It doesn't get old to me and you know what's crazy, how, like we were just saying right before we started recording how I kind of wish Chuck was on for this because, as the maestro of the zone, you would think he would appreciate the music aspect of this anime. But he was like, oh well, I don't fuck with all that old anime, I'm like what?
Speaker 3:man, look, I ain't worried about him. I old anime, I'm like what man? Look, I ain't worried about him, I can't get too tired. I ain't got time for him. I don't really got time for him. He doesn't know greatness if it was dropped in front of him. So I'm not worried. I'm not worried.
Speaker 3:That's that Once again it's like You're in the corner for the rest of the night. You know. This is why I asked the question. You know, hey, you can't win A court case against me. I have to beat myself In order for you to even get one. So I digress Anyway.
Speaker 2:Not PTSD.
Speaker 3:Don't bring back the ptsd bro, anyway anyway I I digress, now I'm gonna pass it on because, legit, there's nothing that needs to be said. This is one of those animes that's like yo. Maybe it's just my age, maybe it's when I came up, but this this is one that kind of holds up to this day.
Speaker 1:After 20 years it still holds up.
Speaker 3:That part. So, yeah, anybody else want to go, y'all got it, alright.
Speaker 2:I guess first off Playboy, you got anything you want to say first, what's up.
Speaker 4:I'm going to be honest, I I'm gonna put it like this so I, I watched.
Speaker 4:I watched samurais champ blue, probably, uh, probably like last year and as I'm watching it, I'm not gonna lie to you, I didn't even want to be like biased, but but I was. I was very close to putting that shit top five. I'm not going to lie, I was real close. I don't even blame you, you feel me. I was real close to swapping something out and making a room for Champu, because it was.
Speaker 4:It's one of those like animes where, okay, so it's short and sweet, so it's not too long, and on top of that the characters, they're all different, so it's like you can, you can find one you can relate to in multiple different ways. And at the same time, I like how their personalities also fits in with their fighting styles. And I'm speaking on mugen and jen in a sense where, uh, for example, um, kind of like what you were talking about, uh, jet black when you were saying how mugugen has the metal blaze on his shoes. So somebody pointed out a long time ago in a post I saw where that signifies in the intro, like how he's breakdancing. In his background there's a rooster or a chicken.
Speaker 4:You know like talons on their feet type shit, so that kind of like goes in with how he's fighting at the same time. Yeah, then he's like in the intro. You feel me it's easy to like look at it. So in the intro he's just like sitting down in a standard uh, samurai pose and then he just like go into a lunge with a stripe, so that's kind of like how a fish moves, how they can be in a spot and then quickly swim away, type of shit. I didn't realize until somebody pointed out. So like, the anime is very beautiful.
Speaker 4:If you like look at it and like, as you say, don't watch it for the plot, but if you watch it and just like imagine yourself there and you're on this journey with them, it'll hit. I swear to god, it'll hit different. You actually have to like this is one of the animes you have to put yourself in. Like, yeah, I was there when they got damn, you feel me got into it. And you feel me 2v1? No, it ain't. No. 2v, no, not 2v1, but 2v20?.
Speaker 4:I think the first time we got, like when Foo Foo saved them, you feel me that kind of what. Now, I'm not gonna lie, the way things happened was kind of like they didn't even have to necessarily help her because based on their characters, you could tell all right, you saved me, but I'm on my own. I didn't ask you to save me. That's how I kind of thought this shit was gonna go. But the fact that both of them didn't even like each other but they was cool enough to want to help fool that whole shit was kind I liked it, man. I seen them being best friends at the end, but I also did want to see them fight and my money was on newton. I don't know about y'all, but I feel like it would have been high difficulty, but I feel like moving probably would have came out on top, just because that's my boy but I feel, uh, but listen, uh, I'm glad you brought that up because that reminded me of one point I forgot to mention.
Speaker 1:With these characters they fill each other's gaps, to where Mugen and his lack of thought and selflessness, selfishness, his lack of selflessness, excuse me, so he's like pretty much selfish. Just to clarify, jin has this adamant stance on structure and this preserved nature, to where he doesn't have much of a voice, um, at times. And then foo, she has this lack of direction and agency. So in a way it's like together they kind of like um, become this unlikely trio that balance each other out in a sense I guess they come together, become one.
Speaker 4:They become one basically, all like individually. They all have their little flaws, but when they come together they're the good kind of way to bad, aside from lugan and jen trying to fight all the time.
Speaker 1:But also I'll put it to y'all like this first of all, I might piss off some Naruto fans, but as far as a team, team 7 could never Because, like, think about it, the only reason why I say that is because for the most part, the team was separated between the Sasuke Retrieval arc and all the way up to the 4 Shinobi World War. So it was like they were pretty much split apart and it was all about Naruto saving Sasuke and Sakura kind of helping, blah, blah. But I just felt like and they're not really much of a team, like yeah, they went on missions and shit and they were like bonding and whatnot, but I didn't really get here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's all I'm saying is like at least oh no, I was just saying like I feel you on that, but that was just soundscape being weird man but I mean at one point samurai champ blue. It felt like they kind of split when they all went their own ways. You know, when they got mad at the first their first little uh, bumping heads, and then and then they went in different directions and they got into those hijinks and I'm like well, look like we're back together again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that shit was.
Speaker 4:Shit was crazy. I was like damn nah. Like first watching it, like I make a lot of assumptions. I'm like I try to see like my brain try to like basically makes its own foreshadow, try to assume what'll happen. You know what I'm saying. So part of me knew they'd come back, but then it was like maybe they might not. Was like maybe maybe they might not like, because, like I don't know, when I think about those times, it's like how how do you keep contact with somebody? You don't have phones but you don't have an address? Like you just really gonna go on the whim, I'm gonna just run into you whenever I fucking run into you. And that's how I thought I was like man, I'm boys gonna get lost and the food ain't gonna know where the fuck gonna go. Like that shit was just crazy to me. But I forgot how they got back together. But that's it. I like that anime man. That's just kind of like I'm gonna go back and watch it for sure.
Speaker 1:I feel that oh, I also like that analogy you made with the opening, because another analogy that I would like to throw out is how it kind of remind me of uh avatar the Airbender, the opening to where Mugen would represent fire, jean would represent water, boo would represent earth and air would be more like life itself. Now hear me out, with Mugen being fire, I mean, come on, that's kind of self-explanatory. Same thing with Jean being water Boo. The reason why I say earth is because she's supposed to be like this down-to-earth type of girl, so like, uh, you know, she's the kind of girl that you just like for some reason.
Speaker 4:Foundation of the group. She's the solid, like she's. She's the rock yeah for her it wouldn't be samurai shampoo exactly, thank you.
Speaker 1:So there you go um cook, you guys. Anything add on to all this?
Speaker 4:or a little bit. Did you finish with everything? You had to say yeah, yeah, I'm good I'm good, okay, okay, cool, all right cook you guys to take it away, all right.
Speaker 2:So yeah, obviously everyone loves samurai shampoo for every good reason. Multiple things into it and, if I just break down the analyticals, because y'all already started talking about the whole, the fact that you can analyze this show in every which kind of way, um, this entire show is one beautifully long epic poem, and I'm talking about, like you think about it, like I'm not even just talking about beowulf, I'm talking about like, on some real odys mess, like this is some real you can analyze it, analyze the words, analyze how things are going.
Speaker 2:Everything is every specific thing is important to the show. So, first off understanding too, is the fact that this, the concept for the show, was created by Watanabe, who was also known for Cowboy Bebop, and so obviously, if you really like Cowboy Bebop, you're going to like Samurai Champloo it's.
Speaker 2:And so, obviously, if you really like cowboy bebop, you're gonna like samurai shampoo. It's just, it's absolutely fantastic. Um, keeping in mind at one point, by the way, oh yeah, and keeping in mind during the time that, like, this show had to compete with several, uh, several other samurai shows that were coming out at the same time, we had samurai 7. That was out. Um, we had already, like, a couple years after that, we had afro samurai. And keep in mind, with all these other shows and samurai seven, afro samurai fantastic, obviously, but it's one of those ones that you like. You're not gonna say, oh, they're absolutely better than samurai shampoo, but you're not gonna say the samurai shampoo is absolutely better than them.
Speaker 1:Each of them have like hold on, hold on, hold on, wait a minute, wait a minute. You gotta throw some more in there.
Speaker 2:Like you got ronin war, he's got ronin but you see what I'm saying, like you have all these other fantastic shows and each of them stand great in their own regard for their main thing, and it's like each of them brings something fantastic, fresh and beautiful to the table and to itself. So it's like samurai shampoo. First off, understanding that our main characters are the title of the show. So you know, samurai being gene, and even though, yeah, mugen is also technically a samurai, he's really just a swordsman, he's not trained per se, he's not like professional samurai, exactly, but so for him, it's the Champloo part. For some people, if you don't know, champloo is actually an Okinawa phrase, and what it actually? Well, originally it actually means referring to food, which you know, we already made the whole talk about the broth and everything. You know, we already made the whole talk about the broth and everything. But the other thing of what that word means is improv, made up, coming up with something on the spot, which is literally Mugen.
Speaker 2:No matter what, when Mugen and Jin fight, the reason that they're on par with each other is the fact that Jin is an absolute, pristine master of Bato Jutsu, and I will break down more so Bato Jju soon, when we actually start to review, ronnie kenshin, but pretty much is the main basis of all samurai training styles. It is the sheathing, unsheathing of the sword. It is the basic strikes that you do when you're starting off a sword play, before you start remixing it up and creating your own different style. This is just the main basis of it. You perfect the basis to the point that this is just the main basis of it. You perfect the basis to the point that, no matter how much people kind of shift it up or change it up, you know what it's based on and you can always find an opening.
Speaker 2:We talked about this one also when we had reviewed Imminence and Shadow, because that was one of the biggest things about Shadow was the fact that he was so fantastic in his basic knowledge. He didn't fancy things up. He perfected his basics of everything to the point where it's like, no matter what you could try to come up with, these fancy sword strikes, these fancy extra attack strikes, and he could see through it because he could break it down to the mere base minimum of what started that, and so he was able to counteract every single point, because everything starts into those bases, and that's what Jim is so perfect at, is that he's near perfected his bases on how things go.
Speaker 1:But it has, I want to say. Can I just add on to how the animation director, kazuto Nakazawa, was having trouble getting a feel for the characters. So, with Mugen's fighting style, they were using gymnastic footage as a reference, alongside cooperating breakdancing moves, as I mentioned before.
Speaker 2:And for.
Speaker 1:Gene. They ignored all the typical conventions of sword fighting and kept his style inconsistent throughout the series, basing the reactions and tactics on combat sports. So yeah, he was kind of confused in his own team doing that, but that's just a thing. That's what makes this show stand out, to where it breaks the norm from beginning to end. The whole point of the anime. The approach to the animation was despite that. It didn't have an overarching plan.
Speaker 2:It was about the lead characters having this non-conformist personality exactly and so, and you get that opportunity of being able to build those characters and you can build that flow, like what playboy said when you like, you put yourself into the show. You literally can put yourself into the show, cause everything feels realistic, it feels like you're really there, it feels like something that's even possible, every single strike. It doesn't feel like, oh, this is an overlap, over-dramatized fantasy, like when they made the um, when they made the uh, the black samurai and um anime on Netflix, when they was talking about him, um, they wanted this was, this is kind of what people was hoping for. They was like we want something that's more realistic. Instead, we got ultra fantasy, magic off the wall, attacks and types things, and they were just like no, stick to something that there was a lot of people was hoping for, something more realistic, and that's what the best parts of samurai shampoo is that it is realistic.
Speaker 2:Um, honestly, this is also one of the things that this inspiration is, one of the things that actually helps out for other shows, even like Avatar. It points out those things, too, where you find out, every single bending style is based on an actual martial art style. There is no frame, there is no episode that you will watch that doesn't show that martial art style, and you can see that Every single time into it. And it's the same thing for Samurai Champloo. In fact, every episode the animation team did fantastic onto it To where it's like it feels beautiful. It feels like it's a gorgeous thing to watch, and you just keep watching it over and over again.
Speaker 1:And you know what I also like how they incorporate different weapons, not just like usual swords. They were and over again. And you know what I also like how they incorporate different weapons like not just like usual swords or whatnot. They were like experimenting with different weapons, because keep in mind that samurai shampoo took place during the edo period, also known as the tokugawa period, which happened right after the sengoku period, and that's when your boy, um fucking um, nobu nanda, was coming up with guns and shit yep, so we had that.
Speaker 2:We had chains and sickles, so we get a chance to really showcase that kunai with chain bro.
Speaker 2:Yes, and because that's also one of the biggest things too, is that when you watch a lot of other um anime that has like ninja tools or has like samurai tools or other like fighting weapons, anytime you see them they're always like, oh, these things pale in comparison to the samurai sword type thing, this is the ultimate peak, and it's like no, that's not always the case. It's not the sword, that's the peak. It is the person behind the blade. It doesn't matter what weapon it is. If the person is a true master, knows what they're doing, they can counteract anything you can see that in the show hold on talos.
Speaker 1:Didn't we just talk about this Kind of sort of in the Dungeon review, to where I was saying how Marcelle was saying that Magic has no morality? In other words, just like with magic, it depends on the intent of the user. So any weapon or any Tool that you have in your hands Can be effective In a sense where, okay, it may be To help people or Maybe to harm people, but it all depends on how the user wields it. Correct, Absolutely correct yeah that's all I'm going to say Gotcha.
Speaker 2:One of the other things that I really want to highlight is the biggest star of the show for me is Mugen's sword that incorporates a mix of a Sai and a samurai sword as well.
Speaker 1:I wanted to mention that too. How it did look like that To where. From the drip, to the weapons, to the fucking shoes, everything about Mugen just screams unconventional, and that's what I like about him.
Speaker 2:Exactly. But you know the purpose of the Sai. Like if you people who really are deep into Ninja Turtles, the Sai is known as a sword blocker and a sword breaker. Like that is the main thing about it and that's actually the reason why even in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, there's a reason that Ralph has the Sai weapon, while Leo has the. Well, I'm going to put his swords, because it changes multiple times. Sometimes he has a short, sometimes you actually see him with a Kodachi and a samurai sword, sometimes you see him with a ninja sword, which a ninja sword is really just a katana that's been cut shorter, but it's still pretty much the same. So it's not a Kodachi, but at the same time, whatever it changes a lot. But there's a reason that leo has the swords and raf has the size, and it's one of those ones and the fact that it's like, no matter what, leo and sy are always supposed to check each other per se. Raf, even though there's only one iteration where he's actually a team leader. There is one series that he is a team leader, but in every other one he's not.
Speaker 2:But it's still that moment of why it is that he's always counteracting leo all the time and why his blade purpose purposely fits that and that's one of the things that we have with mugen. He uses that for the same thing is the fact that that he uses the side specifically for that purpose of what it's for is to help catch and hold a blade and to help snap it as well too. It takes advantage of the weakest parts of the blade, which is the sides, and be able to snap it off, and for most samurai they're usually trained like unless you like, jen jen can. He can fight with the sword or he can fight with his sheath. So even if you break his sword, he can still whoop your ass with the sheath too. It doesn't make a difference.
Speaker 2:But, um, I'd like, as you see for the series, most other samurai that you want, they wind up facing off against, or most other warriors they face off against. Once mugen breaks their sword, they're just gone. There's nothing they can do about that, because their sword is their extension. There is that all that they're used to. They can't really fight with their hands and they can't fight with a short sword like that. Once their sword breaks, they've lost the fight. He just takes full advantage of it, so it winds up being the perfect weapon for him.
Speaker 2:And then, on top of that is the fact that, like, mugen and jen don't get along like as far as them fighting all the time is specifically because the fact that jen is so trained specifically and he hates the thought of the fact that he could wind up losing to mugen or that he actually really can't get a one-up on him because, no matter what, mugen is so unpredictable that he can't he can't get a track onto him. He's like every time I think he's about to do this attack, I'm finding myself only guarding, I'm finding myself reacting instead of prepping ahead for what is supposed to be there. And then mugen is just like I don't care, I just react to whatever attack comes in, I'm ready onto it, literally. And this is one thing to it.
Speaker 1:They did call him monkey yeah, that's what I was gonna say. That's like a monkey fighting with a dog.
Speaker 2:Yeah and so it's like, okay, I guess, but yeah, no, for real, is that um and Mugen. He fight, he's so unconventional, he fights with a foot for samurai. Understand? That is the most disrespectful thing. Is the person, the person's bottom of they shoot's, bottom of their shoe, the bottom of their claw to your face, well, even not even if you kick them, but just seeing it, if they see the bottom of your shoe or you throw a shoe at them, is considered ultimate disrespect. So his fighting style is literally I shame you from beginning to end. I will kick you in the face as many times as I want to before I slice your head off.
Speaker 2:But for reals, this show it is so many points to dive into as you can tell. You can break down this show all through it. I'm not even really talking too much about Fu. Fu's character is you would assume her to be the damsel in distress, but you don't also know it's not so much that. She is the person that holds the group together, because if she wasn't there, mugen and Fu would just be at each other's throats. She's the one who's always stopping the fights. She's the one that's helping keep things move along, even though they're there to like they're trying to help her out and reluctantly at that, they did not want to help her. But they always find themselves helping her as they're just trying to do their thing.
Speaker 1:So it's like, I guess, and in the end it helped them both out to find themselves and I also add in that I like that little quirk that she has, where she had this cute little pink short sword with dice inside of it. It's like it fell out and they see what she rolled and I guess it's like either good luck or bad luck type shit.
Speaker 2:I didn't really get that at first, like I'm kind of forgetting, but yeah, I thought that was kind of a cute bitch and the fact that it was pink, so I thought it was like cute for her now also one of the things about it is, too, is the fact that, no matter what, if you look this show up on Google, you will see nothing but praise, praise, praise after praise after praise onto this, because one of the biggest things like like um, like you said jb as well too you don't watch the story for the plot.
Speaker 2:Like when you first start the anime, you're like okay, so this is the plot, the story, let's see what happens and then, as you're journeying into it, it's not that you lose the plot, it's just the fact that you realize this is about the journey.
Speaker 2:Like you can, I've read multiple different like people talk about the show and that's the general consensus that everyone has is exactly what you said, jb. This show is not about the plot itself. It's not about the end destination, it's about the journey, getting there, everything that happens there. They go through multiple different things and some stuff does not get resolved that one episode. This is one of those, like other shows, where it's like okay, this is the plot for this episode and it resolves at the end of the episode. Some plot devices may not resolve until two to three episodes later and it's like and even then some stuff is not necessarily resolved. It's one of those necessary evils of the world that you just like I can't fix it, but I'm gonna have to move on, to keep moving forward with what it is I got to do, and it's like there's so much into it.
Speaker 1:That's just the thing it's like it gives us so much realism to where it's like. Sometimes the answers don't come easily. Sometimes you have to tread the shades of gray. Sometimes there's just going to be bittersweet endings to things. It's like the very end of it's go their separate ways and you're thinking like, oh well, they're gonna um link up again. I'm like, maybe, maybe not, but that's trying to think.
Speaker 1:That's kind of how it is in real life where, like, say, for instance, with us, where all my friends like listen, I got a lot of friends, like a lot of friends, but I'm not expecting them to hit me up every day or once a week or whatnot, because they got shit to do and I got shit to do. So, like I still got love for them. I'm hoping they still got love for me. But it's kind of understandable to where sometimes we just not gonna keep up with each other like that on a regular basis. This is not the high school days. We can't just uh hang out every fucking day or uh hit each other up like we got nothing else to do. So you know, sometimes we gotta all stand up this and do what we gotta do, even if it means that, uh, it's gonna be a while before we even talk to each other, but hey man, the love's still there.
Speaker 2:Just you know, that's kind of how it is exactly, and the thing about it is as far as the ending to this show is that there's two anime that I really love the ending for, because it's not like oh, this is an absolutely satisfying ending. No, it's an ending that's supposed to leave you like, okay, I can accept it. It's not exactly what I want, but I understand that. That's just kind of like how life goes. So it's this anime and the other anime is Escriit or Escriital.
Speaker 1:Oh, I want to review that one too.
Speaker 2:Man, I fucking love that show. Escriit was actually the first anime that I ever owned as on DVD. It was the first anime I ever gone on DVD. But, um, I know Samurai Champloo is also just.
Speaker 2:You will see nothing but praises onto this show, literally internet movie database. It has an 8.5 out of 10. So many people who, if they um, may not give it a perfect rating. There's nobody that I've seen so far that gives it a one-star rating or a two-star rating. It's generally the lowest you'll see is a three and that's mostly because some people was hoping for it to stay with the plot device but still enjoyed the journey nonetheless. And as some people understood, the point of the show is not for the plot but for the journey. Crunchyroll. It has a 4.9 out of 5. Honestly, you can just go ahead and give it that damn, that damn 1. They tripping like a motherfucker.
Speaker 2:My anime list is rated as an 8.5, pretty much for the same reason on internet movie database. Even on internet movie database, it's literally marked as one of the best anime of all time. That is an exact line quote from the actual website itself. Is that this as one of the best anime of all time? That is an exact line. Quote from the actual website itself is that this is marked as one of the best anime of all time and, like you said early in the beginning, we are 20 years later and it still holds that Like that has not dropped at all whatsoever. It is still an absolutely fantastic show and if you're having trouble watching, you can go watch it on Crunchyroll or if you already have Disney+. Since Disney has decided to incorporate anime Disney+, went ahead and picked it up and put it on there. I would not necessarily recommend saying let your kids watch it, but you can definitely still watch it.
Speaker 1:I mean, do you want to see an episode where Mogan's uh main motivation is to uh shack up with this one woman but turns out that, uh, she already had a man and pretty much she was using him to help on her get her man uh out of trouble? And then, as soon as moving, it was like all right, I helped you out, so, uh, you're gonna run those cheeks. And then next, you know, she knocks them out like yeah, no, but hey, thank you for helping that part.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I did find the other anime was called um yasuke, I couldn't remember, but I remember oh yeah, but um, but yeah, like this is, this is what people wanted yasuke to be. They was like this was actually. A lot of people really was like if they kept it more realistic and just kept it like the storyline wasn't bad, but just it was so overshadowed by over the top fantasy magic that didn't need to be there. If they kept it more of a realistic fighting, a realistic just similar to as it was with samurai shanploo, yasuke would have been fantastic. But I mean realistically, there is no copy to samurai shampoos.
Speaker 2:Like I said, even the other anime that we listed ronin kenshin, um samurai 7, afro samurai all of them have their own. They bring something they're of their own to the table. As far as like different samurai periods and it's just like, but this one is is one of those ones that you can't stop rewatching it, like. I have gone back and rewatched Samurai Champloo, I think, at least 15 times. I've watched it with my brothers, at least like 12.
Speaker 1:Like I know, I mentioned, like the baseball episode, the mushroom episode, to where they were like tripping balls and shit. But there was one episode that for some reason, like I've seen this one episode the most, when it came to, uh, watching it on toonami. It was episode 11, to where, okay, they get stuck in this town and move in, had this scheme to where he's gonna use this rhinoceros beetle um for gambling in a bug tournament and meanwhile, jen, in the meeting with this woman named Manchino, who turns out to be this prostitute that was gonna self-delete herself Because she was drowning in her husband's death.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's paying off her husband's debt, so sex works, that shit. Anyways, while she does all that and tries to be a prostitute and whatnot, jin pays for it, but they don't really do anything. Anyways, while she does all that and try to be a prostitute and whatnot, jin pays for it, but they don't really do anything. It's just more like, if anything, he's trying to be a Captain Saber and try to help her escape from these three. But she finds out that her husband was no. Jin finds out that her husband was beating on her. So Shino buys her out that her husband was beating on Her. So, she know, buys her freedom from her husband. Then gene fights off the brothel Guards all that was happening Holding her, and she's escaped by boat.
Speaker 1:Like, oh, for some reason I always see that episode Every time like I watch, watch no show on Toonami, and I'm like yeah, see, sometimes you can have a good episode in a series and be like you know what, I'll probably watch it again, and that's another thing. There's just so many different episodes where you can just watch it as it is. You don't need to have no deep meaning, you don't have to like, you don't necessarily have to like do some homework or like get like fully immersed in more, like hey, man, just enjoy the show.
Speaker 2:This is true the beauty is in the simplicity.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm getting at.
Speaker 2:Look, we don't support piracy here, but, as I'm checking in, you may want to be better off looking towards certain websites in order to find this anime. The reason I say this is because, apparently, a bunch of episodes is actually blocked here in America. As I'm finding this out, I'm very upset about that, like one of the ones episode 9, beatbox Bandits, where they actually were supposed to get hung because they were using fake IDs and shit. That's actually been blocked in America. The episode that you was just talking about in the crack house when he was helping an old girl but she was already with somebody.
Speaker 2:The episode's banned too, so you can't watch that. I'm a crunchy roll or Disney Plus here, wow Along, like several other episodes, it's actually banned. These streaming services, never mind, go to the websites. Go to the websites to watch it. Oh yeah, you probably might have better, jesus, on watching all of it. Otherwise you're gonna go from 26 episodes to like 19. You're like people say it was like 26 episodes. Yeah, it's like seven. That's blocked. That's um, didn't know that.
Speaker 1:That's pretty crazy, okay I mean, that's what I'm saying. Like a bunch of these episodes touch on topics where it's like, okay, kind of touchy here and there, I don't know if it's gonna be safe for the kids. It's kind of like banning books from the library. I'm like what you trying to hide from us?
Speaker 2:that part. But no, it's just certain stuff. They're just like oh, we don't want to touch base too much on too, we're gonna hide that a little bit.
Speaker 1:That sucks see, that's another thing where I'll never forgive uh, disney xd for trying to um swipe on naruto shippuden. Because, keep in mind, um, they, disney's been going gunning after anime way before they had disney plus, they acquired naruto shippuden and by the time they got To like the 60s, where it was like, okay, there's this woman who's like, even though she's just trying to Steal Naruto's chakra, it can't be misconstrued as this woman is having A sexual relation With this boy, and it's like, uh, I don't think Disney's gonna commit to this whole series. So I'm like, yeah, like, before you start thinking that, oh, you can just scoop up this license for this anime and what not, you better watch the whole fucking anime and make sure you commit to it. Because if you find out that, oh, you gotta rip off a whole bunch of episodes out of the series because, oh, we don't want the kids to see that, then why buy the lights in the first place?
Speaker 2:money even though they can't even not go get all of this. Some of it is just all for money, but yeah, but I mean, for the most part that's pretty much all I have. And then like, uh, the last thing is is that there's I like there are certain lines in the show that kind of make you like think of real life moments of um. It's just like I'm trying to think of trying to think of one. That really kind of got me um, don't live your life making excuses. You're the one who decides how you live your life. Like. The thing about it is that you cannot change what other people do to you, but you can affect how you react to a situation. You can be mad at the world all day for dealing you the worst hands possible, but at the end of the day you're either going to play them cards or you're going to get up from the table.
Speaker 1:You're knifing at me. I would have told you either you nut up or you shut up.
Speaker 2:Pretty much, though, but yeah, it's like no matter what, every episode has those good moments that you really feel into it, but then there are certain moments that just really like hunkers down and a lot of these lessons, even though it's one of those ones that seems to be directed to fool, is really just is directed to us as the viewers. Like watanabe was like he was like for real, I want to hammer this shit home. This is shit that, like I grew up on. This is stuff that I know as I grew up as a kid. Like if you and this is very interesting saying that we just that we reviewing this on this month now is like from the previous month. This is some your daddy's supposed to teach you, oh god. But otherwise I mean, that's that's my little spills into it. It's a fact. Like obviously you know I love the show again.
Speaker 2:This is just. It is a giant. Every episode it's a giant poem, it's an epic poem that you can decipher from beginning to end. Um, the characters each represent various different things and, like you and playboy talked about earlier, you can see the representations of each character even in the opening sequence as well. You can see of each person I like how each person has dynamic and stoic personalities, like there are things that some people grow and change. Like jinn becomes more accepting and understanding of things. Mugen learns to calm down a little bit, because otherwise he was always on like he was always on about everything.
Speaker 1:Hold on. I like how, at the end to where they had their final bouts and whatnot, and they had to incorporate something they learned from each other to do that. Like how in Mugen's fight he had to act more like Gene and in Gene's fight he had to act more like Mugen and Foo kind of took the best of both worlds from her situation.
Speaker 2:Yep, I like actually there was a actually. No, no, it was the episode you talked about. I think you said episode 11, like the previous episode was one. When we first started seeing that with Jean I think it was like 10. Cause he was fighting up against a dude that had an armor piercing move. I remember like that episode in the early episodes. It was either the episode, it was either episode 10 or nine, but um, it was. It was an armor piercing move and it was one that even with Jen's trained styles, he knew he was going to lose that If he tried to go head to head with it, he wound up having to have a moment of unpredictability. So he, he was upset about it for a while, but he was like he had to copy Mugen a little bit in order to be a little unethical, to get around that attack, in order to win that fight, Because he was determined he was not going to lose.
Speaker 1:He was not going to die Absolutely love that.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's my little rants into it. Y'all already know I love the show.
Speaker 4:That's what I just before we get too far off. I just want to say something about what you just said about how he had to use, uh, how they had to incorporate each other's style in their fights, right. So earlier I was saying I did want to see like a real deal, at least a small as far as between moving and gym, but now that you put that into my mind about how they used each other's style, that would only make the fight even a little bit more interesting. Now to see them adapt, either using each other's styles against themselves or knowing each other's styles. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4:So that was kind of crazy because of the fact that they never really like my bad, my bad, they've scrimmaged a couple of times, but it's like how much do you not like a person to actually copy his style, to like, actually know and to be able to mimic it? You know what I'm saying. Like you actually have to study that to a sense. So I feel like they have a. They had the beginning of sasuke and naruto's relationship. That's why I also have brought up.
Speaker 2:That's also brought up as crying is because that's the same thing that happened in that show as well, too is that at the very end we finally got it. The show ends with our two main characters having a damn near a fight to the death, and even though we don't get to see who the winner is, we get to see almost the entire fight play out until the final blow. That's. The only thing we don't see is the final blow per se.
Speaker 1:You know what? Yeah, this is going to probably be one of the rare times that I'm going to compliment the Aquaman movie To where, at the end, when he had his rematch with Orm, to where you notice how Aquaman was adapting moves that Ocean Ocean Master Used against him. But this time, in the rematch, the match was more into his terms and they were both using tridents, and the way the fight was choreographed I was like you know what?
Speaker 1:I know people Gave this movie some shit, but once again it's one of those things where, regardless of how you feel about the movie as a whole, there was just some things they did right in my opinion agreed, like what was saying, that's something that I definitely was looking for, like I would love to have seen their fights, but now that I think about it back as well, yeah, most definitely.
Speaker 3:That makes me even more of a hey. I wish I could. I wish I would just see you know so much more of this, because, man, how would that have looked?
Speaker 1:Bro, if Gene started breakdancing I would lose my shit.
Speaker 2:Love. Honestly, that would be hilarious to see him start getting some footwork into it, bro. He'd be like, can you loosen up a little bit?
Speaker 4:And Mugen being like hold on a second the glasses still on. The glasses don't even come off. You know when he done he do the little. Yeah, he do the little glasses correction shit. When they nose man come on, Hold on.
Speaker 2:So you're talking about a dude breakdancing, doing the whole move and then ending it with that middle finger to fix the glasses right up to the face, bro.
Speaker 1:You get that shit, oh that would be cold.
Speaker 3:Like nigga, you got served nigga.
Speaker 2:You just got served.
Speaker 4:Hell, I ain't think about that part Now. That'd be fucking cold if my boy did that.
Speaker 1:You know his character, so you know he don't fit the glasses Nah it's like the loser's gonna feel the dishonor, Like he gonna cry in the car.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, he's definitely going to do something by himself. That's what I did like about it. It wasn't a funny show, but it had his funny moments. It had his comedic relief. It wasn't all so bad and serious and dark and all that other shit. Like you said, it was relatable. Man, that's life. You have your ups, you have your downs. You have your ups, you have your downs, you have your in-betweens All types of stuff.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, what would?
Speaker 4:be your favorite moments, though, favorite moments from the anime.
Speaker 1:Well, I did say episode 11 was one of my favorite episodes, but honestly I would say the part where they were tripping balls and shit on the mushrooms, that would be my favorite moment because like from an art direction it was like so trippy and like I just like the different, the different techniques that they did for that scene. Like you can tell that they put in work to try to make that scene happen. Was there any other moments?
Speaker 4:it was a bunch, but like I'm drawing blanks right now I'd say I have a couple, but if I had to probably pick one out, it'd be with uh, it'd probably be like the last fight with mugen, when he kind of like made that sacrifice to go and you know, save, fool, and all that. That kind of made me feel, I think was he saving food I ain't seeing in a minute. But his last fight and he was saying, uh, I ain't gonna die, don't you have faith in me? Or something like that. My boy ho, he had like this whole I don't say like a character development. But coming off in the beginning of the show he didn't seem like the I'm here to save you type. He was giving off Sakura from Windbreaker Like I'm not here to save you, I just like to fight, type of vibe, just feel me. But then at the end he basically risking his life to save somebody.
Speaker 4:I kind of like that I ain't gonna lie.
Speaker 1:You know what? Speaking of of food, you just reminded me of another episode that I like. It was right after episode 11, episode 12, where uh moogan uh steals food's diary and starts reading it and uh team uh kind of get into the mix. They try to um, read into, uh, what food think of them on their journey. The whole time. It was kind of like a recap episode, but the whole point was that, yeah, she was kind of recapping things, but from her perspective. But it turns out that Pooh wrote a note saying that oh, I knew y'all would try to steal my diary, and then it was that she was capped, so I was like man.
Speaker 4:what?
Speaker 1:the fuck Wow.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was fucking nice man. That's what I was saying. Like one of those moments like they find a way to put some type of comedic relief in such an anime like that. Like I like that man. That's what makes it very like man. It'll catch you off guard all over the place. You get emotionally to put a smile on your face out the blue. It turn around and make you cry 12 seconds later some shit.
Speaker 4:But I can see the resemblance between it and, uh, cowboy b-boy. That's probably why I became, I was so close to putting it in my top five because, you know, cowboy b-boy was definitely up there for me and finding out that they was, you know, when they made by the same guy they were both um, heavily like created, like he had a.
Speaker 2:He was created director into it, but yeah, okay, yeah, so he didn't write the story, but the art style, the directions of the animation and everything that was him yeah, because the choreography yeah, like the animations, even the soundtrack it was.
Speaker 4:I feel like the music plays a good part in the vibe between anime, like it's kind of like a dj. Like you gotta have a good dj for this type of stuff. You gotta have somebody putting tunes in there man, wait, hold on.
Speaker 1:Um, now that y'all bringing this up, uh, I just want to add on that watanabe thought moving as this young and kind of stupid kind of guy, so he intentionally put him like this stark contrast between him and spike spiegel. And this doesn't have anything to do with um, capo viva. I just think this was an interesting um tidbit, like a fun fact. Originally gene was going to be like an anarchist but watanabe was like nah, you know what? I need someone to be like a counterbalance, to uh move in, because otherwise it would feel like two uh assholes running around doing dumb things and food guy pretty much be their babysitter. I thought that was funny. But, um, damn, you know what? I'm good, I'm good. Yeah, uh, tell us yet anything you want to add on uh, nope, not at all not at all.
Speaker 1:You good, okay, uh, tokyo guys who playboy any you want on?
Speaker 2:no, I'm pretty straight man. I went through my whole analysis and everything to it and brought forth little facts and shit. At this point I'm good. This is absolutely fantastic anime. Across the board, everyone says it's one of the best, greatest of all time. Even to this day, 20 years later, it still lives up to that. It's fantastic. People watch it. Go watch it. Not on Disney Plus, though. Don't do that. They skipped a bunch of episodes. Go see the episode. Go to the website. Anyway, I didn't say that Continue.
Speaker 4:Have a good one.
Speaker 1:With that being said, yeah, we're just going to go ahead and close this out. Thank you everybody for listening. Follow us on social media. Stay nerdy. Great things are coming. We're zoning out of here, so have yourself a good morning, good afternoon and good night. Take it easy.
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