My two favorite Anime series of all time are: Cowboy Bebop and Rurouni Kenshin. Samurai Champloo manages to capture both of them quite nicely.

I’m not sure how to describe this show. It takes place in the mid-1700’s in Japan. The main protagonists are Mugen, Jin, and Foo. Mugen is a rather reckless swordsman who likes to test his skills against anyone with a sword. Jin is a more reserved samurai who doesn’t feel a need to prove himself. Fuu is a girl, looking for a samurai who smells like sunflowers. (I think that is Samurai Champloo).

Mugen and Jin first meet at Fuu’s restaurant. Mugen wants to face the governor’s highly skilled bodyguards, when Jin walks in and says he has already killed them. A fight commences, which ends when the restaurant burns down (caused by some of Mugen’s earlier activities.) Mugen and Jin are scheduled to be executed and Fuu gets their promise to help find her samurai, in exchange for her help to escape. They escape, wiping out the governor and his minions along the way. Fuu makes them delay their own duel until she finds her samurai. And the adventures begin.

The series is very humorous. Fuu keeps getting into awkward situations. Mugen and Jin keep rescuing her, unintentionally, since their personal problems always seem to involve the cause of Fuu’s problems.

The writers keep throwing current lingo and music into the show rather than trying to keep it all historical. It gives everything a slight edginess. The Rapping Samurai, with his home-boy back-up group, is going a bit over the top. In the opening they flashback 24 hours and you are looking at a modern-day-minus-one Tokyo street scene. Oops, jump back to feudal Japan.

There are 26 episodes in the series. I am on the second disk, up through Episode 8. I am enjoying the writing, the storyline, the production values, and the characters. I hope they can hold up throughout the series. And maybe, we’ll find out what the sunflowers are all about.

Maybe I should give some brief episode summaries to provide a flavor of the series.

First two episodes involve meeting, escaping execution and its aftermath.

Next two episodes: Mugen and Jin join opposite sides of a gang war, Fuu has to work off a debt (incurred by cheating) in a brothel.

Fifth episode – to get travelling money, Fuu works as a model only to be captured and delivered to the Western sailing ships in the harbor, Jin plays chess and Mugen mugs muggers (who are also the ones that captured Fuu). I almost forgot, the ukiyo-e artist Fuu models for is credited with inspiring Van Gogh to paint sunflowers.

Sixth Episode. – The group guides a gay Dutchman around Edo. He is so glad to find a place that doesn’t condemn his lifestyle. Unfortunately, Japanese don’t like foreigners.

Seventh Episode- Fuu’s wallet, with everyone’s money in it, gets picked. She finds the pickpocket’s mother and takes pity on him while the cops and yakusa are after him for another pickpocket job. He dies. Fuu’s sad.

Eighth Episode – A rapping Samurai, trying to make his reputation by killing the samurai with glasses (Jin), hits on Fuu. Jin has pawned his glasses for the the money and so isn’t easily picked out as a target (glasses are rare in 1700’s Japan). Samurai’s wife comes back to claim him after rolling Mugen and Jin following a night of drinking and empty promises.

8/10 for now.