SAMURAI CHAMPLOO (VOLUME 1).
August 6th 2008 22:31
Category: Videos, Television
Original plan: Manglobe.
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe.
Chief Scriptwriter: Shinji Obara.
Producers: Takatoshi Hamamo, Takashi Kochiyama & Tetsuro Satomi.
Starring: David Wittenberg, Wendee Lee, Kari Wahlgren, Tony Oliver, Michael McConnohie, Lex Lang, John Daniels, Melodee M Spevack, Steve Kramer, Barbara Goodson & Kirk Thornton.
Produced by: Fuji Television, Manglobe, Shimoigusa Champloos.
English Version by: Geneon Entertainment USA in association with Bang Zoom Entertainment.
Released by: Madman Entertainment.
Running Time: 100 minutes. Rating: MA 15
The first time I was exposed to this particular series was when it was aired late at night on SBS as part of their cult classic corner, often they’d show and episode of this show along with an episode of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex (SAC). As far as I am aware I don’t think the series have ever been aired by SBS in its entirety, but it is possible that I could be wrong. So when all is said and done just what exactly is this particular series all about? What is its raison d’etre? On the surface it looks pretty much like a road trip saga, though rather than the usual style of road trip features that often seem to involve teenagers, nudity and the United States of America this one is loosely set in Tokugawa era Japan and tends to focus on more adult concerns such as corruption, the abuse of power and privilege, honour and political intrigue just to name a few. Also its primary protagonists aren’t exactly the usual kind of characters you’d find in a road trip flick, well not the usual ones that get churned out of the Hollywood studios like they’ve been vat grown in some strange lab in downtown Burbank.
You’ll notice that I said that the show is loosely based in Tokugawa era Japan; this is the same historical period in which James Clavell set his blockbuster epic novel Shogun in, the time of the Tokugawa Shogunate and an era of almost total isolation for the islands of Nihon. Samurai Champloo is says at the start of the very first episode however is not a historical period piece, it just uses this particular era as the setting for its own unfolding drama, one that becomes successively built upon with each episode. Here in this series we see sunglass wearing Yakuza gang bosses, there are beat boxing henchmen and rapping wandering swordsman all elements that while they work well in the series I am certain weren’t all that prevalent in the Tokugawa era.
Apparently the title Samurai Champloo has something to do with an Okinawan style dish that essentially involves mixing up various ingredients to produce an appetizing and sometimes surprising meal, its all about admixture and creativity with a healthy dash of humour thrown in to make the whole thing gel. Thus the focus is more on the drama and the characters than any ideal of historical accuracy or cultural norms, after all the characters all speak in everyday contemporary language, the language of the current era rather than using the idioms and norms found in Feudal Japanese society.
So who are the protagonists in this particular story? Well there are three primary protagonists demonstrating that Samurai Champloo is an ensemble series, each of the characters adding to the whole in their own unique way. First cab off the rank is Fuu, a waitress at a restaurant who appears to be an orphan adopted by the owners of where she works and giving gainful employment. Next is the wild card wanderer Mugen, a stranger who arrives in town from the islands of Ryukyu and is only too happy to hire out his sword for some dumplings, his maths leaves a lot to be desire though. Last is the ronin Jin, a tall, and ascetic looking man who wears the traditional garb of a samurai along with glasses, he appears on the surface to be a traditionalist although as events prove he has own ideas about how things should be and an iron code of honour.
Through a chance meeting or a truly bizarre quirk of fate these three characters become thrown together and embark upon a quest to find the Samurai that smells of sunflowers. This particular aspiration is the desire of Fuu, it’s her ambition to find this mysterious and enigmatic samurai, a person whom all she can recall is that he smells of sunflowers. Jin and Mugen are part of this because they made a promise to Fuu that they would help her in her quest although both of them have their own reasons to travel with the somewhat out their ex waitress. Mugen is the only warrior that Jin has not be able to defeat and for Mugen the ascetic ronin is the only man he’s come across that he hasn’t managed to best in a swordfight, but he intends to remedy that. The only impediment to this particular ambition is the fact that both he and Jin have promised to Fuu not to fight and kill each other until they’ve completed the quest.
This volume introduces the start of this journey by this misfit trio, starting in the township where all of them inadvertently run into each other at the restaurant where Fuu works with catastrophic consequences. There are four episodes on this particular DVD along with the usual assortment of trailers, extras and so forth. The storytelling in each episode is tight, well written and drives this somewhat oddball trio and their rather eccentric quest along introducing us to the rest of this somewhat off skew vision of historical Japan. As it does unfold we begin to learn that there is something more behind the character of Jin and also we start to wonder why is that Fuu is seeking this sunflower smelling samurai? What significance does he hold in her life? Unfortunately that is something that isn’t revealed in these early openers to the series, still it does provide an interesting enigma and in my mind makes you want to watch further to find out just what this is all about.
Samurai Champloo is definitely a real tasty dish of an anime; get your hands on a copy and give it taste. Oh and if you’re a fan of the whole hip hop music scene watch the trailers, there is an interesting little doco that makes up the last trailer and gives you an insight into hip hop which was a major influence on the creators of this series. Its almost like a hidden track on a band or artistes CD.
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe.
Chief Scriptwriter: Shinji Obara.
Producers: Takatoshi Hamamo, Takashi Kochiyama & Tetsuro Satomi.
Starring: David Wittenberg, Wendee Lee, Kari Wahlgren, Tony Oliver, Michael McConnohie, Lex Lang, John Daniels, Melodee M Spevack, Steve Kramer, Barbara Goodson & Kirk Thornton.
Produced by: Fuji Television, Manglobe, Shimoigusa Champloos.
English Version by: Geneon Entertainment USA in association with Bang Zoom Entertainment.
Released by: Madman Entertainment.
Running Time: 100 minutes. Rating: MA 15
The first time I was exposed to this particular series was when it was aired late at night on SBS as part of their cult classic corner, often they’d show and episode of this show along with an episode of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex (SAC). As far as I am aware I don’t think the series have ever been aired by SBS in its entirety, but it is possible that I could be wrong. So when all is said and done just what exactly is this particular series all about? What is its raison d’etre? On the surface it looks pretty much like a road trip saga, though rather than the usual style of road trip features that often seem to involve teenagers, nudity and the United States of America this one is loosely set in Tokugawa era Japan and tends to focus on more adult concerns such as corruption, the abuse of power and privilege, honour and political intrigue just to name a few. Also its primary protagonists aren’t exactly the usual kind of characters you’d find in a road trip flick, well not the usual ones that get churned out of the Hollywood studios like they’ve been vat grown in some strange lab in downtown Burbank.
You’ll notice that I said that the show is loosely based in Tokugawa era Japan; this is the same historical period in which James Clavell set his blockbuster epic novel Shogun in, the time of the Tokugawa Shogunate and an era of almost total isolation for the islands of Nihon. Samurai Champloo is says at the start of the very first episode however is not a historical period piece, it just uses this particular era as the setting for its own unfolding drama, one that becomes successively built upon with each episode. Here in this series we see sunglass wearing Yakuza gang bosses, there are beat boxing henchmen and rapping wandering swordsman all elements that while they work well in the series I am certain weren’t all that prevalent in the Tokugawa era.
So who are the protagonists in this particular story? Well there are three primary protagonists demonstrating that Samurai Champloo is an ensemble series, each of the characters adding to the whole in their own unique way. First cab off the rank is Fuu, a waitress at a restaurant who appears to be an orphan adopted by the owners of where she works and giving gainful employment. Next is the wild card wanderer Mugen, a stranger who arrives in town from the islands of Ryukyu and is only too happy to hire out his sword for some dumplings, his maths leaves a lot to be desire though. Last is the ronin Jin, a tall, and ascetic looking man who wears the traditional garb of a samurai along with glasses, he appears on the surface to be a traditionalist although as events prove he has own ideas about how things should be and an iron code of honour.
Through a chance meeting or a truly bizarre quirk of fate these three characters become thrown together and embark upon a quest to find the Samurai that smells of sunflowers. This particular aspiration is the desire of Fuu, it’s her ambition to find this mysterious and enigmatic samurai, a person whom all she can recall is that he smells of sunflowers. Jin and Mugen are part of this because they made a promise to Fuu that they would help her in her quest although both of them have their own reasons to travel with the somewhat out their ex waitress. Mugen is the only warrior that Jin has not be able to defeat and for Mugen the ascetic ronin is the only man he’s come across that he hasn’t managed to best in a swordfight, but he intends to remedy that. The only impediment to this particular ambition is the fact that both he and Jin have promised to Fuu not to fight and kill each other until they’ve completed the quest.
This volume introduces the start of this journey by this misfit trio, starting in the township where all of them inadvertently run into each other at the restaurant where Fuu works with catastrophic consequences. There are four episodes on this particular DVD along with the usual assortment of trailers, extras and so forth. The storytelling in each episode is tight, well written and drives this somewhat oddball trio and their rather eccentric quest along introducing us to the rest of this somewhat off skew vision of historical Japan. As it does unfold we begin to learn that there is something more behind the character of Jin and also we start to wonder why is that Fuu is seeking this sunflower smelling samurai? What significance does he hold in her life? Unfortunately that is something that isn’t revealed in these early openers to the series, still it does provide an interesting enigma and in my mind makes you want to watch further to find out just what this is all about.
Samurai Champloo is definitely a real tasty dish of an anime; get your hands on a copy and give it taste. Oh and if you’re a fan of the whole hip hop music scene watch the trailers, there is an interesting little doco that makes up the last trailer and gives you an insight into hip hop which was a major influence on the creators of this series. Its almost like a hidden track on a band or artistes CD.
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