Samurai Champloo: anime review

Title: Samurai Champloo
Genre: action, comedy, historical
Released date: May 20, 2004 – March 19, 2005
Episode: 26
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Animated by: Manglobe Studio
Comment: Samurai Champloo follows the journey of Fuu, a young woman seeking “the samurai who smelled of sunflower”, and her two recruited companion; Mugen the wandering outlaw and Jin, the quiet and mild mannered ronin. Each episode involved the separate events the group has gone through during their journey but new bits of details concerning the whereabouts and identity of the mysterious samurai and the backgrounds of each characters are gradually and subtly revealed to provide the sense of continuation. Personally, I think Fuu who is the center of the entire series has the weakest storyline. The mystery about the samurai who smells of sunflower is initially very interesting but in the end when the truth is revealed, it is so predictable that I am surprised and in the middle section of the series, this story is barely touched. On the other hand, the story of Mugen and Jin are absolutely intriguing and thoroughly detailed.

The setting of Samurai Champloo is in Edo era of Japan with unique mixture of modern style, most prominently hip-hop and rap music. This blending of the old and new style helps lift the anime’s conventional story into something extraordinary. This technique is previously used in Cowboy Bebop (also directed by Watanabe) which is now considered a classic anime. The animation quality is superb and the action sequences are masterfully crafted. Certain action scenes actually send a chill running through my spine. Despite all these favorable qualities, I find a number of episodes quite problematic and sometimes even disturbing or silly. I believe it is because I do not understand the historical or cultural reference behind them or is it because I don’t get the joke? (obviously, I’m not Japanese)

Conclusion: Although Samurai Champloo is already worth a try just for its style, it is also entertaining and technically amazing. But it does suffer from few episodes that cannot live up to the others and an arguably unsatisfied ending.

Rating: B

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Speed Grapher: anime review

Title: Speed Grapher
Genre: action, fantasy, sci-fi, drama
Released date: 7 April 2005 – 29 September 2005
Episode: 24
Director: Kunihisa Sugishima
Animated by: GONZO Studio
Comment: Tatsumi Saiga, a goofy but reliable man who is haunted by dark and depressing past and Kagura Tennouzu, an innocent girl who possesses mysterious ability and is hunted by giant evil organization. Kagura’s power is granting other people superhuman powers according to their fetishes through her body fluid. She is imprisoned in her house by her mother who is the leader of Tennouzu Group, the largest financial organization in Japan. When she met Saika in the secret club, she saves him and with his help, struggles to be free from her captors.

Although the main storyline and the two protagonists sound not very innovative, the anime has a very interesting concept about greed, money and revenge hidden all over. Suitengu, the main antagonist of the series, has been planning to take revenge on the prime minister and bankrupt the country because he believes that money and greed destroyed his family and his childhood. While Kagura, daughter of the richest woman in the country, suffers from imprisonment and starvation. The anime also tries to explore human secret desires and sins through the strange powers of the Euphorics. Another good quality of Speed Grapher is that it was action-packed enough to keep most viewers interested. And for the disappointing part, the animation quality falls far behind current standard of anime. It looks cheap and disturbingly jerky and sometimes it is completely static. The characters are badly drawn in numerous scenes that their faces look changed. Certain monsters look funny and are incompatible with the overall dark tone of the anime. I would have been devastated if I had watched Speed Grapher after finishing other more beautifully drawn anime such as Last Exile or Samurai 7. All these flaws makes me wonder if the studio ran out of budget during production.

Speed Grapher has good ideas, script and characters. It could have achieved greatness if someone had paid more attention to how the anime looks on screen. I have seen many animes that looks great but are hollow from the inside but in Speed Grapher’s case, it is vice versa. Conclusion: The sooner you can get over with the bad animation, the sooner you will enjoy the show.

Rating: B

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