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Sunday, April 17, 2011

Samurai Champloo

Anime Review:
Samurai ChamplooGenre Chanbara, Comedy-drama, Action

Plot

A young woman named Fuu is working as a waitress in a tea house when she is harassed by a band of ruffians. Another customer, Mugen, offers to take care of them in exchange for food, but ends up instigating a brawl. Jin, a stoic young ronin in samurai garb, enters the tea house in the midst of the fight. Mugen attacks Jin after he proves to be a worthy opponent and they begin fighting one another, ignoring a fire that started during the brawl. They both faint from smoke inhalation. When they awaken, they find they have been arrested for the murder of Shibui Tomonoshina, the magistrate's son, and are to be executed. With help from Fuu, they escape and Fuu asks them to travel with her to find "the samurai who smells of sunflowers," a mysterious man Fuu can give little description of, but whom she insists she must find. They agree to join her, with Fuu making only one condition: they are not to duel one another until the journey is done.
Samurai Champloo employs a unique blend of historical Edo period backdrops with modern styles and references. The show relies on factual events of Edo-era Japan, such as the Shimabara Rebellion ("Unholy Union;" "Evanescent Encounter, Part I"), Dutch exclusivity in an era where edict restricted Japanese foreign relations ("Stranger Searching"), Ukiyo-e paintings ("Artistic Anarchy"), and fictionalized versions of real-life Edo personalities Mariya Enshirou and Miyamoto Musashi ("Elegy of Entrapment, Verse 2"). As well as more prominent anachronisms like Mukuro having a revolver or the presence of Americans ("Baseball Blues".)
Incorporated within this are signature elements of modernity, especially hip hop culture, such as rapping ("Lullabies of the Lost, Verse 1"), graffiti ("War of the Words"), bandits behaving like "gangstas" (both parts of "Misguided Miscreants"), The censorship bleeps replaced with Record Scratching and much of Mugen's character design, including a fighting style influenced by breakdancing. Samurai Champloo's musical score predominantly features hip hop beats. Certain anachronistic references are not based upon hip hop, however, such as baseball ("Baseball Blues") and references to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki ("Cosmic Collisions").
Main Characters

Mugen

Mugen (無限)is a 19 year old man and was born in a penal colony on the Ryukyu Islands (most likely Miyako Island since it was a penal colony in the past), which in the Edo period was a separate kingdom with close ties to the Satsuma domain of Japan. His name means without limitation, as the components of it are the characters for "without" and "limitation." Incidentally, he writes his name using the infinity symbol (∞), a pun on his name, 'Mugen,' which is a homophone of the Japanese word for 'eternity'. His Japanese is quite rough and "Yanki"; and he is illiterate until later in the show. It also appears that he may be of Ainu origin, commenting that he grew up on the same music an Ainu fugitive was playing, though the Ainu man came from the far North, and Mugen came from the far south. As for his parents, Mugen states that he never knew who they were in episode 20, "Elegy of Entrapment, Verse 1." The blue tattoos on his wrists and ankles indicate that he was once in prison. The circumstances of his imprisonment are unclear at first, but it is later verified that he was to be executed for engaging in piracy.
Rude, lewd, vulgar, and nihilistic, Mugen is somewhat of an antihero. He is fond of fighting and has a tendency to pick fights for petty reasons. In several episodes it is made clear that Mugen is a womanizer. Character designer Kazuto Nakazawa stated in an interview: "When I was doing character design, the most difficult one was Mugen, as I expected. I'm pretty sure that as far as the director's image went, he probably was thinking of someone like a 'rapper who acts like a bad guy.' But the way Mugen acts is relatively based on his core conviction."
Highly unorthodox swordplay and a fighting style based on breakdancing - dubbed "champuru kendo" and ostensibly developed by himself - taking bits and pieces from all forms of martial arts and making up the rest as he fights his opponents, make him a force to be reckoned with although it looks like capoeira. He carries two blades, his principal weapon a unique sword with a curved blade and a hilt with two prongs sheathed across his back and the other a small tanto concealed at the end of his scabbard (only resorted to as a trump card). His main weapon appears to be an amalgamation of the okinawan sai and Japanese katana. Mugen also has a tendency to parry attacks with the steel base of his geta.
His seiyū is Kazuya Nakai. His dub actor in the U.S. version is Steven Jay Blum, credited as Daniel Andrews to circumvent union regulations. However in the English version of the game for PS2, he is played by Liam O'Brien.

Jin

Jin (仁) is a man in his mid 20s who wields a Katana, Wakizashi and spent the majority of his life training in kenjutsu dojos. Unlike Mugen, it is legal for him to carry a daisho, as he is of the samurai class. His swords have a lightning and twin-eyed design on the tsuba. He wears traditional hakama and gi in indigo blue patterned with a white diamond kamon made up of four small white diamonds. His kamon closely resembles that of the great Takeda Clan, leading to speculation that his family origins may be of nobility. He wears glasses but Fuu states that they are "fake", indicating Jin wears them as an accesory rather than actually needing them.
When he was 18, he was to be assassinated in his sleep by his sensei, Mariya Enshirou, at Kariya Kagetoki's insistence. However, Jin killed Mariya in self-defense and fled the dojo, becoming a ronin. His death is sought by former classmates and other fame-seekers. Mujushin was a real sword-fighting dojo, and Mariya Enshirou is known to have been the third master — although the circumstances of his death are unclear.
Jin is highly devoted to upholding Bushido and is in fact named after jin (benevolence), one of the seven samurai virtues. Jin is usually taciturn and unusually collected. He is an extremely skilled swordsman, using swift, refined, orthodox moves of the Mujushin Kenjutsu discipline, making him the perfect foil for Mugen.

In the last episode, he confesses to both Fuu and Kariya that he has spent his entire life with no devotion to anyone. He lived only for his sword and no master; saying that the lords of that time have no sense of honor, only caring about self-preservation. But he seems to change during his travels with Fuu and Mugen, saying that they are his "first friends."
His seiyū is Ginpei Sato. His dub actor in the U.S. version is Kirk Thornton.

Fuu Kasumi

Fuu (風) is a 15 year old girl and the leading lady of the show. In her childhood before the beginning of the series, her father left her and her mother for unstated reasons. Without her father around to support them, Fuu and her mother led a difficult life until her mother died of illness. After a not-so-successful stint as a teahouse waitress, she saves Mugen and Jin from execution and recruits them as her bodyguards to help her on a quest. She is searching for the Samurai who smells of Sunflowers, but never explains what a sunflower smells like or what the man looks like. Mugen and Jin are often reminded of their life-debt to her when they wish to fight each other, much to their chagrin.
Her relationship with Mugen and Jin is apparently sororal, though it is hinted several times in the series that she may have subtle romantic interest for either of them and at one point it's stated by herself that she's specially concerned about parting ways with them because of Mugen. She is a surprisingly big eater (in one episode she entered an eating contest and was one of the last two remaining, shocking all the spectators), has a bright and trusting personality, and is strongly prone to accidents and trouble although she is quite practical. She often puts on a front of being more worldly and experienced than she actually is so as not to appear completely ingenuous in front of her bodyguards. Fuu wears a deep pink kimono with a pattern of flowers and carries a matching tantō. Attached to the tanto are three netsuke: a skull (a Christian pendant from her father), a pair of dice and a dog.
Her voice actress in the Japanese version is Ayako Kawasumi. She is voiced by Kari Wahlgren in the U.S dub.
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