September 10th, 2004
Our intrepid trio need money for a ferry. So, Mugen beats up some yakuza for cash, Jin plays shogi for high stakes, and Fuu poses for an ukiyo-e artist with an illicit business sideline. Unsurprisingly, as usual for Champloo, everything overlaps again by the end.
Samurai Champloo is a fairly schizophrenic show. On the one hand, we have the rubbish Fuu-gets-captured storyline popping up every episode, which is frankly taking the piss. Yet we’ve also got some deft writing and brilliant action animation. Fuu herself isn’t inherently unlikeable, but constantly being the damsel in distress doesn’t give her the chance to shine often enough - and given that she’s the central character this isn’t an ideal situation.
Incidentally, ukiyo-e means “pictures of the floating world”, and were commonly used as posters advertising theatrical performances or simply, as here, for softcore porn. Plus shogi is sort of like Japanese chess. Those last two sentences sound pretty damn patronising, but I had no idea what ukiyo-e were, so there.
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August 3rd, 2004
The situation between the two rival yakuza clans gets ever worse thanks to Mugen and Jin’s fighting and a messy stabbing by Sousuke (who henceforth shall be known as Wuss Boy, for being the worst trainee yakuza ever). Wuss Boy is wagered against his father’s land owning and by a fortuitous set of events Mugen, Jin and Fuu are reunited at the scene of the gamble - Fuu breaks out some nifty moves and Wuss Boy’s father ends up committing suicide to save both his clan and his son. The evil yakuza are killed, and Mugen leaves town with Fuu - Jin going his own separate, murderous way for now…
Well, it’s been a while since I watched episode 3. And to be honest, I was quite disappointed with Samurai Champloo at that point - nothing was happening much, Jin was being terminally psychotic, Mugen quiet and Fuu useless. Aside from some inspired moments (Mugen with a shamisen in particular) I was totally ready to give up.
Perhaps it was the long gap that’s made me appreciate episode 4 a lot more, then. Gambling Legend Fuu, and her fortuitous escape from prostitution thanks to Momo the squirrel, was much more like episode 1’s cunning waitress than episode 2 and 3’s damsel in distress, and the end was rather poignant cinematographically. If the series remains as Fuu-focused as it appears to she needs to display as much verve as she has here rather than being a passive focal point for the quest dynamic of the series - basically, if Mugen and Jin are being cool and beating people up (throwing shoes at people? niiiice), she needs to be doing something equally cool. If she gets captured every episode I will be MOST annoyed.
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June 22nd, 2004
Mugen and Jin decide to ditch Fuu due to hunger and her endless prattling. They go their separate ways, but end up back together on opposite sides of a Yakuza conflict, with Fuu caught in the middle as she’s captured and forced into prostitution.
Pretty much it, actually. I can’t say this episode grabbed me either - I think I just have a problem with samurai shows as a genre, I’m not particularly interested in the feudal setting and so forth. I’m giving Champloo another episode to see the conclusion of this story, and there are some good touches still - Jin’s shamisen routine, the motorised crab restaurant and the fight scenes as usual - but while I appreciate the show’s pretty good I don’t think it’s quite captured the cleverness of the first episode since (maybe because Fuu’s been an annoying pointless bimbo for a couple of episodes).
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June 18th, 2004
A Phantom of the Opera-esque episode here, as there’s a horrible ugly man beating people up with the blessing of the guy whose hand Mugen chopped off last episode. Said armless guy also hires a rather old looking assassin to deal with Jin in a bamboo grove. So we get Jin fighting this old guy, Mugen poisoned by a prostitute, and Fuu kidnapped and being nice to the ugly guy so we get a happy-ish ending - although the assassin lives to recur in a future episode.
Nowhere near the level of the first episode, unfortunately, but then it would be difficult to equal the sheer amazement factor. None of the scratch effects or anything like that, some will be pleased to hear, but it seemed a bit cliched and lifeless - I know it’s only the second episode, but that was major filler. Maybe it was just my copy, but everything was very dark and dull and difficult to look at too, much less vibrant than the first episode. Action sequences were still awesome, though.
I don’t know whether to keep watching or not, I’ve been good about dropping other licensed series but I may have to continue…
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May 22nd, 2004
I have no idea what era we’re supposed to be in with the anachronisms flying around, but suffice to say it’s Some Time Back in the twilight of the samurai era. Fuu is bored with her lot as a waitress to lecherous men, but her life gets shaken up when two extremely skilled swordsmen, Jin and Mugen, end up fighting in her cafe and setting the place alight, killing the town magistrate’s no-good son in the process. As punishment, they are tortured and condemned to execution, but their quick thinking and some ingenious planning by Fuu gets them safe and on the run, presumably to find the “samurai that smells of sunflowers” that Fuu wants to search for.
Was there any doubt this would be any less than great? I’ve actually only seen about two episodes of Cowboy Bebop so I didn’t really have anything to do judge this against, but the style and panache are just fantastic. Gorgeous animation, strangely appropriate music and genuinely interesting characters - plus Fuu is likeable and capable! Mugen and Jin are damn cool too, obviously, although hopefully a little more than just the Cool One and the Hot Headed One. I’m SO there for the DVDs if this keeps up.
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