Samurai Champloo
It has been about a year or so that I decided to pick up where I left off with Samurai Champloo. At the time they were regularly being released in Japan, fan subbed with me downloading about the first 5-6 episodes. Cowboy Bebop with Samurai is what a lot of people expected considering it is directed by Shinichiro Watanabe. What he did by mixing sci-fi with Jazz and blues, he does with Edo Period Japan with Hip Hop. Verily a hard act to follow up coming off of Cowboy Bebop.
As you begin to watch the series the first thing that comes to mind is direct comparisons to Cowboy Bebop. How would it stack up to it? Would lightening strike twice? How do the characters here relate to the characters there? I've begin to have doubts when I saw the first six episodes. Granted the animation was great, it was somewhat funny, it seemed to show that touch of authenticity in their characters and started to really create a world in which you could believe could exist but something didn't click.
I dropped the series up until a week or so ago. There was something that didn't click. It might have been that I wanted it to be like Cowboy Bebop or something more. I suppose that in my tastes I have a bias to western settings than to eastern ones, but I suppose after that year or so I chose to put it away probably did some good. Now refreshed and actually wanting to finish what I started, I begin from where I left off.
Once again it felt the other episodes I saw didn't click. There was something missing, a sense of fun or heart. It could be because most of the sub-characters were too generic, not well too defined. Or that each situation that the characters enter seemed so commonplace. When it got to episode Ten though "Lethal Lunacy" it hit its stride. Similiarities with Cowboy Bebop did bleed through, but instead of copying it, it made it it's own. The action seemed more refined and the direction clear. Suddenly I found it's heart and it found me, it was a great series now.
So I could say that this series is an acquired taste, but it's not since you just have to wait until it gets to the good parts. You won't be disappointed when great gems appear as it begins to take itself more loosely and confidently.
As you begin to watch the series the first thing that comes to mind is direct comparisons to Cowboy Bebop. How would it stack up to it? Would lightening strike twice? How do the characters here relate to the characters there? I've begin to have doubts when I saw the first six episodes. Granted the animation was great, it was somewhat funny, it seemed to show that touch of authenticity in their characters and started to really create a world in which you could believe could exist but something didn't click.
I dropped the series up until a week or so ago. There was something that didn't click. It might have been that I wanted it to be like Cowboy Bebop or something more. I suppose that in my tastes I have a bias to western settings than to eastern ones, but I suppose after that year or so I chose to put it away probably did some good. Now refreshed and actually wanting to finish what I started, I begin from where I left off.
Once again it felt the other episodes I saw didn't click. There was something missing, a sense of fun or heart. It could be because most of the sub-characters were too generic, not well too defined. Or that each situation that the characters enter seemed so commonplace. When it got to episode Ten though "Lethal Lunacy" it hit its stride. Similiarities with Cowboy Bebop did bleed through, but instead of copying it, it made it it's own. The action seemed more refined and the direction clear. Suddenly I found it's heart and it found me, it was a great series now.
So I could say that this series is an acquired taste, but it's not since you just have to wait until it gets to the good parts. You won't be disappointed when great gems appear as it begins to take itself more loosely and confidently.
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