Samurai Champloo, Volume 5 (2005)

The outrageous comedy-adventure Samurai Champloo reaches new heights of absurdity in episode 18, a showcase for creator Shinichiro Watanabe's interest in hip-hop culture. While Mugen belatedly learns to read in a smackdown elementary school, Jin tries to settle the rivalry between two brothers who inherited the dojo of a former sensei. The two seemingly unrelated storylines collide in a hilarious, no-holds-barred anachronistic graffiti contest that features Tokugawa-era rap lyrics, gang signs, ink-brush tagging, Hiroshima homeboys, and a designer-connoisseur who's a caricature of Andy Warhol. Only Watanabe could pull off these anachronistic high jinks so effortlessly. In the darker episode 19, Jin and Mugen learn a bit more about the mysterious "samurai who smells of sunflowers," the curious skull-shaped charm he left behind, and why Fuu is so determined to find him. The mismatched trio also encounters a group of hidden Christians, who were persecuted by the Shoguns, in part for their links to gunrunners. (Rated 16 and older: violence, profanity, brief nudity, sexual situations, alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon Amazon.com

Samurai Champloo & Kung Faux are good to go!

Osu!- Yo!- Act like ya know! - Samurai Champloo & Kung Faux on dvd are good to go! Hip Hop on Asian pop culture taste good together. March 27, 2006

5th installment delievers the goods once again.......

A very strong volume....No episodes that I didn't like.

#17 Lullibies of the Lost Verse 2: Interesting episode that finishes off the vol.4 cliffhanger nicely. Great fight scenes, Great story, Good to see Mugen, Jin, and Fuu come back together.

#18 War of the Words: Hillarious-ass samurai tagging episode, Great art work on the tagging, Great side story with Mugen learning to read, a very strong episode in my opinion. Probably the most rewatchable on the disc.

#19 Unholy Union: Alright episode, we find out who the Sunflower Samurai really is even though I expected who he was, hardly any fight scenes, boring at times, but still a vital part of the series.

#20 Elegy of Entrapment Verse 1: A cliffhanger that that left me wanting more: I can understand Japanese people might like Sara's singing but it is hard to listen to for me, No fight scenes until the very end and that's when it really gets good, some romance between Sara and Mugen, an-important-but-kind-of-boring-until-the-end-episode. March 22, 2006

This is anime for everyone and vol 5. rocks

what can i say. i know. if God would watch TV this would be a must watch show. samurai champloo is a masterpiece. its hilarious, emotional, intensifying, everything and most important adults as well as teenagers can watch this without any complaints about it. all i got to say is this. You have to watch this series before you die. oh and excuse my grammar mistakes February 2, 2006

you guys aint no average street punks

the fifth installment of samurai champloo has proven, like the volumes before it, that good things come to those who wait. with masterful artwork, great music and action-packed scenes, samurai champloo has kept the industry alive. below are my ratings for the four episodes on this volume.


episode seventeen: lullabies of the lost verse2- the fans that watched volume four have been waiting for this episode: it finishes what volume four left unfinished. this episode reveals the fate of our heroes and if their fate brings them together again.
i rate this episode a 10/10. great episode nomatter how many times i watch it.

episode eighteen: war of the words- mugen is illiterate! as mugen finally comes to terms with this, fuu tries to fend off two crazy boys with the hots for her! and amidst this commotion, visits a grave of a man he had great respect for.
i rate this episode 9/10

episode nineteen: unholy union- jin, mugen and fuu discover a fraud involving selling weaponry and the underground christians. intrigued? guess you gottta watch it! good episode.
i rate this episode a 7/10. it was quite funny, but there was less action and less plot compared to other episodes. still, a good thirty minutes.

episode twenty: elegy of entrapment verse1- it's happened again! this episode is one part of a two part episode on the end of this dvd. that means we are to be cliffhung once again. still, this is a really good episode.
i rate this episode a 10/10.


well, thats it for this review. check out my others for this series.
January 16, 2006

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

As the local authorities and Mugen search for the mysterious Okuru, who by the way is looking after Fuu, Jin must face a samurai out to avenge his master's death. It seems Jin killed him. This was an interesting episode, seeing as it dealt with the Ainu, the original inhabitants of Japan. Much as the Europeans pushed the Indians into extinction, so too did these natives go. The next two episodes are more lightweight, with varying results. In "War of the Words" we find out that Mugen is illiterate. He seems proud of the fact that he only knows one letter! That's when a school teacher grabs him in a headlock to teach him his ABC's! "Unholy Union" shows Europeans in a bad light as a corrupt priest uses his Christian followers to smuggle guns and his power to force himself on a woman. The last episode injects some romance into the fold as a blind musician joins our group on the road. It seems that Mugen is taken with her, and little did we know that Fuu is nursing a secret love, but for whom?

This was a great volume, except for the European Christian thing. It just didn't work for me. The guy was cross-eyed and had the biggest nose you've ever seen, and his accent was very annoying, worse than a yakuza! The comedy of the graffitti episode was very well done. There's nothing like seeing Mugen being beaten by a drunk schoolteacher! With the addition of Sara, the blind shamisen, we finally get a strong woman character that can hold her own with the two guys. Excellent music.

Features a promo video and some conceptual art. November 29, 2005

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