Samurai Champloo, Volume 6 (2005)

Director Shinichiro Watanabe continues to push the envelope as his outrageous adventure-comedy Samurai Champloo nears the end of its first season. The encounter between Fuu, Jin, and Mugen and a mysterious musician-assassin raises more questions than it answers: The three misfits' trip to Nagasaki apparently involves greater issues than they realize. Fans of Cowboy Bebop may find the eerily surreal "Cosmic Collisions" recalls the "Mushroom Samba" episode of Watanabe's previous series. A clipper ship from the U.S. arrives in Japan decades before Commodore Perry, and the depiction of the Americans is anything but flattering. A nascent crisis involving questions of honor has to be resolved in a baseball game: Mugen makes sports history as the first man to pitch a no-hitter in getta (platform clogs). Only Watanabe could drop a baseball game into an Edo-era coastal village and make it feel plausible. (Rated 16 and older: violence, violence against women, profanity, alcohol and tobacco use)--Charles Solomon Amazon.com

Ahhhh Samurai Champloo

Pretty much a filler disk (other than the first which is a follow up to the previous episode). No doubt if your a fan of the series i say buy it. Yet it really holds no true value or missing pieces to the series as whole. August 6, 2006

What the...

The first thirteen episodes were sublime. A few of those that follow never really reach the excellence and craftmanship of the beginning of this series, and most of those 'few' are on this DVD. Episodes 21-23 are found here, and the last two seem soooo out of place it may have been best to leave them off (particularly the surreal and nonsensical mushroom/zombie/meteor episode).

The first thirteen episodes command 5 stars. These weird-arse episodes (#22 and partially #23) are almost the so-called 'jump the shark' moments, but at least the baseball one is still fun to watch. Episodes 22-23 are so far removed from the rest of the series that, as long as you're aware of this simple fact, you should watch them anyway. Then make up your own mind. June 8, 2006

Samurai Champloo & Kung Faux are good to go!

Yes! Yes! Y'all.- Two must haves for any twisted freak who gets down to Biggie and Akira, Bruce Lee and Queen Latifah. Samurai Champloo and Kung Faux dvds are good as gold and good to go. March 27, 2006

I suggest

This is of course a neccessity for anyone collecting this series. At this time I own volumes 1,2, and 6. The reason I bought 6 out of order is because I found it at a Hot Topic in the Houston Galleria mall at 50% off, so I only payed like 13 dollars. Whats more is that it came with a special limited edition tin case, which is red and black, and illustrates a masked samurai. Under the samurai it reads "Samurai Champloo". I found the tin case to be entirely useless (I keep all my DVDs lined up like books), but it gives my Samurai Champloo collection an extra kick. Take that!! any fan that doesn't have the tin case. So I suggest you check out your local mall ASAP, you might just find one. March 21, 2006

Weakest volume of the series

Let me start by clarifying that I own all seven volumes of the Samurai Champloo series, my favorite anime series. Volume 6 is unfortunately the weakest of the bunch.

Episode 21 is the second part of the 2-part story Elegy of Entrapment. While the story is great, the artwork for some reason was subpar. The characters are not drawn as well as the earlier episodes, and look decidedly odd at times.

Episode 22 is probably most people's least favorite episode, and the story is weird, to put it mildly. Without giving any spoilers away, I think I appreciated the story more after viewing it as a commentary of Japan as the nation that brought upon itself the destruction and horrors of the Second World War. The episode certainly loses much in the Western context.

Episode 23 has a great concept, but the story got sloppy and just seem half-baked.

Every anime series will have several weaker episodes, it's unfortunate that the dvd-release just happened to include 2 weak episodes on a 3-episode disc that cost as much as the other discs, while bad artwork plagues the third episode. It's still decent, but when you compare it to all the other volumes in this great series, volume six falls short of my expectations. February 23, 2006

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