Samurai Champloo Turns 20

On May 20, 2004, the world was introduced to the latest anime series from director Shinichiro Watanabe and everyone wanted to see what was it since his massive global hit anime series Cowboy Bebop was released back in 1998 and the series he created was a massive hit in its own right and that series was Samurai Champloo.

Samurai Champloo is a TV series that was produced by the studio Manglobe and ran from May 2004 to March 2005 with a total of 26 episodes. Shinji Obara wrote the series and it’s a mix of Chanbara films meets spaghetti western films with an influential soundtrack. The art style and flow of the animation were completely different from what was going on at the time and it reminded me of graffiti art at times which I love.

The series follows Fuu, Mugen, and Jin, who happen to meet by chance and end up traveling together to find a samurai who smells like sunflowers. Watanabe said in an interview himself that he wanted Fuu, Mugen, and Jin to be silly, immature, and dangerous with a touch of insanity. The character designs were created by Kazuto Nakazawa, in case you don’t know he did this.

If there is one thing that many people will remember this series the answer would be its soundtrack. The soundtrack had the likes of Tsutchie from Shakkazombie, Fat Jon the Ample Soul Physician, DJ Kent and KZA better known as Force of Nature, and lastly, Nujabes, who many consider to be the founding father to Lofi hip hop. We already talked about the soundtrack before just ill just say this, listen to this soundtrack, and if you can find it on vinyl, if not in any way you can.

Take a weekend to watch this series and you will see what made this series such a hit and influence as well.