Review - Samurai Champloo Volume 3
Reviewed by Richard Brownell on 8.30.2007.
Score: 10/10
Once again, I'm excited to be reviewing a new volume of Samurai Champloo. Volume 3 contains four new episodes for your viewing pleasure. Mugen, Jin, and Fuu are back pursuing the elusive samurai who smells of sunflowers. They still know nothing about him but in the last volume received a tip that he may be found in Nagasaki. It's a long trip, but it's the best (and only) lead they've got.
As with earlier episodes of the show, Samurai Champloo continues to break the mold that many anime have set up and is mostly episodic. The overwhelming arc of getting to the sunflower samurai is more of a subplot behind the wild and dangerous situations that happen to our three travelers in each episode.
This volume carries three episodes of new antics and one recap episode done in a unique way. Upon trying to get past a checkpoint with no travel passes and no money, our trio gets imprisoned--not by a kind and gentle official merely doing his job, but by one who enjoys killing anybody who breaks even the smallest laws. But thankfully he has a head to be delivered to a pack of dangerous warriors living in the mountains. Nobody goes there and lives. So to free the three of them, Mugen agrees to deliver the head. This particular episode is actually told from the perspective of one of the younger members of the outpost staff in the future who is enthralled by how wild Mugen is.
Things get dangerous when presented with a samurai who goes around killing the most powerful samurai he can find. He is even somehow able to kill without leaving any sword marks. His victims merely bleed to death. The trio would be wise to avoid him, but unfortunately (for him or them) he's got a bounty on his head and they need money.
In the final story episode we finally get a look past Jin's silent exterior...but not too far. He becomes entranced by a woman sold into a house of prostitution. So while Fuu and Mugen try to get money by working and participating in beetle sumo (respectively, of course), Jin is merely looking to find a way to rescue the woman.
The fourth episode of the DVD is a recap episode. In most shows, I find these irritating, but Samurai Champloo does everything with style and recap episodes are no exception. Mugen and Jin stumble upon Fuu's diary and decide to read it to find any clues they can about the sunflower samurai. Through reading it, we not only get brief recaps of the episodes that came prior, but get some fun commentary on them as well.
The off-the-wall action, style, and hip-hop music are what makes Samurai Champloo stand well above most anime that came out around it. There isn't much like it, with only Cowboy Bebop being a good comparison and that's certainly not bad company to have. Volume 3 continues the series at the stellar level of quality it was already at. Sure, we didn't really get any new hints on the sunflower samurai, but with the quality of the stories we do get it doesn't much matter.
It's been a long time since I reviewed a Samurai Champloo volume so I had to rewatch this one to get myself back up to speed. Unlike some shows, the second time through I may have enjoyed it even more. The animation is top notch. The music, despite not being the type I listen to on my morning commute, is perfect for the feeling the creators were going for. Volume 4 is currently sitting next to my TV waiting for my wife and I to watch it which I suspect will be shortly after this review is published. From pot-fueled sword fights to a look into Jin's soul, this DVD is highly recommended.
Special Features
DVD Features
· English Dolby Digital 5.1
· Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0
· Japanese DTS 5.1
· English Subtitles
· 16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen
· Scene Access
· Geneon Previews
