Manga/Anime Reviews

Review 35: Samurai Champloo (Sunflower Samurai.... Awww, how not cute)

Review 35: Samurai Champloo (Sunflower Samurai.... Awww, how not cute)

A wacky amazing anime that mixes in with the Past and Present.... But does this suit the story line and genre of the anime??

 This wacky, fun, loving action packed anime which is slightly old now; comes across as a weird mix in-between the past and the present. The characters in the anime, at first, seem to come across as modern aged and attached characters; adding a kind of twist to the whole place, time and year that the anime was chosen to be originally based in. Even though the rules, fighting style, scenery and story line suit the time that this anime is supposed to be set in; it adds a generic twist as the art style, attitudes and characters all suit the modern age instead. As the creator of this anime somehow made it a smash hit, world wide anime in under a short period of time; the style of which this has been made proves to have made a huge impact on the anime world ,and, which the way future creators of anime and manga would of styled their series. 

 In the beginning of the anime we see one of our main characters ,named Fuu, working in a small shop slaving around for a gang that terrorises their town. they harass her and do what the want permanently; they don't just harass her actually, they do it too everyone. this is only as the leader of the small gang is the son of a powerful and rich man who orders the town around and all of the inhabitants. until our other two main charters begin to appear out of the blue. Along with Fuu we have two more characters that seem completely different than Fuu, and, can be even more worse than Fuu.

 Fuu; although she is 15, she works as a waitress in a small tea shop to try and earn just a little bit of money. Her goal at the moment in time is to find a samurai who smells like sunflowers. Although she can't do this just by herself she is still determined to find him, the audience isn't told straight away, we do eventually find out why and it is, kind of, interesting (that's all i'm saying for now).

She comes across as annoying most of the time; but then again i feel like the audience will begin to like her as she does have some valid and interesting points (that annoy the other people she travels with). She does seem quite simple minded at times and a bit slow going, sometimes she's pushy and sometimes she's easy going; but we see her in all kinds of attitudes and personalities, some of which annoy me, personally, and some of which suit her much better. For instance, i prefer it when the other characters aren't around, she tends to be herself and comes across as pretty laid back.

 Mugen; he's older than fuu by 5 years, at the age of 20 you would of thought this guy would have at least a bit of common sense and would of taken care of himself. Far from it my friends, he doesn't look after himself at all, he has no money, he has no where to live... And he tends to get around about his daily life by fighting people with his wild styled techniques.  All he does in his life is wander around different towns, running errands for those who need body guards or if they need to get rid of a small gang that troubles the town, then this wild headed maniac is the magical wanderer that everyone needs. 

 He comes across as quite odd when we see him near other (not so important) characters; The character design around him seems to come across as quite modern and new when we think about the time period. He seems to have no respect, seriously has no self respect, He doesn't get along with anyone, He doesn't care about what people think and most of all... He takes orders from no one. When we compare this behaviour to the time period and what would be expected of those people, they would respect themselves and all people around them, They would do as they are told as a sign of respect and would defiantly care about what others think as that can reflect on their social status. Even though he seems out of tune in this old fashioned world, he appears as unique as we would expect in a crazy story lined type of anime... If that even makes sense? Finally, this guy is my favourite character in the series, mainly because of the attitude and behaviour he portrays through out..... And maybe, just maybe, i might like him cause of the amazing sword and metal soled shoes that he has, making the fight scenes even better and quite humorous to watch. 

 Jin; Although he is also 20 years old, he seems to take quite a calmer and gentler approach to life, even though he does walk around with his sword, most of the time, on show.. He comes across as the calmer one of the three characters and one of the smartest. He does look a little bit older than 20 though, but this is probably because Mugen acts and looks very young for a 20 year old. His fighting style is sophisticated and old fashioned which suits him perfectly as he seems older than he actually is. He isn't as extreme as Mugen, as in, when he fights it's actually for a reason.

He dislikes Mugen for his fighting style and the fact that he has no goal in life; he acts kind of awkward around Fuu, this may be due to his awkward nature around some women... Everyone can clearly see that he has to be the most uncomfortable around all sorts of people. (if that even makes sense)?? Since his fighting style is quite old fashioned, he doesn't seem to like the sorts of people that appear through out the anime; those people that belong to small gangs and have no respect for anyone. He seriously hate sthose who take from the poor and give to the rich; we can easily see this in the first few episodes when a small gang decide to kill a villager who cannot pay his rent, he steps in to help the poor villager and by doing this... He also kills the gangs leaders body guards... Subtle?

The anime seems to be focused on these three characters, with some extra characters that we meet even quicker than they disappear. But, if we pay attention to the direction that the anime seems to go in, and, what the characters surrounding the story line are actually like... The anime then seems to be about Japan leaving the old methods and life style behind, and becoming more modern. This then meaning that the characters start to completely change, for the good, or for the bad...? You'll have to decide on that one. 

 The anime, even though it's old, still has pretyy good animation. Plus, the fight scenes look amazing as it's kind of new, as we don't see that many old fashioned type of fighting and life style animes. It's a good watch and can be quite humorous at times, but apart from that it can be seen as quite serious. Nearly all of the time their being chased down by another gang from another village/town. It is a really good watch and i certainly enjoyed the series. 

Saturday, 17th August.  9:40 Am   ~AmyXxxx