Product Description

Mugen’s a buck-wild warrior -- violent, thoughtless and womanizing. Jin is a vagrant ronin -- mysterious, traditional, well-mannered and very strong as well. These two fiercely independent warriors can’t be any more different from one another, yet their paths cross when Fuu, a ditzy waitress, saves them from being executed when they are arrested after a violent swordfight. Fuu convinces the two vagrant young men to help her find a mysterious samurai "who smells of sunflowers." And their journey begins

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4306 in DVD
• Brand: Funimation
• Released on: 2009-06-30
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: Japanese, English
• Number of discs: 7
• Dimensions: 5.00 pounds
• Running time: 625 minutes

Features

• Mugen s a buck-wild warrior -- violent, thoughtless and womanizing.  Jin is a vagrant ronin -- mysterious, traditional, well-mannered and very strong as well.  These two fiercely independent warriors can t be any more different from one another, yet their paths cross when Fuu, a ditzy waitress, saves them from being executed when they are arrested after a violent swordfight.  Fuu co

Customer Reviews

a samurai period piece... and hip hop
Mugen is a cocky, rebellious, bandy-legged fighter who incorporates break-dancing techniques into his unorthodox fighting style. Jin is more your typically calm and stoic samurai (or ronin, to be more precise), steeped in martial tradition, who finds satisfaction in the perfect execution of his warrior craft. Mugen and Jin aren't friends - in fact, they are contentious and want to test their skills against each other - yet they find themselves joining forces, thanks to Fuu, an insistent and kinda quirky waitress who inveigles the two into helping her search for the Samurai Who Smells Like Sunflowers. For 26 episodes, the discordant trio undergo many adventures, some serious, some hilarious, some just plain out weird. The only constants are the bickerings amongst the three, the scrounging for food, and the intrusion of modern day sensibilities. Oh, and the rampant butt kicking as done by Mugen and Jin.

On the heels of his popular Cowboy Bebop anime series, Shinichiro Watanabe decided to put a new spin on the samurai anime with his irreverent, hip Samurai Shamploo. Shamploo means "stir fry" or a mix, and this is certainly what this series is about, as it fuses the traditional samurai credo and decorum with the unexpected modern day incursions of hip hop attitudes, beatboxing, street tagging, and baseball. The episodes are supported by cool Japanese hip hop music soundtracks and blazing hip hop scratches for scene segues. Watanabe also makes beautiful use of visual metaphors, thereby adding more depth to the shenanigans. The ripping animation and dynamically constructed fight scenes are guaranteed not to disappoint.

Kudos, too, to the voice actors, especially Steven Jay Blum (aka Daniel Andrews, who also voiced Cowboy Bebop's Spike) as the bestial Mugen. Kirk Thornton as Jin and Kari Wahlgren as Fuu are both excellent. The voice actor for the sometimes series narrator Policeman Sakami Manzou ("the Saw") is also very good.

These episodes are definitely rated PG-13. This anime series doesn't hesitate to throw in scenes of drug use and graphic violence. Some episodes even contain mild sexual scenes.

My favorite episodes are "The Art of Altercation" (for the rapping samurai and his beatbox backup), the atmospheric "Cosmic Collisions" (where the trio fight the undead), the hilarious "Baseball Blues" (where the American pitcher couldn't find the strike zone with the dog at bat, and he ends up inadvertently hitting the mutt - not to worry, no animated dogs were hurt in the making of this anime), and the concluding 3-episode arc "Evanescent Encounter" (where Mugen and Jin are challenged to their very limits, resolve their rivalry, and Fuu at last catches up to the Sunflower Samurai).

Here are the 26 episodes (American titles first, with the original Japanese titles in parenthesis):

- "Tempestuous Temperaments" ("Storm and Stress") Episode 1
- "Redeye Reprisal" ("Veritable Pandemonium") Episode 2
- "Hellhounds for Hire" Parts One & Two ("Tacit Understanding") Episode 3-4
- "Artistic Anarchy" ("Utter Indifference") Episode 5
- "Stranger Searching" ("RedHeaded Foreigner") Episode 6
- "A Risky Racket" ("Surrounded on All Sides") Episode 7
- "The Art of Altercation" ("Self-Conceit") Episode 8
- "Beatbox Bandits" ("Evil Spirits") Episode 9
- "Lethal Lunacy" ("Fighting Fire with Fire") Episode 10
- "Gamblers and Gallantry" ("Fallen Angels") Episode 11
- "The Disorder Diaries" ("Learning from the Past") Episode 12
- "Misguided Miscreants" Parts One & Two ("Dark Night's Road") Episode 13-14
- "Bogus Booty" ("Through and Through") Episode 15
- "Lullabies of the Lost" Verses One & Two ("Idling One's Life Away") Episode 16-17
- "War of the Words" ("Pen in One Hand, Sword in the Other") Episode 18
- "Unholy Union" ("Karma and Retribution") Episode 19
- "Elegy of Entrapment" Verses One & Two ("Generous Elegy") Episode 20-21
- "Cosmic Collisions" ("Anger Shot Toward Heaven") Episode 22
- "Baseball Blues" ("Heart and Soul into the Ball") Episode 23
- "Evanescent Encounter" Parts One - Three ("Circle of Transmigration") Episode 24-26

Samurai fighting to hip-hop music? Cool.
It's hard to take "Samurai Champloo" too seriously. The series features a breakdancing samurai, hip-hop music, beatboxing and rapping.

But "Samurai Champloo" is a masterpiece in light comedy, action and even a compelling story involving a daughter of a samurai who smells of sunflowers.

As the two samurai heroes say in episode two, there's something silly about a samurai who smells of sunflowers. However, this series truly shows off some of the best battles ever seen in an anime, embellished with the gorgeous environment of ancient Japan. There's a wide variety of stories, from a complex episode about a dying mother, an episode about the origins of Japanese manga and even an episode about a traveling geisha.

There's just one catch--the series is chock full of hip-hop references. Episode 8 alone is a goofy comedy tidbit about a samurai traveling the world with a beatboxing companion. Episode 16 features three samurai travelers rapping rumors they've heard on the road. Episode 18 gives us a closer look at the dangerous life of taggers in ancient Japan.

Okay, maybe this isn't the most realistic period piece series ever made. However, this series has so much fun with blending hip-hop, Christian missionaries and samurai fighting together that one can't resist loving this series.

It's no surprise that this is one of the most accessible action anime series around. Director Shinichiro Watanabe, responsible for the excellent series "Cowboy Bebop," has a flair for creating some of the slickest battle sequences ever made. His storylines might be more simplistic than, say, "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex." However, this is exactly why American audiences enjoy his anime series the most. They are simple stories of men who fight for something they care for.

There's no better time to buy the box set of "Samurai Champloo." The box set is $30 cheaper than the Geneon set, so anime fans have to get this collection. Hands down, this is one of my absolute favorites.

Worth the money!
this thing is heka sick! If you're viewing the product than you know what im talking about! Once you start disc one, you're hooked even long after you're done with the set! Samurai Champloo left me and my friends wishing there was more just because thats how sick it is! Hardly any of it was predictable! Don't believe me? Youtube the first episode. There's plenty of action, cursing, blood and gore so this is deffinately "a guy's must see"! And amazon has this set the cheapest in price too!