- Afro Samurai (Academy Award® nominee Samuel L. Jackson) avenged his father and found a life of peace. But the legendary master is forced back into the game by a beautiful and deadly woman from his past. The sparks of violence dropped along Afro’s bloody path now burn out of control – and nowhere are the flames of hatred more intense than in the eyes of Sio (Lucy Liu: Kill Bill). She won&#
Ice Cold Soul and a Jones For Revenge….now available on Blu-Ray!
Afro Samurai (voiced by Academy Award® nominated Samuel L. Jackson) is an epic tale of a black samurai’s hunt for Justice (voiced by Ron Perlman: Hellboy Alien Resurrection ) who murdered his father. With music score by The RZA ( Kill Bill Wu Tang Clan) Afro Samurai blends traditional Japanese culture, funky technology and hip hop to create a brutally fresh entertainment experience.
Director’s Cut features:
15 MINUTES OF NEVER BEFORE SEEN FOOTAGE
Exclusive Manga art from Afro Samurai Creator: Takashi Okazaki
Interview with the Creator: Takashi Okazaki
RZA Music Production Tour In the BoothThe violent five-part adventure Afro Samurai marks both the increasing confluence of American and Japanese pop culture and the shift in Japanese depictions of African-Americans. The popularity of hip-hop in Japan has led to more positive images of blacks, including Takashi Okazaki’s original manga. The “Director’s Cut” contains an additional 15 minutes of footage, and is even gorier than the broadcast version on Spike TV. As a boy, Afro Samurai saw his father beheaded by the maniacal Justice. The murderer sought an ancient headband that marks the wearer as the #1 warrior in the world. As an adult, Afro seeks only revenge, cutting down anyone who blocks his path to Justice. Afro Samurai depicts a oddly anachronistic world that infuses cell phones, cigarette lighters, and cyber technology into traditional Japanese culture. The elongated character designs recall Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux, and much of the series is rendered in moody grays, accented by gobbets of scarlet blood. Afro is such a taciturn figure, most of the dialogue goes to his motor-mouth comrade Ninja Ninja. This big budget production features an eclectic score by Wu-Tang Clan co-founder RZA and an A-list vocal cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson and Ron Perlman. But for all its elaborate production values and over-the-top fights, Afro Samurai suffers from a weakness at its core: Afro is so monosyllabic and cold-blooded, he’s not very interesting. His inevitable duel-to-the-death with Justice lacks the emotional punch of Spike’s face-off against Vicious in Cowboy Bebop or Kenshin’s one-on-one with Shishio in Rurouni Kenshin. This extremely violent series is not for the faint of stomach. (Rated TV MA, suitable for ages 17 and older: graphic violence, profanity, sexual activity, grotesque imagery, nudity, risqué humor, alcohol and tobacco use) –Charles Solomon
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Stills from Afro Samurai (click for larger image)
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More Stills (click for larger image)
Buy “Afro Samurai: Season One – Director’s Cut “ For Only $10.50
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Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
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April 1, 2008
#1
He’s there for comic relief and his character really detracts from the dark/serious tone of the story/animation.
April 1, 2008
#2
This has to be the worst anime I have ever seen. The animation is good and that is all. The story blows and the voice acting is even worse.
April 1, 2008
#3
I watched this on Spike. It’s ok, not great but ok.
My biggest beef, why no Japanese language option? Sorry, but dubbed anime sucks.
April 1, 2008
#4
Everything about this anime feels like a scientifically engineered marketing product specifically designed for the American public. That explains both why the animation is high quality (spent money on production) and why everything else sucks so bad. You can’t really care about the characters nor the story because the people who created them didn’t either. The purpose of this show was to make money. Probably the reason why they kept it short, so they could test the water and if it sells well, we’ll see a lot more of this type of “anime” in the future.
I put “anime” in quotes because it really isn’t anime… If you don’t know anything about anime and you think you liked this, do yourself a favor and watch the “real thing”… Samurai Champloo would be a good place to start, Ninja Scroll is a classic, but slightly dated and might put you off if you’re just getting into anime. If you want the best Samurai story ever told on screen, check out Kenshin (the 4 episode OVA, not the 80+ episode TV show). There’re many others, google animenfo for more…
I’d give it 2 stars for high quality production, but the whole “it’s all about making money” undertones of this production compels me to stick to 1 star…
April 1, 2008
#5
Right off the bat I was disappointed in this because when I buy a dvd collection that says “SEASON ONE” i expect a season, not 5 episodes! (thats false advertising!) I did not realize this until the last episode and it was by far one of the most over-rated animes ever.
Visually speaking this is great work. the characters appearance and their mannerisms were unique. I especialy liked samuel jackson’s contribution as ninja ninja and I like that it opened animes to a crowd of people that may not like anime. This gets it the two stars I gae but thats all i can say good about it.
The plot was, for lack of a better word, bad. The story was rushed, every fight scene had a well animated more or two but the rest of the fight would be a “been there, done that” kind of fight. The only unique battle I can recall was the fight against afrobot, it was entertaining, but not that good. Afro was a totally uninteresting character who was not likeable, I actually thought Justice was the good guy by the end of the anime because Afro was so bland and cliche (a jimi hendrix lookin guy with an afro smoking a joint. . . wooow original) And why did they make such a big deal about the soundtrack? Not that monumental, definatley thought Rza would contribute more to a major anime soundtrack than those bootleg mixtape level beats.
All in all this was, as the title says, a recycled Samurai Champloo. This was another “been there, done that” moment for me becuase Samurai Champloo already conquered the Hip-Hop/Samurai Anime idea and did so in epic proportions. If you are a fan of anime then you will treat this like a mediocre painting, you’ll look at it, say thats nice, and never want to look at it again.
P.S. I couldnt even sell it to FYE for 1/2 of wat i paid 4 it!