Samurai Champloo - Complete Box Set (DVD, 2006)

I caught an episodes of Samurai Champloo on [adult swim] and I was immediately intrigued by the series. Although I caught the 7th episode (however, I didn't know it at the time), I was able to understand what was going on with the characters. This particular episode, however, was sad. Even though I had only seen about fifteen minutes of this series, it gave me the impression that the story was a sad one. Nevertheless, the characters were well developed and gave the episode a humorous twist to the story.

I decided to buy the complete season (26 episodes) and I am glad I did! I began, this time, at the beginning of the story. I literally couldn't stop laughing during portions of the first episode. The samurai characters are now two of my favorite characters in anime to the present. Their names are Mugin and Jin as well as the woman character who's name is Fuu. The story starts off well, introducing each of the three characters separately and then forming the story so that all three of the characters wind up traveling together at the end of the first episode.

The series continues with the telling of their journey and the side plots of Mugin's, Jin's, and Fuu's personal backgrounds. As mentioned earlier, the seventh episode was rather sad, but most of the other episodes do not take this route. While a couple other episodes are sad, it works out in the end and I myself wasn't left with a feeling of dread as I have been while watching other anime series. The story is well put together and developed and there is only one episode that sums up the previous half of the season. However, I found this to be beneficial to helping me formulate the story, in part because I was so into the story that I watched the episodes very quickly and I had forgotten some minor details which this 'filler' episode, as I like to call them, helped me remember.

The music that is used in the series is also very well put together. While the music would not be particularly enjoyable by itself, it fit the story's mood when it used along side the animation. The music has a hip-hop/funk theme to it which I found to complement the animation very well (although I am not a huge hip-hop fan).

The animation quality I thought was of very good quality and I thought the art style fit the story and the characters et cetera very well. However, the font used for the titles of the episodes and the various narration throughout the story was a bit hard to read. I had to pause the DVD and turn on the subtitles in order to read some of the episode titles. However, this is a minor flaw and should not be taken into consideration when thinking of buying the series.

The English voices were very well done and fit the characters very well. I didn't use the Japanese audio very much, but from what I did listen to, they were very well done as well. The English subtitles were also very well done. The Japanese audio was louder in volume in comparison to the English audio. The only real complaint that I have does not concern the series itself, but rather the DVD disks. My DVD player cut of the left and right sides of the video. The video was supposed to be WS. This wasn't so much of an issue while watching the video but watching the credits was difficult because the left and right sides were cut off. However, I put the disks in another DVD player and the video was just fine! I think it may be my DVD player so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I strongly recommend this series to all anime fans!

What's there not to like? Samurai Champloo is a total fifteen thumbs, millons of stars box set! This anime is varies in many turns of events and shows multiple morals, along with it's action and gimicks.

The characters show very useful to all of the aspects of the story. In a sense, it seemed to have made a huge impact on me and made me think me of my life. Mugen is personally my favorite. Reason being is because I believe I relate a lot to his personality. I'm very outgoing and not afraid of any consequences for my actions such as Mugen is. Plus I'm not shy to get to the ladies as like Mugen. However, Mugen does has a soft spot or as you call it a "sensitive side" for women in trouble as do I.
Jin is, of course, my second favorite character because he is a lot like my best friend, Chris. He stays quiet but is like a watcher of people as if he is everyone's big brother, but it doesn't stop him from being able to kill.
Fuu is a character I had to let grow on me throughout the series. The reason was that she proved many times to be useless to the whole story, except for the fact that you were looking for the "Samurai who smells of Sunflowers". However, later on in the series, Fuu became more important because her past started reveal more and more until it showed why Mugen, Jin, and Fuu were connected.

Besides the characters, I would have to say that my favorite aspect of this whole series is the music and artwork. I believe I have never heard a most luxurious soundtrack like this. It just flows and blends in with the unique and charismatic artwork that sets multiple moods and atmospheres all throughout the series. After I bought the box set, I bought four soundtracks from Samurai Champloo: Departure, Impression, Masta, and Playlist. These were all produced by Nujabes, fat jon, Force of Nature, and Tsutchie. The music is probably the main reason why I bought the box set.

I considers this anime a class AAA and you have got to buy!!

I recently finished this series, and I have to say that it's probably one of my top choice anime series of all time.

From the same mind that created Cowboy Bebop, director Shinichiro Watanabe switches it up in this series with a story set in the feudal Edo period of Japan. The word "champloo" is derived from the Japanese "champuru", which is a Okinawan word meaning "mixed together." This series is just that and more, where hip hop elements from modern day collide with the elements of Japan's old days of the samurai, coming together to form an entirely new stylish and unique form of anime. The artwork is top notch, which is coupled with a poetical hip hop accent. The characters each have their own distinct characteristics that are easy to fall in love with. All in all, this is a series worth checking out.

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Great dvds. Really nice that it is in japanese and english. Very entertaining and easy to watch. Going to see it over and over again.

It is an excellent copy, just have one issue, the sound is somewhat off. Muu's voice seems to be too high for the quality at which this copy was made, her voice souds distorted, with some reverb in it, but all the male voices are fine. I love it my copy. Female voices sounds somewhat weird, the whole reverb thing; even the outro song is distorted, but overall it is an excellent copy.
The price of the set was a dead give-away for me that this set was either a bootleg or something OTHER than the original, regardless tho, the picture quality is awesome, the sound is only stereo, so that is a bummer for me.

From AnimeNewsNetwork.com:
Plot Summary: Mugen is a fierce animal-like warrior with a unique Bboying (break-dance) inspired fighting style. Jin has a more traditional style but don't think of this as a weakness because his skills are amazing. The two contrasting samurai warriors are far from friends, yet their separate paths seem to cross anyways. Mugen is wandering aimlessly through the city when he stumbles upon a teahouse where he meets Jin and Fuu (A ditzy waitress, but don't think she doesn't have anything hidden up her sleeves). Fuu convinces them both to come with her in search of a mysterious samurai that smells like sunflowers and their journey begins. This modernized hip-hop tale breaks the barriers of the common, historical, samurai anime.

For my personal take on this: (avoiding spoilers)
It's a 26 episode Anime that revolves around Mugen and Jin helping Fuu trying to find a Samurai that smells of sunflowers. The timeline is set somewhere in the Meiji Japan era, but uses hued, faint remarks in retrospect involving modern culture, language (slang), and symbolism. The modern remarks are mostly subtle; it manages to add flair, style, and intrigue to the offset looking backdrop (thinking of the large castles, mountains and expansive natural scenery, as well as formality and culture that would have been more pronounced back then.) The music is by far fresh and modern; however, it's so tastefully done that you don't feel like your watching a "modern samurai" series. It blends in by being an accent to the character's settings, and isn't over used throughout the story line.
Besides the story that unfolds, the animation is very good. Less cinematic sequences keep the color palate rather soft and smooth and give focus to the surroundings that the characters are interacting with, such as walking by the Red Light District, the waterfalls, and forest. The action sequences liven up the screen with bold, contrasting sword movements, fluid yet stopped and structured character movement, and sense that this battle may leave our main characters in an extremely tight situation.

Short Summary:
Animation/Artwork: 9/10 (it's very clean, very very few spots they get lazy)
Audio: 10/10 (Very very cleanly done, and even has 5.1)
Dub: 10/10 (Mugen's voice sounds nearly like Spike from Cowboy Bebop, and the rest of the voice work is excellent)
Story: 8/10 (Very very good story, some episodes loose a bit of focus at the task at hand, but are still brought together very well)
Extras: 7/10 (there are some, but it's typical Geneon/Pioneer fashion)

Overall, it's like watching Zatoichi (but with three characters that can see) with a bit of modern flair mixed in. A very good recipe for a samurai Anime that actually works great. I'd strongly recommend it to anyone that likes action, a little bit of blood, and swords.
(Don't expect fan-service though.)

This is a seriously sweet series. The animation is among the cleanest and most defined I have ever seen without having to really use CG effects. The story progresses in a form that is just light enough to keep from overly burdening the mind with contorted philosophy; yes, I'm downplaying anime philosophy. Kudos to them for trying, but their logic is almost nil; Its all just a jumble of a huge sum of conflicting views. Anyway, the show also has some serious fast paced and stylish swordplay, with great central characters in an unlikely trio; good voice-overs to boot; Grave and Miko from Gungrave, Spike from Cowboy Bebop. Thrown in here and there are slick little historical facts that aid to the overall feel of the progression, as well as very offbeat pseudo endings and story shifts; very fun when experienced. I own a large group of anime series, and this is easily among the top series I have purchased. Great re-watching value too. Highly recommended. A-

Ok, first off.... If you buy the three dvd set, you are buying an unlicensed product with inferior picture and subtitle quality. None of the money goes to the makers of the show, which is bad because this show is one of the best animes made, and money encourages more of these types of shows.

You can watch this on Adult Swim, it is made by the same director of Cowboy Bebop, which is another stunning anime. This can be described kinda as Cowboy Bebop with samurai instead of space bounty hunters. The charachters are flushed out throughout the show and the story is great. I wish there were more than 26 episodes, but some excellent anime has been plauged with less episodes so I guess we should count out blessings.

There is some adult content, sex, drugs, and stong language occasionally. The Adult Swim versions are edited, I do not know if the boxset retains the edits.

The price is about the only negative thing to say about this product, if you shop around though you can buy a used boxset or build up the collections manually at a huge savings campared to the new boxset. Anything $70 or less for the true 7 dvd set is a great deal.

The item was advertised as available and FAST SHIPPING. After a few emails inquiring about the status they told me the item was backordered. THe only reason why they get average is because the reimbursement process was easy, not necessarily quick but really easy to submit.

The transaction went easy and she even gave me some money off! However she failed to say that they were bootlegged but that explains why they were so cheap. She always replies to your emails so that is a huge plus and thank god she did. Good trustworthy person just make sure you read the description carefully and ask questions.

I always kind of watched it whenever possible on Adult Swim then finally decided to buy the whole complete collection. I love it so much because it is just crazy. Even got my best friend to like it.