Hey all
AP3X here after a long hiatus, and I’m ready to get back on the TOV track and
hit you with some reviews.
What’s cooler than giant afros and Samurai swords? Giant afros, Samurai swords, sex with hot big breasted girls, ninjas, cyborgs, robots, rocket launchers, and an opening theme song by the RZA of Wutang Clan fame.
What could possibly have all that? Afro Samurai distributed by Funimation in a nifty unrated director’s cut, and the regular Spike TV version. The series is directed by Fuminori Kizaki and Jamie Simone. Samuel Jackson voices the title character and his friend Ninja Ninja, while Kelly Hu voices Otsuru, and Ron Perlman does the antagonist Justice. The series is based off the manga of the same name by Tokashi Okazaki. Having seen both the Spike TV version and the unrated director’s cut I can tell you that the uncut version is the way to go. Simply put it’s the only way to see this series.
Afro Samurai isn’t crazy on story or long plots. At five thirty minute episodes it doesn’t have the time to develop a complex story, and honestly it doesn’t really need to. The story is as follows; there are two headbands in the world, the number 1 head band and the number 2 headband. The number 1 headband is the world’s best fighter and possessing it is supposed to convey some godlike powers. However the only person who can challenge the number 1 is the owner of the number 2 head band. Unfortunately for number 2, anyone can challenge the number 2 for his headband. Afro’s dad is the current number 1 when the story opens, and he fights the number 2 in a death match right in front of little Afro. The number 2, a gunslinger named Justice, kills Afro’s dad. The rest of the show is about Afro getting the number 2 headband and going to fight Justice.
And on to the Juicy stuff….
The Good:
-The animation is top notch here. No surprise as it was estimated to cost $1 million dollars per episode to make. Everything is well designed and looks great.
-The fighting is off the charts. Afro is one bad ass motherfucker. I get so tired of reused fighting clips and not enough action in anime these days. This series seriously don’t disappoint on that end.
-To go with the fighting is the rating. It’s obvious this series isn’t for kids.
There is sex and cursing and gallons of blood throughout. That is a plus in my book. It’s about time we
see some serious adult stuff in the
-The music and look and feel are great. Its got a nice combination of medieval
The Bad
-Ninja Ninja can seriously get on your nerves. I can totally see why Afro wants him to shut up all the time. The guy is the loudest fucking ninja on the planet. Sometimes he is funny, but the rest of the time he’s just seriously fucking annoying.
-Short running time. I would’ve loved to see this series go on for another five episodes. Even though the story is very straight forward, they could have had some good character work if given more time.
The Ugly
-None.
Final result is a 4 of 5. I thoroughly loved this anime, and it will definitely be re-watched more than a few times. It’s great for those times you just want to view some great action with some T&A thrown in here and there.
