I'm Mad At Afro Samurai

Yeah, I admit it, I'm mad at the Afro Samurai franchise. In the second episode, Okiku and Afro sleep together and then she is killed. How cliche. How disappointing. Are there no heroes any more? Why can't these super-duper, totally amazing, sword/gun/raygun wunderkind ever protect those they love or who love them? What good is that kind of skill if it isn't used for good (or excessive personal gain)? Couldn't he have pursued revenge for his father's death and helped those around him?

Not many characters do these days.

I like the intro song to Afro Samurai. The music is by the RZA.

Afro Samurai -- The Pilot Recap

It starts with a short backstory. The AfroSamurai is just a kid (not a samurai yet) and his father is Number One. To be Number One means you're a sort of a god; no one can touch you. No one, except Number Two.

Number Two lives a life of constant combat. Anyone can challenge Number Two. And, apparently, everyone does challenge Number Two.

The Number Two who challenges Afro's father is a strange-looking cowboy fellow with a four-square hat named Justice. He manages to best Number One and removes his own headband, putting the Number One headband in its place.

He makes a short speech to the young Afro and ends it with: "Come challenge me when you're old enough."

Fast forward and Afro is an adult. He's surrounded by thirty or so bad guys who have been hired to take his headband. In swift and bloody fashion, he despatches them all. He ends with the line: "Nothing personal; it's just revenge."

Perched in a tree, a strange fellow watches the whole tiff.

As Afro walks away, NinjaNinja, who has been crouching on a rock and also watching the fight speaks to him. He tells him about the fellow in the tree, but Afro seems unconcerned. NinjaNinja follows Afro and they walk off the screen.

In a bar, a fight begins. A man sits in a corner asking about the legend of the AfroSamurai and a woman tends bar. Afro arrives and walks nonchalantly between the combatants. Naturally, one of them has to attack him, but the attempt turns out ill-fated.

Afro orders a lemonade and provides his own straw--a pretty nifty-looking one with a gem hanging from it. The bartender murmurs some advice about the bad guys waiting for him at the mountain pass. He thanks her and leaves.

The man from the bar catches up and introduces himself as Shosun. He challenges Afro and pulls out a crossbow with a grenade launcher on it. Afro defeats him handily, but receives a wound in the process.

Up on the cliff, some bad guys from a temple (that is not in the least bit ascetic or introspective) watch. Number Eight realizes Afro is wounded and leaps down to finish him off. He pulls out an RPG and fires it. Afro cuts it in half and the two halves pass around him and NinjaNinja, exploding behind them and taking out a large chunk of the mountain.

The pilot ends with Afro falling among the debris. Where will he land? On his feet. He's one cool cat.

Ha! Just had to say that. Likely he'll land in a very damaged position and need the tending of the lovely Okiku (Kelly Hu) who we have not yet met.

Review is here.

Afro Samurai -- The Pilot Review

I enjoyed it. A nice balance of action and stoicism. The animation is lively and mostly monochromatic, with the exception of lots of red in some scenes.

Samuel L. Jackson is the voice of both brooding, man-of-few-words Afro and hyper, chatty NinjaNinja. The bad guys are really really bad and very determined to take what is not theirs by whatever means possible, but Afro is on a mission of vengeance over his father's death and won't be deterred. The story just got started in this one and I think we met a lot of characters that we won't meet again (besides the ones who died). The next few episodes will reveal if the plot moves forward much in a half hour.

I'll be there next week. It's showing on Spike and each episode shows more than once, so you may not have missed it yet. Recap is here.

Afro Samurai

This one looks interesting: Afro Samurai. It's a new anime with Samuel L. Jackson as the lead character. Showing on Spike starting 4 Jan 2007. They have three previews up on their site and an interview with Jackson. The previews are mostly some guy firing guns and Jackson's character protesting. I'm going to check out at least the first episode. Sometimes they have plots, sometimes they don't, but I think with Samuel L. Jackson in the lead, it has more than a chance of being good.