Welcome to 2007! To greet the new year, I thought I’d give a quick review of SpikeTV’s Afro Samurai! You can view the first episode here!
Story
Afro Samurai tells the story of two ancient headbands – number one and number two. The wearer of headband number one has the powers of ‘a god’ – or something. They can only be defeated by the wearer of headband number two. Afro Samurai’s father originally wore headband one before he was killed. As Afro Samurai says in the first episode: “Nothing personal. It’s just…revenge.” Another quote that sets up the driving force of the series: “My aim is to only move forward.”
Animation
The animation of episode one was outstanding – the character designs are really strong with detailed shadow and highlights throughout. Animation production is handled by GONZO and features their usual high-caliber work.
Credits
The cast includes Samuel L. Jackson as the voice of both Afro Samurai and Ninja Ninja, with Ron Perlman as Justice and Kelly Hu as Okiku. This is a joint English/Japanese production with Spike TV and FUNimation. Music is by RZA. You can also watch episode one of Afro Samurai online (you have to sit through 2 commercials).
Conclusion
Overall I thought it was pretty good. A bit more violent than I was expecting, but oh well. Episode one showed some interesting elements of sci-fi too, which seems cool. We’ll find out more with episode 2, which airs Thursday, January 4th @ 11:00pm on Spike TV. Let us know what you think of the Afro Samurai anime in the comments!
I’ve updated the link to episode one so that it actually works now!
I liked it quite a bit. Looking forward to the second episode.
i love it!! even done a bit of review of this anime which will published some time soon on my blog…the fight scenes were awesome.
Chris – I’m looking forward to the rest of the episodes too.
Apek-kun – I agree – the fights were well-done. I haven’t seen that much shocking limb/head chopping action in quite some time though. While shocking, I understand it’s place in the story.
BTW this is off-topic, but thanks for posting that Final Fantasy/Zelda live action YouTube video on your site. That was incredible!
imo..the fights were a bit like BOTI manga and RK: Trust & Betrayal..blood splashing..limbs flying everywhere..
Mmmm, Gonzo! They always deliver insane quality, so I’m impressed yet again
Plus it’s Samuel L. Jackson.
HI! CJ here from Germany (US Forces). Guess I missed the 5th episode of AS or are there more than 5.