Samurai Champloo is director Shinichiro Watanabe’s (Cowboy Bebop) second anime series. Like Bebop, the series is a breath of fresh air: just when I thought that the samurai genre was milked completely dry, along came Champloo. Samurai Champloo is a series that left me not only wishing that there was more than twenty-six episodes but also praising Watanabe for his beautiful sophomore work, which is arguably just as good as its predecessor.

Champloo is a historical piece set in the Edo era. However, it is a historical piece unlike any I have ever seen before, since it does not follow any of the rules. From break-dancing samurai to the presence of Americans in Japan before the United States even existed, Watanabe clearly could not care less about the historical accuracy of his series. Nevertheless, he takes advantage of the period Champloo is set in as much as possible. Sounds inconsistent? Well, it definitely seems so at first, but as the disclaimer at the beginning of the first episode claims, you’ll find Watanabe’s take on history fantastic if you just sit back and watch. The originality and creativity factors are both over the roof. Not surprisingly, the series itself is often very, very funny; the characters themselves (the three main ones being as different from each other as conceivably possible) are quirky and tend to have trouble interacting “normally.” As if that were not enough, though, the situations they find themselves in throughout the series are even more amusing.

The animation is perfect. Champloo’s action scenes are the most impressive and most fluid that I have ever seen in an anime series, and the hip-hop feel is communicated flawlessly through characters’ movements. The character design is very attractive and there is not a single instance I can think of in which the animation is not consistent. Supporting characters are given as much attention as main characters. Landscapes, too, are always detailed and sometimes even breathtaking, especially when there is water involved or when it is nighttime – and there are lots of truly amazing water-involving nighttime scenes throughout the series. Samurai Champloo, without even once flaunting CG Gonzo-style, is easily one of the best-animated series of recent years.

The music works extremely well with what’s happening on-screen. Action scenes are often coordinated with the song that is playing at the moment, pulling you oh-so-much more into Champloo’s world. While the opening song is rather silly, the ending song is beautiful. The best part is that there are five episodes in which the ending song changes to fit the mood left by the episode’s end – and in two of these instances, the ending songs were so appropriate that I found myself on the verge of crying.

The series is almost entirely episodic. This is completely natural, however, since Champloo tells the story of three people on a journey. The nearly slice-of-life story is best justified by the idea of journeys being more important than destinations. Although there is mention of the Sunflower Samurai in almost every episode, and small hints are plentiful, very rarely does anything important about him actually get revealed. Like Bebop, episodes generally either focus on a certain character’s development or the developing relationship between Fuu, Mugen, and Jin, collectively. The little amount of story there is does, however, develop slowly, finally culminating in the excellent short last arc that concludes the story.

Champloo, while kicking off with a blast, sees a long chain of weak episodes following the incredible first one. About one-third of the way, through, however, the series turns good. My overall reaction to the first part of the series was negative: I often found myself all but unwilling to watch the next episode, despite the excellent animation, music, and action. Once I hit a certain point, however, I literally could not stop watching. At that point, I could not watch episodes one at a time: Champloo became so irresistible that I could only watch six or seven episodes in a row before taking a break to do anything else.

Why did this happen, you ask? Well, Champloo is perfect proof that even a series with barely any semblance of a plot can be spectacular. At first, Champloo is style over substance; soon enough, however, substance takes the upper hand, but in the form of character interaction and development instead of plot depth. While the series never ceases to be stylish, it quickly becomes the characters that you watch the show for, not the impressive fight scenes. As Watanabe makes the characters grow in depth individually, through certain-character-centric episodes, their relationship with each other grows into something truly worth watching for the sake of the character interaction itself. The presence of fascinating supporting characters not only strengthens the series itself, but also strengthens the relationship between Mugen, Fuu, and Jin that lies at the core of the series.

The ending does not disappoint. All questions are answered and all plotlines are tied up. By the end of the final episode, you known just about all you need to know about each character, and you feel like you’ve known them for much longer than the thirteen or so collective hours you spent watching the series. There are some things about the ending that could have certainly been executed better, but good endings are hard to come by anyway, and this one is a lot better than most. If anything, the final ending song is one of the best (and best-suited) songs in the series.

This is a series that no one should miss. It has amazing action scenes, beautiful animation and music, lots of great humor (but lots of sad and depressing stories as well), three incredible main characters, and a cast of supporting characters with a level of depth I’ve seen in very few other series. I most strongly suggest watching the series if you are tired of the samurai action genre and would otherwise never touch a series with “samurai” in the title, because Samurai Champloo really is something new and should convince you that not all hope for the genre is lost.

One thing’s for sure: I will eagerly wait for Shinichiro Watanabe’s next work, because few artists of any sort can follow up a debut as incredible and as widely acclaimed as Cowboy Bebop was with something just as good.