Samurai Champloo Discussion

Zephie-chan · Post by **Zephie-chan** » Sat May 14, 2005 9:58 pm

EDIT: This topic is discussed as the episodes of Samurai Champloo air on Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" block. This, of course, will lead to spoilers spead across the posts. Please be careful.

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So far I'm really enjoying this!

I recognize several voices, most prominent being one of my all-time favorites, Beau Billingslea, as that emperor guy, the ass who's son burned to death. I could also swear the main character guy, Mugen, is really Steven Blum, another all-time favorite, but I can't say for sure. He's got some pronunciations and general voice range and attitude as him, but the credited name isn't a name I recognize that he uses.

I recognize Fuu's voice as well. Kari Wahlgren. She's been in LOADS! She's not a favorite favorite of mine, but she's definitely on my respected list.

They showed blood. Yay! They cursed. Yay! I don't know what was up with that "wah, bah wah, wah wah" record scratching thing when the guy was supposed to say "shit", but... Whatever...

The voices are very well played. Geneon has always had a history of wonderfully played and directed voices. I'm very pleased with their newest endeavor.

"He doesn't know the meaning of restraint," Jin says sardonically.
"Kiss my ass."

Typheus · Post by **Typheus** » Sat May 14, 2005 10:04 pm

dude....zephie I swear to god we think alike because I was in the process of making a topic about it and then exitted out because I thought Metropolis was comming on, and I adress how funny Mugen was when he told Jin to kiss his ass like that.

Mugen's voice reminded me of Spike off of Cowboy Bebop or something similar....The Fighter for higher off of Rouroni Kenshin perhaps? Ack.

Zephie-chan · Post by **Zephie-chan** » Sat May 14, 2005 10:26 pm

Yep. Steven Blum is the voice of Spike from Cowboy Bebop. I could swear that's him, he used to go by at least three different names: "Steven Jay Blum", "Steven Blum", and "David Lucas". His real name being the first two mentioned. Most voice actors choose at least two to three different names for union work and non-union work.

Since his David Lucas persona was discovered and well known publicly, he probably created a new alias to go under. This isn't unusual. I have to go with the assumption that he is the main character for now until I find out otherwise. I believe this to be true for several reasons, which I won't list for reasons that there's a slight chance I could be fatally wrong -- but I'm very good with voices, I always have been.

And the fighter for hire on Rurouni Kenshin was Sanosuke Sagara (I'm a big "Ruroken" fan -- the manga mostly), and his voice was played by Lex Lang, who is also in Samurai Champloo, but I'm not sure who he plays yet.

Typheus · Post by **Typheus** » Sun May 15, 2005 9:41 am

Is it gonna be like Rouroni Kenshin? No supernatural stuff? Dont get me wrong I loved Rouroni Kenshin but I love animes with supernatural thigns involved such as FMA and One Piece. The way they fight seems to be almost doable for once XD Unlike Rouroni Kenshin where everything is going at lightspeed and people are getting blown through a wall or more.

PS: The makers of Metropolis are artistical geniuses but I wanted to fall asleep through more than one part of it :/ The old music playing at the end was cool.

Zephie-chan · Post by **Zephie-chan** » Sun May 15, 2005 11:44 am

I'm not sure to be perfectly honest. Like I said I'm watching this series for the first time as well, but if this is anything like recent anime (it was aired in 2004 originally), then it should have some fantasy element to it. I'm hoping for a cross between Ruroken and Samurai Deeper Kyo.

I fully intend of buying Samurai Champloo DVDs along with Fullmetal Alchemist, the volumes are updated throughout at my local Wal*Mart, so I'm extremely tempted go download the fansubs and find out... I dunno. Maybe.

For now though, I think I'm going to see how the second episode turns out.

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As for Metropolis, I agree that I haven't seen such artistical talent and animation since Studio Ghibli. I found it quite entertaining throughout and was absolutely hooked when I rented it at Blockbuster years ago. I was just recently thinking I wanted to see it again when it came on: Its a genre of anime that you don't see anymore, and a pleasent escape from current days (at least for me).

mecha · Post by **mecha** » Sun May 15, 2005 10:02 pm

Mugen's voice actor is indeed Steven Jay Blum. He is credited as John Daniels. The overall dub of SC is amazing.

Typheus · Post by **Typheus** » Mon May 16, 2005 2:24 pm

Good lord I didnt even know there was a guy named Mugen on these boards >> Or maybe I didn't notice it because I didn't know if it came form anywhere.

Post by **Verence** » Mon May 16, 2005 3:14 pm

What? Stevie has a new pseudonym?

I knew it was him anyway.

I like the dub, but not quite well enough to prefer it over the original, even though some of my favorite VAs are in it.

Three cheers for blood and severed limbs!

Hip hip!

...

Zephie-chan · Post by **Zephie-chan** » Thu May 19, 2005 11:43 pm

I've just gotten hold of an edit list for the first episode of Samurai Champloo. Amazingly enough, there were hardly any at all, and even those that were edited out were, of course, wholly unnecessary.

Amazingly enough, the full opening for Samurai Champloo is completely intact and unedited -- I kind of thought this when I watched it, but its also nice for my suspicions to be confirmed.

Remember that "scratch out" we heard when Jin was talking to that Emperor guy? That was indeed Adult Swim scratching out the word "shit". Another "shit", muttered my Mugen after a group of angry thugs discoverhim, was replaced with unintelligible mumbling.

Kyle Pope, who is the "pointer-outer" of these errors, has always said that if you want to edit out curse words, though there were others much worse than this in the first episode that were left in tact, at least do it tastefully. Adult Swim made full use of this comment as they scratched out that first "shit" by Jin (applause from both me and Mr. Pope for keeping with the hip-hop style of the anime), and the muttering was also well done... I didn't even notice it was an edit; thumbs up in my book!

Also noted was the fact that Samurai Champloo is directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, the famed director of Cowboy Bebop! I thought the overall atmosphere of this anime felt incredibly familiar... Now I know why.

Typheus · Post by **Typheus** » Fri May 20, 2005 5:02 pm

Probably because the main character is Spike ^^

Zephie-chan · Post by **Zephie-chan** » Sat May 21, 2005 9:59 pm

So, all three voice actors from the English version of Cowboy Bebop have made an appearance! Steven Blum as the main character, Beau Billingslea as the Emperor from episode 1, and Wendee Lee as the drunk chick who poisoned Mugen. I saw it coming that all three of them would appear at one time or another since the first episode, but I didn't expect it quite so soon. Oh well, it rocked anyway.

I adore Watanabe's Directing in this series just as much as I loved Cowboy Bebop's; he has such a unique sense of style -- his choice of cuts and camera positioning/angles. The artists and coloring departments really put everything they had into it as well... I especially enjoy the choreography of the fight scenes and how they're animated.

So far I'm also liking the stories they've come up with and how they've executed them, this episode 2 was absolutely amazing. I'm definitely going to have to get the DVDs, hands down! I'm loving everything about Samurai Champloo!

Typheus · Post by **Typheus** » Sat May 21, 2005 10:10 pm

Jeez you mustve rushed here to post that last message.

Dude that scene where they were in the hot spring freaked me out. I would've probably said the same thing as Jin when they guy was talking about gay Fireflies (wtf?).

The ogre dude wasn't really as scary as I thought he would be....I mean...thats not really scary at all...

Dude trying to fight some guy twice your size and twice as strong as your while your practicly on drugs is probably no easy task.

g2g Inuyasha movie is on

Zephie-chan · Post by **Zephie-chan** » Sun May 22, 2005 1:19 am

Haha. Yeah, Samurai Champloo gets a little weird at times it seems, but it's a good kind of weird. At least I think so...

As for my rushing here, that's 100% exactly true; I do exactly the same thing as I started to do with Fullmetal Alchemist -- as I'm watching the show I comment on things that catch my fancy and adjust whatever needs be as things unravel. After the episode hits the credits I post it, so it only seems like I rushed.

.

InuYasha = Goodness. The dubs aren't the best, but the movies still kick some serious ass.

Zephie-chan · Post by **Zephie-chan** » Mon May 30, 2005 3:56 am

Ahh!! I never made a post about episode 3! Bad me! Bad me!

At any rate, the Shattner is hitting the fan between Mugen and Jin, and our little Fuu-chan is locked behind wooden bars of a brothel. Talk about bad frickin' luck if you ask me. Personally I would have taken out a wrench and let those two guys have it for blaming Fuu about the vase. I mean, come on... But that's how some things were back then too -- people tricked or purposely ruined into servitude.

I personally like the character of Mugen. Good guy but also a bad guy, following his life the way he wants to with a personal code all his own... though his moral code needs some work.

.

Typheus · Post by **Typheus** » Mon May 30, 2005 11:06 am

Fuubuu in a brothel....good god for some reason it fits her. Seriously she needs to start carrying around something heavy...like a crow bar (if they had em back then).

Mugen doesn't seem to be that much of a good guy if you ask me...I mean working for people who cheat others out of their homes and wives isn't something I would picture any self respecting person to do. But I gotta admit stabbing that guy with the little wooden fork thing was awsome.

Jin knows how to embarass people. It doesn't get much worse than having your clothes cut off in a public restaurant XD.

Eh you just know they are gonna have an episode where they finally duke it out. Im just wondering if there will ever be a winner because they seem to be pretty much evenly matched so the only way one of them could lose is to screw up or get into a bad situation. Eh watch the Sunflower Samurai come and kick both their asses.

And theres probably gonna be a bigass fight between those two gangs...I would just love to see that. Ack im still waiting for some fantasy element...like some Tao dude who can shoot fire from his hands or somethin.