Afro Samurai Review - 47/100
Afro Samurai is the perfect example of why you should never let an American company handle an anime. I should have known when I started to watch this. They’ll start to see this as some kind of Hollywood Action-movie, instead of an engrossing tale about likable characters. This anime makes the same mistakes as your typical big-budgeted Hollywood action movie: it thinks that action and pretty graphics instantly make it good. Obviously, just that won’t get you far.
Okay, as a defence, this anime does give our main character a bit of a history and background. It’s just too bad that not too soon, these start to delve into the absurd when the other villains of this show start to use this background, turning something that could have been interesting into a one-sided boring piece of garbage. Any attempts to draw sympathy out of the viewer fails, seeing that the creators seemed to thing that the more horrible your childhood was, the more you can sympathise with your character. Fleshed-out characters don’t even come to their minds for a second.
The second episode could be considered the best of the show. Why? Because an actual human gets placed in the role of antagonist. Apart from that, all Afro Samurai has to face are androids, robots and people who manage to heal themselves without any proper reason. All of this, only to make sure that these opponents don’t just die after one hit from a sword, and keep fighting Afro-samurai, who seems to have a limitless amount of stamina. The creators really couldn’t find an interesting antagonist at all, and instead of that, they keep resurrecting old characters who have already died once, just because they ran out of creativity.
The premise, if you can speak of that, revolves around two headbands. A number one and number two-headband. The one who possesses the number one can live as a god. The number two is the only one who can challenge the number one. Afro Samurai is the son of a former number one, who got killed. Because of this, he wants revenge. It’s a good premise, if the focus is put in the right place. Unfortunately, it’s an American company we’re dealing with here. The only two words of that premise that really return in the anime are “challenge” and “revenge”. We never see how the number-one lives. For as far as we know, he just keeps sitting on his lazy ass doing nothing. He also seems to be the only one who gets the god-like powers, strangely enough.
Oh, and yes, Samuel L. Jackson does the voice of the main character in this OVA, but really, don’t expect too much of it. All he does is moan and groan a bit. If this guy really is one of the best actors America has to offer, then I’m glad I don’t live there. This definitely is a good example of a good premise, ruined by Hollywood-influence. I fell in love with anime not just because of the pretty graphics. The things that also drew me to it is the focus, the stories, characters and themes. All of these, I fail to see in Afro Samurai.
I haven’t seen past episode 01, but I was wondering if it would be anything more than lots of graphic violence. The production quality is really good - it’s just too bad this ends up being another forgettable anime.
I wonder if this is being setup as a full-length series? If so, I imagine it would get really, really boring - kinda like I thought the Ninja Scroll anime series was. I couldn’t make it past volume one, because every episode was pretty much like how you described Afro Samurai!
Comment by David — February 8, 2007 @ 16:01
Thank goodness. I thought I was the only one who felt that this show was overrated.
Comment by Silencers — February 8, 2007 @ 18:43
David: Afro-Samurai had five episodes, though it’s just an OVA, much like FLCL. The ending was left open (you do not want to know how, by the way), but I certainly do not hope that they’re planning to continue this anime into a second season.
Comment by psgels — February 8, 2007 @ 20:18
I agree with you on the show, but perhaps you and I are in the minority among American audiences. Also, if an American anime is to copy the Japanese style, then there’s no point in making it at all. We can just import it directly from Japan. I give them points for trying an American interpretation on anime.
Comment by Robotron Mindless — February 8, 2007 @ 21:14
i think its royally fucked up to assume that americans cant handle an anime… funny i used to think the same thing until i saw avatar the last air bender which pwns naruto and bleach in every possible aspect of action, romance and characters. Afro samurai just wasnt executed well, dont place the blame on its american production.
Comment by tman — February 9, 2007 @ 1:47
Afro Samurai is good for what it is. Of course, you can’t (and shouldn’t) expect much, considering who commissioned it and for what purpose. Yes, I like it, but that’s because it gave me exactly what I was expecting: lots and lots of slickly animated ultra-violence. When you have an anime series being done for a late-night slot in an American cable network, catering strictly to the hormone-drenched male 18-to-34-year-old demographic, what were you expecting? Ghost in the Shell?
Your expectations were just misplaced, that’s all. But because of this, you instantly assume that whenever America/Americans/American companies decide to dabble their hands in anime, the result is an instant fail. If that was the case, then Tekkon Kinkreet and Avatar: The Last Airbender would’ve never been made.
Comment by Ganaesh — February 9, 2007 @ 2:47
did the voice acting ever get any better? i never watched passed episode 1. the voice acting was just too painfully retarded for me.
Comment by asdfghj — February 9, 2007 @ 5:56
lol my friend told me about this series, Samuel L Jackson does the voice for the main guy I think. The graphics actually look quite good but I can imagine how bad the voice acting would be lmao.
Comment by TokiDoki — February 10, 2007 @ 16:24
Im not sure if I would call this an American Made Anime, given that it was made by GONZO, and was directed by Fuminori Kizaki who did animation direction and character design for blue gender and galaxy railways. If anything its more like an American funded project. And also I wouldnt call Samuel L Jackson one of the best actors…
Comment by demitrickster — February 10, 2007 @ 18:54
you are justa wanna be satirist, states hater. stfu and get an original thought. afro samurai was decent. btw dont be mad at USA because we are better off than wherever you live.
Comment by onlyUSisgood — February 11, 2007 @ 2:20
After all this, I did a bit of research, and indeed, Afro Samurai appears to be directed by Japanese. It seems to be an Japanese-American co-production. It seems that I jumped the gun a bit on this one. What we have here is just a very bad anime, that’s all.
Still, the fact remains that Afro Samurai does have a lot of american influences, which, in my opinion, rather ruined it. It took the concept of a hollywood-action movie a bit too serious, in comparison to Catblue Dynamite, which became its downfall.
I haven’t watched Avatar, the last Airbender, by the way, so I can’t judge on that. But I can say that I’ve watched many American cartoons in the past, and just none of them matched up to the things I experienced in anime. This is based on my own experience, though.
Comment by psgels — February 11, 2007 @ 12:12
You should give Avatar a try, seriously. I know exactly what you abt american cartoons being unable to deliver the same experience anime gave us.
It seems the american-side wants to get in on the whole anime deal. Avatar is a good example of this, seeing that they learned and incorporated a lot of things that would normally appear in any japanese anime show.
i did have some expectations for afro, since i was told that it was directed and animated by the japanese, but somehow the theme just didn’t fit.
It’s like you poured bolognese sauce and meatballs in a bowl of soba, so to speak.
Comment by Silencers — February 11, 2007 @ 12:54
I agree that Afro Samurai fell short of the hype surrounding it. It’s not nearly as deep a story as it had the chance to be. I am grateful however at the chance to see a strong african american character star in his own series. We do not have nearly enough minorities in strong leading roles….even if it is just an anime. As far as Samuel L Jackson being a great actor….his films have grossed more money at the box office than the work of any other actor in cinematic history.
Comment by MistaTwista — March 13, 2007 @ 2:58
i do agree that the show was not truly that deep and the action wasn’t truly creative it was more decent than a lot of shows i’ve seen. i think ppl need to remember that anime is just another media for telling a story and i bet you guys can imagine how awesome it would be if certain live-action movies and TV series would be if they were anime.
me and my brother have been anime fans since we were little just because we are black and american doesn’t mean we can’t create a story that may seem simple at first glance but have a deeper meaning hidden behind it.
Comment by 7thScythe — April 25, 2007 @ 6:05
i take that back some of the was creative… of course it’s not really that hard to think of creative ways to kill ppl unless your screamish
as for my expectations.. it was pretty much what i expected…which is not a good thing
nothing unexpected happened which is what ill have to do when writing my novel
note to self: create unexpected events
hopefully you guys will be seeing my brother’s work on the shelves in a couple of years though.
Comment by 7thScythe — April 25, 2007 @ 6:22
animation = kickass
story = ass
Comment by kreikins — May 3, 2007 @ 12:52
For all its flaws, I feel it did more good than bad. The animation was incredible and the voice acting was tops (the dialogue could have been better). I wish it had been a couple episodes longer, to give more room for character development. Blends Eastern and Western cultures fairly well.
The only shame is how much money they spent on this thing. : /
Comment by Chuck — May 23, 2007 @ 4:52
all of you stfu it is what it is which is not a japanese anything, it was made for and american audience and the shit was cool, thats all it was supposed to be, cool, cable level show that would hopefully do better on dvd or podcasts, all you japanamation pansies grow up its F@#@$ING cartoons for crying out loud and as for the voice acting its was good and samuel L jackson plays 2 parts (main character and partner) which shows the talent level he has to do that and maybe, just maybe you all have a problem with the main character being black cuz airbender sucks ass and your all loving that sH!t
Comment by deaz — June 23, 2007 @ 15:03
You know, many voice-actors can do two different voices. Samuel L Jackson just two voices in the same show, and judging by the end-result, it would have been better if he didn’t. There indeed wasn’t a problem with the partner, though you can’t really call Afro-Samurai’s grunting voice-acting.
I’ve got nothing wrong with a black protagonist, by the way. I like myself a mingled cast. The reason I dislike Afro Samurai is because of its horrible plot and predictable characters.
Comment by psgels — June 23, 2007 @ 19:05
i think u guys are losing the big picture here, it was a 5 episode OVA not a long running series, it did terrific for 5 episodes in any way, shape or form, just look at fullmetal alchemest, they didnt have half the plot, animation or action of afro samurai and they had 51 friggin episodes and a movie, and lets not forget inuyasha, one of the most loved anime’s was horrible ompared to afro samurai and they had 4 movies, 156 episodes and an ever expanding manga.
Comment by brandon — July 11, 2007 @ 7:11
Well for people defending Afro Samurai well you can kiss my ass! If the demographic is for ages 18 and above then it would be safe to assume that a deep plot will be involved but in this case it didn’t. I watched cartoons that are targeted for younger viewers yet pulled off an incredibly good storyline. This is just disappointing. Kill Bill comes to mind because it has a similar revenge story and gratuitous violence. But what set that apart is the deep character development. The verdict: This show is half-ass. As for the gratuitous violence, I’ve seen way better animated violence than this crap. You can obviously see that Afro used shortcuts in animated violence compared to incredibly detailed violence in animes like Elfen Lied. Afro slices through his opponents but you never see the meat and bones of the enemies. The artists hide it by filling it with a dark color, this is just lame.
Comment by panaghoy88 — August 1, 2007 @ 16:37
Little useless comment : Samuel L. Jackson didn’t only do Afro’s voice. He also did Ninja Ninja’s voice, and we all know that he speaks a freaking lot. So… all he did in this anime wasn’t just “groaning” and “mumbling crap”. :)
Afro Samurai ? Great battles, fluid animation (as expected from Gonzo), great sound ; crappy storyline, useless flashbacks, stereotyped and cliché taste-less villains, no explanations about this “futuristic, yet Feodal Japan”, about the society, how it became like that, etc.
Watch this if you like nonsense action. You prefer shows like Monster, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni or Cowboy Bebop ? Stay far, VEEEERY far from this show.
Comment by Windspirit — August 23, 2007 @ 23:18
Star Crossed Anime Blog? More like Star Crossed Weeabo Blog. Afro Samurai >>>>>>>> you.
Comment by R — September 7, 2007 @ 5:02
I think the show was just a parody of all the revenge cliches, with some mindless violence thrown in for good measure. It was good, but yeah, more character and plot development would have made it remarkable.
Comment by RSEagle — September 19, 2007 @ 22:39
Well, Well, Well, I think it’s ok. though as I’ve read already there was to much cliche’ involved and was too short to really take seriously. Interesting fact though, it cost 1 Million an episode, Gonzo allegedly had never spent that much before. I think it’s good to see them use a black lead character it just seemed a little stereotypical in some parts. To over the top for most true blue Anime fans. I’ve always preferred more light-hearted content when it comes to the relationships of the characters. Most of the Anime I like is more based on adventure, love, virtue,Etc. you know things that get me out of this world, this one just seemed to grim. Tsubasa Chronicle is a prime example of the type of stuff I like, or Inu Yasha one of my all time Tv favorites as well as the movies or pop in a Miyazaki masterpiece like Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle. In all fairness I didn’t even like Samurai Champloo but I like Samurai Jack better than both of these even though it’s not Japanese made. I mean I don’t mean to sound soft but if your watching a Series and in the midst of watching at some point two things should happen laughter and tears rolling down your cheeks, if not it doesn’t seem worth it to me at least. My hats off to Samuel L Jackson as he himself loves anime and I hope in the future he might work with Gonzo or others in voice acting or otherwise. As of now I commemorate three names: Tara Strong, Phil LaMarr and John Dimaggio, great job as always!! You’ve all breathed soul into so many lovable characters!! I hope to hear you more and more, So Rikku, Sig, and Bender until next time!!
Comment by azreal — October 27, 2007 @ 14:34
I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. I like the style and the mixture elements from 70’s Blaxplotation and anime. I think you completely missed the point in your review. Afro was not meant to be a paragon of virtue, he was very selfish and amoral. Also, the series was about style over substance.
I also enjoyed the grim world which, to me at least, felt refreshing when the majority of anime are very far into idealism side of the sliding scale of realism vs. idealism.
Still, a lot of the things I liked about this series are the same things that turn off hardcore weeaboos, and some of the things that hardcore weeaboos like are the same things that set off my cynicism alarm.
Comment by Torque — March 6, 2008 @ 19:09
I dont know what the fuck youre thinking but im not going to lie ok when you think about it americans only get kiddy version of anime ok so what the hell is wrong with this anime so what its kind of like hollywood but what the fuck are the English population of the world are going to watch violent anime it may look very predictable but so is most anime very unrealistic but so is most anime its a mini series so if they had to explain more than they wanted to it would take about 15 eps i am going to say afro samurai is good maby the storyline isnt great so what at least it keeps the viewer entertained
Comment by Saltycat — June 3, 2008 @ 15:04
I’m a huge fan of anime and I have to say Afro Samurai was one of the most enjoyable OVAs i have seen in suuuuuuuuuuuuuch a long time. The action scenes were the best i have seen since ninja scroll and the comic relief was terrific. The mistake here is people not taking it on face value, i mean come on… do you want evangelion character delevopment and whiny bitchy angsty characters in every single anime you watch? Afro Samurai is pulp samurai action in a fantasy setting! Which is a great thing to see in this era of whingy bitch anime where all the chars are big eyed and spend 20 minutes talking during a fight. This OVA is a great homage to all of the early pulp anime that came out in the late eighties early ninetys. The soundtrack, voice acting, animation, action and editing were fantastic.
Comment by will — June 12, 2008 @ 3:45
YOU GUYS ARE CRAZY! afro samurai is the shit! sure it dosnt compare to some of the greatest but what is more entertaining then watching a black samurai with a big afro smokin doobies and cutting peoples heads off! not only that but who better to do the voice then samual L jackson. “He pulled an RPG out a motha fuckin backpack” too funny!
Comment by kone805 — July 7, 2008 @ 22:39
“Oh, and yes, Samuel L. Jackson does the voice of the main character in this OVA, but really, don’t expect too much of it. All he does is moan and groan a bit. If this guy really is one of the best actors America has to offer, then I’m glad I don’t live there. This definitely is a good example of a good premise, ruined by Hollywood-influence. I fell in love with anime not just because of the pretty graphics. The things that also drew me to it is the focus, the stories, characters and themes. All of these, I fail to see in Afro Samurai.”
Too bad you failed to notice Samuel L. does the voice for Ninja Ninja too.
Comment by Some french guy — July 20, 2008 @ 4:22