Samurai + Hip-Hop Remix

MUGEN

Somewhere in my memory, I recalled seeing a stupid name for an anime. It was samurai something. So I braved the evil interweb and found... Samurai Champloo! Given my penchant for samurais + anything else, Samurai Champloo had to be fantastic. Whatever a Champloo is.

So anyway, a Champloo. Yes well its an homage to Marcel Duchamp. Cos its DuChamp's Loo so thats got to be it. *Checks the google* Ok! "its Okinawan for "mixed-up" or "stirred together". It's usually applied to a kind of stir-fry dish, but in a more general sense it's used to mean "improvised, made up as you go along". In the context of the show it's probably intended to evoke the sampled, scratched sound of hip-hop music and the show's own combination of old, new and invented elements into an entirely original whole." (ahem stolen from... Amalgam, a Samurai Champloo fansite)

OK so double click first episode. Almost half an hour later, my eyes were permanently enlarged after an entirely unexpected assault. I was staring wide-eyed at a samurai hip-hop extravaganza. Hmm. I'm very impressed.

First, the surface elements. The first thing you notice is the music. The opening single was full of nice beats accompanied by lovely visuals. The prologue is translated in English as "Although this story is largely fiction and some parts do not line up with history, STOP BITCHING AND JUST SHUT UP AND WATCH!" No this isn't gonna be your average samurai flick.

Everything is chopped and mixed up. We start in feudal Japan where two lead characters are introduced. Then we cut to a day earlier, a guy dancing across the street in a suburb of New York called Japan, which has absolutely nothing to do with the story at all! Oh its a mistake! That's just what was in real life yesterday! Again! One day earlier! The film rewinds like a VCR, with the beats from the earlier episode scruffed up until we're back in feudal Japan! Transitions are scratched up, sound and video mixed around to cut to another scene. Its kinda like if you mix modern Japan with its graffiti tagged streets and beats, with feudal Japan with its swords and gore.

The shots and framing fall somewhere between Japanese paintings and graffiti. The slower scenes offer a sharp visual contrast, the frames stop and enter a tranquil, Japanese stone garden aesthetic. Music changes from hip-hop/chilled beats to what could be Joe Hisaishi remixed. Clearly, its an important element in the show. The end single is just lovely.

The story itself, centres around 3 people. 2 guys and a girl. The 2 guys offer juxtaposition in disposition (muahaha it rhymes!) and fighting style. Mugen fights like he's breakdancing, has a loud mouth and big hair. Jin is the samurai, honorable and composed, he is the antithesis to the brash Mugen. Fuu doesn't fight, she's the damsel in distress and the unlikely glue that bonds all 3 characters together, with a reason that seems unreasonable. She's trying to find a samurai that smells of sunflowers and brings the 2 along with her. She's the DJ.

Modernity and tradition are caught up and slurred around in a heady slosh of hip-hop beats and woodblock prints. In between, you've got Fuu, who is a mystery, trying to find her way amongst the strife and chaos of the time. Maybe she has to choose either hip-hop or Japanese tradition. Maybe she's trying to put both together. Maybe she's trying to find something that will make her less confused > the samurai that smells of sunflowers.

Yes so we went from Duchamp to Hip-Hop to Japanese culture and tradition. Mmm interesting.