Samurai Champloo: Battlecry

When someone recommends me an anime of a few episodes I always immediately say "Cowboy Bebop", not only because it is my favorite anime, but because I think that for a person who has seen little of this type of animation or simply is a person who has never seen any anime in his life, I think it is an excellent series to start in this world, however, there is another anime which, its whole vibe and style is quite similar to Cowboy Bebop and that anime is Samurai Champloo and it is no surprise since both Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, even though they were made by different companies and animation studios, were directed by the same person: Shinichiro Watanabe and the style embodied in these two anime so different from each other, is quite evident and quite characteristic, being one of the fundamental axes of both Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo its excellent musical set, but I'll talk about that later.

Samurai Champloo focuses on 3 main characters, each with their respective personalities that counteract each other and with quite unique and deep pasts. The story begins when Fuu, one of the main characters was working, when suddenly Mugen, the wandering swordsman and part of the trio of protagonists starts a fight between another group of people and Jin, the third and last member of this charismatic trio of characters. Due to the disaster that Mugen and Jin caused because of their fight, they were arrested and sentenced to death, however, Fuu frees them on the condition that they help her to find the "Samurai who smells like sunflowers", being this the beginning of an exciting adventure, full of humor, shocking moments, sadness but above all a lot of music. Throughout most of the series both Mugen and Jin will be in constant conflict due to their very different personalities, Mugen being a character with quite an ego and always looking to fight or steal, he is a pretty agile swordsman, but without a specific fighting style, on the other hand, Jin is a very correct samurai, disciplined and with a very professional and elegant style and finally Fuu, who despite being the most "normal" character of this trio of protagonists, it could be said that he is the heart of this trio, being the kindest and most comical character of the three.

Cowboy Bebop was characterized and consecrated for being one of the anime with the best soundtrack in history and this is a merit which I agree 100%, as it is simply spectacular what the music of this series can transmit, having as main axis the Jazz genre. And just like Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo one of its main elements and its central axis is the music, having compositions mostly of the Hip Hop genre, although there are also many elements of Jazz and derivatives, in this way, just like Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo manages to convey unique emotions through its soundtrack, being is composed by several artists, but the one I want to highlight the most and which has become one of my favorite artists due to his excellent musical style and that artist is: Nujabes, whose style was so captured in this series that it is impossible not to think of her every time you hear some compas of her music. However, by fate's misfortune, this excellent artist, DJ and producer died a few years ago, but his legacy has endured and I'm sure it will last for many years to come.

So in simple words: Samurai Champloo is a quite unique animation experience, relaxing in many ways, but also frantic, full of shocking moments and with a lot of comedy. If you are someone who has seen Cowboy Bebop and liked it, but haven't seen Samurai Champloo yet, this anime might remind you of it because of its very similar, yet unique and different styles.