Afro Samurai

A dark atmosphere, iconic images and a bloody trail to revenge. The animation is captivating, as is the story full of hate, betrayal and nicely matured one-liners from Samuel L. Jackson. The fight scenes are indescribable, the opponents better and better and each of them pushes the bar a little higher. 90% (10.04.2008)

The narrative is as flat as a board and wrapped in a crude mess of gore and a pile of severed limbs. It is nothing personal, just revenge - cruel and merciless. The interweaving of the main storyline and flashbacks from the past is also very interesting. The animation and soundtrack are a pretty unique affair. Plus, there are a few moments where I wondered if they were serious about this (RoboAfro, Jinno as a bear/Darth Vader). As a result, it felt like I was watching an animated knockoff of Tarantino's Kill Bill, although with one major difference. Whereas with a live-action movie, all the blood spurting like a water fountain and "cool" fights in which the actors overcome their human capabilities strikes me as pretty silly (which is also the main reason why I cannot watch Japanese live-action movies sober and "not-stoned") and just keeps me from getting into them, although I obviously do not have this problem with anime movies and TV shows. So I got caught up in the craziness and got swept up in the atmosphere. In the end, even the narrative surprised me with a few interesting twists, and the final point and conversation between Afro and the Assassin even got me thinking. If Afro's "imaginary friend" was not such an insufferably chatty figure, and if they had spiced up the dialogue, I would have given it five stars. Still, as it is, it is only getting 8/10. (10.02.2016)