Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo
Still from the opening sequence of Samurai Champloo
サムライチャンプルー (Samurai Chanpurū)
Genre	Chanbara, Comedy-drama
TV anime
Director	Shinichirō Watanabe
Studio	manglobe INC.
Licensor	Madman Entertainment Geneon MVM Films
Network	Animax, Fuji TV
Other networks: Canal + VOX Cartoon Network (Adult Swim) SBS Razer Cuatro Cartoon Network, PlayTV AXN ZTV
Original run	May 20 2004 – March 19 2005
Episodes	26
Manga
Author	Shinichirō Watanabe (story) Masaru Gotsubo (art)
Publisher	Kadokawa Shoten
Other publishers: Madman Entertainment Végétal Manga Bandai Entertainment Panini Comics Tokyopop Panini Comics Chuang Yi (English)
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Shōnen Ace
Original run	August 2 2004 – October 29 2004
Volumes	2
Anime and Manga Portal

Samurai Champloo (サムライチャンプルー, Samurai Chanpurū^?) is a Japanese animated television series consisting of twenty-six episodes. It was broadcast in Japan from May 20, 2004 through March 19, 2005 on the television network, Fuji TV. Samurai Champloo was created and directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, whose previous television show, Cowboy Bebop, earned him renown in the anime and Japanese television communities.^[1] The show was produced by studio Manglobe.

The word, champloo, comes from the Okinawan word "chanpurū" (as in gōyā chanpurū, the Okinawan stir-fry dish containing bitter melon).^[2] Chanpurū, alone, simply means "to mix" or "to hash." Therefore, the title, Samurai Champloo, may be translated to "Samurai Remix" or "Samurai Mashup."^[3]

The series is a cross-genre work of media, blending the action and samurai genres with elements of non-slapstick comedy. It is also a period piece, taking place during Japan's Edo period. The series is interwoven with revisionist historical facts and anachronistic elements of mise-en-scene, dialogue and soundtrack. The series' most frequent anachronism is its use of elements of hip hop culture, particularly rap and the music it has influenced, break dancing, turntablism, hip hop slang, and graffiti. The show also contains anachronistic elements from the punk subculture and modernism, but less prominently.

Like many anime television series, the story of Samurai Champloo is finite in length, and the final episode depicts the end of the narrative without allusion to a successive season.

Contents 1 Characters 2 Plot 2.1 The Meeting 2.2 Stopover in Edo 2.3 Onwards to Nagasaki 2.4 Past the Hakone checkpoint 2.5 Passage by Sea 2.6 End of the road 3 Production 3.1 Broadcast 3.2 Adaptations 3.3 Music 3.4 Theme music 4 Design 4.1 Setting and style 4.2 Influences and cultural references 5 Media 5.1 Video game 6 References 7 External links

Characters

Main article: List of Samurai Champloo characters

Samurai Champloo tells the story of three strangers in the Tokugawa era, (also known as the Edo Period) who come together on a journey across Japan.

• Mugen: A brash vagabond from the Ryukyu Islands, Mugen is a wandering sword for hire with a wildly unconventional fighting style that resembles breakdancing and capoeira.^[4] He wears metal-soled geta and carries a nihontō on his back (although, historically, the Tokugawa government prohibited unauthorized men from carrying daishō or any of its components).^[5] In Japanese, the word "mugen" means "infinite" or "endless."
• Jin: Jin is a mild-mannered ronin who carries himself in the conventionally stoic manner of a samurai of the Tokugawa era. Using his waist-strung daishō, he fights in the traditional kenjutsu style of a samurai trained in a prominent, sanctioned dojo. Jin wears glasses, an available but uncommon accessory in Edo era Japan. Spectacles -- called "Dutch glass merchandise" ("Oranda gyoku shinajina" in Japanese) at the time -- were imported from Holland early in the Tokugawa period and became more widely available as the 17th century progressed. In Japanese the word "Jin" means "benevolence" or "compassion"--one of the 7 cardinal virtues of bushido.^[6]
• Fuu: A feisty young girl of approximately 15 years of age, Fuu recruits Mugen and Jin to help her find a sparsely-described man she calls "the samurai who smells of sunflowers." A flying squirrel named "Momo" (meaning "peach" in Japanese and also short for "momonga," meaning "flying squirrel") accompanies her along the way, inhabiting her kimono and frequently leaping out to her rescue when she encounters trouble.

Apart from this trio, the other characters tend to appear only once or twice throughout the entirety of the series.

Plot

See also: List of Samurai Champloo episodes 1-12 and List of Samurai Champloo episodes 13-26

Samurai Champloo is about the journey of a girl named Fuu and her two bodyguards / traveling companions, Mugen and Jin, as they travel across Edo era Japan in search, at the girl's behest, of a particular samurai who smells of sunflowers.

The Meeting

Fuu meets Mugen in the tea house where she is employed as a waitress and he has entered for service. As Mugen takes his seat, Fuu is confronted with a band of ruffian customers on the other side of the room. Mugen offers to take care of the unsavory bunch in exchange for food, but, upon her agreement, he instigates a wider brawl by insulting the ringleading troublemaker and his squad of gangsters. Just as the fight escalates, Jin, a stoic young ronin in samurai garb, walks into the teahouse unaware of the ensuing violence within. Mugen mistakes Jin for an enemy and takes a swing at him, thus sparking what becomes a long-term duel between the two. However their immediate battle does not last long. One of the ruffians, who was maimed by Mugen earlier in the fight, re-enters the fight and, in a delirious state, sets the wooden restaurant ablaze. Mugen and Jin attempt to continue their battle amid the conflagration but end up passing out from smoke inhalation.

A splash of water revives the duo, at which time they discover that they've been arrested and are to be executed for the arsonous murder of a magistrate's son who was in the teahouse during the mêlée and blaze. However, they manage to escape execution through their quick-wittedness, physical skill and a little help from Fuu, who detonates two powerful firecrackers at the execution site, thereby diverting the attention of the duo's captors.

After the trio's escape from the execution site, Fuu recruits Jin and Mugen to her quest for "the samurai who smells of sunflowers," a mysterious man who Fuu can barely describe herself. Nonetheless, for reasons she will not divulge, she is intent on finding this man and desperately needs the help of two skilled fighters like Mugen and Jin. Further, since the two men are indebted to her for her assistance in their escaping execution (and due to Fuu flipping a coin [heads they fight, tails they wait and join her on her journey] that lands on tails), they agree to join her and abide by her one condition: they may not settle their duel until after the journey is over.

Stopover in Edo

Their quest takes the three on a generally southward trajectory through the main Japanese island, Honshū. Traveling along what appears to be the Pacific coast of the isle, they arrive by ferry in the Tokugawa capital, Edo. Exploring the city at the beckoning of a mysterious red-headed stranger named Jouji, they venture through the city's bustling streets, dropping in on the Yoshiwara district and viewing a onnagata-starring kabuki performance.

Ultimately, Jouji is exposed as the pseudonymous gay Dutchman Isaac Kitching, the governor general in charge of trade for the Dutch East India Company in Japan. Kitching had absconded from his post in search of acceptance as a homosexual in Japanese society. Before Kitching's staff convinces him to return to his post (per the Shogun's decree), Fuu begs him for any clues he might have as to the whereabouts of the samurai who smells of sunflowers. After showing him an item that belonged to the mysterious sunflower samurai—a tiny skull ornament on a string—Kitching offers her a lead: go to Nagasaki for more clues, he says.

Onwards to Nagasaki

Following Kitching's advice, the trio then begins its trek to Nagasaki, a port city on the island of Kyūshū, the third largest and southernmost isle among the four Main Islands in the Japanese archipelago.^[7] Along the way, the broke and starving group is forced into a pawn shop to barter goods so they can purchase a meal. The pawn broker isn't much interested in Fuu's tanto or Mugen's katana but, strangely, sees much value in Jin's spectacles. Reluctantly, Mugen and Fuu convince Jin to relinquish the treasured merchandise, and this allows them to feast that afternoon at a local restaurant.

During their meal, they are introduced to a flashy and arrogant but harmless man named Sakonshougen Nagamitsu and his two lackeys, one of whom beatboxes a background tune over which his master delivers high-handed soliloquies. As we learn from one of his raps, Nagamitsu is looking to "make it big in this world" and isn't embarrassed to tell everyone about his ambitions. As documented in his scroll-written autobiography-in-progress, "The Road to Big," he originally set out to challenge the shogun to a battle, figuring that, if victorious, he would be the greatest man in all of the land. To his regret, though, he mistakenly went to Osaka castle, instead of Edo castle, and so the duel never occurred. In Osaka, however, he met Ogura Bunta, who joined the beatboxing young man as one of Nagamitsu's flunkies. Ogura told Nagamitsu of a legendary fighter named Mariya Enshirou who was undefeated in 1000 duels. If he could beat Enshirou, thought Nagamitsu, his reputation would rise considerably. Unfortunately, though, Nagamitsu was once again the recipient of disappointment, eventually learning that the master fighter, Mariya Enshirou, was killed by his star pupil. Since that day, Nagamitsu has been searching for this murderous pupil, a man who wears glasses and goes by the name, Jin.

However, when Nagamitsu finally encounters Jin, he doesn't have a chance to challenge him. Instead, Ogura reveals that he was a pupil at Mujuushin, the same kenjutsu dojo in which Jin trained. He declares that he sucked up his pride and followed the braggart wannabe, Nagamitsu, with the hope that he might one day find Jin and exact revenge on behalf of sensei Enshirou. Ogura demands to know why Jin betrayed his master, but Jin, who insists that the murder was more complicated that it seems, does not deny the charge or make excuses. In response to Jin's high-handedness, Ogura charges at him in a jōdan-no-kamae posture, sword unsheathed, but Jin easily deflects the attack and knocks him to the ground. Ogura, realizing he is outmatched, demands an honorable death, but Jin refuses to grant it to him. Ogura then points out that many of Enshirou's other disciples are out to kill Jin in their master's name. Jin, however, is not moved by this and suggests that Ogura tell these other students that he is ready should they choose to attack him.

Past the Hakone checkpoint

Continuing on their way, the group makes a tumultuous crossing at the Hakone checkpoint, one filled with out of control brushfire, fields of smoldering marijuana, a severed head and hundreds of sōhei disguised as tengu in the hills around Mount Fuji. Finally, when on the other side of the checkpoint, they settle in a small town plagued by random street killings by an unknown tsujigiri. Mugen gets into a battle with the tsujigiri, named Shouryuu, who, as it turns out, was a student of the Buddhist monk, Zuikou, who is housing him, Jin and Fuu in the town's monastery. Zuikou explains that he used to be a samurai himself and trained Shouryuu, who at that time was called Ukon. Ukon killed a fellow student in practice and was expelled from the dojo. Upon his return, he had changed his name to Shouryuu and had mastered a new ryūha that allowed him to attack his opponent with nothing more than his qi. Despite the fearsomeness of Shouryuu's style, Mugen diligently trains himself for the few weeks before their next encounter. When they finally meet again under the subsequent full moon, Mugen out-maneuvers Shouryuu and kills him in a local river.

Mugen, Jin and Fuu then leave that town and travel onwards to another village, where Jin falls smitten for a woman forced into prostitution to pay her husband's debts. Since Edo era Japan was strictly patriarchal, a woman was treated as property of her husband and, therefore, did not have the right to divorce and could be forced into prostitution to pay a husband's debt. Unable to tolerate the woman's subjugation, Jin frees her and sets her adrift on a boat down the river for a nearby enkiri dera, a safehouse (usually a temple) for women ending relationships.^[8]

After springing the woman from her servitude, Jin and his two companions find some respite at an inn. While Fuu goes for a bath, Jin and Mugen take a peek at her diary. In the diary, they learn that Fuu's mother died; somewhere along the journey, she had dreams involving her corpse. She also muses on whether she did the right thing teaming up with the two guys. It is exposed that at Zuikou's temple, the warrior monk offered the three spiritual guidance. Jin was given wisdom on the nature of freedom for a samurai beholden to his master; Fuu was told that meeting Jin and Mugen was destiny, by nature; and Mugen was refused advice for his insolence.

Passage by Sea

Walking through the forest, Mugen picks up the scent of the sea. Sure enough, within moments, they are standing on a bluff overlooking a beach and endless ocean water. They've inched southward in the course of their travels and are now on the northeast shore of Ise Bay, a large, lagoon-shaped body of water around the center of the southeastern coast of Honshū. Down on the shore, they notice a girl sitting on a beached piece of driftwood. She recognizes Mugen and wears a headband with the same saw-toothed design as Mugen's sword strap. Suddenly, before Mugen can respond, a massive fishing net with weighted edges along with a slew of arrows fly their way. Mugen and Jin dodge the web and slice the arrows; only Fuu is mired in the netting. Raiders jump down from the bluff with the intention of looting their prey, but stop after their apparent leader fires a pistol in the air. His shirt also contains the same saw-toothed design. Mugen and the man, whom the bandits call Mukuro, clearly know each other from the past. Mukuro says that he is shocked to see Mugen alive, having believed him sunk to the bottom of the sea. He further explains that he is not in search of money but rather for strong men for a pirate job that is to reap in the rewards of a big robbery job. Mugen refuses, saying that he already told Mukuro the last time they were together that he doesn't work well with others. Mukuro points out that he's living in contradiction to that statement since he's traveling with others. Mugen explains that he is only Jin and Fuu's bodyguard, a comment that invites Mukuro's laughter at the idea of a man who has killed as many as Mugen protecting anyone.

After Mugen's exchange with Mukuro, Fuu approaches the girl with the headband, who happens to be Mukuro's sister Kohza. Kohza explains that she, Mukuro and Mugen all grew up together in the Ryukyu islands, a Japanese island chain extending between the southern tip of Kyūshū and the northern tip of Taiwan. It was a dangerous childhood, she explains, due to the fact that prisoners were often exiled there from the four Main Islands of Japan.

Fuu explains to Kohza that the three travelers have been searching for a mysterious samurai and are currently on their way to Nagasaki. Kohza then offers a piece of advice: the easiest way to the main road to Nagasaki is across the water to the small city of Ise. Mugen declares that he's going to search the beach for a boat. Jin and Fuu, however are a bit wary of venturing off to sea, but Kohza explains that Mugen, having grown up on a small island, is a skilled boatman, a fact of which Jin and Fuu were not aware.

Later on, Mugen makes a deal with Mukuro, late Mukuro deceives him, and blows up the ship where Mugen is still in. Kohza rushes to Fuu and Jin, to get help, for she knew this was going to happen. By the time they got to the port, the ship exploded from the dynamites thrown by Mukuro. Mugen sinks into the ocean, having flash backs.

End of the road

The trio is also forced to face many elements of their pasts. It is revealed that Jin killed his master, Mariya Enshirou, and in a number of episodes ("The Art of Altercation"; "Lullabies of the Lost") he is pursued by students of his former dojo who wish to exact revenge. Jin is reluctant to kill these pursuers.

In the final three-episode arc, "Evanescent Encounter" (a.k.a. "Circle of Transmigration"), all three must confront their unresolved pasts. Fuu finally meets and confronts the Sunflower Samurai. Jin is challenged by a master swordsman, named Kariya Kagetoki, who is revealed as the strongest antagonist of the series, although he does not make an appearance until this story arc. It is revealed that Kariya (possibly by order of the Shogunate) attempted to gain control of Jin's dojo and train its adepts for the purposes of assassination. Mariya Enshirou was ordered to kill Jin because of his opposition to the plan, and in the ensuing fight Jin killed his master in self-defense and was forced to flee the dojo. It also turns out that the Shogunate had the group tracked throughout their travels anticipating that they would eventually meet the Sunflower Samurai, Kasumi Seizou, who has an ongoing warrant out for his death for his role in the Shimabara Rebellion. In the course of the story, Mugen is also forced to confront three brothers seeking revenge because Mugen crippled one of them during his days of piracy.

It is also revealed that Fuu lied about the coin flip in the first episode, claiming that it landed on tails so that Mugen and Jin would join her on her search. It actually landed on heads.

Production

Broadcast

Samurai Champloo premiered in Japan on May 20, 2004 on Fuji Television, and ceased broadcasting on March 19, 2005, spanning a total of 26 episodes. It was also aired in Japan on the communications satellite television network Animax, where it has been regularly broadcast.

International broadcast

Geneon Entertainment licensed the show for distribution in North America almost a year prior to the show's airing in Japan. On January 20, 2004, it was made public that the broadcasting rights were acquired by Cartoon Network, and the series began airing on the Adult Swim block on May 14, 2005, in the 11:30 p.m. time slot on Saturday nights. On Saturday, November 22, 2005, the second batch of episodes (episodes 14-26) began airing at 11:30 p.m. EST/PST, but moved to Wednesday nights at 12:30 a.m. in January 2006. Late-night airtimes are generally used in the US to restrict access to complex or controversial subject matter to children. The final episode aired on March 18, 2006. Samurai Champloo also made its debut in Canada on December 24, 2006 on the Canadian digital station, Razer.

When the show was aired on Adult Swim, some foul language was edited out of the production. The editing was achieved mostly by the use of sound effects (such as record scratching, a common sound in hip-hop music) that allowed for the editing to blend into the show.

The series has also aired in the United Kingdom, Latin America, Australia, Poland, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and Germany.

Adaptations

A Samurai Champloo manga debuted in Shōnen Ace on August 2004. TOKYOPOP licensed the manga in North America. Madman Entertainment licensed, released the manga in Australia and New Zealand and Panini licensed it on Brazil.

Music

The music composed for the show was compiled onto four full-length soundtracks: Masta, Playlist, Departure, and Impression. Featured heavily on the soundtracks were Nujabes, Force of Nature, Tsutchie, and Fat Jon, among others. Also performing over Nujabes' beats is Japanese hip hop artist Shing02, who performs the vocals on the opening theme "Battlecry", and MINMI, who performs the ending theme "Shiki no Uta" ("Song of Four Seasons"). Singles were released for the tracks "Ai no Mi" and "YOU". In May 2007, Fat Jon's Ample Soul label released a limited edition 3LP vinyl edition of the soundtrack: Samurai Champloo: The Way of the Samurai.

Some featured tracks are not available on the official soundtracks. "Obokuri ~ Ee Umi", from Ikue Asazaki's album Utaba Utayun, is played during Mugen's underwater scene in episode fourteen. The track's name is commonly mistransliterated as "Obokuri-Eemui". "San Francisco", from Midicronica's album #501, is played during the credits of episode twenty-six. The most famous of these songs is played during the brothel escape scene in episode eleven. It uses a sample from the George Benson song "Affirmation."^[9] As of 2007, the music selection has been identified as Nujabes' "Counting Stars"—the sixth track of the Hydeout Productions 2nd Collection album.

Theme music

Opening theme "Battlecry"

lyrics by Shing02

music by Nujabes

produced by Nujabes

song by Nujabes feat. Shing02

Ending theme "四季ノ唄 (Shiki no Uta, Song of Four Seasons^?)"

lyrics, music by MINMI

track produced by Nujabes

produced by MINMI

song by MINMI

Ending theme #12 "Who's Theme"

lyrics, music by MINMI

track produced by Nujabes

produced by MINMI

song by MINMI

Ending theme #17 "YOU"

lyrics by Lori Fine (COLDFEET)

music by Tsutchie

song by KAZAMI

Ending theme #23 "FLY"

lyrics by AZUMA RIKI

music by Tsutchie

song by AZUMA RIKI

Ending theme #26 "san francisco"

produced by MIDICRONICA

song by MIDICRONICA

Design

Setting and style

Samurai Champloo employs a unique blend of historical Edo period backdrops with modern styles and references. The show relies on factual events of Edo-era Japan, such as the Shimabara Rebellion ("Unholy Union;" "Evanescent Encounter, Part I"), Dutch exclusivity in an era where edict restricted Japanese foreign relations ("Stranger Searching"), Ukiyo-e paintings ("Artistic Anarchy"), and fictionalized versions of real-life Edo personalities Mariya Enshirou and Miyamoto Musashi ("Elegy of Entrapment, Verse 2").

Incorporated within this are signature elements of modernity, especially hip hop culture, such as rapping ("Lullabies of the Lost, Verse 1"), graffiti ("War of the Words"), bandits behaving like "gangstas" (both parts of "Misguided Miscreants"), The censorship bleeps replaced with Record Scratching and much of Mugen's character design, including a fighting style influenced by breakdancing. Champloo's musical score predominantly features hip hop beats. Certain anachronistic references are not based upon hip-hop, however, such as baseball ("Baseball Blues"), the United States and references to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki ("Cosmic Collisions").

Influences and cultural references

• Throughout the series in its original Japanese there are deliberate anachronisms in speech. Typically this is in the form of throwing in English words for emphasis (used most heavily by the most outlandish characters), despite the fact that virtually no one in Edo Era Japan knew the language at all. Deliberately bad enunciation of Japanese on the part of foreigners is also readily apparent. These aspects of the series have a very humorous effect, yet are largely lost in translation.
• Samurai Champloo is an example of the popular chanbara film and television genre--the trademarks are a setting in the Edo Period, a focus on samurai or other swordsman characters, and lots of thrilling, dramatic fights.^[10] Chanbara was used in the early days of Japanese cinema (when government political censorship ran high) as a way of expressing veiled social critiques.
• The clothing worn by the characters in Samurai Champloo are all influenced by traditional Japanese fashion. For example, Mugen wears a modified version of a jinbei outfit, which is often made from cotton or hemp. The shoes he wears are modified geta, a traditional wooden Japanese shoe. Jin wears a hakama, which was traditionally worn in the Edo era and is still worn today by many Japanese. He also wears zori on his feet. Fuu wears a typical woman's kimono.
• In episode 5 ("Artistic Anarchy"), Mugen is heard to mutter (in the English dub of the series only) "damn, doing it with a squid" while looking at a book of ukiyo-e art. This refers to the quintessential ukiyo-e piece by Katsuhika Hokusai entitled Kinoe no Komatsu ("The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife").^[11]
• In episode 3, Jin offers twelve-year-old Sōsuke Kawara to be his yojimbo (Japanese for "bodyguard"). He helps the boy pit the village's two opposing gangs against each other. This directly resembles Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo. In Yojimbo, Toshiro Mifune's character appears in a town and begins work as a yojimbo, pitting the area's two gangs against each other.
• Shinichiro Watanabe has stated that the movies Zatoichi and Enter the Dragon influenced his work.^[4] Perhaps this is most obvious in the character of Sara, who, despite being blind is a very skilled fighter just like the titular character in Zatoichi.
• In episode 19, the three main characters run into a crazy character who claims to be the grandson of Francis Xavier. St. Francis Xavier was the founder of Christianity in Japan. He brought the religion to Japan in 1549 and continued to preach there until 1551.^[12]
• The claimed grandson of Francis Xavier randomly shows up during a scene where Mugen refuses to step on a coin with the picture of Christ on it. The Christians in Japan were sought out this way.^[13] If they refused to step on the picture of Christ, they were assumed to be Christian and, therefore, persecuted. If the "grandson" had not shown up, Mugen would have been tortured or killed, for the Japanese people would have confused him with a Christian.
• In the anime, Fuu is seen wearing a kosode style of kimono. A kosode kimono is the most common type of kimono, referring to the full-length Japanese style of clothing.^[14] The design that Fuu wears is that of a pink color, with a few flowers at the ends of her sleeves, as well as at her ankles. These flowers appear to be karahana, which in Japanese means “Chinese flower.” However, it has been specifically stated that the flowers decorating her tanto knife's lacquer sheath are plum blossoms, and that her nickname for the weapon is Koume, "little plum blossom", though she does not use this name in the show.^[15] In addition, she wears a simple obi, or sash, around her waist.^[16]
• Jin wears a dofuku in the series. A dofuku is usually shorter in length, going no longer than the buttocks of the person wearing it. This design was preferred by many military men in the past.^[16] The sleeves, however, on his clothing tend to be more like the furisode kimonos. This type of kimono has long, swinging sleeves.^[14] The coloring of his kimono is kon—a deep, navy-blue shade of indigo^[16] and has four diamonds clustered together, forming a larger diamond on both his upper shoulders and back. This effect of the diamonds is created using a yûzen method, a means of dyeing in which the white (or resisted) material is either hand painted or stenciled onto the fabric — on Jin’s kimono this would be the diamonds. Once the garment has been dyed, the areas that have been stenciled on or painted remain white or un-dyed. This is one of many forms of shibori, or dyeing of the garments.^[14] (The quartered diamond pattern itself closely resembles the mon or family crest of the prominent Takeda samurai family, and has led fans to speculate that Jin is a member of that family or of a related clan, although he is never given any family name in the series.)
• In episode four, the characters play a traditional dice game called cho-han bakuchi. It is a standard Japanese gambling game that uses two six-sided dice. The dealer (Fuu’s role in the episode) shakes the dice in a bamboo dice bowl and then places the receptacle on the floor, making sure to keep the dice covered from the player’s eyes. The players then have the option of choosing "cho," which means even, or "han," which means odd. Once all players have verbally called out their decisions, the dealer allows them to see the dice. The winner(s), or the one(s) who called out the correct answer, receive(s) all the money which had been bet. If there is more than one winner, the money is split up between them. Traditionally, dealers are men and work without shirts to prove they are not cheating. Although Fuu is a woman, she removes the right arm of her top in this practice. Underneath the top, she wears wrapped bandages around her chest, typical of yakuza and also dice and card dealers.^[17]

Media

Video game

Bandai developed a video game for the PlayStation 2 entitled Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked; however, the manufacturer has stated that the game has no relation to the show. It was released on April 11, 2006 in the United States and received mixed reviews.^[18] The game is notable for having given Mugen's distinctive sword a name, "Typhoon Swell"--it was never called by this name in the anime or manga series.

References

External links

• Samurai Champloo official web site (Japanese)
• Geneon Samurai Champloo web site
• Madman Samurai Champloo official web site
• Fuji TV Samurai Champloo official web site
• Samurai Champloo episode previews
• Samurai Champloo at the Internet Movie Database
• Amalgam--Samurai Champloo fansite (in English)
• Samurai Champloo fansite
• Prurient Mugen fansite
• "Samurai Champloo" FUNimation Teaser Site

Samurai Champloo General Characters Episodes Episodes 1–12 · Episodes 13–26 Music Masta · Departure · Playlist · Impression Games Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked Website: samuraichamploo.com

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