Afro Samurai
If you enjoy graphic cartoon violence set to a hip urban beat then you’ll love Afro Samurai. Afro Samurai stars the vocal talents of Samuel L. Jackson and is set in a futuristic, apocalyptic world. It is a feudal society with limited technology and is ruled by a warrior known as “Number One”. Number One rules until he is killed in battle by Number Two. Each warrior wears a ceremonial headband denoting his rank. Number Two must not only strive to fight Number One, but must also take on all the wannabes who want his job.
The premiere begins with Afro witnessing the death of his father, the current Number One, at the hands (all 3 of them) of Justice, the current Number Two. Justice is voiced by Ron Perlman from Beauty and the Beast. (The TV show, not the Disney movie)
Nice Pussycat
Q: Justice you just decapitated Number One. What are you going to do now?
A: I’m goin’ to Disney World! 
Justice is a gun toting cowboy who only uses his six-shooters to block Afro senior’s katana blade. I’m not a warrior-god, but it seems like it would be pretty easy for Justice to just shoot Afro Sr., take his headband and call it a day. But for whatever reason he doesn’t do that. The fight culminates with Justice decapitating Afro Sr. (Editorial note: Folks help me out here. If you’ve seen the show please leave a comment as to how Justice manages to decapitate Afro Sr. I have watched this scene frame-by-frame and can not for the life of me figure out how he manages to decapitate Afro Sr. )
Senior’s head lands at Afro junior’s feet. As Justice places the Number One headband around his cowboy hat he tells junior to look him up when he’s old enough to fight for the title. But for now Justice is Number One and is going to hang out on a mountain top and be a god.
The show picks up several years later when Afro is an adult and a fully-trained samurai with only one goal, to avenge his father’s death. He has the title of Number Two and is such a formidable fighter that he even has time for a smoke break while hacking and slaying a gang of bad guys.
Ninja-Ninja is also voiced by Jackson and serves as Afro’s wise-cracking companion. Ninja always seems to appear just in time to let Afro know that trouble is about to happen. He also acts as Afro’s moral compass. “Oh, man that was off the hook how you cut off all those dude’s heads and all that, but ya know – maybe it’s bad to kill so many people?”
During his travels Afro stops in for a glass of lemonade, yes lemonade, at Okiku’s bar/restaurant. Okiku is a soft-spoken, gentle spirit in this harsh world and is voiced by the ever hot Kelly Hu.
While making his way to Justice’s mountain Afro is spied upon by a bunch of cone-headed warrior monks called The Empty 7. The leader of the Empty 7 is known as Brother One. (not to be confused with Number One) Brother One thinks that if he can capture the Number One and Number Two ceremonial headbands he will have the secret to god-hood. Then he can be all cool and sit on a mountain top just like Justice.
Each member of the Empty 7 has their number tattooed on the side of their heads and they bear an uncanny resemblance to Ki-Adi Mundi, the cone headed Jedi from Star Wars. Don’t believe me? Just look below:
Afro Samurai is based on the Japanese dōjinshi manga series, created by Takashi Okazaki, and airs on Spike TV. The stylized animation is rich and looks great. But I found the story lacking and while the violence was gratuitous, it didn’t do enough to move the plot along. Character names like Number One, Number Two, Brother One, etc. are confusing and uncreative. Naruto on Cartoon Network and Avatar – The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon, are both much better martial arts cartoons.
2 brooding, hip samurais out of 5.
Leave a Reply