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Gotta get back. Back to the past. Samurai Jack.
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
Long ago, in a distant land, I, Aku, the shapeshifting Master of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil! But a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! Now...the fool seeks to return to the past...and undo the future THAT IS AKU!
In 2001, Genndy Tartakovsky, then creator of one of the first original hits of Cartoon Network, made a series called Samurai Jack. It was about a samurai (who is actually not named Jack; it's just a nickname) who was sent to the future by his opponent, Aku, a sort of evil demonic entity that took over the world in the intermittent time between Jack's departure and reappearance in the future. In the original series, the basic gist of the plot was Jack following leads on potential ways back to the past, where he could return home and destroy Aku before the world got fucked up. Of course, something would go wrong and Jack would have to find another way home next week. A basic plot, but the animation top-notch, with minimal dialogue that let the cinematic action scenes speak for themselves. It also helped that Aku provided much of the comic relief, giving a balance to the stoic and usually silent Jack. Yet, after four seasons, the series was ended without conclusion. Tartakovsky had been discussing a movie to provide the conclusion to the story, but after many years nothing ever came to fruition.
Until now.
Now, nearly 13 years after ending, Jack is back on Adult Swim. Season 5 is a small collection of 10 episodes intended to provide a conclusion to the story once and for all. The general premise is that 50 years have passed since Season 4, and Aku appears victorious, having destroyed all known portals back to the past. Despite the passage of time, Jack himself has not aged at all as some side-effect of Aku's initial time travel. Jack is now a shell of whom he was, suffering from guilt over his perceived failure as he hallucinates haunting images of his parents and all the people victimized by Aku's tyranny. Interestingly, Aku is also not the same as before, as his original plan to simply let nature kill Jack for him is no longer an option, and he has slumped into a deep depression as he tries to pretend that his arch-nemesis is no longer a threat.
The show hasn't skipped a beat since it left. The animation is as excellent as ever, and everything runs along with incredibly tight pacing. It also continues the time-honored tradition of Jack ending every fight in his underwear. The one major difference is that Adult Swim ups the show's rating, allowing for Jack to fight humans and that people will bleed and even die! The increased rating isn't that bad, outside of the violence, as nobody is cussing up a storm and Aku isn't making sex jokes. It's very much in the same tone as the original, with the exception that the violence is more realistic as opposed to ALL ROBOTS ALL THE TIME.
The shows airs every Saturday at 11pm EST on Adult Swim. Missed an episode? All the episodes appear here roughly 12 hours after airing on TV. You'll need to log in via your cable provider to watch them, however. So sit back, and enjoy the remaining seven episodes of Jack.
Watch out
In 2001, Genndy Tartakovsky, then creator of one of the first original hits of Cartoon Network, made a series called Samurai Jack. It was about a samurai (who is actually not named Jack; it's just a nickname) who was sent to the future by his opponent, Aku, a sort of evil demonic entity that took over the world in the intermittent time between Jack's departure and reappearance in the future. In the original series, the basic gist of the plot was Jack following leads on potential ways back to the past, where he could return home and destroy Aku before the world got fucked up. Of course, something would go wrong and Jack would have to find another way home next week. A basic plot, but the animation top-notch, with minimal dialogue that let the cinematic action scenes speak for themselves. It also helped that Aku provided much of the comic relief, giving a balance to the stoic and usually silent Jack. Yet, after four seasons, the series was ended without conclusion. Tartakovsky had been discussing a movie to provide the conclusion to the story, but after many years nothing ever came to fruition.
Until now.
Now, nearly 13 years after ending, Jack is back on Adult Swim. Season 5 is a small collection of 10 episodes intended to provide a conclusion to the story once and for all. The general premise is that 50 years have passed since Season 4, and Aku appears victorious, having destroyed all known portals back to the past. Despite the passage of time, Jack himself has not aged at all as some side-effect of Aku's initial time travel. Jack is now a shell of whom he was, suffering from guilt over his perceived failure as he hallucinates haunting images of his parents and all the people victimized by Aku's tyranny. Interestingly, Aku is also not the same as before, as his original plan to simply let nature kill Jack for him is no longer an option, and he has slumped into a deep depression as he tries to pretend that his arch-nemesis is no longer a threat.
The show hasn't skipped a beat since it left. The animation is as excellent as ever, and everything runs along with incredibly tight pacing. It also continues the time-honored tradition of Jack ending every fight in his underwear. The one major difference is that Adult Swim ups the show's rating, allowing for Jack to fight humans and that people will bleed and even die! The increased rating isn't that bad, outside of the violence, as nobody is cussing up a storm and Aku isn't making sex jokes. It's very much in the same tone as the original, with the exception that the violence is more realistic as opposed to ALL ROBOTS ALL THE TIME.
The shows airs every Saturday at 11pm EST on Adult Swim. Missed an episode? All the episodes appear here roughly 12 hours after airing on TV. You'll need to log in via your cable provider to watch them, however. So sit back, and enjoy the remaining seven episodes of Jack.
Watch out
Sterica on
+10
Posts
Ep 3
Steam
Yeah, just...
Fuck, that was brutal.
Yeah, this latest ep of Jack is my favorite so far
This show is so pretty. Just stunning and haunting and emotional
Our first Young Jack flashback of the revival! I love young Jack's design, always a treat
The warped shouting Jack hallucination reminded me of something out of the ATLA ep "Nightmares and Daydreams"
I think the most intriguing things about this revival are
1. Where they might be going with Ashi, whether a redemption or something else
2. What's up with the ghostly antler samurai? Love the design, very interested to see what it means
Love
Scaramouche
But I cannot deny that the new season is real good. Condensing it all into a single tight arc is definitely making it work for me.
The tone in the reboot though, I can't help but shake the idea that it will run into this towards the end. Unless Jack just accepts that time has passed and he can still kill Aku without traveling back in time.
Eh there's ways to time travel around this
Like in dbz when cell gets killed in the past trunks still goes back to his own future and kills him there too
Parallel timelines was the explanation with that. I suspect Jack's world is just one.
OTOH, Jack has given up a lot of time travel opportunities for the chance to help people in the moment. He wants to prevent all the suffering Aku has already caused; yet he can't bring himself to see the current timeline as expendable either. Whether that is because he thinks it's a split timeline deal, or if he's just incapable of ignoring someone in need, is unclear.
It goes against the code that Jack was raised by to selfishly pursue his own interest and ignore the needs of others.
The thematic point being that Jack isn't wrong to consider every instance of suffering as worth alleviating no matter how hopeless it might seem
To be honest, I definitely want to see Jack kill Aku in the present. Heck, if the last episode has him do that, and the last shot is of him entering a time portal, and we don't see his fight with Aku back in the past? I wouldn't mind that at all.
I'm "kupiyupaekio" on Discord.
Choose your weapon.
Jack has to go back and defeat him to reclaim it, but he is seriously afraid of that guy
I lost my sword
Bare fists because Samurai Jack is god damn amazing.
Okay then ...urp... I choose the belch portal gun.