How I feel about Afro Samurai.
I love this anime soooooooooooo much, the first time I watched this anime, I got so many chills, you ever get a series no matter what people say about it, you don't care, that you know that it's a great show. This show isn't perfect but It is a masterpiece in my heart. Idk if that sounds sappy or not, but just everything in this anime adds and adds to each other to create, just one of the greatest tales I have ever consumed. The music, the voice acting, the themes, the story, just everything.
I'm not sure anyone else feels like this about this anime, but I don't really care, nobody could say anything to make me feel different about this anime. No flaws I uncover could either.
I love this anime, imma stop typing lol, here's the rest of the review, I just wanted to edit this in here lol.
Afro Samurai takes place in Japan with some sci-fi elements.
The story of Afro Samurai starts when Afro sees his father get murdered by Justice, our main antagonist and the story goes from there.
The anime revolves around 2 headbands, the #2 headband which is how you challenge the #1 headband, in this world, the person who has the #1 headband is treated like a god.
So the person with the #2 headband fluctuates a lot because they keep getting murdered repeatedly, somehow the band never gets bloody though!
Spoiler, click to view
afro kills a man for the #2 headband and in the manga, the man's son comes back to kill him (he fails)The Themes of Afro Samurai, are that of revenge. I think you should read the manga for the themes also once you are done with the anime, anyways the themes are pretty simple, The Cycle of Violence and Hatred.
Spoiler, click to view
as justice points outSpoiler, click to view
this anime also has one of the greatest twists I have ever seen in fiction, and it's an intense-ass moment,Afro Samurai is a story that has made me cry, and made me have chills from how intense things can be.
Afro Samurai is truly one of my favorite fictional tales.
Sound.Voice Acting From the legendary
Samuel L. Jackson and even Yuri Lowenthal (Sasuke (Naruto) & Sazaku (Code Geass)'s Dub VA) Now right now you are like dub!? Yeah, Dub, Afro Samurai has one of the greatest dubs (IMO) ever made, and people who have watched it will most likely agree. You kinda have to watch this in dub, idek how you could watch the sub, it's not even listed on Anilist. Just watch the dub. There is a scene with Jinno x Afro, that has some of the most real and brutal voice acting (on yuri's part) I have ever had the pleasure to hear in my life. The soundtrack is great, the main musician being RZA , the leader of the Wu-Tang Clan (A Legendary Rap Group) The OP is fucking great and yeah it's lit.The Entire Soundtrack. ___
Animation. The animation in this anime is awesome, the fight scenes are great because of such animation and it's honestly gorgeous.
The anime has barely any use of CG or anything like that, there are only 2 scenes I can remember which has CG, obviously, there might be more, but they are the only ones I can really remember
both of those scenes have meh CG but you barely see it, so it doesn't really matter, other than those 2 scenes, this entire anime has great animation and is one of the great parts of the show.
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There are not many characters, but the characters you see are very unique and are just great fucking characters.
Afro is our main protagonist, The first scene, we see him, we see him witness his father get murdered by Justice and that is the main theme of the story: Afro's Revenge
Afro has a very good character design and has a great VA (Samuel L Jackson)
Spoiler, click to view
Afro isn't quite a hero, as he kills people, such as his Master for the headband, and continues killing and killing just for some satisfaction in revenge (which in the manga, he doesn't even get). I would most likely put Afro as an anti-hero more than anything
Justice is our main antagonist, the one who killed Afro's father. Justice is a great character, he is not in very much, and in fact in the manga
Spoiler, click to view
at the end of the manga, we see him dead because it took afro so long. Which I think is one thing (writing-wise) the manga does a tiny bit better, but I still love the anime ending)His character design is fucking AMAZING, I love it.
Jinno
Jinno is in fact my favorite male anime character. He is an extremely well-written character and very much like Afro.
Spoiler, click to view
Jinno is Afro's childhood friend, He is looking for revenge on afro after afro kill's his & Jinno's master for the #2 headband.The quote from afro comes in here
"It's nothing personal, just revenge."
Jinno has a bear head which was what one of the girls wore, and I think it represents that he betrayed all of them including the girl, and the bear head is on the side of the one killing afro
Can't say much without spoilers
Ninja Ninja
Ninja Ninja is afro's "friend" that comes along for the journey. He is also voiced by Samuel L Jackson. He is most of the comic relief in the show.
Spoiler, click to view
Ninja Ninja is revealed to be an imaginary representation of Afro's fear, and not actually real. Now I'm not completely sure what he is in the manga, I'm strictly talking anime here. The twist when you realize it is actually genius, the music, the directory of the scene is so fucking genius.
The Empty Seven Clan basically guard Mount Shumi (Where the #1 is located)
They all have pretty unique character designs, each having a different number (pretty lit)
Spoiler, click to view
it turns out they actually wanna take the #1 headband for themselves. They all die to Afro.Welp, end of the review, this was why I think you should watch Afro Samurai and just truly a look at the story. To completely appreciate you would of course have to watch it (I have 3 times)
Anyways thanks for reading!