I thought I'd actually make up a title instead of 'Random Thought of the Day'
So!
I've got all three seasons of Samurai Jack on DVD and I've been watching them over and over again. Samurai Jack was a really highly rated show; it won awards for artistic acheivement and storytelling.
I concur with all points. The show rocked my finely embroidered tabi socks.
But what made it so incredibly awesome? Let's take a closer look . . . .
1)
Animation: At first glance, the animation doesn't seem like anything special. Jack is put together from colorful, simplistic blocks, as are all the other characters. However. As toony as the worlds and characters are, the animation is phenomenal. Toony, blocky Jack uses actual martial arts moves with enough detail and precision you can actually pinpoint the style of fighting he's using. I've yet to spot an animation flub where they've colored something the wrong color or animated a line going through something else. There's also no cheating when it comes to reusing backgrounds and/or stock footage. They may have re-used a close-up of the sword being thrown a couple of times, but every episode is completely and freshly animated. In the 'Rave' episode, they designed and animated literally hundreds of dancers so there wouldn't be any reused.
The animation is also very dramatic, almost like cinematography. They'll cut to slow motion in the middle of a battle scene, then jump back to regular speed. It's almost reminiscent of 300 . . . only Samurai Jack came out first. And there was an episode featuring the Spartans. Hmmmmm.
There's also an air of realism to the battle scenes. Jack gets cut and scraped up a lot. His hair gets messed up. And it stays messed up or torn up until he fixes it. There's no instance of his hair being messed up in one scene and then perfect the next. Before his hair is made perfect, it shows him fixing it.
I would like to know where he keeps getting new kimonos, however.
2)
Violence: It seems like an odd thing to brag on, but it goes with the realism of the storytelling. American cartoons are almost genetically altered to show no actual violence. Characters with swords use them to 'zap' opponents instead of cutting things.
Not so with Samurai Jack.
For obvious reasons, most of Jack's victims have to be robots (thank you FCC) though monsters are susceptible to getting sliced up as well. Sometimes, however, there's no sign that whatever he's fighting is a robot until *after* he cuts into it. In the Metal-Eaters story, it's only revealed that a female character is a robot after Jack slices her face off.
You read that right; the hero slices a woman's face off.
That's bad-ass.
But, when violence happens to Jack, he reacts accordingly. He gets hurt. He feels pain. He bleeds. YES IT SHOWS BLOOD! Thank - freaking - God someone realized that showing blood on a cartoon would not end the world.
3)
Complete Disrespect for the Hero: This falls into several different categories.
A) Jack screws up a lot. Like, a lot a lot. The show is basically one long list of his failures. He failed to destroy Aku in the pilot and was sent forward into the future, which means his family and people suffered and died under Aku's hands. That's a pretty big screw-up. He consistently fails to find a way back to the past. You wouldn't think there were that many time portals littering the landscape, but Jack manages to find quite a few and then utterly fails to use them. And not 'it's nobler to suffer here' or 'I have to save this person now rather than go back' fails. I mean straight up 'The portal's guardian kicked my ass' or 'I accidentally stuck my hand in the crystal ball and have to use my one wish to get un-stuck' fails. EPIC FAIL!
It's kind of nice to have a hero that doesn't win all the time.
B) Jack gets beat up a lot. A lot a lot. Yes, he's this awesome warrior, but he can't be 'on' all the time. He gets caught off guard and beat up by the local hoods after defeating a robot army. He's been smacked around while he's sleeping or eating.
C) The writers don't baby him. There's no mystical, magical aura of awesome they have to keep up around him. He's been turned into a chicken. He's been put in raver gear consisting of a big 'Dr. Seuss' hat and a pacifer. Yes, a pacifier. In one episode he inadvertantly bought a pair of high heels not realizing they were women's shoes and when he realizes his mistake, hitches up the skirt of his kimono and minces away.
This extends to the fact that 'he's the best'. Because he's not the best. Sometimes he comes up against a warrior and doesn't win. He gets his ass kicked. He's been rescued by the Scotsman's wife. He comes across as more of a person than a hero. And that rocks.
D) He's not perfect. Getting beat up and messing up aside, he's not always the perfect, noble warrior. He can be petty and angry and totally lose his shit with the best of them. He ignores warnings and good advice because he's in a hurry or he just doesn't want to listen. In the 'naked' episode (and holy crap 'This cartoon brought to you by LSD!') when someone steals his clothes and gear while he's bathing and he finds himself buck naked in the middle of a city, he does what any martial artist would do: he beats up another guy and takes his clothes. Jack *knows* it's wrong; he even apologizes to the guy before he does it, but he still does it.
4) Fanservice: I have to mention the fanservice. It would be an awesome show without it, but it's just the icing on the cake.
Jack likes to be naked.
That's the only reason I can come up with for how much he rips off his kimono and fights in his skivvies. Seriously; he gets a three-inch long tear in one sleeve and he rips off everything above the waist. A slight cut at the knee and the rest of it goes. Fans can see it coming:
Jack: *glares coldly at tear in chest* *reaches left hand up to right shoulder*
Fans: Kimono tear! DRINK!
Likewise with the constant mussing of Jack's pretty, pretty hair. Yeah, he keeps it up in that bun, but at the slightest hint of exhertion or wind, loose tendrils start whipping around his neck and face and once that happens, it going to be completely loose and blowing around his manly, manly shoulders within a couple of minutes.
It's even gotten to the point where *I* find it gratuitous and I'm a pervert.
Jack: *runs off to battle in skivvies*
Me: Okay, I can see why you needed to meditate first, but why the nudity? I mean- there's snow on the ground. I'm going to assume it's very cold there. Go put some clothes on. We can survive without seeing you naked for at least one more episode.
Just the fact that there *was* a 'naked' episode says a lot.
But overall, Samurai Jack is an awesome watch for any age. I highly recommend it.
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2) OCs A lot of people ask me how I come up with my OCs, how do I write great OCs, etc. Um . . . . I don't know. Most of the time I write an OC as an NPC and they just take off. Matthias Conway was just brought into play to execute the 'Dry Clean Only' joke. Johnny Betty was brought in to A) get Jack out of the camp -- and Jack had to be out of the camp because I wanted Phooka to walk on water -- and B) to have a straight person stuck in the camp for non-traditional gender issues. Phooka literally forced his way into the story at the last possible second. I was all set to go ahead with the male stalkers going after Jack and the magical badass took off to the point that I had his physical description, first threats at Chase, and Chase's returning threat written as published. Then I actually had to stop and figure out a name and species for him.
They just come to me. *shrugs*
3) CLAY Clay. I like Clay. The farmer/cowboy character is extremely rare in modern tv shows, much less in cartoons. Having grown up on a farm myself and still living in the heartland of America, I am naturally attracted to characters who's circumstances are similar to mine. What I really like about Clay is even though he's the stereotypical cowboy/farmboy, he's very intelligent. He randomly spouts obscure bits of knowledge from the feilds of biology, is artistic (carver), and obviously has enough of an interest in different cultures to want to study in China. They could have gone so many different ways with his character, but didn't.
I can do better.
4) XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN I like Xiaolin showdown for Clay and for Chack. Three really great characters in one show is almost unheard of. I like the setting. Kung fu rules. Magic rules. Robots rule. All three in one tasty show? Oh yeah. The sloppy writing is less yummy, as is the hypocrisy and nastiness of the monks in general. Clay is not as bad as the others, but he's not completely innocent either.
5) FANART Fanart falls under the same kind of reasoning as fanfiction. If you draw a picture of a space cowboy, everyone wants and explanation, a back story, a reasoning for why on earth you would even think of drawing said space cowboy. Everyone wants to read so deeply into my creations and sometimes there's nothing there to read. Maybe I drawing a couple having sex because I want to illustrate how beauftul the act of love to be and prove that nakedness does not equal porn. But maybe I'm just horny.