List of Samurai Champloo episodes
The anime series Samurai Champloo is set during the Edo period. It follows a young woman named Fuu who hires two samurai, Mugen and Jin, after helping in stopping their public execution. The group is on a quest to find the mysterious samurai who smells of sunflowers that Fuu wishes to find.
The episodes of series were produced by Manglobe and written and directed by Shinichirō Watanabe. The first episode premiered in Japan on Fuji Television on May 19, 2004 where it ran for 26 episodes until its conclusion on March 19, 2005.[1] The episodes were collected in DVD volumes in Japan with the first one released on August 1, 2004 and the final and thirteenth on August 24, 2005.[2][3]
Geneon Entertainment licensed the show for distribution in North America in June 2004.[4] An English dub of the series premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network on January 20, 2005, moving to the Adult Swim anime block on May 14, 2005.[5] The series was collected in seven DVD volumes released between January 11, 2005 and January 17, 2006.[6][7] Funimation Entertainment also released a DVD box on May 24, 2011.[8] Samurai Champloo debuted in Canada on December 24, 2006 on the digital station Razer.
The episodes use six pieces of theme music. "Battlecry", performed by Nujabes and Shing02, is used for the opening theme for all twenty six episodes. "Song of Four Seasons (四季ノ唄, Shiki no Uta)" by Minmi is used for the primary ending theme, except for four episodes. Episode 12 uses Minmi's "Who's Theme" as its ending, episode 17 uses "You" by Kazami, 23 uses "Fly" by Azuma Riki, and the final episode uses the song "San Francisco" by Midicronica for its ending.
Episode list
| No. | Title | Director | Writer | Original airdate[9] | English airdate[10] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Tempestuous Temperaments" Transliteration: "Storm and Stress / Shippū Dotō" (Japanese: 疾風怒涛) | Shinichirō Watanabe[11] | Shinji Obara[11] | May 20, 2004 | May 14, 2005 | |
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Fuu, a waitress who is being intimidated by the village prefect's son and his guard, begs 19-year-old vagabond Mugen for help. Across town, skilled 20-year-old rōnin Jin kills the prefect's bodyguards as they prepare to kill a peasant. Jin enters the restaurant, where Mugen mistakes him for the prefect's elite bodyguards and, seeking a worthy adversary, engages him in combat. One of the prefect's son's guards sets the restaurant on fire and it burns to the ground. The local authorities capture both Mugen and Jin, who were knocked unconscious by coal gas, and sentence them to death. After escaping their execution with some help from Fuu, she asks them to join her on a quest to find a mysterious man who smells of sunflowers. | ||||||
| 2 | "Redeye Reprisal" Transliteration: "Veritable Pandemonium / Hyakkiyakō" (Japanese: 百鬼夜行) | Takeshi Yoshimoto[12] | Shinji Obara[12] | June 3, 2004 | May 21, 2005 | |
|
Ryujiro, a man who insulted Fuu and nearly sexually assaulted her, wants to hire a prisoner who looks like an ogre name Oniwakamaru to take down Mugen, Jin, and Fuu. The trio don't have enough money and nearly get into a fight but Fuu calms them down. While trying to get food, the trio overhear from a group of samurais about an ogre who kills people. Mugen offers to kill the ogre which annoys Fuu, but the samurai gives her a drink which makes her lose conscious. Ryujiro makes an ogre strangle an innkeeper to tie up loose ends, and plan to feed Fuu to the ogre, but the police catch Ryujiro and Oniwakamaru red-handed. Oniwakamaru attacks the officers, and plans to kill Fuu but Fuu befriends him because she doesn't think he's scary. Meanwhile, Mugen meets an attractive lady but finds out that she's an assassin who's hired to poison Mugen and escapes. Jin fights against another assassin. Mugen fights against Oniwakamaru while disoriented, and barely wins, while Jin kills the assassin. Ryujiro holds a knife to Fuu's throat, but Oniwakamaru kills Ryujiro while Mugen kills the ogre. Before dying, Oniwakamaru explains he didn't kill Fuu because she treated him normally. | ||||||
| 3 | "Hellhounds for Hire (Part 1)" Transliteration: "Tacit Understanding 1 / Ishindenshin sono ichi" (Japanese: 以心伝心 其之壱) | Shintaro Inokawa[13] | Shinji Obara[13] | June 10, 2004 | May 28, 2005 | |
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Mugen and Jin keep on arguing about where they're supposed to go, and leave Fuu. Mugen goes to a restaurant and steals food from a gang. This enrages one of the gang members who try attacking Mugen, but he easily knocks him out. Nagatomi, the gang leader, is impressed with Mugen's skill and hires him as his bodyguard. Meanwhile, a tutor name Osuzu is trying to teach a Sousuke Kawara, but Nagatomi's gang members take Osuzu to send her to a brothel to pay for her husband's debt. Jin goes to the same restaurant Mugen was in, and learns about the Kawara yakuza conflict with Nagatomi's gang, as well as Sousuke being the heir to Kawara Gang. Mugen disrespects Nagatomi, and Ishimatsu (Nagatomi's bodyguard) fights with Mugen before Mugen leaves. Fuu goes to the same village, but is kidnapped and thrown into a brothel where she meets Osuzu. Sousuke convinces Jin to help him, and the Nagatomi gang unexpectedly meet Sousuke and Jin. | ||||||
| 4 | "Hellhounds for Hire (Part 2)" Transliteration: "Tacit Understanding 2 / Ishindenshin sono ni" (Japanese: 以心伝心 其之弐) | Hirotaka Endo[14] | Shinji Obara | June 17, 2004 | June 4, 2005 | |
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Mugen and Jin start fighting, with Fuu pleading them to stop. Sousuke tries to rescue Osuzu, but she declines for fear that Sousuke will be punished. Nagatomi gang members start surrounding Jin which irritates Mugen, since he deems himself worthy enough to kill Jin. During the confusion, Jin detonates a bomb in his instrument which allows him and Sousuke to escape. While talking to Osuzu, Fuu says she thinks Mugen and Jin as family. Mugen asks Nagatomi why he let his men attack Jin, but Nagatomi says he wants to save Mugen by promoting him to commander. Mugen refuses, stating he doesn't like to rule people, and disrespectfully leaves. Sousuke kills a Nagatomi member after they abuse Osuzu. Due to his actions, the Nagatomi clan capture Sousuke and offer a deal: they will play a dice game. If Nagatomi wins, Sousuke is spared but the Nagatomi take control of the Kawara lands. If Heitaro Kawara (head of Kawara clan) wins, then he will have to kill himself but their lands will be spared. Heitaro reluctantly agrees, and during the dice game Heitaro wins. As a result, Heitaro commits seppuku but Nagatomi refuses his loss, declaring that he plans to break the agreement and steal the land and kill anyone who stands in their way. Just then, Mugen appears and attacks Nagatomi men in a frenzy. During the chaos, Ishimatsu kills Nagatomi after realizing Nagatomi insults him. In the end, Osuzu is rescued, Sousuke is the new head of the Kawara Clan, and Mugen kills Ishimatsu in a duel. | ||||||
| 5 | "Artistic Anarchy" Transliteration: "Utter Indifference / Bajitōfū" (Japanese: 馬耳東風) | Sayo Yamamoto[15] | Dai Satō | June 24, 2004 | June 11, 2005 | |
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Fuu, Mugen, and Jin go in a restaurant to eat, where Fuu meets a ukiyo-e artist name Hishikawa Moronobu. Meanwhile, a detective name Sekami Manzou (Manzou the Saw) is attempting to find the person in chard of slave trafficking. While Mugen and Jin go out to get some money, Hishikawa persuades Fuu to pose for him for his drawing in exchange for money. Jin plays a game with an old man, while Mugen beats up street punks to get money. When Hishiwaka finishes his painting, the yakuza kidnap Fuu. Hishiwaka tries to rescue Fuu, explaining that he joined the Yakuza to get more money since his paintings weren't attracting customers, but is beaten up by the Yakuza. Mugen finds a beaten up Hishiwaka, and Mugen helps save Fuu from the Yakuza. Manzou appears and arrests the old man Jin was playing as well as a woman for being the head of the slave trafficking ring. Hishiwaka tells Fuu that he will never forget her, and plans to go to the country Holland to pursue his dreams of being an artist. It is revealed that Hishiwaka didn't escape to Holland, but his drawing of Fuu would later inspired Vincent Van Gogh. | ||||||
| 6 | "Stranger Searching" Transliteration: "Redheaded Foreigner / Akage Ijin" (Japanese: 赤毛異人) | Akira Yoshimura[16] | Shinji Obara | July 1, 2004 | June 19, 2005 | |
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Fuu, Jin, and Mugen enter a eating contest(Jin and Mugen had to give their swords to enter the contest) but all of them lose to a man name Joji Titsingh (or Izssac) who is a gay European man who speaks Japanese. Izssac agrees to give Jin and Mugen their sword back if the trio gives him a tour around the city. While on the tour, the trio are attacked by INS agents (samurai acting as police) who are trying to capture Iszsac because he's a Foreigner. Issac gives Mugen and Jin their weapons back, and when they're cornered its revealed Izssac is from a country from Holland and is the governor of the East India Company. The INS Agents soon leave peacefully when Izssac agrees to go with them. Fuu meets with Izsaac while Mugen and Jin leave, and she reveals that she's trying to find the samurai that smells of sunflowers. Izsaac says that he has not heard of the samurai that smells of sunflowers, but when Fuu shows him a skull with a loop attached to it, Izsaac becomes fearful and whispers to Fuu that she must not show this to anyone. Izsaac tells Fuu to go to Nagasaki, and she will find her answers there before leaving. | ||||||
| 7 | "A Risky Racket" Transliteration: "Surrounded on All Sides / Shimensoka" (Japanese: 四面楚歌) | Takeshi Yoshimoto[17] | Seiko Takagi | July 8, 2004 | June 25, 2005 | |
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While Fuu, Jin and Mugen are going to get some soup, Fuu's purse is stolen by a thief in the town. | ||||||
| 8 | "The Art of Altercation" Transliteration: "Self-Conceit / Yuigadokuson" (Japanese: 唯我独尊) | Keiichi Sasajima[18] | Dai Satō | July 15, 2004 | July 2, 2005 | |
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A singing swordsman hunts for Jin, challenging any samurai-wearing glasses he can find, accompanied by a beat-boxing duo of thugs. The question arises as to whether or not he will recognize Jin when he becomes infatuated with Fuu, for Jin has had to pawn his glasses. | ||||||
| 9 | "Beatbox Bandits" Transliteration: "Evil Spirits of Mountain and Stream / Chimimōryō" (Japanese: 魑魅魍魎) | Hirotaka Endo[19] | Dai Satō | July 22, 2004 | July 9, 2005 | |
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Mugen, Jin and Fuu need to cross a border so they purchase travel passes since they don't have any. When their passes turn out to be fake, the trio are sentenced to death. However, the guards offer Mugen a chance to save his friends; if he can deliver an object through a forest full of bandits and return in time, Jin and Fuu will be spared. | ||||||
| 10 | "Lethal Lunacy" Transliteration: "Fighting Fire with Fire / Idoku Seidoku" (Japanese: 以毒制毒) | Akira Yoshimura[20] | Touko Machida | July 29, 2004 | July 16, 2005 | |
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Mugen faces the lethal challenge of a Shaolin-trained swordsman and proves equal to the test, while Jin gets stuck doing all the housework. Can Mugen defeat this trained swordsman or will he suffer from his mistakes? | ||||||
| 11 | "Gamblers and Gallantry" Transliteration: "Fallen Angel / Daraku Tenshi" (Japanese: 堕落天使) | Sayo Yamamoto[21] | Seiko Takagi | August 5, 2004 | July 23, 2005 | |
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Jin comes to the rescue of a lady in distress. He falls in love and tries to rescue this woman from the hard life she has come to face. Will he save her and himself? In the meantime, Mugen trains a rhinoceros beetle for a bug-fighting tournament in which he expects to win money. | ||||||
| 12 | "The Disorder Diaries" Transliteration: "Learning from the Past / Onkochishin" (Japanese: 温故知新) | Hirotaka Endo[22] | Shinichirō Watanabe | August 12, 2004 | July 30, 2005 | |
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Mugen steals Fuu's diary that she has been keeping since they first started on their journey to find the sunflower samurai. The episode is a humorous recap on what has happened so far in Samurai Champloo as seen through Fuu's viewpoint, which is in turn criticised by Jin and Mugen. In the end, they find a note written by Fuu herself saying that she knew they would try and snoop into her diary, which enrages Mugen. | ||||||
| 13 | "Misguided Miscreants (Part 1)" Transliteration: "Dark Night's Road 1 / An'ya Kōro sono ichi" (Japanese: 暗夜行路 其之壱) | Takeshi Yoshimoto[23] | Shinji Obara | August 26, 2004 | November 19, 2005 | |
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Mugen's past memories lure him back into his violent past; a pirate makes secret plans; and the lust for gold brings betrayal. | ||||||
| 14 | "Misguided Miscreants (Part 2)" Transliteration: "Dark Night's Road 2 / An'ya Kōro sono ni" (Japanese: 暗夜行路 其之弐) | Shūkō Murase[24] | Shinji Obara | September 2, 2004 | November 26, 2005 | |
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When Mugen finds out what the pirate was planning to do, he gets his revenge. | ||||||
| 15 | "Bogus Booty" Transliteration: "Through and Through / Tettō Tetsubi" (Japanese: 徹頭徹尾) | Kazuto Nakazawa[25] | Uwadan Shimofuwato | September 9, 2004 | December 3, 2005 | |
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The shogun's prettiest ninja ends up giving Mugen an evening that he will never forget. Meanwhile, Fuu gets large from eating too much. | ||||||
| 16 | "Lullabies of the Lost (Verse 1)" Transliteration: "Idling One's Life Away, first verse / Suiseimushi hito yume" (Japanese: 酔生夢死 ひと夢) | Masato Miyoshi[26] | Keiko Nobumoto | September 16, 2004 | December 10, 2005 | |
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Mugen, Jin and Fuu get into a quarrel and separate, and have unexpected encounters; new opponents appear, old grievances return, and Mugen and Fuu meet a mysterious archer. | ||||||
| 17 | "Lullabies of the Lost (Verse 2)" Transliteration: "Idling One's Life Away, second verse / Suiseimushi futa yume" (Japanese: 酔生夢死 ふた夢) | Hirotaka Endo[27] | Ryota Sugi | September 23, 2004 | December 17, 2005 | |
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Jin ends a life he hoped to spare. | ||||||
| 18 | "War of the Words" Transliteration: "Pen in One Hand, Sword in the Other / Bunburyōdō" (Japanese: 文武両道) | Sayo Yamamoto[28] | Dai Satō[28] | January 22, 2005 | January 12, 2006 | |
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Fuu gets a facelift when kids trade in the sword for the graffiti brush; Jin keeps a promise to a long-lost friend and confronts the shock of the new, while Mugen learns to read and conquers a castle. | ||||||
| 19 | "Unholy Union" Transliteration: "Karma and Retribution / Ingaōhō" (Japanese: 因果応報) | Hirotaka Endo[28] | Seiko Takagi[28] | January 29, 2005 | January 19, 2006 | |
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A cynical charlatan fleeces the hidden Christian flock, Fuu gets closer to the Sunflower Samurai, and a truth is finally revealed. | ||||||
| 20 | "Elegy of Entrapment (Verse 1)" Transliteration: "Generous Elegy 1 / Hikakōgai sono ichi" (Japanese: 悲歌慷慨 其之壱) | Takeshi Yoshimoto[28] | Shinji Obara[28] | February 5, 2005 | January 26, 2006 | |
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Fuu, Mugen and Jin meet up with a blind girl who is a traveling musician. Because of her blindness, she is able to sense the emotions of the group. Is this girl more than just a musician? | ||||||
| 21 | "Elegy of Entrapment (Verse 2)" Transliteration: "Generous Elegy 2 / Hikakōgai sono ni" (Japanese: 悲歌慷慨 其之弐) | Akitoshi Yokoyama[28] | Shinji Obara[28] | February 12, 2005 | February 2, 2006 | |
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Jin learns the Way of Water, a woman's sorrow comes to an end, and Mugen both gives and receives an assassin's last gift. | ||||||
| 22 | "Cosmic Collisions" Transliteration: "Anger Shot Toward Heaven / Dohatsu Shōten" (Japanese: 怒髪衝天) | Sayo Yamamoto[28] | Dai Satō[28] | February 19, 2005 | February 9, 2006 | |
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On the way to Nagasaki the trio fall through a mine shaft. They're introduced to its charismatic owner and start working for a share of treasure. As the days drag on, the things take a turn for the bizarre. | ||||||
| 23 | "Baseball Blues" Transliteration: "Heart and Soul Into the Ball / Ikkyū Nyūkon" (Japanese: 一球入魂) | Mitsutaka Noshitani[28] | Shinichirō Watanabe[28] | February 26, 2005 | February 16, 2006 | |
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An American sea vessel arrives in town and a canny ninja-turned-team manager enlists our heroes to do battle with them on the field of honor... which in this case is a baseball diamond. Behold Mugen's pitching skills and tremble! | ||||||
| 24 | "Evanescent Encounter (Part 1)" Transliteration: "Circle of Transmigration 1 / Shōji Ruten sono ichi" (Japanese: 生死流転 其之壱) | Takeshi Yoshimoto[28] | Shinichirō Watanabe, Shinji Obara[28] | March 5, 2005 | February 23, 2006 | |
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Fuu, Mugen and Jin have finally arrived in Nagasaki to find Ikitsuki Island in search of the Sunflower Samurai. There seems to be one small problem that might keep them from getting there though: a group of assassins are following closely behind. | ||||||
| 25 | "Evanescent Encounter (Part 2)" Transliteration: "Circle of Transmigration 2 / Shōji Ruten sono ni" (Japanese: 生死流転 其之弐) | Kazuto Nakazawa[28] | Shinichirō Watanabe, Shinji Obara[28] | March 12, 2005 | March 2, 2006 | |
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As Jin duels Kagetoki Kariya, the most powerful man in the shogunate, Mugen has to contend with three brothers who want his head. | ||||||
| 26 | "Evanescent Encounter (Part 3)" Transliteration: "Circle of Transmigration 3 / Shōji Ruten sono san" (Japanese: 生死流転 其之参) | Sayo Yamamoto, Shinichirō Watanabe[28] | Shinichirō Watanabe[28] | March 19, 2005 | March 9, 2006 | |
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As Fuu finally confronts the Sunflower Samurai, Mugen and Jin face their ultimate tests. While Mugen must face the remaining brothers, Jin continues his battle with Kagetoki Kariya. And there's the small matter of their own duel. | ||||||
References
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