Samurai Champloo: Tempestuous Temperaments (Storm and Stress)

February 8, 2015 5:12 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

Samurai Champloo is a series set during the Edo period (1603–1868), but with mix of anachronistic modern elements, most notably a range of modern hip-hop elements. The first episode introduces the three main characters: the restaurant server, Fuu, a sword-wielding ruffian named Mugen, and a composed samurai named Jin. Jin and Mugen face down the corrupt local politician and his thuggish son's friends (respectively), only to get caught and face execution, which puts their duel on hold, and gets in the way of Fuu's goal of finding the samurai who smells like sunflowers.

The whole season is streaming for free from various official sources, and some less official sources. The first episode: subtitled and dubbed in English on YouTube (you'll need to sign in to confirm you're old enough to watch it), subtitled and dubbed in English on Hulu (with ads, but guests can confirm the year of their birth to view w/o logging in); and a fansubbed video on YouTube, which has a different translation from the FUNimation version, and adds a few bits of information about the scenes in the episode.

The complete guide to anachronisms in Tempestuous Temperaments/Storm and Stress, and the playlist for the entire season.

posted by filthy light thief (7 comments total)

I'll be posting these episodes every week, taking the place of the Cowboy Bebop posts I had been making.

I forgot how much I really liked this series. The animation is a lot more, well, animated, with the characters depicted with cartoonish faces for some emotions, making this very unlike Cowboy Bebop.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:55 PM on February 8, 2015

Don't have much in the way of analysis right this moment, but I really loved this show. Still listen to the soundtrack from time to time.
posted by mordax at 10:26 PM on February 8, 2015

It's been a while since I saw it, but I watched it in one big session then and it was a trip. I didn't like the way the two guys treated Fuu, but I suffered through that for the storytelling and the art and the music and the fights and I'm not sorry about it.

The traditional song from episode 14 is a dream. I never stopped listening to that.
posted by Ashenmote at 12:17 PM on February 9, 2015

So I watched this when it was on Cartoon Network, but my DVR crapped out on the last episode and I don't know how it ended. I was too lazy to look up the last episode at the time (many years ago) and I didn't really have any impetus to start it all over again. Because of this post, I rewatched the first episode and remembered why I liked the series so much. I am looking forward to watching the series again.
posted by Quonab at 5:43 PM on February 9, 2015

I've had the soundtracks to this series on pretty much constant rotation for years. Got introduced to Nujabes through it and that's been great too. I started to re-watch this awhile back and go sidetracked by.. something. Time to try again!
posted by curious nu at 8:18 PM on February 10, 2015

Love love love this show.

Also currently on Netflix.
posted by RainyJay at 7:51 PM on February 22, 2015

For much more cultural context, here is a write-up by a fansubber on this episode.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:48 PM on March 15, 2015 [1 favorite]