FanFare

A beautiful, sorrowful, blind musician joins the journey; Mugen is charmed, Fuu finds a friend, and Jin finds a challenge. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Jun 21, 2015 - 0 comments

Guns, God and Government in Edo Japan: wherein a cynical charlatan fleeces the Hidden Christian flock, Fuu gets closer to the Sunflower Samurai, and a truth is finally revealed. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Jun 14, 2015 - 1 comment

Hiroshima 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. [18th episode total, start of the second season] [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Jun 7, 2015 - 0 comments

Jin and Fuu reunite, only to be attacked (again) by a vengeance-driven samurai from Jin's old life. Meanwhile, Mugen takes aim at an arrow-slinging foreigner who's at the top of everyone's most wanted list. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on May 31, 2015 - 0 comments

Tempers flare, harsh words are exchanged, and the trio splits (again), each marching off in a different direction. Mugen runs into a fellow outlaw and identities are mistaken, and Jin's past catches up with him (again), while Fuu ends up at the bottom of a river. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on May 31, 2015 - 0 comments

While Mugen, Jin and Fuu stop to fish, Jin makes up for his lack of fishing skills by finding a bag of gold koban. The group gets to "a real city," Osaka, where Fuu stuffs herself, and then Mugen and Jin abandon her for the red light district. While there, their gold gets the attention of a gang of sorts. Mugen proves his prowess for love (or at least, lust), Jin makes the best of his situation, and Fuu is left on her own. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on May 17, 2015 - 0 comments

(Continued, with more backstory for Mugen, Kohza and Mukuro.) Thinking that Mugen is dead, Kohza finds Jin and Fuu and asks for Jin to kill Mukuro. The double-cross turns into a triple-cross, and in the end, Mugen survives. Kohza does, too, though she wishes she hadn't. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on May 10, 2015 - 0 comments

While taking a short-cut, the group comes across some faces from Mugen's past. The lure of gold is stronger than bad blood, and he teams up with some well-armed pirates to rob a Bakufu (shogunate government) ship with 60,000 ryo worth of gold, but the plans change and Mugen is left with the short end of the fuse. To be continued .... [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on May 4, 2015 - 1 comment

Recap episode! This is a look back on the first 11 episodes, as seen through the eyes of Fuu, by way of her diary that Mugen lifts when he and Jin talk about the lack of information they have on the Sunflower Samurai. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Apr 26, 2015 - 0 comments

Jin comes to the rescue of a lady in distress, Mugen gets involved with beetle sumo wrestling, and our trio's loyalties are tested. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Apr 20, 2015 - 1 comment

While on the road, Fuu, Mugen and Jin meet a a Buddhist monk making himself available for anyone who wishes to give alms, and when he finds they are out of money and hungry, he offers them work for food and lodging. Meanwhile, Fuu notices an award for the capture of an unknown assailant who is killing powerful samurai to test his sword (tsujigiri), and tells Jin and Mugen of the reward. Jin passes, and Mugen leaves the work behind in search of the tsuijigiri. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Apr 12, 2015 - 3 comments

The episode is a flashback from a tough checkpoint agent who never let anyone sneak through, on his last day of work. 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 by the head of the checkpoint, a sadistic man who has family connections that keep him from being disciplined for his brutal actions. 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 before sunset, Jin and Fuu will be spared. Mugen runs afoul of the bandits, who have big plans for a revolution. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Apr 12, 2015 - 2 comments

Saganshougen Nagamitsu is going to be Big, as you can tell because he sings and has a posse. His goal: defeat Mariya Enshiro's bespectacled murderer, Jin. Except he doesn't know what Jin looks like without his glasses, so when Jin pawns his glasses, and he almost gets side-tracked trying to woo Fuu. Meanwhile, Mugen and Jin run into Budoukiba, a sultry lady who likes to pair her wine with men who can hold their own against her when drinking. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Apr 4, 2015 - 0 comments

Fuu, Jin and Mugen finally get a break and win a nice purse while gambling. But when they go to pay for their soup, Fuu finds that their purse is gone. The same nimble-fingered young thief also lifts a valuable package from a group of shady characters. Who will find him first? [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 22, 2015 - 0 comments

Jin, Mugen and Fuu enter an eating contest, thinking they can get free food. Unfortunately for them, there is an entry fee that Mugen and Jin paid with their swords, which they would get if they won the competition. It comes down to Fuu and a mysterious, large foreigner, and Fuu loses on a technicality. The stranger offers Mugen and Jin their swords back for a tour of Edo (old name of Tokyo), which is also foreign to the trio, but Jin forges ahead. When they run into trouble, Mugen and Jin defend the stranger, only to learn that stating his name and role would give him free access of the country. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 15, 2015 - 1 comment

Fuu models for ukiyo-e artist Hishikawa Moronobu only to end up tangled in a larger criminal enterprise. Will the others be able to save her in time? [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 8, 2015 - 1 comment

Mugen, Jin, and Fuu reunite, as the struggle between the Nagatomi Gang and the established Kawara Gang grows more intense, due to actions by Sousuke Kawara. The leaders of the gangs decide to gamble using dice (Chō-Han) in order to settle the struggle and settle the fate of their struggle to control the contested territory. Who will come out on top? [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 1, 2015 - 2 comments

Mugen and Jin decide to split up, leaving Fuu to her own devices, only to reunite in a town where a new gang is trying to push the established group out. Mugen joins the Nagatomi Gang, while Jin later finds himself aligned with the established Kawara Gang, who are lead by a kindhearted leader named Heitaro the Buddha. Meanwhile, Fuu gets in trouble when she doesn't heed the warnings of a fortune teller.
posted by filthy light thief on Feb 22, 2015 - 2 comments

Fuu, Jin and Mugen are almost out of money, and Mugen offers to take care of a local monster for a reward. Jin is tested by a deceptively adept samurai, while Mugen is lured into danger by two different women. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Feb 15, 2015 - 5 comments

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. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Feb 8, 2015 - 7 comments