Samurai Jack

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Samurai Jack
Samurai Jack </small>
Genre	Animated, action
Running time	22 minutes
Creator(s)	Genndy Tartakovsky
Starring	Phil LaMarr (Jack) Mako (Aku)
Country of origin	Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Original channel	Cartoon Network
Original run	August 2001–September 2004
No. of episodes	52

Samurai Jack was an American animated television series created by animator Genndy Tartakovsky that aired on Cartoon Network from 2001 until 2004. It is noted for its highly detailed, outline-free, masking-based animation style, as well as for its cinematic style and pacing, unusual in today's cartoons. The plot is frequently stopped to allow for the building of tension before combat or for the sake of humor; it is also not uncommon for episodes to be almost entirely free of dialogue.

The plots of individual episodes range from epic and darkly serious to light-hearted and hilariously funny. Many of the battle scenes in the series are reminiscent of samurai films, though Jack's robot enemies "bleed" only oil, allowing the series to avoid being censored for violence. The show can be viewed at the Toonami Jetstream website.

[edit] Pilot

See also: Samurai Jack episode guide

"Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting Master of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil... But a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future where my evil is law. Now the fool seeks to return to the past and undo the future that is Aku!"

This begins each episode of Samurai Jack, which tells the story of a young prince (Jack) from the medieval orient whose father's empire is destroyed by Aku, a demon who fell to Earth after its defeat in the heavens. Jack escapes destruction and trains his mind and his body for years, in a multitude of cultures and locations, until he reaches adulthood. Then, taking his father's magic katana, he challenges Aku to a duel and nearly defeats the demon. Near death, Aku creates a portal into the distant future and sends his opponent through it, anticipating that he would be able to amass sufficient power to deal with the samurai by then.

The protagonist arrives in a hostile, futuristic Earth, ruled by Aku and filled with his robot minions. He adopts the nickname of "Jack" - his real name is not mentioned, and it is never made clear why. (Perhaps this was to keep the character's backround simpler and easier to follow.) Jack searches for a way to travel back to his own time, where he hopes to be able to stop Aku before Aku attains power over the Earth. The cartoon depicts Jack's never-ending quest to find a time portal, while constantly harried by Aku and his robot henchmen, in a classic battle of Good versus Evil. In many episodes, Jack, on reaching his goal (a way back to the past), announces "my quest has ended." This is usually the cue for a deus ex machina appearance by Aku who destroys Jack's means of returning to the past. In episode XXXII, the guardian of a portal that Jack fails to defeat states (out of earshot of Jack) that it is not yet time for him to return to the past. An image of what seems to be a much older Jack is then seen in the portal; this seems to indicate that Jack is predestined to return, but it will take many years for him to do so.

Samurai Jack consistently shows an uncommon moral strength of character, always helping the poor and defenseless along the way, and sometimes even forgoing opportunities to defeat Aku to save or help just one person. His honor prevents him from leaving those who need him, and Jack is willing to face incredible pain and turmoil to help those around him, regardless of whether or not it matters in the greater context of time and space.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Samurai Jack

Jack is voiced by Phil LaMarr. His true name is never revealed; his alias was adopted in the second episode after hearing some street slang in which "jack" was the general term for a man. He is the son of the lord who ruled the area where Aku originally appeared on Earth, and is banished to the future by Aku during battle. When Jack arrives in the future, he finds that Aku has conquered the world and rules the populace with an iron fist, doling out severe punishments for any that oppose him. Despite this, Jack is not alone in seeking to free the planet from Aku's dominion - bounty hunters seem plentiful, mostly because of the large number of warriors that attempt to battle Aku. One other notable example is the Scotsman.

Despite the lack of overt philosophizing in the program, Jack exhibits most of the characteristics of a Nietzschean hero. He is an unfailingly polite aristocrat who, despite the completely alien nature of the futuristic world, never scoffs at or disparages the customs of the people he encounters. Despite his almost hopeless situation, he does not bewail his destiny, instead exhibiting a strong amor fati. Several episodes show Jack delighting in his abilities and strength (especially in 'How Jack Learned to Jump Good'). Despite having a strict moral code, Jack does not speak of an afterlife to any great extent, and the presence of deities in the program is mostly pagan and practical. Also, Jack cultivates a powerful aesthetic sense, primarily through his beautiful martial arts and antiquated refinement.

[edit] Samurai Jack's abilities

As a boy, Jack traveled around the world to prepare both physically and mentally for his confrontation with Aku. Jack visited many civilizations in ancient times, including China, Egypt, Central Africa, Greece, Norway, Mongolia and northern Europe. He attempted to master each art of combat from the cultures he met. He trained with viking sailors, Robin Hood, shaolin monks, the Greek Olympic contestants and several others. Jack has a complete mastery of sword, staff, spear, bow, unarmed and mounted combat, though unarmed combat is of limited effectiveness against robots and cyborgs. He is highly adaptable, able to intuitively grasp the controls, potential combat functionality, and weaknesses of highly advanced technology even when first encountering it. Jack is also knowledgeable about the mystic and arcane, though he does not demonstrate the ability to use magic. He is very good with animals and can befriend them quite easily.

Jack is exceptionally skilled in the martial arts and follows Bushido strictly. After some training with rather large boulders as weights, Jack gains the ability to leap several stories into the air - the forest creatures who taught him this technique refer to it as "Jump Good." Jack's jumps elevate him so high that he appears to be flying (as stated by Aku). His reflexes are excellent: he is able to block bullets fired by machine guns with his sword and overwhelm hundreds of opponents at once with sheer speed and skill. He also becomes skilled in a specialized form of ninjutsu. Even Aku fears Jack, mostly because Jack's sword is one of the few things able to dangerously harm him.

In certain episodes, Jack uses abilities that he never uses again (similar to Aku), such as his ability to hide in bright light, seen in episode XL, "Samurai vs Ninja". However, this is more of an artistic effect than an ability of Jack's, as the purpose of that episode is to show his battle against a ninja clad in black clothes. Their fight takes place in a stylized setting of abrupt light and shadow, with Jack showing up against the black background and the ninja becoming visible against the light.

[edit] Jack's katana

Jack's magic katana was forged by the gods Odin, Ra and Rama through 3 mortal avatars. The sword's main component is the pure spirit of good that humans possess, extracted from Jack's father and then hammered and forged into a katana. The katana is preserved and maintained by Jack's ancestors and is one of the few weapons capable of destroying Aku. The sword has many unique qualities:

It is incapable of being broken or shattered.
It is very sharp; the sword is capable of cutting through almost anything, even the hardest metal. Once Jack sliced an arrow with a jewel tip in half simply by putting the blade in the path of the arrow.
The sword seems to have a mind of its own: at one point it refused to cut down a helpless deer for Jack's consumption.
Aku once succeeded in stealing the sword and attempted to kill Jack with it, but he was unable to pierce Jack's skin with the sword because it can't hurt those who are good and pure of heart.
- Though the sword was unable to harm Jack, it has been known to harm those who are good in a few episodes. For example, in an episode about an old model of robots that was given emotions, the robot was forced to fight the samurai and the samurai destroyed him with the sword. Also, in an episode where Jack is infected with Aku's pure evil essence, Aku uses the sword to attack some reptilian monks who aren't cut by the sword but are clearly hurt by it.

[edit] Aku

Aku is voiced by the late Makoto Iwamatsu.

Aku is an evil shape-shifter, the show's main antagonist. His name means "evil" or "wickedness" in the Japanese language. He is similar to Akuma, the evil demon with burning eyes from Japanese mythology. The two-part Episode Special The Birth of Evil shows his origins: shortly after the birth of the universe, a gigantic, black entity of pure evil emerged into the depths of space, and was all but destroyed by three god-like beings known as "the deities" - Odin, Ra, and Rama. During the battle a small fragment fell away from the entity and drifted through space for an unknown period of time before falling to Earth during the era of the dinosaurs, thereby causing their extinction. This fallen fragment became Aku, a dark sickness that infected the land, slowly but surely spreading around the country and plaguing everything in its path throughout the course of Earth's primitive history. Aku first appeared in the region ruled by Jack's father, who attempted to destroy Aku with a poison arrow. The arrow, however, did not destroy Aku but instead somehow released him, giving him his self-awareness, personality, humanoid form and the capacity to shape-shift. Jack's father was chosen by the deities to destroy Aku, and at the end of their epic battle Aku was imprisoned within the earth in the form of a giant tree.

Aku returned several years later, having been reawakened by an eclipse, and captured Jack's father, enslaving his kingdom. Following Jack's banishment into the future Aku successfully took control of the entire planet, turning it into a bizarre dystopia, inhabited by extraterrestrials, robots, cyborgs, and other strange beings. This represents a change in Earth's history, so Aku's future must be considered to be an alternate reality.

Aku continues to antagonize Jack, often proactively attacking him while other times defending himself from Jack's own gambits. The two seem doomed to never defeat each other, for though Jack has bested Aku on numerous occasions, Aku merely transforms into a small creature and escapes, usually calling out a taunt over his shoulder as he flees (this is parodied in episode IIL, "Jack Versus Aku").

Aku has often been a source of comedy in the show, due to his outrageous design and behaviour.

[edit] Aku's powers

Aku can shape shift to almost any form he desires, from a giant dragon to a small bat, or even a beautiful woman ("Ikra"). He can grow tall or fall apart into several smaller replicas of himself.

Aku possesses a wide knowledge of magic that varies from episode to episode as the situation demands. A few examples include: teleportation, magical attacks, summoning storms, and creating gold out of nothing. He requires no food, water, or air and is capable of interstellar travel. He also has the ability to spy on Jack from a large sphere that he can summon at will in his tower.

Aku's body is nearly immune to all forms of common attack. If wounded, his wounds heal in moments. However, he is very vulnerable to Jack's sword, which is capable of inflicting severe pain to him even from the slightest cut. Wounds from Jack's sword take much longer to heal than normal wounds, but they do heal in time. It has been repeatedly implied that Jack's sword is the only thing capable of destroying Aku; he is morbidly afraid of it, and will only engage Jack in combat if Jack is somehow disarmed, or if Aku has no other choice but to defend himself.

[edit] Aku's world

In the future where the story takes place, Aku is the dictatorial ruler of the world. From this position, he has access to almost anything he desires. He seems to have a nearly limitless robotic army of bounty hunters, war machines, and mechanized monsters that he constantly uses to pursue Jack. As a master of dark magic, he also has a variety of monsters ready to do his bidding.

Aku, despite all his powers, is still not the supreme power on the planet. He was unable to best three elemental spirits who guarded a treasure (the treasure being a jewel that can control water), where Jack was able to defeat these elementals by tricking them into getting tangled up in one another. There are also other warriors and beings Aku fears, and his minions attempt to destroy these beings.

[edit] Jack's father/The Emperor

Jack's father, who was the Emperor of the area Aku first appeared in, attempted to destroy Aku with a poison arrow, but wound up setting him free instead. Aku easily defeated Jack's father, and went on a rampage through his home. The deities sensed the good in Jack's father and brought him to a secret sanctuary atop the highest mountain in the region. Taking the essence of good from deep within him, they forged the sword that Jack now carries. Using this sword and a magical suit of armor (note that unlike the sword the armor can be easily torn apart in a struggle with Aku's minions), Jack's father confronted Aku. However, he was unable to destroy Aku and had to settle with trapping him in the earth. When Aku was later awakened, he attacked Jack's father and enslaved him before he could use his sword to slay him once more.

[edit] Secondary characters

[edit] Bounty Hunter Brotok

Voiced by Brian George

[edit] Demongo

Voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson

Demongo is one of Aku's most powerful minions summoned from the Pit of Hate. What makes him extraordinary is his ability to steal the essence of the opponents he defeats by trapping the essence in one of the large number of skulls that are attached on his torso. Demongo may re-summon the trapped essence from its skull, effectively reanimating the defeated opponent in a ghost-like form to do his bidding. His minions, when slain, revert into essence once again and return to their master; however, Demongo may re-summon them immediately to fight once more. When ordered to confront Jack, Demongo had a vast collection of warrior essences that allowed him to create an army of ghostly warriors in moments. However, without the captured essence, Demongo is completely powerless.

Demongo is also known as the Dealer of Destruction and the Merchant of Doom.

[edit] Mad Jack

Voiced by Phil LaMarr

When Jack was under extreme stress from all the constant bounty hunter attacks, he let loose his suppressed anger. Seeing this, Aku used this anger and his own dark magic to create Mad Jack. This doppelgänger is an exact replica of Jack and is capable of everything Jack is capable of. The two fought each other with rage and anger, neither capable of besting the other. Jack finally realized near the end that he was fighting his own wrath, and as long as he continued to stay angry he could never win. He concluded that he must conquer anger with peace. He meditated to abolish his rage and anger, causing Mad Jack to vanish when he attempted to attack Jack. Mad Jack actually disappeared by being absorbed into Jack, suggesting that, while Jack may have managed to suppress his rage, it would always lie under the surface.

[edit] Monkey-man

Voiced by Jeff Bennett

The monkey man is a human living in the jungle with a tribe of peaceful white apes who adopted him after he escaped slavery as a child. He survived and grew up in the jungle, similar to the fictional characters Tarzan and Mowgli. He learned the way of the monkey tribe including their language and the ability to jump to extreme heights. He is also still able to speak human language, though its lack of use causes him some difficulty.

[edit] The Scotsman

Voiced by John Di Maggio

The Scotsman is an unnamed Scottish warrior from the highlands. He is taller and much bulkier than Jack, upon whom he looks down at first as a sissy in a nightgown. His left leg is replaced with a machine gun, and it functions both as a weapon and as a prosthesis. The Scotsman is an exceptionally skilled fighter, rivaling Jack himself; they once fought each other to their absolute limits for a number of days and nights non-stop, but neither was able to defeat the other. The two eventually came to respect one another and became good friends; the Scotsman recruits Jack to save his temperamental wife and has even gone around the world for the sake of forcing Jack to recover his lost memory when Jack ends up believing he is a young man named Brent. He possesses a large claymore that is enchanted with magical Celtic runes, making it unbreakable even by Jack's techniques. He also enjoys playing the bagpipe, much to Jack's dismay.

[edit] Jack's return / Story Conclusion / Feature Film

In a September 28, 2006 interview with MTV.com, series creator Genndy Tartakovsky confirmed that "Jack will come back" and that "we will finish the story, and there will be an animated film." <ref>MTV</ref> <ref>TV.com (cache of MTV story)</ref>

[edit] DVD releases

Like previous Cartoon Network shows, Samurai Jack DVDs are released by Warner Home Video.

DVD Name	Release Date	Additional Information
Samurai Jack: The Premiere	July 22, 2003	DVD containing the Premiere movie in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Also includes a never before seen bonus episode. Also on VHS. ("The Premiere" is actually just the first two episodes of Season 1, and the bonus episode is actually episode 11 of Season 1, Jack and the Scotsman)
Samurai Jack: Season One	May 4, 2004	2 Disc DVD set including all 13 episodes from the show's premiere season. Includes a Making-Of, Original Animation Test, Original Artwork and Commentary on One Episode.
Samurai Jack: Season Two	May 24, 2005	2 Disc DVD set including all 13 episodes of the show's second season. Includes Commentary on Episode XXV, Creator Scrapbook, and an Original Episode Pitch.
Samurai Jack: Season Three	May 23, 2006	2 Disc DVD set including all 13 episodes of the show's third season. Includes Commentary on Episodes XXXVII and XXXVIII(Two-Parter), Lost Artwork, and a featurette called "Martial Arts of the Samurai".
Samurai Jack: Season Four	May, 2007

See also list of Samurai Jack episodes.

The DVDs include episode numbers (in Roman numerals as they appear in the episodes themselves) but not titles.

As of 2006 the series has not been released in the United Kingdom despite its international popularity.

[edit] Production

[edit] Main title theme creation

Samurai Jack's main title theme music was produced by the Black Eyed Peas member, will.i.am.

[edit] Animation/Direction

Genndy Tartakovsky is the creator of this show, and his influence and dramatic sense permeate the show. Among the things captured on the show are his use of 1970s split screen.

[edit] Influences

Tartakovsky has acknowledged taking some of his inspiration from the Frank Miller Graphic Novel Ronin, including the premise of a masterless samurai warrior thrown into a dystopic future ahead of our present battling a shape-shifting demon.

Another source of influence is the manga Lone Wolf and Cub. There is a cameo in episode 19 (Jack and His Childhood) where a young Jack witness how Lone Wolf defeats some bounty hunters on a bridge.

[edit] Reception

Cartoon Network ordered fifty-two episodes of the show, but took Samurai Jack off of the air before all of the episodes were shown. The unaired episodes were later shown as a special and in re-runs. The last episode, Jack and the Baby, was a stand-alone story in which Jack was still fighting Aku and nothing was resolved. The series was popular enough to spawn comic book and video game tie-ins, and a movie version was announced but has not yet been produced.

[edit] Trivia

In many episodes, Jack's gi is removed or gradually ripped off, usually while in battle. (Quite similar to anime shows like Dragon Ball Z.) Some fans regard the sight of Jack shirtless or in his fundoshi as recurring "fan service".

In Episode XXIX ("The Good, The Bad and The Beautiful"), Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey, two other Hanna Barbera characters, make cameos partway through, comically emphasizing the episode's Old West theme.

Jack bears a striking resemblance in apearance to that of legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. Whether this was intentional or not has yet to be confirmed.

[edit] Legacy

The distinctive style of Samurai Jack is what drew Lucasfilm to recruit Tartakovsky for the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series. Much of the signature cinematic style of Samurai Jack lives on in Clone Wars, such as lightning-fast combat, extended sequences without dialogue, explosions, epic vistas, etc.

The Duck Dodgers episode "Samurai Quack" was dedicated to spoofing the various stylistic elements and plot devices of the series, such as only ever killing robots and the removing of clothes before the final battle of the episode. Genndy Tartakovsky was a guest star in that episode. In one episode of Dexter's Laboratory, another cartoon created by Tartakovsky, boy-genius Dexter frequently says "Samurai Jaction" rather than "action". e.g "That's enough Samurai Jaction for you!". Also in the post-2001 episodes, a Samurai Jack action figure is sometimes visible on the shelf in Dexter's bedroom. Samurai Jack is also referenced to in the popular Internet cartoon Bonus Stage where one of the main characters says "Samurai Jack'd!" and a white blur passes across the screen, killing another character. In another Bonus Stage episode, they refer to Clone Wars as "Samurai Jack style story telling". In the episode "Eplilogue" of Justice League Unlimited, there is a supervillain group known as the Royal Flush Gang who use playing cards as their gimmick. The Jack card is seen wearing Samurai gear. Hence, "Samurai Jack," a very subtle refference. In The Order of the Stick xykon reffers to Miko as Samurai Jill a femminization of Jack.

The look of the show has been widely influential on subsequent animated commercials and TV cartoons, perhaps most obviously the end credits to The Incredibles which, in turn, inspired the look of The X's.

[edit] Awards

Samurai Jack won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 2004 (it was also nominated in 2002 and 2005). Artists Wes Bane, Derrik Steinhagen, Dan Krall, Scott Willis, and Bryan Andrews each received Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation for their work on the show.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

it:Samurai Jack he:סמוראי ג'ק nl:Samurai Jack no:Samurai Jack pl:Samuraj Jack pt:Samurai Jack ta:சாமுராய் ஜாக்

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