ITT: Anons explain what's so great about Samurai Jack to someone who's never seen it

ITT: Anons explain what's so great about Samurai Jack to someone who's never seen it.

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He's gotta get back

Long ago in a distant land Alu, the shape shifting master of darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil. But a samurai warrior wielding a magic stepped forth to oppose him. Before the final blow struck,Aku tore open a portal flinging the samurai into the future where his evil is law. Now the samurai seeks to return to the past and undo the future that is Aku

back where?

Alu?

Genndy Tartakovsky

It just felt really unique. It's drawn in a way that was very striking at the time, the action was crisp, there was very little dialog, especially from Jack, but the characters still felt incredibly real and dynamic because of their aesthetics, actions and emotion and Aku was an extremely funny, charismatic villain with a great voice actor. Aku had by far the most dialog and he made the most of it and most times, made the show because of it.

For starters, Samurai Jack is a show that basks in simplicity and minimalism, and makes the best out of it it can.
The art is simple, yet beautifully stylized.
The character of Jack is your quiet, noble warrior. However, he is an extremely sympathetic character who is put in both terrible and hilarious situations and each reaction is completely genuine.
Aku is a demon; not much to look for in there, right? Except he's the villain that perfectly embodies the balance between threatening and hilarious; there's no villain who can make slaying entire cities for shits and giggles and gathering children to tell them incredibly biased stories in order to make himself look better and fail so spectacularly feel as natural as Aku.
The action itself is fantastic; it's at its best during season 3 and 4. Sometimes it can get very intense, even drawing blood from its main character.
The atmosphere is one of the first things people associate with Jack; this cartoon likes taking its time in complete silence in order to build up a scene before the great confrontation.
The dialogue is scarce, mostly coming from secondary characters while Jack barely speaks unless needed to communicate. Body language, facial expressions and music are the main media of communication here.
It´s not for everyone, certainly. But if you like an apparently simple story of good vs evil, with memorable characters (you won´t forget about anyone in this show), creative action scenes and a rich atmosphere, this is your show.

cool

I'll definitely watch it

>One word
ATMOSPHERE

what kind of atmosphere?

You´ve made yourself a favor, user

Ever heard of "the silence before the battle"? That's 40% of this show. The remainder 60% is the battle itself

so nobody talks?

Just watch the intro and the episodes faggot, we will not spoon feed you faggot.

Talking is a part of the atmosphere too.
But the dialogue itself, unless Aku is involved in the story, is very brief.
It just another contrast between the characters.
Aku is gigantic, Jack is small. Aku is loud and loves the sound of his own voice (we all do) and Jack is humble and reserved. Aku is stupidly evil, perpetrating heinous acts for no other reason that they're evil only to have them bite him in the ass, and Jack is stupidly good, making good actions for the sake of goodness even when this has fucked him over repeatedly.

>Just watch the intro and the episodes faggot, we will not spoon feed you faggot.
newfag or underage or both

youtube.com/watch?v=dvNzuj79jRM

A long time ago there was a samurai warrior that was fighting against the most benevolent being in existence.During that battle the world's most evil being,named Aku,casts a spell that opened up a portal into the future.The samurai was tossed into the distant future.

During all of that time,the master sorcerer Aku took rule over the entire globe and became a tyrant.For an unknown amount of time Aku's dictatorship had created a weird dystopian future where creatures old,new,and otherworldly live under fear of the evil sorcerer.

Our hero Samurai Jack,is rediscovering the entire world piece by piece,interacting with different cultures,and loosening Aku's grip on the world.

Tons of action,with minimal dialogue and an unprecedented amount of style and substance makes Samurai Jack and pleasure to watch.

This is a show that gives so much narrative in the settings which it creates and the actions delivered by the characters,that you can enjoy and understand if it was in a foreign language.

The music is fantastic,the stories are timeless,the action is impeccable and Jack is a hero that very few can contest with across all mediums.

youtube.com/watch?v=bmkxsQnNujI

>crybaby doesn't want to watch all the episodes
this isn't reddit or twitter you little triggered faggot.

sorry, I had to do this.

>there's no villain who can make gathering children to tell them incredibly biased stories in order to make himself look better and fail so spectacularly feel as natural as Aku.

youtube.com/watch?v=8nBUGgvdhDE

lousy b8

I can taste your delicious years from here.

Get a look at those abs

Very creative
Amazing visuals
Actually competent combat when it wants too
Great character design
Metaphors, motifs and themes all over
This is just me but i tear up at some of those sacrifice/honor moments, pic related is a fucking tough watch for me
Its just a great show in general and a must watch for cartoons in the 2000s

Too be honest i just finished up teen titans and started watching samurai jack again and ya its a cut above thats for sure

its an incredibly experimental show narrative wise

...

Which episode had the best fights?
I´d say
>Jack And The Zombies
>The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful
>Jack and The Travelling Creatures
>The Birth of Evil
>Samurai vs Ninja
>Jack and the Ultrabots
>Jack and the Smackback
>The First Fight

It experiments with visual styles that were not common at the time. It also experiments with minimalist sound design in some episodes leading to segments that are silent or nearly silent rather than constant foley or background music.
Much of this experimentation paid off to produce moments of tranquility, frenzied action, or sweeping setpieces that were very rare in cartoons of its era.

>Much of this experimentation paid off to produce moments of tranquility, frenzied action, or sweeping setpieces that were very rare in cartoons of its era.

Hell, it's still pretty different from current cartoons. I don´t think I´ve seen anything like Samurai Jack, not even close.

Back to the past

Say, when's that new series coming out?

Definitely a newfag

March 2017. I can´t remember if they´ll premier on that month or if they´ll release a full length trailer then.

(you)

Bumping with video youtube.com/watch?v=LwhUQ8-TpeE

what?

...

It's not afraid to be quiet. A lot of modern cartoons are afraid to give a moment to let a scene breath and build atmosphere. New Powerpuff girls is particularly guilty of this. Everything wants to be SpongeBob.

It relied on visuals to tell a story and set the mood, rather than on characters explicitly stating:
>I AM SCARED
>THIS IS AWESOME
>THAT WAS COOL
like the viewer is autistic. Or in other words, it was an *animated*, in all senses of the word.

:)

>villain

yes.

Cartoon Network executive Mike Lazzo recalled Tartakovsky pitching him the series: "He said, 'Hey, remember David Carradine in Kung Fu? Wasn't that cool?' and I was like, 'Yeah, that's really cool.' That was literally the pitch."

What really sets the show apart from everything before and since is the MASTERFUL use of sound words and music. So many episodes are silent or nearly silent. So when those amazing sounds of metal on metal clashing ring out or the heavy impact of a fist hitting something is heard it really gives tgee weight of the impact. That use of both silence and sound is still the best example of audiography I have seen in any media to this day.
The animation and designs while simple and clean aren't anything truly great or groundbreaking. But the animation uses that same clash between action and quiet seen in the sound effects very well in the contrast between Jack's active moments and his quiet moments. Gennedy is a big believer in show don't tell and nowhere is that principle better used than in samurai Jack.

I also heard that when he got Mako to play Aku he told him something along the lines of:
"Remember that guy you played in Conan? Do the same, only imagining you're a giant immortal demon with big flaming eyebrows."