Samurai Jack

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Template:Infobox television Samurai Jack is an American animated television series, created by Genndy Tartakovsky, that first aired on Cartoon Network.

It is notable for its highly detailed, outline-free, masking-based animation style and also for its cinematic style and pacing, unusual for today's cartoons: the plot is frequently stopped to allow for the building of tension before combat or for the sake of humor, and it is not uncommon for episodes to be almost entirely free of dialogue. Many of the battle scenes in the series are intense, reminiscent of samurai films (but evading censorship since Jack's robot enemies "bleed" only oil).

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

Contents

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Plot

Image:Samurai Jack opening Aku.jpg Each episode begins with the following opening narration:

"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!"

Samurai Jack tells the story of a prince from the medieval orient, whose father's empire is destroyed by Aku, a demon who fell to Earth after defeat in the heavens. The prince escapes and begins years of training his mind and body, culminating with him receiving his father's magic sword (a katana), a weapon capable of injuring the demon. After freeing his enslaved father, he challenges Aku to a duel and nearly beats him; however, near death, Aku creates a portal into the distant future and sends the prince through it, anticipating that he would be able to amass sufficient power to deal with the prince 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 begins his search for a way to travel back to his own time, where he hopes to be able to stop Aku before he attained power over the Earth.

The cartoon depicts the never-ending quest of Jack 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 an deus ex machina appearance by Aku who destroy's Jack's means of returning to the past, thus perpetuating his quest.

The plots of individual episodes range from epic and darkly serious to light-hearted and hilariously funny; but no matter what happens, 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.

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Characters

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Main characters

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Secondary characters

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Home video releases

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

  • Samurai Jack: The Premiere Movie (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.
  • 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". [1]
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Trivia

Image:Samurai Jack VII fanservice.jpg

  • Aku means "evil" in Japanese.
  • Aku means "I" or "me" in Malay.
  • 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.
  • The distinctive style of Samurai Jack was what drew Lucasfilm to recruit Tartakovsky for the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series. Much of the signature cinematic style of Samurai Jack lived on in Clone Wars, such as lightning-fast combat, extended sequences without dialogue, explosions, epic vistas, etc.
  • In most of the episodes, Jack's kimono is removed or gradually ripped off, usually in battle, revealing his muscular torso. Some fans regard the sight of Jack shirtless or in his fundoshi as recurring "fan service". [2]
  • Samurai Jack's main title theme music was produced by the Black Eyed Peas member, will.i.am. [3]
  • 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.
  • In Brazil, the name Aku was changed to Abu due to the original name's unfortunate similarity to a Portuguese swear word meaning anus.
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See also

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External links

he:סמוראי ג'ק no:Samurai Jack pl:Samuraj Jack

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