🔗 Share this article

While Cowboy Bebop often leads debates about the top anime ever made, its spiritual sibling, Samurai Champloo, warrants equal recognition. The influence of this samurai saga remains relevant today, most recently in Sony's flagship Ghost of Tsushima line.

A Deeper Homage

This month's the new sequel, the follow-up to the original PlayStation 5 game, enriches its nod to Japanese period dramas with the addition of the classic film mode. This option offers grayscale imagery, textured effects, and retro audio effects. Additional modes include Takashi Miike Mode, which focuses the view and heightens violence and filth; and Shinichirō Watanabe Mode, featuring a lo-fi hip-hop score shaped by the anime director’s vision.

For those intrigued about the latter, Watanabe is the mastermind behind the jazz-heavy the space opera and the urban-music-inspired Samurai Champloo, among other celebrated anime.

Fusing Past and Present

Watanabe’s 2004 show Samurai Champloo combines feudal Japan with urban culture and modern sensibilities. It follows the unlikely trio of the wild swordsman, a wild and unpredictable warrior; the calm ronin, a calm and disciplined wandering warrior; and the brave waitress, a courageous young woman who enlists them on her mission to find “the warrior with a floral scent.”

While the musical backdrop is primarily his design, much of the series' music was inspired by Japanese hip-hop producer the late artist, who tragically left us in 2010 at the age of 36. Nujabes merits his flowers next to Watanabe when it comes to the audio the anime is known for and references in the new game.

Cultural Fusion

Much of what made Samurai Champloo shine on the late-night block was its smooth integration of urban music and Eastern traditions. That mix has been a staple in the music scene since Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in 1993, which itself was inspired by an group of youth maturing on martial arts films featuring Bruce Lee and the iconic actor.

For many, the programming block and the anime served as an entry point to lo-fi/experimental hip-hop, with artists like the beatmaker, the rapper, and Flying Lotus, the last one of whom went on to score the Netflix anime the historical series.

Stylized Storytelling

Artistic and meaningful, Champloo’s opening introduces the protagonists through representative beasts in the visuals — the wild one walks proudly like a rooster, while Jin moves with the serene, elegant posture of a koi. Although the show's central characters are the focus of the series, its side players are where the real soul of the anime can be found.

There’s pickpocket Shinsuke, who has a lonely story of survival in episode 7, and another character named the guard, whose exchanges with Mugen impact him greatly that Yamane ends up in his writings years later. In the later chapter, “the episode title,” the ronin falls in love with a wedded lady trafficked named the female character and aids her flight from a brothel.

An Interwoven Tale

At the outset, the complete show appears to tell a fragmented story of the characters' quest to finding the mysterious warrior, but as the series progresses, happenings from earlier installments begin to interconnect to form a single, cohesive narrative. Every experience our protagonists experience along the way has an influence on both them and the main plot.

Era References

The series also incorporates historical happenings (the same setting as Yotei), seen through Watanabe’s creative revisions. Occurrences like the 1637 Shimabara Rebellion and locations such as the Hakone Checkpoint (which Yamane watches over) are embedded in the story.

Early on, woodblock printer Hishikawa Moronobu shows up and temporarily obsesses on Fuu as his inspiration. After she rejects him, his work ultimately reaches the hands of Vincent van Gogh, who, in the series' alternate timeline, is motivated to create his famous sunflower paintings.

Lasting Influence

All of these aspects tie directly into the anime's soundtrack, giving this period drama the kind of distinct identity that other projects have long attempted to capture. Series like Afro Samurai (featuring Wu-Tang’s RZA), Tokyo Tribe, and Yasuke all sought to mirror its blend of style and sound, but with diminishing returns.

Ghost of Yotei has the potential to continue from where the classic anime left off, sparking a renewed interest of influence much like the anime once did. If you’re diving into Yotei, it’s recommended revisiting the series, because without it, there’d be no “the special setting,” no wave of beat-driven series, and no enduring influence of the producer, from which the inspiration stems.