What's so great about Samurai Jack?

[MJC]

Just want to see what you all think.

Personally, I find Samurai Jack to be disappointing. I liked it at first, but it got boring quick. Sure it's nice to look at, but IMO it's a failure as far as plot and characterization. The overall plot has been completely stagnant for pretty much the whole series. The plots of the individual episodes are occasionally decent (I tend to like the ones that actually have Aku), but mostly redundant (Jack runs into some person/group of people who are in some kind of trouble, often due to Aku, and Jack eventually saves them).

The action scenes, while good, usually drag on way too long. It's cool to see Jack slice stuff up, but not for 8 minutes straight. And Jack himself is a pretty boring character, he's pretty much always super serious (has Jack ever really done or said anything interesting?). I'd have to say that the Scotsman is a much more interesting character (which says a lot). I know SJ is an action show, but I really think the producers made a big mistake with the lack of attention to plot. Just my opinion.

[Deadly Messiah]

Here is what I like about it:

Excellent music
funny dialog
great action scenes and battles
no real plot (kinda like all the series from the 80's), and it works
it is mature and seems more like a show for adults

That isn't to say every episode is good, because not everyone is. Regardless, I love this show and want to own every episode on DVD.

[Rune]

My opinion then, from what I've seen Samurai Jack is a show which along with a few others I could mention seems to very few 'middle ground' fans, you either love it or you despise it, very few people seem able to go 'yeah its okay' though, which is strange as its not exactly swamped with multiple characters or other glaring flaws to pick up on.

I fall in to the first group in that I love the show although I'm not above criticising it either, as you say the plot does seem to have lost its way and the sense of Jack making any true progression to find a way back to the past seems to have seriously fallen flat. Episodes like Chicken Jack / Jack is Naked / and the one with the big blue over-friendly puffball were no doubt intended to inject more humour or comic twists but all the same they smacked of 'filler' to me which was unsatisfying to say the least.

What I've really enjoyed about the show is the artwork, especially the backgrounds of countryside and cityscape and the animation/musical 'set pieces' as well as some terrific sequences such as Aku chasing Jack through the graveyard (Jack & the Zombies); Jack fighting his evil alter ego Mad Jack, Jack's internal struggles in the Aku Infection & Haunted House episodes and the ordeal climbing the seemingly impossible mountain. All these things together with Jack & Aku's characters -both of which I really like mesh together to make for me at least a very enjoyable show which I like enough to forgive it its random quirks to the plot.

As I said I also like Aku's character and I don't actually find Jack boring, he 's a fish out of water and manages to stay nicely in character as such, if he was shooting his mouth off like the Scotsman or cracking jokes all the time it just wouldn't work - for me anyway.

Enough rambling, put me on the side of 'still love it'. Just wish we could see those last few episodes too even if they're not conclusive

[Supremus]

Samurai Jack is very much an acquired taste. It took me a long time to get into the show. It just didn't grab me at all until I saw the awesome Jack And The Spartans.

When the show is good, the beautiful art, characterization, storytelling and music raise the show to a level no other current animated show can match. Even when the overall plot isn't progressed much, the show has a very "authentic" quality that make it seem like an animated version of old Japanese myths and folk-tales.

That said, I find the majority of the episodes rather pointless. Out of all the 52 episodes, I would probably say less than 10 were really great, and then there were probably another 10-12 that were very good. The rest I could easily do without, particularly the supposedly funny episodes and anything with the Scotsman.

[ClockStomper]

It's attempts at Comedy episodes are bad, because the writers suck at it. Visual, fighting episodes work best. The directing, "choreogrophy", and animation are all wonderful.

[Wingfox]

I couldnt agree more. You either get it, or you simply don't. To me Jack emoboddies everything a hero should be. The reluctancy to fight, the willingness to help with out it being self serving, and ofcourse, magnificent valor. I own Season 1 DVD, and I limit myself to one episode per night and last night I watched Jack and the Scott's man, ann in the episode, I believe Jack speakest the truest words of all, " I fear no man." I disagree with the notion that Jack isn't a complex character. It seems to me he often is faced with the dilemna that it's not easy to do the right thing, it's hard to know what that right thing is, after that - it's hard not to do it.
Sure theres some filler episodes in there, and occasionally Genndy takes the comedical approach a little too far, but over all, Samurai Jack is spotless. From it's music, to it's art work, to voice actors, to it's concept, and on, and on, and on. I really do hope we can push the network to air the final four episodes and release the entire series on DVD. Just my opinion

[Random]

I like Jack overall but I also found it frustrating. In "wander around and have stuff happen to you" stories the hero really needs a multi point goal. Here it's just a single point, find a time portal. So he can't get any closer to his goal. Everything he does towards it has to fail because success means the end of the series. For comparison I would say my favorite wander around story would be DC's "The Warlord" comic book. At least until they dragged it into the general DC universe but, especially up to episode 100, it was amazing and I always felt that Travis Morgan was making progress. Granted it didn't have a series spanning goal like Jack but I do feel it could have had one and made it work.

If I was Jack in one of the episodes in the early 20s I would have realized that getting Aku now would make it easier for me to get Aku in the past. Now that would have expanded Jack's goal allowing progress but not ending the series. Or something. I kept waiting for that breakout episode but it never came. And that he kept at it gave the show a Wiley Coyotesque taste to me.

[Scythemantis]

It's not supposed to have much characterization...it's pure action, but I find it does drag in places. I really hate the "split screen" stuff...it's way overdone.

[Mysteryinfoman]

I agree that the comendy episodes suck but the flat out action ones are great like the one with the mountain and monks and the Spartans and the Archers plus a whole lot others ones as well. It is visually pleasing and the ation fights are really well done. I really hope SJ has some sort of chance to return if the final episode it a let-down.

[CookieS]

My heart left the series after I found this "serial" story wasn't serial at all. It progressed daily without a sense of the past. Episodes could be watched out of order and it doesn't effect the plot. If you're going to make a series a "quest" I think its good if the plot reflects changes or foreshadows the ending. With Samurai Jack, he never got closer to coming home, he just kept wondering and wondering....

[Supremus]

I agree that it is a shame CN didn't give Genndy & Co enough warning that this would be the last season, so they could have wrapped up the series in style, which is what I assume is what happened, as most animated shows are too far into the production by the time renewel decisions are made.

Two of the final four episodes are very good, in fact, 50 is outstanding, but none of them could be considered a good way to end the series, and I am surprised they didn't do something that could have passed for a ending, even if the show would have eventually been renewed. They must at least have had a feeling this could be the final season, considering that very few CN shows go past 52 episodes, and ratings for SJ hadn't been that great for some time.

That said, most series don't have a final "wrap-it-all-up" ending, but the quest element of SJ makes it different, and it will always be a stain on the legacy of this brilliant series if we never see a conclusion to the battle between Jack and Aku. Actually, wasn't the last episode in the US "Jack vs Aku"? Not that great an episode, but certainly a better way to end the series than "Jack And The Baby".

[Juu-kuchi]

The show itself is good, but I'm not really interested in it really. When it comes to this kind of show stuck in a world not of a character's own, it's best to actually finish it rather quickly because I would get rather bored with him traveling around and not making any progress. Jack seems to almost never do that. It's stylish, and the fight scenes are good and all, but it drags for quite a bit.

And this is just me, but I am just tired of Jack fighting robot after robot after lifeless enemies. Why can't he kill anybody anyway? I mean let some of his enemies be human or something so it could give this show an edge. It seems rather lame that most of what he fights is mechanical.

[reptiles]

I used to watch SJ. I think I still have some of the episodes on tape but I'm bored with it. I thought when i was first into it it was an ok show. Like worth recording.

[Anarky]

i recommend the following epsiodes

1-3: the trilogy
6. ikra
7. the archers
8. mad jack
10. the lava monster
12. jackie the blade
18. the ultra-bots
19. jack's homecoming
20 mount fatoom
22. the imakandi
23. demongo
25. the spartans
28. the rave
30. zombie hill
31. the minions of Set
32. the guardian
34. the titans
35. the haunted house
36. shao-lin
37-38: the birth of evil (aku's origin and the creation of the sword)
39. labrynth
40. shinobi
43. the aku infection
44. the princess and the bounty hunters

samurai jack is a great series
like any series,it had a few clunkers (the dragon,wonderland, chicken jack...) but overallit had many great stories, tons of great battles, a cinmematic vision, awesome visuals settings and backgrounds, and a kickin' sdtk

if there were no Samurai Jack, there'd be no Clone Wars

hopefully CN will do the right thing and order a dtv truly bringing SJ to a close.

[Wingfox]

DTV meaning a season released only on DVD or another feature film released soley on DVD? In any case, I agree. My ony hope is that the Season 1 of Samurai Jack proves to the network that the market for the show is very much alive and financially profitable. From some news reports that I've read , Fox seems to be doing the same with Family Guy after it's success. And by the way, your selection on the episodes is excellent, in my opinion.

Fox