Remembering: Samurai Jack

 

 

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!

Created by Cartoon Network big man Genndy Tartakovsky, Samurai Jack is likely the simplest cartoon you will ever watch. One that often has more dialogue in its explanatory intro, than the rest of the show. A narrative where the lead character's actual name is unknown to us, and the antagonists name, Aku, literally means evil. An animation that sought to replicate martial arts films as children's TV, and so moved things into a generic future when robots could be shredded without fear of setting off the censors. Its mainly action, but it can be quite daft too, with the Samurai's initial encounters including talking dogs, the Ant Hill Mob, and possibly the most powerful Scottish stereotype ever created. It's all done in a minimalist style of simple shapes and hard angles. However, to quote someone out of context, simple isn't the same as stupid. As animation, Samurai Jack is possibly the most beautiful thing ever made for American TV. And if you picked your episode, it's a match for any live action set-piece. Look at the Spartans episode, the one with the shinobi, the zombies in the graveyard, the gladiators, the giant robot fight, Lulu, sweet thing, and anything involving the Scotsman. Its all good, or at least distinctively interesting.

 

And so "Jack" strides this weird future, facing countless bounty hunters, demons, lost temples, and prolonged homages to action cinema. You never quite know what you are going to get. Mind you, the show does have does have a structural flaw, one that's unavoidable due to its concept and magnified by its episodic format. If Jack finds a time portal, the series ends immediately and as it's two recurring characters are absolute paragons of good or evil, there's little way to develop them further. The joy of things is that you can drop the samurai into any scenario and watch the fireworks, but this is still a status quo throughout 52 episodes. So, as things went on, episodes got more experimental, with Jack having a minor role in several as different viewpoints get explored. It's perhaps telling that award-winning "Birth of Evil" two parter features Jack only as a newborn. The show ended on a somewhat goofy episode where Jack cares for a baby, and for 13 years that was it. There were comics, but no conclusion. Then Genndy T cut a deal to make a fifth season to finish it, under the less restrictive Adult Swim banner.

As I had never seen this season, that was where I started with my bluray boxset. It was startling how much it was like I remembered the show, but also not. Its still as action packed, but now there's an actual plot. The goofier stuff is initially absent, replaced by existential despair. Aku has destroyed every time portal off-screen and decided to wait for Jack to die of old age. This surprisingly pragmatic act by the hugely hammy and stereotypically villainous Aku has however backfired: the samurai does not age, seemingly due to time travel shenanigans, and is only getting better. Fifty years have past, in total stalemate, and it's broken both of them. “Jack” actually has to talked down from a suicide attempt at one point, with most of the series being about him trying to get level again, and find his lost sword. Its very much a deconstruction of the series so far, not least because he is forced into taking actual human life. But it doesn't stay there. The series ends in a manner that is bittersweet, "Jack" having suffered no small amount of personal loss in victory, but it shows us the lives he saved, and those whom rushed to help him. It wasn't all for nothing, and this grows into a romantic subplot. Its a true deconstruction, as an actual example of the GRIMDARK season 5 looks like, would not allow that. And while I do not wish to discuss the ending in great detail, I will say it handles some bad clichés well.

 

 

Ultimately, Samurai Jack is very simple. So simple that I can't stretch this far past a single page without recounting whole episodes. But like I said, simple isn't the same as stupid. Nor is it the same as being shallow. Its like a poem, but not one that takes itself seriously.

Few things are as singular as Samurai Jack, you just have to watch it.