Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
jolitachi
NO SPOILERS.
I tend to like going into anime that don't require me to think deeply, or search for symbolism. I mean I like thought provocative stuff but it's just this type of thing appeals to my more lazy nature.
That being said Afro Samurai definitely doesn't require you to analyse details or think about character motivations, let alone explore their psyche. I went into this show looking for action, maybe some good technical performances (BGM, animation, good fights) as well. Sadly this doesn't make it any good to me. If I were to take aside the brilliant animation and art to explore this show from a critic's point of view — there would be nothing to redeem it.
Whatsoever.
The show starts off strongly, showing a boy witness the brutal decapitation of his father: an act that justi…
Read at the sourceBenduski
Afro Samurai
I really had high expectations for this anime, and they were crushed for how bad the story is presented and yeah, Samuel L. Jackson is here but, that doesn't make the anime good, the story and the characters should, not a big movie star.
Story
The story is mediocre at best, the story follows a vengeful, full of hatred man named Afro, who saw his father the bearer of the n.1 headband being killed by the bearer of the n.2 headband named Justice just for the sole reason of becoming a god (don't know how a headband will grant you that but...ok) and he tells Afro if he wants revenge he'll be waiting, that's where the 5 eps. anime starts with one problem, nonsensical bulls**t, what happened to the earth? why is technology only used by a group of old guys? why people can only kill t…
Read at the sourcecharliechaplin2
Here's the thing about Afro Samurai - it's not a complicated tale, the characters are not really very deep, nor do they really grow very much, the plot is terribly predictable and it is filled with all the tropes. But, seriously, who the hell cares? Because you're not supposed to watch this anime with a desire to see a complex plot, novel storytelling or deep characterisation.
What you're supposed to expect when you decide to watch this series, is Samuel Jackson being a bad ass mother f*ck!ng samurai on a 5-episode-long quest for pure, bloody, decapitating revenge against the gloriously awesome Ron Pearlman. And that's exactly what it is.
The art is done in quite monotone and muted colour, with the exception of the bright red gushes of blood drenching almost every scene. It makes for a…
Read at the sourceTheAzureSky
Spectacular action, but it has no depth because of an an unlikeable, overpowered main character.
★★☆☆
There’s another action anime flick that Afro Samurai probably took some inspiration from, Ninja Scroll. I was a teenager when I saw Ninja Scroll. It gave what I wanted: fast paced action with lots of violence and tits. It wasn’t until years later when I re-watched Ninja Scroll that I realized no matter how good looking the action is, it’s shallow without the weight of good characters and story.
Afro Samurai has the same issue. I loved it on my first viewing. Now years later, I re-watched it to see if it still lives up, but the same lesson still holds. Action without meaningful characters and story is boring. Action isn’t actually about what’s happening on screen. It isn’t about the bull…
Read at the sourceLuquillo
If I never had a reason to accuse an anime of being all beauty and no brain. Then I would definitely have one now, because Afro Samurai fits the term "style over substance" like no other. It makes sure to cater only to a specific audience, which are the action and eye candy crowd. Studio Gonzo has been known to deliver when it comes down to visuals. Series such as Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo and Basilisk more than back up this claim. Afro Samurai continues to carry their legacy.
The artwork and animation are top notch without a doubt. The battle scenes are fast paced, very fluid, and detailed. It is amazing watching bullets chopped in mid flight only to scatter and kill people by the dozens. Plus the animation is completely free of stills with very little reused cels. The choreo…
Read at the sourceMoeAllNighters
Story-4/10
The story follows a not so "typical," ronin seeking revenge of the death of his father. Taking place in a world where the Strong's passion is to beat the even stronger and tougher; Afro (Who is named that because of his afro hairdo I guess,) is seeking the one who defeated his father in order to retain the title of #1.
First of all, I would like to point out that the protagonist only motive for his blood-thirsty actions is to find the guy that killed his father that he could barely remember. Yes, revenge is the only excuse for the plot of Afro Samurai, and it never goes any deeper than that, at the same time leaving no depth for any character personality. All of the character development is comprised of super macho men in stand-offs that ends in a gruesome scene; the premise of…
Read at the sourceMarkezzo
Afro Samurai is an example of blaxploitation in anime working gallantly. We follow a revenge-driven man simply called Afro, learning more about him through flash-backs, as he strives to be the number one swordsman.
There are several things that sets this apart from typical blaxploitation titles. Most of it for the better. Firstly, it has high-quality animation that makes it look like it had a far higher budget than most titles in its genre. Its main characters are fleshed out to a greater degree than I had expected. In addition, it barely even touches upon racial stereotypes and ethnic differences. Why I think this all works, is that now it stands out with amazing stylized art, more relatable main characters, and conflicts that are more personal to them, rather than just racist villains w…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
Overview:
I normally write my reviews by dividing them into neat categories and using a scoring rubric, but Afro Samurai is an unconventional anime and I will review it in an unconventional style!
The story is basically the same sort of revenge tale that was common during the low budget 1970s "samurai slice em up" films like Lone Wolf and Cub, which was released in the US as "Shogun Assassin", and released elsewhere as "Baby Cart: You go to HELL!" These were grindhouse samurai exploitation films that you would see in an old drive-in theater after a screening of "Blood Sucking Freaks" or "Wizard of Gore". These films didn't try to be artsy or deep. They simply wanted to spray the audience with blood and give them a good time with lots of stupid fun! By the way, a drive-in theater in case…
Read at the sourceCajux
When I started watching this anime, I wanted to hear the voices in japanese, thing that I never managed to, because I therefore learned that this anime was an American answer to Japan.... And I'll tell you what, they were very successful, one of the best dubbed anime I ever heard.
They managed to fit everything like the art... I mean look at the details of the characters' drawings, their particular portraits, the dark "aura" they managed to bring from this dark world and look at cool gore scenes! A nice fitting music, enjoyable action moments and all in 5 episodes. What about Samuel Jackson's voice coming from Ninja's mouth? It is just... Awesome!!
So basically, the story goes around a futuristic feudal Japan where there are two headbands: Headband no.1 and Headband no.2. The fighter who…
Read at the sourceNito-San
The reviews I have done so far have been fairly positive as I like to talk about highly rated anime. Now it is time for me to talk about an anime that I actually did not like: Afro Samurai. It's probably the most disappointing anime I have ever seen yet.
Art:
The art in this show is pretty bad. It suffers from the fact that it has no artistic value to it and what probably is the worst part is the fact that most of the time it is dark. REALLY REALLY DARK. So dark that you might as well be watching a black screen set to dialogue and the only animation being sword slashes and blood. In fact, that is exactly what happened most of the time, every scene is just of blood and flashes of light. Character models were even lazy as all the characters just fell to standard design choices not making an…
Read at the sourceYoungVagabond
I think some of the reviewers missed the point of this anime.
It's not trying to be thoughtful and original. It's not trying to be a masterpiece.
Rather, it's a typical samurai-looking-to-avenge-his-father story, the only difference being that here our protagonist is black, and enjoys an icy glass of lemonade. The series does manage to succeed with its characters; while they're mostly cliches, they're also humorous and light-hearted enough that one enjoys their presence.
But ultimately, this series is all about the action.
And in that capacity, this anime succeeds; the fights between Afro and his enemies are visually stunning and well-choreographed. The movements are original, the enemies are bizarre and detailed, and motion feels very fluid.
As with "Snakes on a Plane", the title tel…
Read at the sourcefemmenoir
I'm gonna go out ahead and say that most people should watch Afro Samurai at least once, or give the first episode a chance.
Story: The story is pretty flat, but at it's heart it follows the traditional revenge story. Samurai blaxploitation revenge even. Not at all uncommon for anime. However, this anime is genre wise ALLl over the place. The main antagonist Afro seems to be pursuing through the anime is a gunslinger, so you think a bit of a samurai spaghetti western for a moment ( think Sukiyaki Western Django ), but then he's totally fighting cyborgs. Now, you ask yourself what the hell just happened, but that's the thing it does it really well and fits into the Afro Samurai universe by itself that you really pay no mind.
Art: For a nation that hasn't exactly been known for it's positi…
Read at the sourceIcehawkDown
When I first started watching Afro Samurai, I was blown away by the action scenes early on, as well as how contrived and generic the plot was. My early theory was that the plot was mostly around in order to set up more fights. As I got a few more episodes into the show, I was extremely disappointed to realize that the show creators didn't seem to realize how weak their own plot was, as flashbacks from Afro, and the main plot actually take up a very good chunk of the screen time, and those parts are pretty consistently boring.
Afro's plot is just plain stupid really. It starts off with the always reliable revenge story, but then it turns into a lot of stupid crap about trying to be #1 in the world. The character motivations to kill the hell out of each other never really make sense, so it'…
Read at the sourceSupraArwing08
I picked this anime up one night while just walking through the anime section. I had heard it was pretty good so i wanted to check it out. To my surprise I noticed that the series was only five episodes long. They do in fact just through you into the story without a lot of backstory on any of the characters except for Afro Samurai.
Story: The story was short, but it got straight to the point. Their are two rankings of Samurai in the world, The Number One, and The Number Two. The whole series is really about Afro Samurai, being the Number Two samurai trying to become The Number One and Avenging his father who was killed for the number one spot. I liked the story because as it does follow the traditional style of anime, it is different in it's own right.
Art: I found the animation to be r…
Read at the sourcemmink15
I'm the rare reviewer that gives this movie 10's across the board and some of it is due to the fact that this series opened the door to the world of anime for me.
Story-If you like revenge stories this is a great series for you. The bandana storyline is also pretty clever.
Art- I know people that didn't like the way this was drawn, but I loved it.
Sound-Original soundtrack by RZA
Characters-Samuel L. Jackson in a duel role-'nuff said
Enjoyment-If you don't mind alot of blood you'll love it
Read at the sourcevmyk13
ive read an article in the past that samuel l jackson will voice a character named afro samurai. it made me curious because i just dont like english dubbed anime it sounds icky to my ears.
so here is my review
story: i liked the story of the show very classic samurai elements and all. with the mix of new technology elements. and a setting of a world of killing and chaos made me want to watch more.
art: very superb art and the detail is marvelous. the movement of the characters was art itself. the art has a gory element on it so it gives a little plus for me.
sound: the opening song was nice but not good enough for me they couldve made a better track.
character: i just loved how ninja and afro talked about stuff and the like. really made me watch more because of their chemistry.
enj…
Read at the sourcezed
I had read rave reviews about this in a couple of anime magazines. I mean an anime that features the voice of Samuel L Jackson in the lead role is got to be cool right? I had to check it out.
I have to say I was very disappointed. The story is just a cliché, and there is virtually no character development. Had Samuel L Jackson not done some extra voices (like the annoying Ninja Ninja character, who is just a tad more tolerable than Jar Jar Binks) he would've had about 5 seconds of dialogue since the 'hero' isn't much of a talker.
The only saving grace for this is the quality of the animation, which is nothing short of superb. It would've been so much better if they ditched it as an anime and used it as a music video or something like that.
Read at the sourceSythe
I was told that this was a very stylish, very gory anime. It was recommended several times to me, but when I got round to watching it, I was appalled at the terrible, nonsensical story.
First of all, the story as a whole is VERY mediocre: boy loses father, boy gets revenge on fathers killer, etc. It's like something from Daredevil. But the thing that really, REALLY pisses me of is this: he hardly ever fights humans. Seriously. He fights killer robots, humanoids and weird monks (one armed with a bazooka!), and finally a guy with 3 arms.
That is why this series comes off as poor.
However, this is saved by the excellent animation with unique styling and excellent sounds. The artwork is great, and the voice acting by Samuel L Jackson adds the extra bad-assery that the show needs.
The chara…
Read at the sourceAishiteruze
I was actually kind of reluctuant to watch Afro Samurai. There was no reason why, but I\'m glad I watched it.
The plot is pretty much about a man seeking revenge for a samurai killing his father. In a way, the plot isn\'t that original, but with the voice talents of samuel L jackson, it brings a little comedy into the "seriousness" of the plot.
The animation I would say is quite good, not outstanding, but not too bad. Alot of samurai action, which I would say is the main point.
The fact that it\'s 5 episodes is really a plus, because this kind of plot couldn\'t go on forever. So.. really, if you want to watch something short and sweet, and isn\'t drawn out, give it a go.
Read at the sourceRanivus
I watched this series on Spike TV and i must insist this is one of the best dubbed animes i have ever watched!
The voice over cast list start off with Samuel L Jackson (pulp fiction, Starwars) and Kelly Hu (X2: Xmen United) two A list actors very famous for their action movies. And their voices get put through the test as they use their voices for multiple characters in the series. And the voices they portray are very believable in my opinion.
As in terms of animation value, one only needs too look at their hair and their tattered clothing flowing in the wind just like in a classic samurai showdown of the old days. Everything is very artistic and not to mention VERY gory (which is a plus for me).
As expected of a 5 episode series, the story is not very detailed on character background…
Read at the source