Samurai Jack - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

Anticipate Here!

[Meredith Quill]

A place to discuss particular episodes, arcs and moments from the show's run. Please remember this isn't a complete catch-all topic -- check out the forum for character topics and other places for show-related talk.

[Sandman87]

Time to break this new forum in.

 

I've been watching one or two episodes of the old series every night just to get back into the "Jack" frame of mind. Tonight I watched "Jack Versus Mad Jack", and was rather impressed by the bounty that Aku put of Jack's head: Two googolplex. For the non-math oriented, a googol is 10^100, or a 1 followed by 100 zeros. It's also a number bigger than the number of atoms in the universe. A googolplex is 10^(10^100), which is a number so ridiculously big that only astrophysicists trying to do calculations involving black holes can come up with a use for it. And that is half the size of Jack's bounty!

[Sandman87]

Celebrating the announcement of the new series with a few motivators.

[AConspiracy]

[SpikeGal]

Now it's been pushed back to 2017. They STILL aren't ready yet!!

[Jamoche]

http://io9.gizmodo.com/samurai-jack-is-back-on-march-11-1791509896

io9 reports it'll be on March 11, 11:30pm.

[Sandman87]

Verified by a promo that ran tonight - Jack's back on 3/11/17

Coincidentally, that's also the anniversary of the first publication of Frankenstein.

[snarktini]

So exciting!

http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/6/14523268/samurai-jack-season-5-trailer-genndy-tartakovsky

[Lantern7]

So. Time skip. Disillusioned Jack. Aku rules everything, and he's ruling it harder than ever. Jack cracks up. There's a cult raising girls to kill Jack. On the bright side, Jack kills an assassin robot that's patterned after Sammy Davis Jr.

I fell off the wagon at some point during the original run, so I didn't see the last episodes. Gotta admit that this feels perfect . . .Gennedy moves on to other stuff, the show gets demanded by the diehards, and now he's presenting a final arc that's more bloody and violent to satisfy the fans who grew up with Jack. Probably not the plan, but it seems to work out well.

Better guy to have in a dystopic world: Jack or Finn?

[Sandman87]

Sammy Davis Jr? I thought he was channeling Roger from American Dad.

Usually sequels are a disappointment to me. Once in a while they meet my expectations. This was better than I expected. Everything that's good about the original, but with even more polished production. Clean but complex action, incredible attention to audio detail...it's all there. The only bad thing is that they're starting the block with it, which makes all the other Toonami shows look worse by comparison.

I like Jack's new motorcycle, fat tires and all. Reminds me of Judge Dredd's Lawmaster (the comics version, not the movie version). And it has all-wheel drive!

Jack has had to learn to oppose Aku without his sword, so he's picked up all sorts of fun equipment: Melee weapons, guns, armor and so on. Not sure I approve of the helmet though, 'cause it looks kind of Aku-ish.

One of the members of Aku's new Jack-slaying squad (we need a good nickname for them) looks like she might have latent good tendencies.

Speaking of Aku: The priestess mentioned something about gracing them with his presence once again, so I guess he's been absent for some reason.

The visions are interesting. The mounted figure with the antlers seems familiar, but I can't think of just what it reminds me of.

Appropriating Roger Davis Jr's tuning fork/dagger at the end was a nice touch.

[Jamoche]

11 minutes ago, Sandman87 said:

One of the members of Aku's new Jack-slaying squad (we need a good nickname for them) looks like she might have latent good tendencies.

Saw in one of the promo clips that they're called the Daughters of Aku.

[Sandman87]

Everyone here knows that aku means "evil" in Japanese, right?

Forgot to mention that I liked the aliens (?) in the teaser who communicate exclusively in one-word-at-a-time text messages. The "yuck!" emoticon cracked me up.

Given the way that the new promo emphasizes Jack talking about how Aku's minions are "just nuts and bolts", I predict that he's either going to hold back because the Daughters are human, or he'll kill one of them and then get real depressed about it.

[Lantern7]

This week: Jack vs. the Daughters of Aku. It's a seven-on-one beating, even with Jack evading and killing one of them. Also: blood! Lots and lots of blood! We're playing on the Sega Genesis, not the SNES!

You know what I was expecting last week? Aku having grown beyond Earth and leaving his acolytes in charge without telling them. They act on their own, Jack fights forever against a foe that no longer cares. But nope, Aku is still in charge, and he's in therapy with himself over not being able to kill Jack. That probably works better. The show can be deep, but it doesn't have to be deeper.

[Sandman87]

Jack really has that slide-sideways-to-a-stop thing down cold with his motorcycle. Speaking of which: R.I.P. Jack-cycle. *Sniff*.

After fifty years Aku is apathetic and just plain depressed because Jack is still around. I like the fact that the first thing he does in the morning is punch his alarm clock and put on his GREAT FLAMING EYEBROWS. A much needed bit of comic relief. Both he and Jack are depressed about how neither one is getting anywhere against the other, and it's got both of them talking to themselves. This could go in some interesting directions. I wonder if Aku is evil enough to overcharge himself for his therapy.

More visions/hallucinations as Jack argues with his inner self. Inner self thinks suicide would be a peachy idea.

The daughters don't play nice. They break Jack's weapons almost as fast as he can whip them out. The music in the tension-building scene where they're spreading out in the big room reminded me of the Big Showdown Music during Lee Van Cleef's climactic gunfight in For A Few Dollars More.

Jack manages to kill one of the daughters, but it's not quite as breakdown-inducing for him as I thought it would be. Just shocked him. Maybe there'll be a slow burn breakdown in upcoming episodes.

Continuity! He got to use the tuning fork/dagger from last week.

[snarktini]

Aku putting on his flaming eyebrows, then going to (self) therapy to talk about his angst? I died.

Edited March 24, 2017 by snarktini

[Lantern7]

This week: Jack loses blood. Like, a lot. He heals, he makes a friend in a wolf . . . and then he fights and (seemingly) kills the Daughters of Aku.

Seriously, how long can a man bleed before dying? I know that is an animated series, but damn. And Gennedy dives right into the later time slot. I do find it hard to believe that Jack had never killed a human being in fifty-plus years in Aku's world.

ETA: Forgot about the Daughters encountering the deer. Anybody else think the doe and the buck were going to have a tender moment? That stuff was probably not in the DoA curriculum.

[Sandman87]

Jack has a few difficult moments, featuring a harangue by Inner Jack, because of the dead Daughter. Luckily a flashback comes to his rescue, when he remembers that his father was willing to kill people who came looking for it. That makes it ok, I guess.

That damn frog made me laugh. "THEY"RE COMING!" Completely unexpected.

The wolf he made friends with appears to be the one from the metaphorical Wolf vs. Big Cats parallel fight in the previous episode.

"Samurai blood!" I didn't realize that it was possible to tell the difference, especially with such a cursory examination.

Daughters and the deer were hilarious, especially when they thought that  the buck was an Aku creature because of its pointy antlers.

I bet at least one of the Daughters from the end of the fight survived. Probably Ashi, the only one whose name we've been given.

[Jamoche]

2 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Seriously, how long can a man bleed before dying?

When he's been fighting for 50 years and hasn't aged or died yet?

[Ms Lark]

I'm really enjoying this reboot of Samurai Jack. I used to watch the original series mainly for the artwork, but now I'm enjoying both the storyline and the art.

5 hours ago, Sandman87 said:

I bet at least one of the Daughters from the end of the fight survived. Probably Ashi, the only one whose name we've been given.

I liked the little DoAs. I also hope at least one of them survived. Liked the white wolf; hope she's not a one-off and we see her again, too.

[Jamoche]

6 hours ago, Ms Lark said:

I'm really enjoying this reboot of Samurai Jack. I used to watch the original series mainly for the artwork, but now I'm enjoying both the storyline and the art.

I liked the little DoAs. I also hope at least one of them survived. Liked the white wolf; hope she's not a one-off and we see her again, too.

Saw DoA, thought "little Dead On Arrival? ... Oh, right" :)

Yeah, no body, no death. They got too much of a setup to be one-and-done.

[Lantern7]

Okay. So Adult Swim stepped up the April Fools game, airing a new episode of Rick and Morty. According to the show's Twitter, it will air through midnight. I think they might mean until 11, but I thought y'all should know in case you were looking forward to seeing how Jack survived the massive fall. More evil: Rick Sanchez or Aku?

[Jamoche]

5 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Okay. So Adult Swim stepped up the April Fools game, airing a new episode of Rick and Morty. According to the show's Twitter, it will air through midnight. I think they might mean until 11, but I thought y'all should know in case you were looking forward to seeing how Jack survived the massive fall. More evil: Rick Sanchez or Aku?

It's 11PM on the west coast and it's Rick & Morty. CN's website doesn't have anything resembling a schedule. Grr.

ETA - and the schedule I did find at http://tv.twcc.com shows Episode XCVI at *8* PM next Sat. XCV was supposed to air today. That had better not mean that they lied to Tivo and showed it at 8 PM today.

Edited April 2, 2017 by Jamoche

[Vermicious Knid]

I sure as Hell hope they're going to rerun the episode that was supposed to be on. Or at least make it available On Demand.

Haven't we seen the surviving DoA before? I recognized her character design from the hair when all the kids were first shown. Maybe the episode where Aku disguised himself as a girl and befriended Jack?

I loved that Aku keeps The Flaming Eyebrows of Doom in his bedside drawer. Also his snarky comeback to the scientists who made an even bigger beetle, because that worked so well before.

[Arcadiasw]

6 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

I sure as Hell hope they're going to rerun the episode that was supposed to be on. Or at least make it available On Demand.

 

I looked for future showings on my DVR and the episode that was supposed to air yesterday will air Wednesday night at 10pm.  If they had to preempt Samurai Jack and Dragonball Super but not the rest of Toonami's block because it aired on April 2nd, wouldn't it have been better to air those shows at the end of the Toonami line up since so far they are going ahead with episode 96 for Jack and 14 for Super next Saturday? 

[JyDanzig]

Jesus, what a stupid April Fools Day gag.  Mostly because we now live in the era of DVR's: since they all think they picked up the show last night, none of them will record the re-air.

[Vermicious Knid]

According to my cable guide now Wednesday 10pm is Rick and Morty and Saturday's episode is XCV.

[snarktini]

I've recorded "XCV" twice now and gotten Rick & Morty both times. #$@&%!. I set it up to record three more airings tomorrow. One of them is bound to work. Right? RIGHT?

[Lantern7]

I saw commercials for tomorrow night at 11. As Jack would put it, "Seems straightforward."

[Sandman87]

Ashi did, in fact, survive, and is still out to kill Jack. Jack has his mojo back (wouldn't Jack vs. Mojo Jojo be an awesome crossover?), and manages to fend off her attacks and various creatures who want to eat them both, even while they're inside a much bigger creature who did eat them both. Once they escape from the big critter, Ashi is forced to realize that she shouldn't kill Jack by the combined power of flashbacks and ladybugs.

Now I have to wonder if and to what extent Ashi will help Jack. Also wondering if maybe one of her sisters also survived the fight.

Also wondering if we'll get to see any of the supporting characters from the previous seasons. It might be fun if Jack were to encounter the geriatric version of the three street guys who named him "Jack", for example.

[Lantern7]

I like Snarky Jack. Also, Snarky Phantom Jack. "Well, that's that. Let's get out of here." Also . . . did Jack and Ashi more or less jump out of a creature's rectum? Nice to see that Jack still can jump good.

[Jamoche]

1 hour ago, Sandman87 said:

Also wondering if we'll get to see any of the supporting characters from the previous seasons. It might be fun if Jack were to encounter the geriatric version of the three street guys who named him "Jack", for example.

Spoiler

The Scotsman

is in this promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iESzifQ9Bc8

(The character is also mentioned in the video title, which is why I didn't embed it)

[Ms Lark]

Wow! Jack was #1 in cable ratings this week, per TV by the Numbers:

Quote

Saturday cable ratings: ‘Samurai Jack’ fights to the top

With college basketball done and the NBA playoffs a week away, Saturday’s cable ratings belonged largely to Adult Swim.

“Samurai Jack” claimed the top spot among original shows for the day with a 0.7 rating among adults 18-49. “Dragon Ball Z Kai” (0.5), “Tokyo Ghoul” (0.4) and “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” (0.4) also finished in the Top 5.

[Sandman87]

Yeah, [AS] and Toonami tend to do pretty well in the ratings.

Something I noticed during tonight's rerun: While Jack is carrying Ashi just after the "acupuncture" scene, the strange lights moving past on the ceiling spell out "evil" for a split second.

[Ronin Jackson]

The internet seems sadly lacking when it comes to good Samurai Jack fan discussion. This thread is dead and the reddit sub is basically dominated by attention whore shit posts. 

The new season is great... the writing is keeping me on my toes when the action isn't, which has itself been pretty consistently awesome.

[Sandman87]

Yeah, the only complaint I have so far is that it's been just a tiny bit too grim for my tastes.

The Scotsman is back! He's older and in a wheelchair, but rocking the plaid eyepatch and the Catclops sporran. He leads his rampaging horde of daughters in an assault on Aku. He manages to get up in Aku's grill about the samurai before getting curb-stomped, and then comes back as a ghost or something. "Celtic magic!" indeed.

It only took about half an episode for Jack to convince Ashi that Aku is evil. Must have been the ride on the water dragon that did it. That's definitely an "E" ticket.

[mmccpp]

4 hours ago, Ronin Jackson said:

The internet seems sadly lacking when it comes to good Samurai Jack fan discussion. This thread is dead and the reddit sub is basically dominated by attention whore shit posts. 

The new season is great... the writing is keeping me on my toes when the action isn't, which has itself been pretty consistently awesome.

There's some decent discussion over on A.V. Club.

[InDueTime]

On Sunday, April 16, 2017 at 4:55 PM, Ronin Jackson said:

The internet seems sadly lacking when it comes to good Samurai Jack fan discussion. This thread is dead and the reddit sub is basically dominated by attention whore shit posts. 

The new season is great... the writing is keeping me on my toes when the action isn't, which has itself been pretty consistently awesome.

Here are some forums that discuss Samurai Jack.

http://www.toonzone.net/forums/forums/adult-swim-toonami/

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1351583

[Lantern7]

Finally got around to the latest episode. It's a shame Jack lost the outfit. I mean, not as big a shame as thinking hundreds of alien babies dropped dead around him, but still a bit sad.

ETA: Ashi was naked the whole time. At this point, why not? And charred skin can be cleansed with a few hours' worth of scrubbing. In other news, you can say " penis" on this show. Jarring, yet funny.

[Kostgard]

Yeah, when they revealed the creature who helped get Scaramouche on the boat, I thought, "Are they going for some sort of 'dickhead' joke, here? Because..." and then Scaramouche confirmed that...yes. That is exactly what they were going for.

Not bad for a what was largely a clip show, but I wished that we got a little more with Jack, because him snapping out of his funk felt a little quick, especially since when Ashi finds him he was moments away from committing seppuku. I liked that the spirits egging Jack had things like nooses around their necks, showing they were once in Jack's shoes.

Also confused to learn that Ashi has been naked the whole time. Like, where, exactly, does she keep her chain?

Also not much of a fan of her new look. Her old look was super-badass, and the new one is too pure and innocent. I get that she's gone through a rebirth and it ties into her connection to nature, but I really hope that she at least upgrades to an outfit made of something a little more durable than leaves.

[Lantern7]

I'm sure Ashi will get an upgrade. I know that there won't be action figures, but you gotta switch up the outfits sometimes.

Are the first four seasons on DVD? I remember a few episodes that the flashbacks were based on. I'm pretty certain I never saw the rave episode, and maybe I should remedy that. Did Jack take "X" at any point?

[Vermicious Knid]

I can't believe that rave has been going on for 50 years.

[Jamoche]

12 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

I'm sure Ashi will get an upgrade. I know that there won't be action figures, but you gotta switch up the outfits sometimes.

Are the first four seasons on DVD? I remember a few episodes that the flashbacks were based on. I'm pretty certain I never saw the rave episode, and maybe I should remedy that. Did Jack take "X" at any point?

Yes, I found them on Amazon. There's a box set but it's more expensive than just buying them separately.

This is the rave episode wikia page: http://samuraijack.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_XXVIII:_Jack_and_the_Rave

[Sandman87]

When I saw Ashi's new outfit, the first thing that came to mind was "Tinkerbell."

Scaramouche seems to have forgotten about his telekinetic scatting ability. He could probably make himself a usable body, just like the giant one that he made to fight Jack. I get the feeling that he's going to finally tell Aku about Jack's sword being missing just as Jack gets it back.

 

15 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

I can't believe that rave has been going on for 50 years.

Maybe the village has one every weekend in honor of Jack?

22 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

I remember a few episodes that the flashbacks were based on. I'm pretty certain I never saw the rave episode, and maybe I should remedy that.

Yeah, I liked the music in the rave episode. Basic but catchy.

On Friday, April 21, 2017 at 9:14 PM, Lantern7 said:

Ashi was naked the whole time. At this point, why not? And charred skin can be cleansed with a few hours' worth of scrubbing. In other news, you can say " penis" on this show. Jarring, yet funny.

I figure what she was wearing is an evil version of that stuff you can buy at hardware stores to coat the handles of tools with rubber.

[Lantern7]

This week: Jack goes on a mystical quest to obtain his sword and lose his negativity. Meanwhile, Ashi kills the hell out of an endless horde intent on killing Jack, and she tops that off by slaying her adopted mother. In the end, Jack gets his sword back from his patron gods, and he receives a shave and haircut as a bonus.

Man, was the original series as dark as seeing Jack murder three little ram guys that got mutated by Aku?

[Jamoche]

3 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Man, was the original series as dark as seeing Jack murder three little ram guys that got mutated by Aku?

No. There were times when he'd fight them and that would break the spell, reverting them to their original live selves.

[Sandman87]

No, the original series was intended for younger viewers. That's why it was almost always robots and/or hideous insects that got sliced.

That must have been a deep hole since they had to stop to sleep along the way.

Not only can one meditate one's way to a haircut and wardrobe change, but there's Tangerine Dream-ish music to go along with it. So the beard represented Evil Inner Jack?

Does Ashi go out every couple of days or so to collect new leaves for her Tinkerbell outfit, or are they magic leaves that never turn brown after being plucked?

[Lantern7]

Am I naive to believe that Jack has never felt that way for anybody? I mean, he probably gets the core concept, but I'm thinking his adolescence was fully spent training to defeat Aku. Then he went to the future, and he probably didn't have time for romance. Then he lost his sword and fell into a half-century depression. No dates, no guidance. He probably can barely process his feelings towards Ashi, let alone remember he's old enough to be her grandfather.

[Sandman87]

Poor Jack. After all this time the closest he's come to having a girlfriend was Ikra, and she was really just Aku in disguise. No wonder he's awkward with Ashi. And speaking of awkward, the scene on the giant transport beast at the beginning seems like it was lifted from every high-school anime ever made: Crowded commute train, love interests forced close together, blushing and sweating and profuse apologizing ensue. "Something's poking me!"

The crashed space-jail seemed part Alien and part M.C. Escher drawing. Rick Sanchez just broke out of space-jail on his show, so sneaky crossover?

Guess the leech monster must have eaten all the other prisoners.

Ashi seems to have a special talent for improvising weapons from whatever's at hand. Animal horns, broken glass, and so on.

Goodbye Tinkerbell outfit. Ashi's going to need new duds.

[Ronin Jackson]

I'm glad to see Genndy ditch the asexual Asian male archetype. This season has been all about taking the archetypal character from the first four seasons and putting him through the trials of the human experience... all places we never saw him go before... suffering, guilt, despair, lust, love, etc.

A good chuck of fans are raging over the introduction of a romance. The first time this season we see him he's using a gun which screams "JACK HAS CHANGED" and largely the fan base didn't bat an eye at that, but romance? Crossing a line. But they better get used to it. It's important that for the first time since we've been introduced to him, Jack has found something that will be almost as important to him as his quest.