Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Last week I did a top 11 list naming the anime I would recommend to viewers and left out the number one pick on purpose because it deserved its own review. So what’s the number one anime I recommend to viewers well the answer is quite simple. Any anime created and direct by Shinchiro Watanabe. Next to Miyazaki, Watanabe is my favorite director of anime. The amount of creativity, stories, characters, themes, and music he puts into his animes is amazing. But how did this guy get to be so popular? Well Watanabe’s climb to success began in 1990 where he worked for the anime studio Sunrise. Once there he supervised numerous episodes and storyboards of Sunrise animes. Eventually he was asked to co-direct the well-known Macross series, Macross Plus. After that animators in Japan were beginning to notice the west taking an interest in anime. This was all thanks to shows like Digimon and Pokémon and programs like Toonami who helped promote anime. Soon they began to talk amongst themselves about spreading anime to the west but the problem was they didn’t really know what animes to send over. Most Japanese animators were content with just focusing on their Japanese audience and nobody wanted to be the guinea pig who tried to bring anime to the west. Until finally Watanabe said he’ll do it and decided to create an anime that was for the western audience but at the same time could still be enjoyed by the Japanese audience. This resulted in Cowboy Bebop (more on that at a later date) which was huge success enjoyed by everyone and skyrocketed Watanabe to success. But what makes his work so great? Well today I’m here to review not just one his animes but all of them. That’s right, I’m doing another arc I like to call the Watanabe Arc or The Summer of Watanabe. Throughout the summer I’ll be taking a look at Watanabe’s animes that he created and directed as a way to show you why these are the animes I would recommend for you to watch. Let’s start by looking at the first Watanabe anime I watched Samurai Champloo. Released in 2004 by the studio Manglobe (TWGOK and Deadman Wonderland), Samurai Champloo was Watanabe’s second directorial anime and probably his biggest risk to date. Blending the traditional style of the Edo period with the fast-paced hip-hop culture which was at its peak around the time of this anime’s creation. It’s been well documented that anime and hip-hop don’t go together all that well but this anime decided to take the risk and disprove that theory hiring professional hip-hop artist and DJs to produce the music for this anime such as Tsutchie, Fat Jon, Force of Nature, and the late Nujabes. Does this anime disprove the theory of anime and hip-hop? Let’s find out and take a journey back in time to the Edo period with our smart devices and watch Samurai Champloo. Also, I’m looking at the dub.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening for this anime is “Battlecry” by Nujabes feat. SHINGO2. If you don’t know this is one of my favorite openings in anime even making my top 11 anime openings list. While the song doesn’t give much exposition into what the anime is about or its characters it sets up the mood of the anime perfectly telling us we’re about to witness something amazing. The beat to this song is amazing and the rapping by SHINGO2 is great. This anime had a number of different endings but the most common ending was “Shiki no Uta (Song of the Seasons)” by Minmi. It’s a very beautiful song that takes up into the mind of our female protagonist. The opening in my opinion was focused more on the two main male characters but the ending seems to focus more on the female and the sadness in her heart. The song gives us mixed feelings of happiness, sorrow, the feeling of trying to move on with your life.
Episodes 1-4
So the anime begins in the Edo period (where samurais ran wild, Japan was starting to open up to Europe, and the hip-hop culture was starting to spread across the country) where we meet our first main character Fuu, a 15 year old girl who serves as this anime’s shred of innocence. She’s voiced by Kari Wahlgren (Haruko from FLCL). She works at a tea/dumpling shop which is being harassed by the son of a corrupt landlord of the area (I guess no matter where you go in history you’ll always find corrupt politicians). Our second main character Mugen voiced by Steven Blum (Jamie from Megas XLR) comes in who in the anime represents the hip-hop lifestyle. He’s aggressive, short-tempered, impatient, ruthless, and just wants to fight. He says he’ll get rid of the troublemakers if Fuu gives him free food but she refuses. However, after accidently bumping into one of the guards and about to be killed Fuu agrees to Mugen’s deal and he springs into action killing just about everyone in the shop (Mugen we need to have a talk about subtlety). While that’s going on, on the other side of town we see the corrupt landlord picking on one of his citizens. He’s about to kill the citizen in front of everyone until Jin a Ronin samurai steps in, calls the landlord a piece of shit (so true) and slices down the landlords bodyguards like nothing. He’s voiced by Kirk Thornton (Saito from Rurouni Kenshin) and represents the traditional samurai you read about in books. He’s calm, quiet, rational, and upholds and follows the teachings of bushido (the perfect foil to Mugen). After beating up the guards he leaves and we cut back to the shop where the son of the landlord tells Mugen to stop or he’ll seek his father’s bodyguards on him (why don’t you be a man and do it yourself). Rather than be threaten by this it only excites Mugen and he tells the remaining guards to go and find these powerful guards before he breaks all the bones in the son’s body starting with his fingers (ohh~ I feel the pain from here). Jin comes in and Mugen mistakes him for one of these bodyguards resulting in a fight breaking out (scene here: //youtu.be/z26szdLN1Qo). So the shop gets burned down and both Mugen and Jin wake in chains where they’re to be executed tomorrow. Fuu sneaks in and strikes a deal with them saying she’ll help them escape if they help her find the samurai that smells of sunflowers (do sunflowers even have a scent? And how does a samurai smell like sunflowers? Is it some kind of special colon or something?). Her rescue attempt fails but the next day at the execution Mugen and Jin fight their way out killing the landlord and escape thanks to Fuu. Before the two are about to settle the score with each other Fuu stops them and forces them to help her on her quest to find the samurai who smells of sunflowers.
In episode 2 before our three heroes can begin their journey they must contend with that crazy one arm guy who burnt the shop down last episode. Yeah, Mugen chopped his arm off in the fight last episode and now he wants revenge on all of them. To help him with his revenge he hires another samurai who surprisingly plays for the other team and a large man who was called an ogre by his village because of his abnormal size and misconfigured face. He sets his plan in motion by having Jin take on the gay samurai (don’t drop the sword Jin) and Mugen gets poisoned by a whore and has to fight the ogre in order to save Fuu who was captured. While captured Fuu befriends the ogre man by not being frightened or scared by him at all. This episode is actually a good discussion for acceptance. The ogre man is actually gentle and peaceful but because he was picked on for so long he became what everyone though he was a monster but if everyone had accepted him for who he was he might have led a good life instead of a tragic life ending sadly (scenes here: //youtu.be/6Eda4eLI7HI and //youtu.be/oCParTANPgg, no you won’t).
Episodes 3 and 4 are 2 parts of one big story. Mugen and Jin are fed up with Fuu so they ditch her (3 episodes in and they’re already ditching her. Quicker than I thought). They both go their own separate ways where they all arrive at the same town which is in the middle of a gang war. After Mugen displays his skills he gets hired by Ishimatsu leader of the Nagatomi gang who extorts the town for money. Jin becomes the bodyguard for Sousuke the young reckless son of the Kawara clan’s leader Heitarou a man who rules his gang with honor and stays true to the code of the yakuza while trying to prevent a gang war from breaking out in the town (good luck controlling that fire). As for Fuu, she gets tricked into working at a brothel to pay off a debt (yeah you’ll quickly notice that Fuu is the Princess Peach of this anime. Always getting captured and has to be saved by Mugen and Jin). Ishimatsu’s man capture Sousuke’s tutor Osuzu who he has a crush on (boy wants to bang his single teacher even though he has no shot in hell at getting her. Sounds like a low budget doujin waiting to happen if you ask me) and force her to work in the brothel. Sousuke wants to save her but his father says no to avoid a war. This forces Sousuke and Jin to sneak into the brothel and stage a daring rescue where the three reunite, Mugen and Jin fight each other where their match gets interrupted by Ishimatsu’s man. Jin and Sousuke escape the brothel in the nick of time and the next day Mugen leaves the Nagatomi gang because he doesn’t agree with Ishimatsu’s style of thinking. Sousuke commits a stupid act by killing one of the Nagatomi members forcing Heitarou to take responsibility for his son’s actions by playing Ishimatsu in a dice game (before card games were invented it was all about the dice) where if he loses a life must be given to atone for the death of the Nagatomi member but if he wins Ishimatsu gets all of his territory (so basically he loses no matter what. Why are you the leader again?). As Mugen is leaving the town he finds that he can’t forget about Fuu (you loooove~ her) and goes back to save her from the brothel however she’s already escaped the brothel herself and in a misunderstanding becomes the dealer for the gang’s big bet (and just like that the dice game became anyone’s game now). Heitarou loses and thus a life must be given to atone for another’s death where in a surprising twist Heitarou gives his own life in order to save his son honoring the yakuza code while also keeping his son alive (you’re a good man Heitarou). Ishimatsu refuses to honor his word and decides to take over the town by force but before he can he’s gotta go through Mugen and Jin who take his gang down and no time flat and Ishimatsu gets strike down by his right hand man (sucks to be him). So the town is back under the control of the Kawara gang and Mugen, Jin, and Fuu continue their journey together.
Episodes 5-8
In episode 5 the group is short on cash (here’s a running theme in Watanabe’s anime, the main characters are always short on cash). In order to get money they all split up to look for work where Jin wagers his life on a game of shogi for money, Mugen hassles a bunch of thugs for money, and Fu becomes the model for a the ukiyo-e artist Hishikawa Moronobu who was in fact a real person who popularized the ukiyo-e genre in the 17th century. One of his first famous works is the Beauty looking backwards which Hishikawa affectionately calls Fuu in the anime. After Fuu poses for his painting we find out that he’s working for the same gang Mugen’s been hassling all through the episode for money. It turns out the ukiyo-e paintings are a front for a slave market sell with Europe where young Japanese girls are con into being models only to get captured and sold to Europe for money (gotta admit this is quite the elaborate plan). Hishikawa has second thoughts on selling out Fuu so he tries to save her but fails horribly so he gets Mugen to help him where they manage to save her just in time before she gets sold and the police come in and arrest the real mastermind behind this slave ring. The shogi guy who Jin has been playing all throughout the episode.
Episode 6 is one of the funnier episodes of the series. After arriving in Edo the trio participate in a rice eating contest where we see that Fuu has a bottomless appetite (she’s like a female version of Kirby) but accidently quits the contest losing Mugen and Jin’s sword to a large man of European descent. The large man introduces himself as Jouji and claims that he’s Japanese instead of European (right~ and I’m the king of bronies). Jouji says he’ll give them their swords back if they give him a tour of Edo and they agree to do it despite knowing nothing about Edo themselves (and the blind shall lead the blind). While they’re touring we see officials of the government looking for Jouji asking questions about him all around town and this other group of strange men wearing baskets over their heads are also looking for Jouji as well. The officials find our trio and Jouji where they want to arrest him and send him back to Europe (yeah. You gotta understand this was during the Edo period. Back then Japan was a very closed off country and Europe was starting to trade with them. During this time Japan set up foreign policies which forbid any foreigners from entering Japan and anyone from leaving the country to go to Europe under the penalty of death. This remained in effect for over 2 centuries until they were finally forced to open trade with the west and it still took them a few more years before they would allow anyone to leave their country and go to Europe). The group ditches their pursuers and are outside a play house where Yamato Nadeshiko is performing. Jouji wants to see the play and after the play he goes to confess his love to the Yamato Nadeshiko (boy is he in for a surprise). When he finds out his crush is a male he couldn’t be happier (woah it just got weird up in here). Jouji confesses that his real name is Issac, he’s really Dutch and comes from Holland (//youtu.be/_5DZexDYyuU). He tells them his backstory into how he was mocked and treated as a pervert for his love for men which made him very depressed until one day he came across a Japanese book written by Saikaku Ihara which explored the various aspects of gay life in the 17th century especially those seen in the lives of samurais. Overwhelmed by this discovery he came to the conclusion that Japan must be a gay paradise where he could finally be himself (no. It’s actually an anime lover’s paradise where girls cosplay 24/7, 2D girls are waifus and nobody is there to judge). The officials that have been chasing them come in to arrest them as well as the basket wearing group who reveal themselves to be Europeans as well (by God they’re slowly invading Japan to steal your men and samurais). A fight/chase breaks out but before a drop of blood happens a Japanese offical comes running in holding a document from the shogun showing that Issac has permission to be here and that he’s actually the Governor-General of the East India trading company. The Dutchmen tell Issac that an important meeting with the shogun is near and that they can’t delay the meeting any longer. Even though Issac doesn’t want to go with them he agrees to perform his duties (again, what Issac is doing could get him in a lot of trouble. Even though he’s allowed to be in the country the shoguns at the time would only allow foreigners to interact with two classes of people, whores and merchants. Hanging out with common folks and wandering the streets is not something the shogun would like to hear and could really get him in serious trouble. But hey, can you blame him, he’s a fanboy he wants to see all of Japan). So the next morning Issac bids his friends farewell on a bridge but before they go their separate ways Fuu asks him if he knows anything about a samurai who smells of sunflowers. He says no asking for more clues so Fuu gives him one of her charms off her pink tanto and after inspecting Issac tells Fuu to never show it to anyone in Japan saying it is very dangerous. He tells her to go to Nagasaki saying that the clues she’s looking for can be found there.
Episode 7 is without a doubt the saddest episode in the series. After the trio finally come across some money and try to treat themselves to a meal they get pickpocketed by a guy named Shinsuke (and he’s voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch. Not sure I like the idea of one of my childhood icons being a petty thief). The trio try to find him but fail however Fuu discovers that Shinsuke has a mother who is sick and needs some medicine badly. Sure enough Fuu pieces together what’s going on and we see that Shinsuke is doing all of this in order to earn enough money to buy better medicine for his sick mom who is unaware of his actions and to Shinsuke’s credit it doesn’t seem like he enjoys doing what he’s doing, he’s just doing this because it’s the only option (to him) that he has. Luck finally comes his way when he pickpockets someone carrying opium (which was highly illegal in Japan at the time and still is if I’m not mistaken). He hopes to sell it off but the gangsters find him and try to get it back from him. They chase him down where the authorities get involved forcing Shinsuke to pull out a knife and take a hostage who just happens to be Fuu (man this girl suffers big time from the Princess Peach syndrome). He ducks away in a storage house where Fuu talks to him and tells him to stop this and even offers to help him escape. When sunset arrives the authorities rush in as do the gangsters who corner Shinsuke and he throws the opium away giving him a chance to escape out the window where he runs along rooftops and makes it to the ground only to get cornered and stabbed to death by the authorities. The next day Fuu tries to tell Shinsuke’s mother what happened but just can’t tell her and takes her leave where she tries to reassure Shinsuke’s mother that Shinsuke was a good person.
Episode 8 is another funny episode (after the last episode I could use some good humor right about now). It focuses on an idiot samurai going by the name Nagamitsu who is after Jin in order to make himself famous and with him are his two followers who encourage his behavior with one serving as his beatbox for when he’s giving speeches (scene here: //youtu.be/xUpV63YHj34, I don’t know who this guy is but he is hands down the best side character in this whole series). We see that in order to get food our trio traded in Jin’s glasses for money (now you might think this makes Jin blind but in truth Jin can see perfectly without them. He just wears them as a fashion statement. Sort of like another person I know who has good vision but just wears glasses to make herself seem important. *Cut to Mira in the system feeling a chill go down her spine* (Mira): Ohhhh~. (Chibi Isis): Are you okay Mi-chan? (Mira): Yes. But for some reason I have the sudden urge to hit our master. I don’t know why). While they eat Fuu gets hit on by Nagamitsu and since Jin doesn’t have his glasses on which is the only clue Nagamitsu has about Jin he just ignores him. Fuu of course ignores his advances but when Mugen and Jin get hit on by a very seductive lady and go have a drink with her leaving Fuu all by herself she gets mad and decides to hangout with him where she finds out he’s looking for Jin (jiri jiri Jin) a man who killed his master and who he believes will make him famous according to his follower Ogura (Ogura lies man. Meeting Jin will only let you see death). Fuu leaves and can’t believe that Jin would do something as evil as that (it’s always the quiet ones baby) and the next morning she finds the two lying in the streets passed out drunk and robbed of all their money. Fuu bonks their heads and forces them to work in order to get the money back that they lost. In order to get the money back they put on a street show where they slice two apples off of Fuu’s head while blindfolded. After earning some money they go to buy Jin’s glasses back where they run into Nagamitsu and his gang where Ogura reveals that he’s a student from the school where Jin studied at and wants to challenge him because Jin really did kill their master (scene here: //youtu.be/rB4Xi5HHGnc). Ogura sleeks off and then that seductive lady from last night shows up with a dog who reveals herself to be Nagamitsu’s wife (the universe is so unfair) who has been looking for Nagamistsu all this time. She apologizes to Jin for all the trouble Nagamitsu has caused and drags her husband and the beatbox guy away.
Episodes 9-12
Episode 9 is a narrative episode told from the perspective of a side character named Yamane who talks about his experience with Mugen (you poor bastard). The trio has to pass through a checkpoint but the problem is they don’t have a passport to pass through and if they try to make a break for it they’ll be executed on the spot. Lucky for them a traveler comes by offering them a passport and they take it but of course it’s a fake and they get arrested on the spot (don’t trust anybody). At the checkpoint the top official (who is a spoiled brat and enjoys killing people) Kinumasa receives a letter asking for the return of a criminal. According to Yamane every so often someone tries to break through the checkpoint who already has a criminal record. If it’s a serious crime, they can’t be executed at the checkpoint but must be extradited to the place where their arrest warrant was issued. Kinumasa checks the dead body pile and discovers that they already killed the criminal putting him in serious trouble (you could just say he put up resistance and you were given no choice but to kill him) but Yamane makes a suggestion that will save Kinumasa. After hearing Yamane’s plan Kinumasa goes to our trio and says he’ll give them a chance to free themselves if they can deliver the severed head of the killed criminal to the town warranty his arrest. He singles out Mugen saying he has to go (well Jin and Fuu are screwed) and says that he has to be back by sunset or he’ll kill Jin and Fuu. Mugen heads out with Yamane right behind him to make sure Mugen fulfills his task (here’s an idea, if this task is so important why not have one of your guards do it? Why leave it in the hands of a man you don’t trust?). As Mugen is running through the mountain forest he gets chased after by renegade priest warriors disguised as tengus. Mugen runs all through the forest trying to lose them where he gets lost, falls down a pitfall, and gets captured by the warriors. They beat up Mugen badly and take him back to their base (which is a weed plantation) where we find out they hate the elite social class and are planning a revolution to destroy them. Mugen is scheduled to be executed tomorrow and Yamane gets captured after trying to save him. Yamane gets captured and is thrown into the shed with Mugen where he easily escapes his straw mat and uses one of Mugen’s shoes to start a fire and alert the guards. When the guards come in to check it out Yamane clocks them out and he and Mugen make a run for it (scene here: //youtu.be/h6Kc_-q6PJc, oh look the anime got high). We return back to the checkpoint where sunset has come and Fuu and Jin are about to be executed when all of a sudden that cloud of weed comes swooping in and everyone gets high from it (man that stuff travelled far). In the confusion Jin and Fuu escape and make it pass the checkpoint where they find Mugen high as a kite and partying with the warriors pissing off Jin and Fuu.
Episode 10 is another Mugen episode. The trio wonder into a town (as hungry and poor as usual) when they come across a monk who offers them food and lodging in exchange for working at his temple. They take the offer and while running an errand in town Fuu finds out that there’s a bounty on a samurai who’s going around challenging people and killing them. When Mugen hears about this he gets interested and decides to go out and find the samurai so he can kill him. Fuu goes with him (anything to get out working eh Fuu?) where they search the town for clues but come up empty handed. As Mugen is walking back to the temple he sees three samurais running away in fear and a trail of blood going in the opposite direction. Mugen follows the trail and winds up at small shop where he shares a drink with another traveler who Mugen easily figures out is the samurai killer. After having a drink and hearing a story the two fight each other on the bridge where the killer uses a mysterious wind technique that catches Mugen completely off guard. Just as Mugen collects himself the authorities come in to stop the fight and the killer tells Mugen to meet him on the bridge again on the night of the full moon. He goes back to the temple and shows the others what happened to him where the monk reveals everything to them. The monk reveals that the killer is Shouryuu a former student of the monk when he was a dojo master. Shouryuu (formerly known as Ukon) was his best student and was drafted to go to sea by the government. The ship got caught up in a storm and everyone died except for Shouryuu who washed away in China. There, he learned a mysterious martial art technique and returned to Japan 10 years later to teach this new technique to his master and fellow samurais. Once he displays these techniques he outright kills one of the students in front of everyone (no mercy) and defends his actions by saying that martial arts are just tools to kill people (and to give people confidence, to defend yourself from people who wish to hurt you, and to help you find a state of peace and enlightenment). Furious with his actions the monk expelled Shouryuu from the dojo where he wondered from providence to providence trying to teach his technique to others but every time he did he was expelled from the dojo. He finally condemned his country and withdrew deciding that if nobody will respect his new teachings he’ll force them to respect it (yeah because that plan always works in the long run). After the story Mugen gets to training for his next fight with Shouryuu (scene here: //youtu.be/h6Kc_-q6PJc). After much training and waiting Mugen goes to face Shouryuu on the bridge and we get our fight (scene here: //youtu.be/Z9jowVycwPo, nice work Mugen. That might have been cheap but hey when you come to a sword fight you always bring a hidden blade just in case).
Lately we’ve been focusing a lot of Mugen so I think now is a good chance to focus on Jin and episode 11 gives us this. I’m gonna be honest with you guys for a second, episode 11 is one of my top 3 favorite episodes in this anime and if I have any female readers out there this episode is probably gonna be your favorite as well. The episode starts off in a town where it’s raining. The trio has split up to look for work. Fuu is a waitress at a restaurant, Jin has taken a part-time job at an eel stand, and Mugen (who was supposed to be doing bodyguard duty) is gambling on beetle wrestling (which surprisingly isn’t as intense as cock fighting but still somehow very exciting). On his way to the eel stand Jin comes across a woman name Shino who looks like she’s about to jump from the bridge but Jin tells her the water is too shallow and suggest she goes somewhere else if she wishes to kill herself (you do know that by saying this you just made yourself liable for her death if she goes through with the act?). Shino assures him she’s not going to kill herself and they go on their merry way. At Jin’s job we see that he’s not so good at it but lucky for him Shino shows up to help out. He cooks the last eel for her (badly) and eats it thanking him for the memory as this will be her last day of freedom on account of she’ll be working at a brothel starting tomorrow thanks to her deadbeat husband who loss all his money gambling. I do like how they spring this information on us, in this short scene we clearly get an idea on Shino’s situation, what her husband is like, and why she was thinking about killing herself (the scenes link up to each other perfectly and everything that we saw earlier all makes sense now). In the B plot Mugen trains his beetle by having it drag a rock around the room and this somehow makes it stronger and it wins the next fight much to Fuu’s amazement. Back in the A plot Jin goes to see Shino in the brothel (well it’s obvious, the signs are all there. Jin has fallen for her and wants to be with her) where he gets beat up for window shopping (I bet all shop owners today wish they could this). He returns to their hotel where he asks Mugen for money to buy Shino (man he really is desperate if he’s going to Mugen for money). Jin goes back to the brothel and buys Shino where they spend the night together and make sweet love. We also see that Fuu is a little jealous of Jin paying attention to Shino instead of her. Some have come to see this as Fuu actually having feelings for Jin but personally I think it’s more like a big brother/little sister relationship with these two. Jin is kind of like the responsible and serious big brother of the trio with Mugen being the rebellious middle child and Fuu the innocent little sister. To her, seeing Jin go off with some woman she knows nothing about worries her and is afraid that he won’t come back to her. The next day Shino’s husband comes by to hassle her for money so that he can gamble some more (//youtu.be/dFKylgGk73I) and smacks her when she talks back to him (//youtu.be/EYWbatgKN4g). Jin steps in and stops him but not wanting to get him into any trouble Shino tells him to go. Now you’re probably wondering why doesn’t Shino just divorce this guy and get him out of her life. Well back then woman weren’t allowed to file for divorce. Only men were allowed to file for divorce back then and if she ran away she would be considered a fugitive and executed for this act (so basically she has 2 options. One, stick it out and hope everything works out in the end or two kill herself. No matter what choice she makes she suffers). That night Jin finally has enough and decides he’s going to save her from this life. Fuu tries to stop him but her plead doesn’t work and Jin goes on his way. His plan is to have Shino hide out in a Enkiri Dera, a safehouse for women ending relationships and seeking divorces however she has to stay there for 3 years and not see Jin (a small price to pay but hey it’s better than being deflowered by some bald ugly guy who probably has STD. Plus when you guys get back together it’s gonna be a hurricane). She agrees to go with him and they make plans to escape (but escapes don’t always go as well as you plan. Scene here: //youtu.be/Bd02f1xn4Z8, hands down one of the best scenes in this anime. The raw emotion, the music, Shino’s lines, everything is just great. See you in 3 years Shino).
In episode 12 Fuu is enjoying the hotsprings (wow you think after saving a prostitute they be in serious trouble) and Mugen and Jin are talking about how they don’t know a whole lot about the sunflower samurai and believe that Fuu is hiding something from them. Desperate for answers Mugen sneaks into the bathhouse and steals Fuu’s dairy. Yep, it’s a recap episode folks and if you know me you should know I’m not very fond of recap episodes. I feel that these episodes are a waste of time and instead take away from the anime. Now to this anime’s credit I will admit this episode isn’t entirely a waste as there are a few good moments in this episode. For starters the episode is told from Fuu in a narrative perspective with Mugen and Jin providing a little commentary about what she wrote in her diary. We also have Manzou (the detective from episode 5 who solved that slave trade mystery) pop up a few times and provide some commentary detailing a few events from history which is odd because all the stuff he talks about happens in the future long after he’s dead (so this begs the question is Manzou some kind of seer of the future or something or is he just breaking the 4th wall because he does that quite a bit in the anime). There’s also an extra scene where the trio is receiving counseling from the monk.
Well this looks like a good place to stop. Be sure to come back next week when we start to get into the more serious part of the series. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj as the Watanabe arc continues.
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