Flyer78 I loved Afro Samurai for many reasons. The story isn't the most unique you will ever find, but the great action scenes and cool art style make up for it. The fights are fast-paced and gory, and the art style is innovative and uses plenty of dark shadings to give every thing a shadowy tone.It mixes together Japanese anime culture, rap, and other things to make one AWESOME anime. And I can't review this without mentioning the great job that Samuel L. Jackson and Ron Pearlman did with their voice acting. I just wish this could have went at least 20 episodes to really extend the story. And since it was only 5 episodes, there was basically a fight in every single episode, and that takes away the feeling of drama and importance of the fights. It just feels like an actionfest at times. But for the 5 episodes that it lasted, it was a very fun and entertaining anime.

Wayori Afro Samurai is the story of a swordsman seeking vengeance for his murdered father. Haven't seen that before. In order to achieve this goal, he must defeat the number one swordsman in the world that stole the title from his dead dad. The funny thing is that this Number 1 uses two guns to fight, and yet he is the number one "swordsman." Go figure. The Number 1 and Number 2 swordsmen are labeled by these special bands saying that they're number one and number two, and as you might have guessed, the Afro is number two, and EVERYONE with a weapon wants a piece, whether or not that weapon is a sword. I can't tell what source this show ripped off more: Ninja Scroll with its "everyone wants you dead" premise and ninja sidekick or Samurai Champloo with its attempt to immerse hip-hop culture with Japanese swordsmen using the "black samurai" gimmick that mildly offended me. Great animation and action, but overall, not a good show.

Sirus_51 I was a bit hesitant to watch this because well it did sound a touch odd in the end I was more then pleasantly surprised.Afro - Samurai is a tale of revenge, responsibility and choices made.The titular hero ( oddly enough called Afro ) is a stoic one man army killing machine who is on his way to hunt down Justice. A Texan Samurai packing heat and a nasty surprise.In this hip mix and match world of blazing Katana combat mixed with cell phones and six shooters Afro is hunting the man who took his fathers head and with it his power..in this a number one head band that gives its wearer the rank of best of the best and the power of a God.In his quest for vengeance Afro will chose his vengeance over the only other family he has known, find and lose old loves and put himself in an all out brawl with a duel Sword wielding cyborg with a Teddy bears head.All in the company in his very loud, truth speaking and obnoxious yet more then he seems pal Ninja Ninja.Well worth a look

chaos-rampant Afro Samurai came out of left field from me. Totally unexpected, I saw the tile pop up somewhere and sounded cool enough for me to give it a go. And even though I'm not an anime fan, I found lots to appreciate in this mini series of blood and mayhem.The main appeal for me was the combination of blaxploitation culture and samurai swordfighting (chambara). Samuel Jackson doing the voice-overs for both Afro Samurai (Clint Eastwood style, few words, calm and badass) and his sidekick Ninja Ninja (wisecracking non-stop banter) was another major plus. The third advantage is the simple story that takes its cue from a long line of revenge movies: this is a simple revenge story and that's why it works so well.In a futuristic world, young kid watches his father get cut down by baddie who is after his father's Headband #1. Headband #1 allows its bearer to be like a god. The only one who can challenge him is the one who wears Headband #2. Anyone can challenge Headband #2. As one could expect, Headband #2's path is littered with corpses as everyone and their dog want their chance to challenge Headband #1. Young kid grows up and becomes Afro Samurai and walks the path of revenge against Headband #1. A colourful ensemble of baddies will stand in his way, from a neo-Buddhist cult of assassin monks, to cyborgs to teddy-bear faced guys with a grudge to common crooks. Through flashbacks we come to find out how Afro Samurai became who he is and how he obtained Headband #2. Simple yet effective.The main appeal here is the visual aspect. Being a fan of 60's and 70's chambaras and jidai-gekis I find the swordfights a tad too hyperkinetic for my taste, but that's anime for you I guess. However everything has a smoother, more westernized approach perhaps to the rapid, eyesore that often is the genre which I took to with pleasant surprise and relief. The graphics and design tend to be great (especially Afro Samurai's) although they can settle for just good or serviceable at times. The blood geysers and slashing, taking their cue from stuff like Lone Wolf and Cub and Lady Snowblood (copious amounts of glorious arterial sprayings) will please every fan of the red stuff although it's not particularly gruesome. Good, clean, family fun.The soundtrack is done by usual suspect RZA. I have to say that the whole combo of hip-hop/anime/exploitation works particularly well even though I'm only a fan of the latter third. If you wanna get a picture of what Afro Samurai is, think of the animated sequence in Kill Bill vol. 1.