AFRO SAMURAI: RESURRECTION

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ActionAfro Samurai
MOVIE ActionAFRO SAMURAI Movie

REVIEWS

• 

  Bigbone99

  80/100
  Cool characters, cool music and cool fights. A must watch for action fans.

  This review can also be found on my MAL Profile:
  Afro Samurai: Resurrection is set after the events of the original five episode anime. The premise is simple: the main character Afro is on a quest for revenge to take the life of the man who took his father's life for the number 1 headband which is rumored to give the owner godlike power. The movie is about what happens after you get your revenge, and the cycle of vengeance. A new character, Sio is one of the many people who was affected by Afro's vengeful path. She take's the remains of Afro's father in order to bring him back to life, all for the purpose of inflicting as much pain on him for her revenge, and takes the number one headband from him in order to motivate Afro to come to her. It's a lot of words for what is essentially a very simple plot, but this plot is pretty strong for its simplicity. Character motivations are clear, what needs to be done is clear, and it is also clear thematically.

  Because of the rather unique circumstances that led to the creation of the animated version of Afro Samurai, there's a lot of star power behind it. Samuel L. Jackson is the producer and all of his celebrity money and his love for anime (and hentai too!) shows in the final product. I want to start to start with the voice cast first of all. Many are apprehensive when it comes to English voice acting in anime and I want to put those fears aside. This movie was produced for the West first and foremost, so the script and dialogue fit naturally. The main character himself, Afro, is voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. There isn't much to say about this performance because it consists mostly of single words and grunts. That doesn't mean Afro is uninteresting. On the contrary, because he's so quiet, you really wonder whats going on in his head. Jackson really shines in his other role as Ninja Ninja, a wise cracking and fast talking companion for Afro. He acts like an inner voice for him, often questioning Afro's motivations and goading him on in some instances. Together they make a very entertaining duo. The other major celebrity role is Lucy Liu of Kill Bill and Charlie's Angels fame. She does a good role in the role of Sio, the antagonist of the film, bit the delivery of some of her lines falls flat. This could either be due to direction issues or issues in sound mixing (an issue I'll soon be getting to). Mark Hamill also has a role though its for a minor character. Lastly, there are some other big names in the anime English dub sphere: Yuri Lowenthal and Liam O'Brien. They do what they do best and provide some anime voices to anime characters. They don't really deviate too much from what they usually do but its an otherwise solid performance they bring.

  The other big celebrity name brought in for this project is RZA of Wu-Tang Clan fame. Those who are familiar with the Wu-Tang Clan would know that they have a love for anime, so RZA was a natural fit for the his love of anime, and for the fact that he has done the score for other films as well. What you'll expect is some authentic old school hip hop beats, complete with boom bap drums, soul samples and rapping (some of which is done by the man himself). The tracks themselves are very well done and are implemented appropriately within the movie. There are issues with the mixing and sound editing however. In some scenes, the music sounds quite muffled and not loud enough, or sometimes, the volume of the voice track is around the same as the music, making it a little hard to appreciate the music in the moment. In other instances, the music fades out in a pretty obvious way, taking you out of the moment. This isn't a deal breaker overall, since its only in a few moments, but it can detract from your enjoyment if one of the reasons you want to watch the movie. If you are that kind of person, you were probably going to, or have already listened to the soundtrack in album form.

  The animation and art are just as strong, if not stronger than the original. With the movie being action oriented, action scenes are going to be the major focus of the animation team. Scenes are still bloody, violent and intense a you would expect. Animation is also really detailed and polished in them thanks to the additional time and money that was poured into it. It's a showcase of what studio Gonzo can do at their best despite their reputation for being an inconsistent studio. Character designs are still great, blending together traditional Japanese clothing and design sensibilities with technology. The background art and settings are also quite varied for a two hour long movie. There are wastelands, some locations that feel like they would straight up fit into a western, but replace the saloons with more Japanese flavored houses. A location at the end of movie is particularly stunning because of the strong color choices, the strangeness of background elements like mountains and some overall "epic" imagery for that location; you can feel the brutal history of it.

  So I highly recommend this movie, especially if you've completed the anime. It may be style over substance for some, but I say to them, the style is the substance for this movie. A small side note: a sequel is teased at the end of this movie, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. The movie by itself is complete, so don't let that stinger ruin it for you.

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• 

  MegaTheRealOne

  75/100
  You Are Part of a Bigger Afro Then Your Realize

  (Originally Reviewed on Letterboxd)

  Man, it's always awkward whenever you are watching an epic fight play out with all this spectacle and high octane action, only for it to
  randomly cut at points to these random people having sex during a festival.......... not sure what that adds, but now I am tonally all over the place, and I don't know how to feel.

  While I myself would never have imagined Samuel L. Jackson in something as odd as anime before given his usual track record, he proved that he could do wonders in one, while being supported by the many other positive elements to be found within the Afro Samurai miniseries. It wasn't necessarily the best show ever, given its short length which didn't allow the story to develop fully or be that interesting, along with the fact that it does follow along a lot of the usual plotlines and tropes you see in these kinds of shows, but they managed to make up for this with a great set of characters, wonderful voice acting, fantastic animation and incredible action scenes that kept your eyes glued to the screen just to see what other kind of crazy shit could happen next. But despite all of that, I'm sure many people back then would've wanted more out of this, since it was so short, and thankfully, they listened and were able to deliver, for just two years after the series ended, we would get a follow-up movie to..... "conclude" the story once and for all, and it was released as Afro Samurai: Resurrection.

  I watched the Afro Samurai series back last week, and since I really enjoyed what I got out of it, I was really looking forward to watching the movie too, but at the same time, I didn't really know what I was gonna get out of it. Obviously, I was gonna get more stunning visuals and incredible action sequences, but in terms of the story...... I mean, where were they gonna go from here? They had already tied up everything well enough in the show, so what more was there to do, and on top of that, was it actually going to end this series off once and for all, or just be another round of Afro doing cool shit for an hour and a half and nothing more? Well, after now watching the film, I can safely say that...... it was the latter. But thankfully, it was still a good latter nonetheless, because the film still manages to be a pretty good time, being just as good, if not better, then the show it follows up and gives us plenty more of what we loved from that series in an extended format.

  The story is, again, pretty typical stuff, with it diving into a little more about the history of these characters, as well as giving Afro a lot more slaughtering to do, but it is more or less not really all that important, as the film has its priorities in the action more then anything else, but trust me, that is definitely for the best, the characters are great, with Afro, Ninja Ninja, and all the others that returned still being just as great as they were in the TV show, and even some of the new characters that we get to see, while not being there for too long, are pretty likable and have some great moments too, the voice acting is still damn good, with Samuel Jackson still giving a wonderful performance as both Afro and Ninja Ninja, and all of the others like Lucy Liu, Grey DeLise, Mark Hamill and so on also managed to do a pretty good job right alongside him, the animation is incredible once again, stepping things up from the show and giving us plenty more wonderful shots, sequences, and designs to marvel at throughout the runtime, and the action scenes are still as fantastic as ever, being very fast, kinetic, and bloody all at once, providing plenty of exciting sequences that will give you your money's worth if you loved what you got in the original show.

  However, with all of that being said, despite the fact that it does carry a lot of what the show managed to do so well, it never really tries to.... eclipse it, y'know? I dunno, call me entitled or whatever, but when it comes to a movie following up a TV show of any kind, I would expect the movie to try to go big or go home, amping everything up to make for a much more memorable experience, and while things are somewhat amped up in this one, things don't really go further then what we got in the TV show, which already had all of those incredible strengths to begin with. Not to mention, the story doesn't really feel like anything all that special. It just feels like another journey for Afro to go on for the sake of it, not really fitting or following up too much with what came before it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that could still be a downside to those that were looking for more of that. Doesn't bother me that much though, as I'm still having fun with what I'm being given here.

  Overall, despite not taking advantage of its potential and a bit of a weak plot, Afro Samurai: Resurrection manages to give more of what the TV show managed to do so well and then some, and it is pretty good because of that, delivering more of the fantastic animation, wonderful fight scenes, and great characters and performances that fans of the show wanted, right alongside just that little bit more to still make it feel like a proper add-on to this series's saga. I would definitely recommend it for those who loved the original show, or even the manga that it is based on, because while it doesn't try to surpass either of those necessarily, it will still give you plenty more of what you want and love, and that's all one can ask for at the end of the day. It's a shame though that, after this movie, we wouldn't get any other sort of TV shows or films from this series again, but in all honesty, that's probably for the best. Don't wanna ruin what we already have, y'know? I mean, I guess there are those video games that came out after the show and film, but uh, ha ha............ it would probably be smart to avoid those.

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