It's not anything exactly masterpiece-like, and after a few episodes it does come close to being a little tiresome in seeing Afro, who has little-to-no personality and just a straightforward bad motherf***er attitude, on his quest to achieve something higher than his simple 2-level. But it's also science fiction to a degree, or at least futuristic in scope, mixing feudal Japan with crafty cyborgs and robots and other technology thrown in (including a robot clone of Afro who mimics his moves but not his subconscious). Through first-time director Kizaki and the writers who are also working mostly as their first efforts, experiment with its "ghetto" influence with it looking as much like an exploitation flick from the 70s as much as a sword-revenge story (many of those out for Afro's head could be compared to those out for Grier or Williamson's heads in the classic films). Jackson mostly voices, Ninja Ninja as the fool of the series, gives some of it, and some of it just comes through the wild ways that the other samurais send out their forms of slaughter to Afro) and rapid stylization, with not just one specific style, though it is mostly indebted to recent ultra-violent anime. At the same time it's also got a little tongue pressed into cheek, as the usual clichés in a revenge saga get just the right touches of harsh comedy (the side character Samuel L.
Afro Samurai will stay in my collection as a pure guilty pleasure, a black samurai saga that has more than a touch of being made just right for die-hard fans of blood-drenched anime (or, for that matter, members of the Wu-Tang Clan, for which RZA did the music, and is an asset via groovy beats and is an occasional deterrent with rap going on during a big battle).
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