Presentation
The box art is simply amazing and does a fantastic job of showing off the unique and brilliant artwork used in the series. It showcases Afro in the forefront, with Ninja Ninja and Sio behind him in black and white, all down over on off-white (almost beige) background. The one thing the external box art doesn’t show the inner case does. The inner box shows the absolutely amazing color scheme they use for the entire series. They stick with quite a few red, blues, grays, blacks and whites. It paints a beautiful picture and emphasizes key moments fantastically. The background scenes are beautiful and well drawn often showing off vibrant colors against more earthy and neutral colors to make them stand out more. The character animations are also very unique. They come off more as very detailed sketches as opposed to the more simplistic character designs we see nowadays. The effect comes off as very grim and brutally realistic. This really is the overall tone of the entire anime. It is incredably brutal and violent, with very grim and gritty moments. It’s quite full of blood splatter, dismembers, decapitations and other forms of mutilation. A small amount of nudity also makes its way into the anime as well, though like everything else, it comes off as gritty and subversive. The music, much like everything else, is also VERY unique. It sticks mostly to rap and hip hop type beats. While most anime would do poorly under this type of music, it just continues to blow you away as it is perfectly in tune with the feel of each and every scene. This series features only an American cast. But with the likes of Samuel Jackson, Lucy Lui, and Mark Hamill portraying the voices of the main characters, you really don’t lose anything by not having a Japanese cast. In quite honestly, I’m not sure if anyone other the Samuel Jackson could pull of the voice of Afro or Ninja Ninja. The plot is pretty linear so rather easy to follow.
Extras
There are quite a large amount of extras with this DVD set. A good chunk of trailers, a 24 page booklet that features artwork from the series as well as brief synopsis of the some of the characters, an in-depth interview with the anime creator Takashi Okazaki, In depth interviews with several members of the production studios from Japan and the U.S., An Interview with RZA (The creators of the music behind the Anime), A Behind-The Scenes look at Afro Samurai video game, A brief glimpse into how the people behind Afro Samurai handled San Diego Comic Con 2008, and Video Commentary for the first chunk of the Anime. The makers of the DVD set made sure there was quite a lot to do even after you finished the anime. It’s a very refreshing change of pace.
Overall, the series is bloody and grim, but beautifully done. If nothing else I suggest watching it just to see something totally different in the regards to Anime. The art, music, and just general feel of the anime is all very unique and could very well revolutionize how people see the industry as a whole.