Afro Samurai: Reserrection Review

[Michael.Schinke]

Michael Schinke

In 2007, animation studio GONZO and Spike TV introduced American audiences to the strange world of Takashi ‘Bob’ Okazaki’s Afro Samurai. The adaptation of his manga brought viewers to an unspecified future where a devastated world where the samurai had risen once again as the epitome of the warrior elite. This world is a mish mash of modern and ancient technology; guns and swords, cell phones and wooden shoes, cars and motorcycles; the environment is awash with whatever seems most interesting or necessary to create a particular emotion in the world. Afro (Samuel L. Jackson) is accompanied on his quest to obtain the Number One Headband and avenge his fathers death by the effusive Ninja Ninja (Jackson as well). Ninja Ninja is loud, obnoxious, randy and cowardly; often trying to either goad Afro to action or convince him to run away from it. After defeating his fathers killer and taking the Number One Headband for his own, Afro retires from the world.

Resurrection picks up several years later as Afro, having achieved his revenge, has lost his way is essentially sitting out his life, hiding away the Number One Headband and abandoning the responsibilities that come with wearing it. As the cycle of pursuit of the Number One has been broken, those who would seek its power have turned outward and fed upon the world. The sexy and manipulative Sio (Lucy Liu) and an old friend from Afro’s past humiliate him, burn his home to the ground, steal the Number On and desecrate his fathers remains. Promising to bring his father back from the dead in order to torture him for eternity, Sio goads Afro to once again find the Number Two Headband and challenge her for his fathers soul. So after many years, Afro and Ninja Ninja set out again in search of the Number Two Headband. Along the way, Afro must face the consequences of all the lives he’s taken, as well as his decision to abandon the role of the worlds number one warrior.

For fans of the first Afro Samurai this series is a welcome continuation of the themes presented in the first. As always, the title character speaks very little and lays down massive amounts of bloody whoopass while Ninja Ninja curses and yells his way through the picture. Sio’s motivations and actions seem pretty sketchy and serve as little more than an excuse to get Afro killing again, but if you came here looking for Kurosawa levels of samurai Bushido philosophy, brother you came to the wrong joint. Punctuated by the pulsing beats and layered samples provided by the RZA, Afro Samurai: Resurrection beats a bloody and violently entertaining foot upside your eyeballs.

P.Q. 5
Afro Samurai: Resurrection slices it’s way onto Blu-ray with a stunning 1:78:1 framed, 1080P image that’s as vibrant as it is striking. Colors are bright and bold and blacks are inky and deep. Aside from a few instances of artificial film grain added for effect, the image is as clear and sharp as a painting; leaping of the screen with action or drawing you in with wonderfully rendered backgrounds. Textures added to the animation models or backgrounds are clearly and rendered with no distracting video noise or macroblocking. You will find color banding present on some color gradations, but I am convinced that this is a by product of the digital art process and not a function of poor compression. It’s the same kind of banding I’ve witnessed in plenty of animations produced digitally and usually occurs when color grades are being used to add atmosphere or depth over large swaths of the screen. You should not take this as a negative; Afro Samurai: Resurrection’s art is as crisp and clear as if it were being painted right on your eyes.

A.Q. 3.5
Sadly, I have to deduct points from this feature for its lack of a lossless audio track. Where the packaging boasts a Dolby TrueHD track, the disc itself features a standard lossy DD 5.1 presentation. While everything from dialogue to music and effects is perfectly clear and free from distortion, it just doesn’t really pack much punch. Surrounds are well used, but the whole sound field feels slightly boxed in. For all the open space that the story takes place in, the audio just doesn’t sell it. I don’t think this is a fault of the audio transfer, but without a lossless track as a comparison, we’ll never know. Music really sets the tone for the scenes in the film and this disc does well in that arena. As much as I enjoy the work of RZA on the Afro films and Kill Bill, I tend to find his hip-hop style rather limiting at times. I really wish he would branch out and explore other instrumentations and orchestrations as the typical style of work he uses just doesn’t take advantage of the power of music as well as it could. This affects the Blu-ray by just not giving it a lot to work with in terms of reproducing sound. Music, while clear, is pretty flat and two dimensional even in the cases where it falls into the surround channels. While it’s certainly a pleasant enough, there were very few instances of, “oh wow!” going on here.

Extras

First up is a look at Afro Samurai: The Game for XBOX 360 and Playstation 3. This is a pretty extensive piece covering both the technical and artistic intents for the game, as well as highlighting a great deal of the game play. Worth a look for interested parties.

Next up is a look into the production of the series music with Enter: The RZA. This piece takes you into RZA’s studio where he talks about the different aspects involved in writing and producing the series score and songs. RZA is a remarkably intelligent and talented musician who brings a lot of depth to his work. While I am not impressed by the limiting nature of his musical style, I am impressed by the level of intellectual commitment he brings.

Afro – In Depth is a conversation of ‘Bob’ Okazaki on the origins of his intriguing creation. While not as in depth as the title would imply, it is an interesting look into the creation of this unique character. What I found most intriguing is ‘Bob’s musing that he would like to create a universe as expansive as George Lucas’s ‘Star Wars’ has become, allowing him to tell stories featuring other characters that exist in Afro’s world of tomorrow/yesterday.

Afro Samurai: East Meets West Parts 1 & 2 is a look at the production of the Afro Samurai series from both the Japanese and American production teams. Featuring interviews with series director Fuminori Kinzaki and his artistic teams, as well as stars Sam Jackson and Lucy Liu, this feature will take you through the different aspects of what it takes to bring a film like this to the screen. Through interviews with more obscure production personnel like the lead color artist and key background designer, I found this behind the scenes feature to be far more in depth and informative of the process of creating animation than most other, more puffy pieces found on other discs.

Rounding out the features are the Afro Samurai presentation from the 2008 San Diego Comic Con and a video commentary track featuring series creator Okazaki, director Kinzaki and two other key production personnel. While not exactly feeling “packed to the gills” with material, Funimation has pulled together a fine collection of material which covers a lot of ground and is entertaining to watch.

Final Thoughts

As a graphic designer by profession I was immediately drawn into the unique look of the Afro Samurai world. The follow up takes that world and cranks up the volume, taking all the existing elements to the extremes. Where Afro was relatively silent in the first series, he is virtually mute in this. At the same time, Ninja Ninja has ramped up his motor mouth to the Nth degree, providing an almost non-stop barrage of curses, screams and lewd comments. The violence is more severe, the art is more detailed, the music is more intense – everything about this new Afro Samurai is just heavier and denser than the first. With that being said, don’t expect the philosophies or psychological aspects of the film to beat you up and drag you down. This is meant for pure entertainment, and on that level, it delivers a crushing chop to the neck. For anime fans this one is a no brainer. Fans of animation in general will be pleased as punch for it’s unique melding of Eastern and Western cultural influences and amped up attention to artistic detail. For those of us who grew up on a steady diet of kung fu and samurai flicks, bloody pre-Pokemon anime and late night rated R action films, this is like getting a Christmas present all year round. Follow the path of the Number One to your local flick shack and pick this one up today.