Production

[edit]

Samurai Champloo was the debut television production of animation studio Manglobe, which was started in 2002 by Sunrise veteran Shinichirō Kobayashi.^[1]^[2] The opening animation was contributed to by the studio Madhouse.^[3] A production committee to support the project was formed by Victor Entertainment's Shirō Sasaki, partnering with Tokuma Shoten and North American company Geneon Entertainment.^[1] Watanabe acted as the series director, in addition to creating the project. Kobayashi, Sasaki, Sanae Mitsugi and Hideki Goto were credited as planners and executive producers,^[4] and the producers were Takatoshi Hamano, Takashi Kochiyama and Tetsuro Satomi.^[5]

The story was composed by Shinji Obara and Yukihiko Tsutsumi of Office Crescendo, with scripts written by Obara, Dai Satō, Touko Machida, Keiko Nobumoto, Seiko Takagi, Ryota Sugi, and Watanabe.^[1]^[4]^[5]^[6] Nakazawa wrote and storyboarded episode 15, being credited as Uwadan Shimofuwato in the former role.^[7]^[5] Nakazawa also acted as both character designer and chief animation director. The art director was Takeshi Waki, the storyboard director was Kazuki Akane, and coloring was led by Eri Suzuki.^[1]^[4] Additional characters were created by Hideto Komori.^[8] Weapon designs were co-created by Mahiro Maeda and Manglobe managing director Hidero Okamoto.^[8]^[4] The cinematographer was Kazuhiro Yamada, with Syuichi Kakesu as lead editor.^[4] Numerous guest creators were also brought in for different episodes as artists or animation directors, including Shūkō Murase Takeshi Yoshimoto, Naoko Nakamoto, Hiroyuki Imaishi and Tensai Okamura.^[9]

Concept and development

[edit]

The concept for Samurai Champloo was created by Watanabe in 1999, then known for his work on Cowboy Bebop. He wanted to create a series antithetical to the largely calm and mature atmosphere of Cowboy Bebop, wanting a complete change due to fatigue after working on one project for such a long period.^[10]^[8] The success of Cowboy Bebop meant he was permitted to develop whatever he wanted for his next project.^[11] As with his other projects, he drew inspiration from music, then matched a narrative to it.^[12] His approach was combining two of his favorite things, classic samurai adventure films and series and hip hop music, into a single work.^[13] He created the concept for Samurai Champloo during this period, but work on it was delayed due to his work on Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and his segments of The Animatrix at Studio 4°C.^[8]^[1] Kobayashi had invited Watanabe to work on an original project at Manglobe when it was founded in February 2002, and Watanabe sent the Samurai Champloo pitch in May of that year.^[1] The pitch included the central concepts for the series, and draft designs for the lead characters.^[1]^[14] Watanabe invited Nakazawa on board as he was a fan of his work and wanted the opportunity to work with him. Obara, known more for his work on live-action movies and television dramas, was brought in through a mutual friend at Office Crescendo.^[8]

The eventual unstructured production style was unheard of in anime, and at the outset Obara created a series structure. The three-episode finale was not planned ahead, emerging naturally as part of the design approach.^[8] As the project evolved, Watanabe pushed for this structured approach to be discarded aside from the lead characters and premise, and Obara agreed to the new approach. The lack of a structure meant that the series narrative was constructed piece by piece, with few plot details being decided in advance.^[1] The fates of the three characters were also undecided during this stage. Watanabe originally planned for all three to survive, but at one point the team considered Jin and Mugen dying respectively in the final two episodes.^[8] Even the identity of the sunflower samurai was unknown to Watanabe during the early stages.^[15] Due to this approach, pre-production on the series lasted a year.^[1] Watanabe had a great deal of creative control and input, including on music selection and editing.^[16]

The first episode took a long time to polish, being completed around the beginning of 2004, but it and subsequent episodes had an animation quality higher than other series of the time. This was attributed to the working environment of Manglobe allowing for easy communication between staff members, and Watanabe's passion for the project prompting famous staff from other notable anime projects to come on board. The non-standard style of production left some members of staff including Sasaki skeptical that the series would be finished. For the sound mixing, Watanabe wanted the same approach and quality as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, bringing in sound engineer Masashi Yabuhara who had worked with Yoko Kanno on the sound design of Cowboy Bebop.^[1] The fight scenes were choreographed to appear more realistic than other period dramas, which featured a clashing of swords which in reality would chip them.^[8] Unique eyecatch artwork was created for each episode based on its themes and content. Woodblock prints portraying the characters, designed by former shojo manga creator Tsubaki Anna, were shown at various points through the series. Nakazawa created the illustration use for sponsor announcements.^[17]

Scenario and art design

[edit]

Samurai Champloo was Obara's first time working on an anime series, and Watanabe attributed him with bringing a new style of narrative and pacing to the series.^[8]^[1] Sato had worked with Watanabe before on Macross Plus.^[1] He described the process of discussing plot concepts with Watanabe and building upon voiced ideas, treating his own contributions like sample discs that might be accepted or rejected.^[18] The script meetings were unusually long, beginning with the synopsis and ending up with the final form, alongside off-topic conversation that was sometimes incorporated into that episode's plot.^[1] Due to Watanabe's reputation and the success of his projects in the West, the anime was created with a Western audience in mind with the expectation that it would be more successful outside Japan. This resulted in more overt references to Western culture being included.^[19] An assassin character who appeared in the second episode was intended to appear during the finale, but he was cut due to time constraints and a general lack of people remembering his earlier appearance.^[8]

Nakazawa had trouble getting a feel for the characters, with Mugen's design still going through adjustments when production on the first episode began. For the animation of Mugen's fighting style, the team used gymnastic footage as a reference alongside incorporating breakdancing moves. For Jin, Nakazawa "ignored all of the conventions" for sword fighting and kept his fighting style inconsistent throughout the series, basing his reactions and tactics on combat sports. He broke animation conventions to make these techniques work, confusing the animation team. For his work as art director after joining during production of the first episode, Waki was instructed to create extremes of light and darkness in scenes, creating a realistic impression of the period when artificial light sources were scarce and expensive. The variety and more contemporary elements prevented Waki from growing bored with the Edo setting.^[7] The approach to the animation, lacking an overarching plan, was described as a reflection of the lead characters' non-conformist personalities.^[16]

Nakazawa designed the men's kimono to resemble contemporary jackets, incorporating homages to sports designs such as Adidas and Puma. Many secondary characters were designed based on both the series' voice actors and staff members.^[20] During the production of the second half of the series, it became increasingly difficult for Nakazawa to design all guest characters, resulting in Komori being brought in. Due to most of these characters being older men, when the early plan was for a young cast with several female characters, Komori felt disappointed by his workload. Maeda was brought on for weapon designs when the plan was to have strong antagonists with unique weapons for each episode, but the plan never came about, and when Maeda moved to working on Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, the design work shifted to Okamoto.^[8] The incorporation of graffiti was suggested by Sato to further enhance the hip hop aesthetic and tone. He also suggested the inclusion of references to Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.^[18]

Music

[edit]

The music for Samurai Champloo was collaboratively composed by Shinji "Tsutchie" Tsuchida of Shakkazombie, Fat Jon, Nujabes and Force of Nature. All were artists from the hip hop music genre, with Tsutchie being a friend of Watanabe.^[21] A number of guest artists contributed to different episodes.^[22] The opening theme "Battlecry" was composed by Nujabes, with Shing02 singing and writing the lyrics.^[3] The ending themes were created by Minmi, Kazami, and Azuma Riki. The final episode's ending theme was "San Francisco", licensed from the rapper band Midicronica.^[3]^[22]

The Music of Samurai Champloo was released across four CDs during 2004 by Victor Entertainment under their JVC label. The first two, "Masta" and "Departure", were released on June 23. "Departure" focuses on tracks by Nujabes and Fat Jon alongside Minmi's main ending theme, while "Masta" includes work from FORCE OF NATURE and Tsutchie including "You". The next two, "Playlist" and "Impression", were released on September 22. "Playlist" was dedicated entirely to work by Tsutchie, including "Fly". "Impression" bundles tracks by Nujabes, Fat Jon and Force of Nature, alongside the theme "Who's Theme".^[23]^[24]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m Roman 2007, p. 66-69.
^ Cite error: The named reference GlobeWorks was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b ^c Roman 2007, p. 98-99.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Cite error: The named reference StaffList was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b ^c Roman 2007, p. 76-77.
^ Cite error: The named reference SamuraiKeiko was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b Roman 2007, p. 61-63.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Roman 2007, p. 43-47.
^ Roman 2007, p. 64.
^ Cite error: The named reference NewtypeJuly2005 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference NujabesRetro was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference EKinterview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference WatanabeMP3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Roman 2007, p. 2-3.
^ Cite error: The named reference SpookInfo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference BRinterview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Roman 2007, p. 100-101.
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference SatoOtaquest was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference SatoInterview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Roman 2007, p. 80-96.
^ Cite error: The named reference Artists was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b Roman 2007, p. 56-58.
^ Cite error: The named reference Albums was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference JVCalbums was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Concept and development

[edit]

The concept for Samurai Champloo was created by Watanabe in 1999, then known for his work on Cowboy Bebop. He wanted to create a series antithetical to the largely calm and mature atmosphere of Cowboy Bebop, wanting a complete change due to fatigue after working on one project for such a long period.^[1]^[2] The success of Cowboy Bebop meant he was permitted to develop whatever he wanted for his next project.^[3] As with his other projects, he drew inspiration from music, then matched a narrative to it.^[4] His approach was combining two of his favorite things, classic samurai adventure films and series and hip hop music, into a single work.^[5] He created the concept for Samurai Champloo during this period, but work on it was delayed due to his work on Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and his segments of The Animatrix at Studio 4°C.^[2]^[6] Kobayashi had invited Watanabe to work on an original project at Manglobe when it was founded in February 2002, and Watanabe sent the Samurai Champloo pitch in May of that year.^[6] The pitch included the central concepts for the series, and draft designs for the lead characters.^[6]^[7] Watanabe invited Nakazawa on board as he was a fan of his work and wanted the opportunity to work with him. Obara, known more for his work on live-action movies and television dramas, was brought in through a mutual friend at Office Crescendo.^[2]

The eventual unstructured production style was unheard of in anime, and at the outset Obara created a series structure. The three-episode finale was not planned ahead, emerging naturally as part of the design approach.^[2] As the project evolved, Watanabe pushed for this structured approach to be discarded aside from the lead characters and premise, and Obara agreed to the new approach. The lack of a structure meant that the series narrative was constructed piece by piece, with few plot details being decided in advance.^[6] The fates of the three characters were also undecided during this stage. Watanabe originally planned for all three to survive, but at one point the team considered Jin and Mugen dying respectively in the final two episodes.^[2] Even the identity of the sunflower samurai was unknown to Watanabe during the early stages.^[8] Due to this approach, pre-production on the series lasted a year.^[6] Watanabe had a great deal of creative control and input, including on music selection and editing.^[9]

The first episode took a long time to polish, being completed around the beginning of 2004, but it and subsequent episodes had an animation quality higher than other series of the time. This was attributed to the working environment of Manglobe allowing for easy communication between staff members, and Watanabe's passion for the project prompting famous staff from other notable anime projects to come on board. The non-standard style of production left some members of staff including Sasaki skeptical that the series would be finished. For the sound mixing, Watanabe wanted the same approach and quality as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, bringing in sound engineer Masashi Yabuhara who had worked with Yoko Kanno on the sound design of Cowboy Bebop.^[6] The fight scenes were choreographed to appear more realistic than other period dramas, which featured a clashing of swords which in reality would chip them.^[2] Unique eyecatch artwork was created for each episode based on its themes and content. Woodblock prints portraying the characters, designed by former shojo manga creator Tsubaki Anna, were shown at various points through the series. Nakazawa created the illustration use for sponsor announcements.^[10]

^ Cite error: The named reference NewtypeJuly2005 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Roman 2007, p. 43-47.
^ Cite error: The named reference NujabesRetro was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference EKinterview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference WatanabeMP3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Roman 2007, p. 66-69.
^ Roman 2007, p. 2-3.
^ Cite error: The named reference SpookInfo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference BRinterview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Roman 2007, p. 100-101.

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