DVD Review: Afro Samurai: Director’s Cut

By Jeff Swindoll Jun 4, 2007, 17:12 GMT

Afro Samurai (voiced by Academy Award nominated Samuel L. Jackson) is an epic tale of a black samurai\'s hunt for Justice (voiced by Ron Perlman: Hellboy, Alien Resurrection ) who murdered his father. With music score by The RZA ( Kill Bill , Wu Tang Clan) Afro Samurai blends traditional Japanese culture, funky technology and hip hop to create a brutally fresh entertainment experience. ...more

“Nothing personal, it’s just revenge.”

Samuel L. Jackson is one cool cat and to imagine him as a samurai is as cool as you can get.  He takes his love anime and the ways of the samurai and infuses them into the character to also make him one cool cat (though a relatively stoic one). 

What the back of the box says:
“Afro Samurai (voiced by Academy Award nominated Samuel L. Jackson) is an epic take of a black samurai’s hunt for Justice (voiced by Ron Perlman, Hellboy, Alien Resurrection) who murdered his father.  With music score by the RZA (Kill Bill, Wu Tang Clan) Afro Samurai blends traditional Japanese culture, funky technology, and hip hop to create a brutally fresh entertainment experience.”

Set in a ravaged future, Afro Samurai is the tale of how a young boy witnessed the murder of his father and grew up to be the second most bad-ass killer in the wasteland.  There are two headbands, one with the number one and one with the number two (in Japanese of course).  The holder of the number one headband gets to go to the top of a mystical mountain and will be granted god-like powers.  The thing is that only the holder of the number two headband can battle the owner of the number one headband, but there are no restrictions on who can challenge number two, kill him, and become the new holder of the headband. 

Whoever makes it to the mountain and kills number one will ascend and get the power.  Afro’s father is the holder of the number two headband at the beginning of the film, but gets his head separated by Justice – the holder of the number one headband.  This headband is easily taken from Afro and he begins a lifelong quest to make himself into a fighting machine to reclaim the headband and make it to the mountain to avenge his father’s death.

The project does have an air of coolness about it and it comes from Samuel L. Jackson and the great artwork and concept of the film.  Jackson is relatively silent as Afro, but he also voices another talky, sarcastic character named Ninja Ninja.  Ron Perlman growls his way through Justice and definitely has the quality that you love to hate in the villain. 

The show is presented in a 125 minute director’s cut that adds 15 more minutes of footage and a second disc of special features to the film but also adds about $10 to the cost of the set if you chose to go this route.  A “cut” version is available that runs 110 minutes and is much cheaper and jettisons the second disc, but you know that you want to get all the gore and special features.  

Afro Samurai is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  The director’s cut has a second disc of special features.  These include the 14 minute “In the Booth – Voice Talent of Afro Samurai” (which is really a making of featurette) and interviews co-producer Eric Calderon, creator Takashi Okazaki, his coolness Samuel L. Jackson, producer Taito Okiura, another cool dude Ron Perlman, and Kelly Hu (“Okiku”). 

Next is the 4 minute “RZA Music Production Tour” in which RZA takes us behind the scenes of what it took to put the music together for the film and how each character got his own musical style.  Finally there’s the 23 minute “Character Profiles” in which character artwork is show with commentary by producer Eric Calderon.  The final touch is the cool packaging that houses the director’s cut which has the artwork of Okazaki and the packaging feels like it was worth the extra $10 in my humble opinion. 

Afro Samurai is a really good series that plays on the aura of star Jackson, but Funimation has also assembled a nice package with scenes that you wouldn’t have seen when it aired on cable (the Anime Network methinks).  If you caught it there and liked it then you’ll want to pick up the director’s cut set. 

Afro Samurai: Director’s Cut is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.