Introduction/Afro Samurai

Hello, there! Welcome to my humble little blog! I'm some guy and I'm just starting this, so expect a lot of mistakes. I'm here to talk about stuff, and mostly what I'll bring up are my opinions on said stuff (especially comics) or whatever happens to be on my mind. These aren't really reviews. Just some guy's thoughts on topics. So don't take these too seriously. I know it's hard, considering I'm a genius, but just try, okay? Good.

For now, I'll start things off with a bang and talk about a manga that has been on my mind for quite some time: Afro Samurai.

Now, assuming you haven't heard of the manga/anime/videogame, you want to laugh at the title. You, the average person, is probably thinking something among the lines of "Afro Samurai? Is that some sort of blaxploitation crap with katanas?" Hehe, not really; it was made 30 years too late.

Afro Samurai takes place in a world, as described on Wikipedia as,"Futuristic, but feudal Japan," where there exists two headbands, simply dubbed as the "Number 1" headband and the "Number 2" headband. And the one who wears the No. 1 headband pretty much gains the possition of a god, and the only one who can challenge the current No. 1 is the one who wears the No. 2 headband. However, anyone can challenge No. 2, and in a world of assassins, it's kind of a bad thing.

Both the manga and the anime have the same basic premise: the titular character of the series, simply named "Afro," witnessed his father, the current No. 1, die at the hands of the former No. 2, a gunslinger named Justice. The goblin-like gunslinger casts aside his No. 2 headband, which Afro collects, while vowing to take revenge on Justice.

What am I getting at, you ask? I'm about to talk about why the manga SUCKED and why the anime was far better. First, we'll get the negative out of the way, shall we?

Let's start with the art of the manga; it blows. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some prude who points out the tiniest mistakes in anatomy, but even I know crappy art when I see it! I mean, to describe it, the anatomy was horrible and not very consistent. I know manga takes liberties when it comes to how the human body looks, but at least make it look like your character has a skeleton! Plus, the art was kind of, for lack of a better term, scritchy-scratchy. In short, it was all style and no structure.

But surely I can forgive not-so-good artwork if the story is good or the characters are awesome, right? Ahahahaha, boy, do I have a treat for you! Plot-wise, neither the anime, nor the manga were much in the way of the plot department, which is basically Afro's quest to find Justice, and the many fights that get between him and his revenge, so there is nothing really to say about said plot.

Let's move onto characters, shall we? Our "hero," Afro, is an extremely horrible man. Why do I say that? Is it because he's full of spite and revenge? Is it because he's recluse and unfriendly? Or is it because he's extremely brutal to those who've wronged him? Nah, that'd only make him an anti-hero--and I love those. Afro is actually pretty evil in the manga, and the part of the story that made me think that was when he was being ambushed during a parade by assassins. What's a brave hero to do?! I've got it; grab an innocent bystander and use him as a meatshield, causing him to die horribly, slowly and painfully! Heroic?!

Then, when confronted by a really powerful assassin, what's one to do? Of course, running into an ally helps. But then you're being distracted the sister of your meatshield, who's crying and asking you why you killed her brother. Oh, and by the way, she can't walk and fell out of her wheelchair. Guess what he does? Bakes her apology cookies? Wrong! Wheelchair-bound meatshield time! So, yeah, he uses her as a shield too, throws her at the assassin and decapitates them. Amazingly heroic! You gonna eat an orphan next?

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't expect a protagonist to be a do-no-wrong goodie-goodie, but come ON! Give me a reason to cheer for him! Give him flaws, but give him redeeming qualities too! If I'm cheering for the bad guy, it better be because the baddie is a badass and a well-written character, not because the hero is even worse.

Let's take a look at some other characters now; Afrodroid. As you can guess, Afrodroid is a robot meant to look and fight exactly like Afro, and he appears in both the anime and the manga. What's to complain about a robot, you ask? Two words; penis gun. When the robot's skin is torn off, he reveals a skeletal structure, much like the Terminator, but the manga decided to class it up by adding a special gun between the legs. Sorry, I know this is trivial, but I find it hard to take a villain seriously when he has a penile projectile! I'm just saying, it's kinda creepy. Next!

Okay, last one I'm gonna talk about; Justice the gunslinger. Physically, Justice is a lanky man in an outfit resembling that of a cowboy and his weapons are, you guessed it, dual revolvers. Oh and he looks sorta like a goblin, with a horrible complexion, bad teeth, pointy tears, a long chin and a hooknose.

On the manga, what's his personality like? I don't know, because of the little surprise that the author, Takashi Okazaki, decided to leave us readers. What I'm about to tell you will give away the ending, but chances are, you don't really care, but just in case, I'm spelling it backwards. (Spoiler: Ecitusj si ydaela daed). If you read that, then isn't that nice? Mr. Okazaki decided his readers would love it if we were cheated out of a climax! When I read those pages, I swear I heard Okazaki say, "You want a climax? You want a final battle? Well, fuck you, you ain't gettin' one!"

I cried. Okay, not really, but I was frustrated! Now, I must admit, it did catch me off guard, but that doesn't mean it's good! If that's the case, why don't I write a story about a slice of cheese with superpowers? And I don't mean a comedy, I mean a serious story! What? You say that's a horribly stupid idea? Well, no one has ever done it before, so that mean's it's good!

See where I'm getting at? Afro Samurai the manga was just unpleasant; the bad art burned my eyes, the characters filled me with rage, and the ending left me feeling empty and soulless.

But, there exists one gem! Afro Samurai the anime mini series and Afro Samurai: Resurrection. See, from what I remember, before the manga was written, Okazaki and his friends created figures of his characters and sold them just for fun, until an anime produce came across them and decided to do some work to make the anime, writing along with Okazaki and, you're gonna love this, Samuel L. Jackson (who played Afro).

What's better about the anime and the anime-movie? Well, the fights are a lot better and it's easier to tell what's going on, the characters have more screentime, so we get to see them fleshed out, the artwork is really good, and since it's a mini series, the animation is top-knotch! Not to mention, Afro is still kind of an asshole, but he at least has some form of human decency! Yay! Last but not least, we got a climax.

As for Afro Samurai: Resurrection, that was pretty awesome too.

So, there you have it, I told you about how a pile of crap was turned into a chest of gold. I hope you enjoyed reading this and entertained you just a little bit. This is my first post, so it's probably not very good, but I hope I at least am somewhat decent. Catch'ya later!