Cowboy Bebop frequently tops lists of the greatest anime ever made, but its creative counterpart, Samurai Champloo, warrants the same reverence. Its stylistic fusion and cultural reach continue to reverberate — most recently influencing Sony’s Ghost series.
This month’s Ghost of Yotei, the follow-up to the 2020 PlayStation 5 title Ghost of Tsushima, amplifies its love letter to samurai cinema with the return of Kurosawa Mode — complete with monochrome imagery, film grain, and period-appropriate audio. The game also introduces options like Takashi Miike Mode, which tightens the camera and heightens visceral detail, and a Shinichirō Watanabe Mode, featuring a lo-fi hip-hop soundtrack inspired by the anime auteur’s aesthetic. Watanabe is the creative force behind both the jazz-infused Cowboy Bebop and the hip-hop-energized Samurai Champloo.
Premiering in 2004, Samurai Champloo artfully overlays Edo-period Japan with contemporary urban culture. The series follows an odd trio: Mugen, a feral and unpredictable swordsman; Jin, a stoic, disciplined ronin; and Fuu, a spirited waitress who enlists them to find “the samurai who smells of sunflowers.” While Watanabe shaped the show’s sonic identity, the music itself was heavily inspired by Japanese hip-hop producer Nujabes — a seminal figure whose untimely death in 2010 at age 36 left a lasting void in the genre.
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Part of what made Champloo feel fresh on Adult Swim was its seamless marriage of hip-hop rhythms and East Asian motifs. That convergence has roots in hip-hop’s longstanding fascination with kung fu cinema — think the influence of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) — and it introduced many viewers to lo-fi and experimental hip-hop. The show’s opening sequence, set to Nujabes and Fat Jon’s hypnotic track “Battlecry,” became an entry point for listeners discovering artists such as Nujabes, Shing02, and Flying Lotus — the latter later composing music for Netflix’s Yasuke.
Visually symbolic and deliberately stylized, the opening credits cast the leads as animal archetypes: Mugen prowls with the swagger of a rooster, while Jin glides with the measured grace of a koi. Although the trio anchors the series, its supporting characters supply the emotional ballast — from the lonely pickpocket Shinsuke in episode 7 to Yamane, whose connection with Mugen leaves a mark that endures in later recollections. In episode 11, “Gamblers and Gallantry,” Jin’s compassion propels him to aid Shino, a married woman forced into prostitution, in a desperate bid for freedom.
At first the 26 episodes read like disjointed vignettes, but as the series unfolds, seemingly isolated encounters interlock, forging a larger, unified arc. Each detour and character beat subtly reshapes the protagonists and the narrative they inhabit.
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Watanabe’s reinterpretation of Edo-era events — including references to the 1637 Shimabara Rebellion and locations like the Hakone Checkpoint — is filtered through a distinctly modern sensibility. Historical figures and artistic moments appear with playful anachronism: ukiyo-e artist Hishikawa Moronobu briefly fixates on Fuu as a muse, and in the series’ imaginative timeline, that artwork eventually inspires Vincent van Gogh’s famed sunflower paintings.
That distinctive fusion of sound and style became a template other projects tried to emulate. Works such as Afro Samurai (with RZA’s involvement), Tokyo Tribe, and Yasuke nod toward the same cultural synthesis, though few matched Champloo’s balance of tone and texture. With Ghost of Yotei leaning into similar sensibilities, there’s an opportunity for the game to reignite the ripple effects Samurai Champloo first set in motion. If you’re jumping into Yotei, revisiting Champloo is more than recommended — it’s a reminder of the lineage behind “Watanabe mode,” the wave of hip-hop-infused anime, and the enduring influence of artists like Nujabes.
Samurai Champloo is streaming on Crunchyroll and is available to purchase on VOD from major retailers.
Source: Polygon
