| TV Anime (26 Eps) |
Manglobe |
Fuji TV |
Adventure |
Action |
Comedy |
Drama |
| Spring 2004 |
Samurai Champloo
The outlaw swordsman Mugen arrives in a small town where he encounters Fuu, a waitress being harassed by the corrupt prefect's son and his gang of thugs. She bribes Mugen with free food in exchange for help, and a deadly brawl is about to begin. Meanwhile, the ronin Jin has just killed some of the prefect's soldiers who were about to execute an innocent peasant. When Jin enters the teahouse, Mugen mistakes him for one of the attackers and the evenly matched swordsmen tear the place apart. The prefects guards arrive to arrest the two troublemakers and they are soon after sentenced to death. Fuu busts Mugen and Jin out of prison, and they are eager to continue their duel. Fuu offers a proposal - if she wins a coin toss, they will agree to journey with her in search of a samurai who smells of sunflowers...
ED: San Francisco by Midicronica
|
Availability: English Dub by Geneon Entertainment
| 1 |
Tempestuous Temperaments |
2004.05.20 |
| Three destinies are about to intertwine when two strangers walk into a regular teahouse, where a young girl named Fuu is having trouble with some of the magistrate's thugs. The two strangers, Mugen and Jin, are complete opposites and seem more focused on battling each other than helping the girl in distress. After the commotion they create at the teahouse, the two swordsmen are captured by the magistrate and face execution. Fuu comes to their rescue and saves them, but she asks for a favor in return: they must agree to travel with her in search of the "samurai who smells of sunflowers." |
| 2 |
Redeye Reprisal |
2004.06.03 |
| After hearing rumors about an ogre attacking people, the trio finds themselves caught in a trap laid by the magistrate's son, who is seeking revenge. Mugen comes face to face with a giant possessing superhuman strength and a demonic appearance, while Jin encounters an ordinary-looking man who turns out to be an incredibly skilled swordsman. While Fuu is kidnapped, the two must defeat their opponents and then join forces to escape this deadly trap. |
| 3 |
Hellhounds for Hire - Part 1 |
2004.06.10 |
| Feeling overwhelmed by Fuu's constant nagging, Mugen and Jin decide leave her behind but arrive separately in the same post town. Both Mugen and Jin are hired as bodyguards for rival gangs, the Nagatomi clan and the Kawara clan, that dominate the area. Shortly after, Fuu arrives in the town but is kidnapped and forced to work in a brothel. As tensions rise between the two clans, Jin and Mugen find themselves on opposing sides of a conflict that’s ready to explode like a powder keg. |
| 4 |
Hellhounds for Hire - Part 2 |
2004.06.17 |
| After a brief skirmish, the two gang leaders decide to settle everything with a game of dice. Following Fuu's harrowing escape from the brothel, she is confused for the dice roller. With everything hanging in the balance, this age-old yakuza feud is about to come to a close. |
| 5 |
Artistic Anarchy |
2004.06.24 |
| Stuck in town without enough money for the ferry, each of them decides to go their separate ways. Fuu is offered a job as a model by an ukiyo-e artist, while Mugen and Jin find themselves in their usual kind of trouble. However, there's something unsettling happening beneath the calm exterior of this quiet town. |
| 6 |
Stranger Searching |
2004.07.01 |
| At last, the trio arrives in Edo. Realizing they can't search for a samurai on an empty stomach, they decide to enter an eating contest. To everyone's surprise, Fuu performs the best, making it to the final stages before an unfortunate encounter with a fly. The winner ends up being a stranger in town who might have some information about Fuu's samurai. |
| 7 |
A Risky Racket |
2004.07.08 |
| After some uncharacteristic success at gambling, the group gets robbed by a pickpocket named Shinsuke. While Mugen and the others search all over town for him, a yakuza named Kogoro and his men are also on the hunt for the thief. Mugen and Jin find Shinsuke's house, only to learn he’s using the stolen money to buy medicine for his mother. In the heart of town, Shinsuke comes face to face with Fuu and Kogoro's crew, and in a moment of desperation, he takes Fuu hostage and makes a run for it, with the local police joining the chase. Mugen fights his way through, battling both the police and yakuza alike, but will it be enough for Shinsuke to get away? |
| 8 |
The Art of Altercation |
2004.07.15 |
| Emitsu, a unique man with a flawless pompadour, is hunting samurai who wear glasses. While Mugen falls victim to a beautiful woman and Jin heads back to a pawn shop to retrieve his glasses, Fuu runs into the womanizing Emitsu. From him, she learns something surprising: he is searching for the man accused of cowardly killing the legendary swordsman "Mariya Enshiro" - a samurai named "Jin" who wears glasses. |
| 9 |
Beatbox Bandits |
2004.07.22 |
| The trio finds themselves in a tough spot at a border checkpoint when they’re discovered with fake passes. Just when it looks like the three of them will be crucified, the magistrate, Kinugasa, offers them a chance to save themselves. He says that if they can cross the mountain, deliver the head of a criminal, and return to the checkpoint by sunset, he will let them go. Mugen is chosen to take on this challenge while Jin and Fuu stay behind as hostages. However, this mountain is inhabited by the mysterious Tengu people, who are sowing the seeds for a revolution of their own. |
| 10 |
Lethal Lunacy |
2004.07.29 |
| Recently, there have been reports of a street killer who is targeting skilled swordsmen. Strangely, even though the victims show no external injuries, they have all died with blood gushing from all over their bodies. Fuu and the others happen to be working part time at the temple in town, but when they hear about the 10 ryo reward for capturing the culprit, they decide to abandon their jobs and begin searching for the criminal. |
| 11 |
Gamblers and Gallantry |
2004.08.05 |
| Still stuck in town, Jin notices a woman on a bridge who seems like she’s contemplating jumping. When Jin's new job involving his sword turns out to be running an eel cooking shop, the mysterious woman, Shino, becomes his first customer. Since Jin isn't fond of dealing with the eels, Shino offers to help him manage the shop for the evening, sharing that her husband has gotten into debt, making this her last free night before she has to be sold to a brothel to repay it. |
| 12 |
The Disorder Diaries |
2004.08.12 |
| Jin and Mugen, while staying at an inn, are curious about Fuu's reasons for searching for the sunflower samurai. To find out more, they sneakily take her diary while she’s in the bath. Unfortunately, they discover that Fuu's entries focus on a wide range of topics, completely missing their mysterious target. This recap episode offers a glimpse into many major events from Fuu's point of view. |
| 13 |
Misguided Miscreants - Part 1 |
2004.08.26 |
| Mugen's shortcut leads them to the ocean, where he unexpectedly runs into Koza, a girl he knew from his childhood. Unfortunately, their reunion is short lived as they are soon ambushed by bandits led by Mukuro, another figure from Mugen's past. While Mukuro and his gang plot a heist on a shogunate ship carrying 60,000 gold ryo, Mugen initially has no interest in joining them—until he loses a game of chicken on horseback. |
| 14 |
Misguided Miscreants - Part 2 |
2004.09.02 |
| In the aftermath of the heist, a plan is set in motion behind the scenes. While Koza asks Jin to kill Mukuro, Fuu finds Mugen washed ashore and nurses him back to health. As everything comes to a head, will the trio be able to escape the web of lies unscathed? |
| 15 |
Bogus Booty |
2004.09.09 |
| While fishing in a pond, Jin catches a bag full of gold ryo. After they live it up in town, Jin and Mugen ditch Fuu and end up in a red light district. While Jin is incapacitated with a sore back, Mugen’s companion turns out to be an undercover detective named Yatsuha, who is investigating a gang operating in the brothel. Although she finds Mugen hard to shake off, she starts to think she might be able to use him for her plans. |
| 16 |
Lullabies of the Lost - Part 1 |
2004.09.16 |
| After Fuu's outburst about taking yet another detour instead of searching for the sunflower samurai, each of them ends up going their separate ways. Jin finds himself ambushed by Yukimaru, a fellow former student from the Mushin sword school. Mugen narrowly dodges an arrow and gives chase after his assailant. Meanwhile, Fuu tumbles off a cliff and lands in a river, but a man named Okuru saves her. He claims that his family and village were wiped out by a plague, but seems to be harboring some deep secret. |
| 17 |
Lullabies of the Lost - Part 2 |
2004.09.23 |
| Mugen fights with the police until they realize he isn't Okuru. They claim Okuru burned down his own village after going crazy and killing everyone. Mugen finally tracks down the fugitive himself, but the police interrupt him once again. Before everything draws to a close, Okuru reveals what really happened to his village. |
| 18 |
War of the Words |
2005.01.22 |
| While eating at a shop in Hiroshima, Fuu discovers that Mugen can't read. A literature enthusiast named Bundai overhears this and decides to step in and forcibly teach him. Meanwhile, Jin and Fuu walk around town and notice that many buildings are covered in graffiti. They run into two descendants of Jin's old master, Tatsunoshin and Kazunosuke, who are competing to see who can tag the most challenging targets. To settle their constant fighting, Fuu suggests they hold a contest to see who can tag the most dangerous spot. Since Jin feels indebted to their father, he agrees to judge the competition. Their graffiti battle unfolds as Mugen graduates literature boot camp, while they aim for the ultimate target in town: Hiroshima Castle. |
| 19 |
Unholy Union |
2005.01.29 |
| While Fuu is taking shelter in an abandoned house, waiting for Mugen and Jin to return, a woman named Yuri rushes in, claiming that she is a Christian being hunted. Fuu tries to help her, and a mysterious man on horseback named Xavier offers assistance. However, the thugs still succeed in taking Yuri away. Fuu then follows a nighttime procession and discovers Xavier preaching in a cave, where he is trying to sell guns to the crowd and using Christians as laborers to manufacture firearms. As Fuu learns that Yuri knows some history about Seizo, the sunflower samurai, Mugen and Jin create a commotion to blow the lid off of Xavier's entire operation. |
| 20 |
Elegy of Entrapment - Part 1 |
2005.02.05 |
| While taking shelter from the rain at an izakaya, Fuu and her friends encounter a blind female traveling entertainer named Sara. When some thugs attack her and Mugen fights them off, she asks to travel with them until Hyuga and otters to pay for their room and board as thanks for their kindness. Though Mugen is captivated by her beauty, they eventually learn she has a child she wants to meet and wants Fuu to let either Jin or Mugen accompany her until she does. Fuu deliberates over the decision over night but there turns out to be more to the mysterious woman than meets the eye. |
| 21 |
Elegy of Entrapment - Part 2 |
2005.02.12 |
| Unknown to the others, Jin cuts the bridge to escape the deadly trap. As Mugen and Fuu leave the village in the morning, they discover the collapsed bridge and find an injured Sara. While searching for Jin, Mugen manages to piece together the truth just in time to dodge a lethal attack. It turns out that Sara is an assassin sent by the Shogunate to eliminate Mugen and Jin, with her son held as a bargaining chip to keep her controlled. As Mugen battles against her incredibly powerful strikes, he begins to recognize a pattern in Sara's attacks, while she gradually comes to understand the truth about her son's fate. |
| 22 |
Cosmic Collisions |
2005.02.19 |
| As they walk along yet another mountain path, they come across a mushroom that resembles a matsutake. While Mugen and Jin rush over to eat it, Fuu begins to chide them but suddenly the ground opens up and they all fall into a pit. Looking around, they discover they’ve landed in the middle of an excavation led by a poet named Shige, who is searching for the Heike treasure he believes to be buried nearby. He enlists their aid in exchange for a share of treasure, and soon the days start to blur together in a haze as they lose track of time. With an army of zombie workers from 500 years ago and a looming doomsday asteroid, things might not be quite what they seem! |
| 23 |
Baseball Blues |
2005.02.26 |
| Manzo the Saw is in the area looking into reports of a foreign ship. Meanwhile, Mugen tries to dine and dash but ends up getting hit on the head with a baseball. Impressed by Mugen's speed, a samurai named Kagemaru invites him to join a baseball game the next day. It turns out that a black ship has arrived in the village, demanding it be opened to trade, and they’ve decided to settle this matter with a baseball game. Even though they don't know anything about baseball, can the rag-tag group really manage to beat the American sailors? |
| 24 |
Evanescent Encounter - Part 1 |
2005.03.05 |
| Upon finally reaching Nagasaki, where the samurai who smells of sunflowers is rumored to be, the trio senses that their adventure is nearing its end. Unable to say goodbye, Fuu sneaks off alone to board a boat for Ikitsuki Island. As she inquires around the town, she only receives frightened responses from the locals. As three shadows close in on her, it seems that the Shogun has used Fuu to lead his most deadly assassins to her father, the sunflower samurai. |
| 25 |
Evanescent Encounter - Part 2 |
2005.03.12 |
| To buy time for Mugen to reach the island, Jin stays behind to fight Kariya, the strongest assassin, who truly lives up to his reputation as a mythical swordfighter. Mugen reaches the island alone and makes his way to the church where Fuu is being held captive. With no other options, he throws away his sword and tells her to run off to find the sunflower samurai. |
| 26 |
Evanescent Encounter - Part 3 |
2005.03.19 |
| Without his sword, Mugen doesn't seem to stand a chance against Umanosuke. Meanwhile, Kagetoki seems to anticipate Jin's every move. As Fuu finally meets the sunflower samurai, they make peace with each other, just as Kariya arrives to fulfill his mission. Additionally, his orders also include the elimination of the last of Seizo's family, Fuu. As Mugen and Jin overcome their individual challenges with desperate gambles, they manage to defeat the assassins and reunite with Fuu. However, it seems they haven't forgotten about their duel, and the two swordsmen face off one final time. As they take a moment to rest at the end of their journey, Fuu shares another secret she has kept—on the first day they met, the coin toss actually landed on heads. |
Related Media
Samurai Champloo (2004 Manga)
