Ask John: How Much Impact Will Afro Samurai Have on America?

Question:
What is your opinion of Afro Samurai? I’m not too clear on the background and if it counts as authentic anime or just a kind of hybrid. But being the only animated show on Spike TV and starring Samuel L. Jackson, do you think it can further help with anime exposure in North America, or will it be overlooked as just “another anime?”

Answer:
The Afro Samurai concept, character, and original story were created by Takeshi Ozaki and first premiered in the November 1998 issue of the Nounouhau fanzine which Ozaki published with three other friends. As early as 2003 Gonzo had tentative plans to produce an Afro Samurai anime motion picture. Obviously that tentative plan eventually transformed into a five episode television series. My personal primary definition of “anime” is animation created in Japan, by Japanese artists, primarily for Japanese audiences. In the case of the Afro Samurai animation, the work clearly originated in Japan, and I think it exhibits enough original Japanese creative input to qualify it as original Japanese animation (opposed to it being Western animation merely produced in Japan).

As of this writing, only one episode has been released. My personal opinions on the first episode are mixed. Many of the action sequences are bloodier and more graphic than I’d expected. At a production cost of one million dollars per episode, a reported record for a Gonzo production, I’ll admit that the show looks good, but I have to wonder where the money went as the animation quality and detail in the imagery isn’t noticeably better than many other anime which presumably cost much less to produce. It may be unfair to make statements about the tone of the show based on only its first episode, but I can’t deny that the first episode felt distinctly hollow and lifeless to me. The comparison of Afro Samurai to Samurai Champloo is easy to make since both shows are anachronistic samurai action adventure stories. Samurai Champloo never developed a great deal of substance or depth, but its first episode did manage a more cohesive and compelling sense of character and atmosphere than the first episode of Afro Samurai. The first episode of Afro Samurai introduces its spaghetti western protagonist – a solitary, close lipped wanderer – but does nothing to personify him. Viewers get absolutely no sense of Afro’s feelings or thoughts in the first episode. He’s even a cipher to his traveling companion, Ninja Ninja. The absence of any insight into Afro’s character apart from the simple narrative plot device that he’s on a quest to avenge the death of his father, gives viewers little to relate to or empathize with.

Compounding the alienation viewers feel from the action is the fact that the world the show occurs in has no definition and feels very vacant. The series is apparently set in a post apocalyptic era in which the world has been reverted to a primitive state, but relics of the technology of the past still remain. However, no hint of that information is presented in the anime itself. As a result, the location of the opening duel, the tavern, and the temple of the religious cult feel like isolated, individual chambers rather than parts of a larger environment. The narrative itself feels like a series of loosely related set pieces rather than a sequence of events in an unfolding story. Transitions in the first episode feel abrupt. Events happen suddenly and without context. The entire first episode feels staccato and aloof, and also cliché. I’m aware that the first episode is more appropriately homage to the traditional characteristics of the spaghetti western, but with the only feeling of personality and individuality in the first episode coming from the cloying and cartoonishly exaggerated Ninja Ninja, the episode feels more like rehash of old ideas than loving recreation of tradition. I hope very much that these shortcomings will be fleshed out and eliminated as the series progresses and hopefully develops.

ICv2 has reported that well over a million viewers have watched the first episode of Afro Samurai, either through its internet or television broadcast. That’s a particularly impressive statistic for an anime. There are no statistics on exactly how many viewers watch typical American anime releases, but considering that many American anime DVDs move numbers as low as hundreds and the nationwide theatrical release of Howl’s Moving Castle earned less than five million dollars, I’m guessing that roughly two million viewers watching the first episode of Afro Samurai should be considered a tremendous success. Even the fact that Afro Samurai is the first anime broadcast on the Spike TV network signifies that anime has made inroads into another facet of mainstream American pop culture.

On one hand, devoted American anime fans should be grateful that the broadcast of Afro Samurai has exposed anime (or more anime) to so many American viewers. On the other hand, I can’t avoid feeling disappointed that this new anime that so many viewers were exposed to seemed so conventional and stereotypical. In its favor, Afro Samurai offered viewers essentially exactly what they wanted: stylized violence with an urban American literary anchor to associate with. But I’m disappointed that the first episode probably didn’t alter any opinions about anime, either. The American release of the 1993 Jubei Ninpocho (“Ninja Scroll”) movie has had an immesurable impact on America because it has brought countless thousands of new American fans into the anime hobby. At this point I can’t say whether or not the similar samurai action Afro Samurai series will be able to duplicate the success and impact that “Ninja Scroll” has had.

Any lasting impact Afro Samurai may make on America remains to be seen. The involvement of celebrity Samuel L. Jackson has already drawn attention to Afro Samurai, and by extension, anime itself. But Disney’s Studio Ghibli dubs have also employed celebrity actors but haven’t significantly improved respect for anime or demand for anime in mainstream America. Likewise major American motion pictures Kill Bill volume 1 and Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror have featured animation produced by Production IG and Madhouse respectively, but neither has had a significant impact on the state of anime in America. The potential of Afro Samurai will depend heavily upon how the series unfolds. If the remaining four episodes spark the imagination of American viewers they may lead to future similar American/Japanese co-productions and further broadcasts of adult oriented Japanese animation on American television. However, if the remainder of the Afro Samurai series continues to be relatively conventional and uninspired, it will probably be quickly forgotten, or at worst it will provide further evidence for naysayers who claim that anime consists of just explicit, pornographic violence.