Samurai Jack
Samurai Jack is an American animated science fantasy action-adventure television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network and later its nighttime programming block Adult Swim. It was produced by Cartoon Network Studios. Tartakovsky conceived Samurai Jack after finishing his work on his first Cartoon Network original series, Dexter's Laboratory, which premiered in 1996. Samurai Jack took inspiration from the 1972 televised drama Kung Fu, starring David Carradine, as well as Tartakovsky's fascination with the historic samurai culture of Japan and the Frank Miller comic series Ronin.
The titular character is an unnamed Japanese samurai prince who wields a mystic katana capable of cutting through virtually anything. He sets out to free his kingdom after it is taken over by an evil, shapeshifting demon lord known as Aku. The two engage in a fierce battle, but just as the prince is about to deliver the final strike, Aku sends him forward in time to a dystopian future ruled by the tyrannical demon. Adopting the name "Jack" after being addressed as such by beings in this time period, he quests to travel back to his own time and defeat Aku before he can take over the world. Jack's search for a way back to his own time period transcends Aku's control, but Jack's efforts are largely in vain due to the way back to his home ending up just out of his reach.
The series was initially broadcast from August 10, 2001, to September 25, 2004, airing for four seasons comprising thirteen episodes each, without concluding its overarching story. The show was revived thirteen years later with a darker, more mature fifth season that provided a conclusion to the series, with Williams Street assisting in production; the fifth season premiered on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim as part of its Toonami programming block on March 11, 2017, and concluded with its final episode on May 20, 2017. Episodes were directed by Tartakovsky, often in collaboration with others.
Samurai Jack won eight Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Animated Program, as well as six Annie Awards and an OIAF Award. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest animated series of all time.
Premise
Samurai Jack tells the story of an unnamed young prince from a kingdom set in feudal Japan, whose father, the emperor of Japan, was given a magical katana from a trinity of gods—Ra, Rama, and Odin—that he could and had used to defeat and imprison the supernatural shapeshifting demon Aku. Eight years later Aku was freed, took over the land and held the Emperor hostage, but not before the prince was sent away by his mother to travel so that he could train around the world and return with the magic sword to defeat Aku. On his return, the prince-turned-samurai faced and almost vanquished Aku, but before he could deliver the final blow, the demon exiles him to the distant future, anticipating that he would be able to deal with the samurai by that time.The era in which the samurai arrives is a retrofuturistic dystopia where Aku reigns supreme. The first people the samurai encounters call him "Jack" as a form of slang, which he adopts as his name; his given name is never revealed. Jack only has his kimono, geta and sword to his avail in his adventures. Most episodes depict Jack overcoming various obstacles in his quest to travel back to his own time and vanquish Aku; his quest is prolonged occasionally by moments where either he nearly succeeds in returning to his own time, or conversely, Aku nearly succeeds in defeating Jack, only to be undermined by the unexpected.
Cast and characters
Main
- Samurai Jack – A feudal Japanese prince trained to be an elite samurai warrior. He is armed with a magical katana that can cut through virtually anything and is the only weapon that can vanquish Aku.
- Aku – An evil shapeshifting demon born from an ancient and cosmic black mass who exiled Jack to the distant future, where he reigns supreme and seeks to defeat the samurai. He is invulnerable to every type of weapon except for Jack's magic sword.
- Ashi – One of the seven septuplet daughters of the High Priestess of the Daughters of Aku, an all-female Aku-worshipping cult, who were trained since birth to kill Jack. She allies with Jack after learning of his and Aku's true natures and becomes his love interest.
Recurring
- The Scotsman – A robust, aggressive, stereotypically Scottish man who fights using an enchanted claymore and a submachine gun for a prosthetic leg, and becomes a close ally of Jack's.
- The Emperor – Jack's father, who originally created Aku by accident but vanquished him with help from the gods Odin, Ra and Rama, who forged the magic sword.
Setting
Despite exponential levels of technological advancement, there are still uninhabited areas of the world. Those include forests, jungles, and mountains, which have remained largely untouched even as Aku began his conquest and reign over every sentient being. A few communities of intelligent creatures, like Shaolin monks, have also remained largely left alone in spite of Aku's reign.
Production
Samurai Jack was created by Genndy Tartakovsky as a follow-up to his successful series Dexter's Laboratory. Cartoon Network executive Mike Lazzo recalled Tartakovsky pitching him the series: "He said, 'Hey, remember David Carradine in Kung Fu? Wasn't that cool?' and I was like, 'Yeah, that's really cool.' That was literally the pitch." Tartakovsky wanted to do something different after working on Dexter's Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls. Tartakovsky said of the pitch, "It could backfire. People could say, 'I don't get it. There's hardly any dialogue.' But to me that just makes it more compelling." Lazzo supported Tartakovsky's efforts, calling him "an architect of the success of the Cartoon Network." According to Betty Cohen, then-president of Cartoon Network Worldwide, Samurai Jack was greenlit for 26 episodes before its pilot was produced, a decision Cohen attributed to Tartakovsky's success with Dexter's Laboratory. Cartoon Network billed it as a series "that is cinematic in scope and that incorporates action, humor, and intricate artistry."The premise of Samurai Jack came from Tartakovsky's childhood fascination with Japanese samurai culture and the bushido code, as well as a recurring dream where he wandered a post-apocalyptic Earth with a samurai sword and traveled the world fighting mutants with his crush. The show is inspired by 1970s cinematography, as well as classic Hollywood films such as Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, and Spartacus. Thematic and visual inspirations came from Frank Miller's comic book series Rōnin, including the premise of a master-less, nameless samurai warrior thrown into a dystopic future in order to battle a shapeshifting demon. Similarly, the episode "Jack and the Spartans" was specifically inspired by Miller's graphic novel 300 that retold the Battle of Thermopylae. The Japanese manga Lone Wolf and Cub and films by Akira Kurosawa were also inspirations. Animation services were handled by Rough Draft Korea and Digital eMation.
The network announced the series' launch at a press conference on February 21, 2001. Weeks leading up to the series were accompanied by a sweepstakes giveaway sponsored by AOL in which the grand prize was a trip for four to Japan. AOL subscribers were offered sneak peeks of Samurai Jack as well as a look at samurai traditions, future toys, behind-the-scenes model sheets, and exclusive Cartoon Orbit cToons. A CD-ROM containing clips of the premiere movie and a countdown clock until the series' premiere was distributed as part of AOL 6.0's release. Samurai Jack debuted on Cartoon Network on August 10, 2001, with the three-part special "The Beginning". As production of the fourth season was ending, with four seasons of 13 episodes each or 52 episodes of Samurai Jack in total, Tartakovsky, and the crew moved on to other projects. The show ended with the airing of the four final episodes as a marathon on September 25, 2004.
In Canada, Samurai Jack initially aired on YTV, and currently airs on the Canadian version of Adult Swim. In the United Kingdom, the series previously aired on Cartoon Network, and currently airs on the streaming service All 4.
Conclusion
The original series was left open-ended after the conclusion of the fourth season. Tartakovsky said, "coming close to the fourth season, we're like, 'are we gonna finish it?' And I didn't know... The network didn't know, they were going through a lot of transitions also. So I decided, you know, I don't want to rush and finish the whole story, and so we just left it like there is no conclusion and then just like another episode". Art director Scott Wills added, "We didn't have time to think about it, because we went right into Clone Wars. They even overlapped, I think. There was no time to even think about it."Cancelled film
A film intended to conclude the story of Samurai Jack had been in development at different times by four different studios. As early as 2002, Cartoon Network was producing a Samurai Jack live-action feature film in association with New Line Cinema, with Brett Ratner hired as a director. Tartakovsky said in a 2006 interview that the live-action version of Samurai Jack was thankfully abandoned, and that "we will finish the story, and there will be an animated film." Fred Seibert announced in 2007 that the newly formed Frederator Films was developing a Samurai Jack movie, which was planned to be in stereoscopic 2D with a budget of $20 million. Seibert said in 2009 the film was being co-produced with J. J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions. Sony Pictures expressed its interest to produce the film.Tartakovsky said of the Samurai Jack movie in a 2012 interview with IGN:
Tartakovsky said the loss of Mako would also need to be addressed. The feature film project never materialized, and eventually, the series concluded with a fifth television season.