Samurai Jack

Back in the early 2000s Cartoon Network ran Samurai Jack on Adult Swim. It was one of the shows I watched at night but this was before Tevo so I caught the episodes sporadically. I spotted all five seasons on HBO Max a couple weeks ago and decided to finally watch the whole series.

The animation is in the same style as Power Puff Girls. The story is an evil demonic type entity called Ahku takes over the world. Jack's family has a magical sword that can defeat him but when the attack happens Jack is a young boy. He travels the world training with almost every culture to defeat Ahku. Jack takes his family's magical Katana to kill Ahku. Just before Ahku is slain he opens a portal in time and throws Jack into the distant future.

Ahku has gone unchecked for who knows how long and completely taken over earth and has a presence in other parts of space. Jack emerges from the portal a bit like a fish out of water.

The first four seasons are pretty standard show. The episodes are largely stand alone. They have the same vibe. Interesting characters and challenges that Jack has to face in in journey to return to the past to defeat Ahku. Season five is a total shift in the series. Its much more adult in content and theme. For example, in the first four seasons nothing living explicitly dies. Jack destroys a lot of robots but never kills anyone. In season five people die.

it was really interesting to see the change in the series. I don't know the reason for it but it kind of made me wish for a more grown up version of the whole show.

The episodes are about 25 minutes each so its a quick series to watch. I'm glad I finally got to finish it.