The essential episodes of Samurai Champloo
Watch these 15 in order and you've got Samurai Champloo — each pick states its reason.
- 01
Fuu, a waitress who is being intimidated by the village prefect's son and his guard, begs 19-year-old vagabond Mugen for help. Across town, skilled 20-year-old rōnin Jin kills the prefect's bodyguards as they prepare to kill a peasant. Jin enters the restaurant, where Mugen mistakes him for the prefect's elite bodyguards and, seeking a worthy adversary, engages him in combat. One of the prefect's son's guards sets the restaurant on fire and it burns to the ground. The local authorities capture both Mugen and Jin, who were knocked unconscious by coal gas, and sentence them to death. After escaping their execution with some help from Fuu, she asks them to join her on a quest to find a mysterious man who smells of sunflowers.
- 02
While Fuu, Jin, and Mugen are going to get some soup, Fuu's purse is stolen by a thief in the town.
- 03
Mugen faces the lethal challenge of a Shaolin-trained swordsman and proves equal to the test, while Jin gets stuck doing all the housework. Can Mugen defeat this trained swordsman or will he suffer from his mistakes?
- 04
Jin comes to the rescue of a lady in distress. He falls in love and tries to rescue this woman from the hard life she has come to face. Will he save her and himself? In the meantime, Mugen trains a rhinoceros beetle for a bug-fighting tournament in which he expects to win money.
- 05
Mugen's past memories lure him back into his violent past, a pirate makes secret plans, and the lust for gold brings betrayal.
- 06
When Mugen finds out what the pirate was planning to do, he gets his revenge.
- 07
The shogun's prettiest ninja ends up giving Mugen an evening that he will never forget. Meanwhile, Fuu gets large from eating too much.
- 08
Lullabies of the Lost (Part 2)
Jin ends a life he hoped to spare.
- 09
Fuu gets a facelift when kids trade in the sword for the graffiti brush; Jin keeps a promise to a long-lost friend and confronts the shock of the new, while Mugen learns to read and conquers a castle.
- 10
Fuu, Mugen, and Jin meet up with a blind girl who is a traveling musician. Because of her blindness, she is able to sense the emotions of the group. Is this girl more than just a musician?
- 11
Jin learns the Way of Water, a woman's sorrow comes to an end, and Mugen both gives and receives an assassin's last gift.
- 12
An American sea vessel arrives in town and a canny ninja-turned-team manager enlists our heroes to do battle with them on the field of honor... which in this case is a baseball diamond. Behold Mugen's pitching skills and tremble!
- 13
Fuu, Mugen, and Jin have finally arrived in Nagasaki to find Ikitsuki Island in search of the Sunflower Samurai. There seems to be one small problem that might keep them from getting there though: a group of assassins are following closely behind.
- 14
As Jin duels Kagetoki Kariya, the most powerful man in the shogunate, Mugen has to contend with three brothers who want his head.
- 15
As Fuu finally confronts the Sunflower Samurai, Mugen and Jin face their ultimate tests. While Mugen must face the remaining brothers, Jin continues his battle with Kagetoki Kariya. And there's the small matter of their own duel.
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