Samurai Jack, by Genndy Tartakovsky

I’m not an anime fan. I don’t do cosplay, and I generally like Hard Science Fiction more than novels about fairies and magic and so on. I don’t play games online and I really don’t give a fig for battles, weapons and quests to defeat evil. So why then have I been binge-watching the fifth, and last, series of Samurai Jack? There I was, eyes on stalks, laughing, sniffling and stopping to admire in every episode, and not moving from my seat for hours. Yes, I viewed all ten episodes in one sitting and was gob-smacked enough to write this. This is animation for adults, and it aired on Adult Swim. It’s violent, it’s got sneaky humour, satire, emotion, drama, great characterization, neat plots, classic heroic challenges, and the most beautiful artwork I have seen outside Studio Ghibli (minus the googly eyes). (Keep reading…)