In 2001, Genndy Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack stunned audiences with ambitious and beautiful visual storytelling, a mostly stoic hero, and perhaps the world’s best (if not most lovable) villain. Samurai Jack ran for four seasons (52 episodes) but was cut down in its prime. This Emmy-winning cartoon, which had a largely episodic structure (save Jack’s building frustration), sadly never got to finish the tale of the samurai. Films were teased and planned, but sadly nothing panned out … until recently. Samurai Jack returned to us as of March 11, 2017, and we at Oldtaku no Radio could not be more ecstatic. In celebration, we take a break from analyzing Japanese cartoons to analyze an American one … that just so happens to draw inspiration from/references, among other things, Japanese film directors, animation, and culture.

For the second half of our Samurai Jack episode, special guest Kate (Narutaki) of the Reverse Thieves blog/podcast joins us in squeeing over and wringing the most we possibly can out of a fantastic cartoon from the early aughts. This installment covers our favorites and flubs for Seasons 3 & 4 as well as what we’re hoping for in Season 5. As the creators grew in competence throughout the series, so our analysis grew not only in insight but silliness. (Hey, this was a 3+ hour podcast.) Listen and comment. But most importantly, watch Samurai Jack!

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Runtime: 1 hr, 19 min