QUICKIE -- Samurai Jack: Episode XCII

Saturday, March 11, 2017 marked the return of a Cartoon Network original animated series as Samurai Jack returned as part of the current iteration of the Toonami block. Out of all of Genndy Tartakovsky's animated works,  I felt that Samurai Jack was the one that deserved a proper ending after having it's legs chopped out from underneath it during the early 2000s era of Cartoon Network.

Hopefully after this wraps up, maybe we can get a proper ending to Sym-Biotic Titan?

Cast:

Phil LaMarr – Samurai Jack
Greg Baldwin – Aku
Grey Griffin – High Priestess, additional voices
Sab Shimono – Emperor

Plot:

Fifty years have passed. But, I do not age. Time has lost its effect on me. Yet, the suffering continues. Aku's grasp chokes the past, present, and future. All hope is lost. Got to get back. Back to the past. Samurai Jack.
— Jack, in the opening sequence

Fifty years have passed since Jack arrived in the future; his sword is missing, he has given up hope of returning to his time, and he is tormented by hallucinations of his parents, his kingdom, and a mysterious figure on horseback. Jack rescues a mother and daughter from several bug robots and defeats Scaramouch, a fast-talking musical robotic assassin (styled after Sammy Davis Jr.)[18] who has destroyed a village to get Jack's attention. Meanwhile, seven young girls are raised and trained from birth to become the Daughters of Aku, a team of elite assassins with the sole purpose of killing Jack.

The Verdict:

Anyone else notice the subtle design similarity to Jack's new armor to Lance's Manus armor from Sym-Biotic Titan?

I'm going to try not to ramble to much about this as it's going to take me a few episodes to see where they are going with this. For Jack's first appearance in about a decade, this wasn't a bad way to kick start the revival of his animated series that never saw a proper ending.

First of all, I love that they are going into a more mature direction. Jack's not fighting only robotic enemies as the "Daughters of Aku" who were introduced here seem to be Jack's first "human" enemies that aren't demons or robots like the usual minions of Aku. I just hope that their story doesn't turn into one where Jack doesn't kill them and they all end up being his sidekicks or something lame like that. I don't condone killing children (even grown up ones) but it seems like from the previews for the next episode, Jack is going to be conflicted when forced to harm them.

This episode opened up a lot of questions for sure. Why doesn't Jack age even after 50 years has passed? What happened to his trademark sword? Why the hell is Jack hallucinating? Where the hell IS Aku?

I have a few theories. I think that his separation from his sword might be the cause of the hallucinations since it was essentially a part of him, so his psyche could be damaged as a result. As for Jack not aging, I think something that cut Jack off from going back to the past caused that. It has to be either that or some crazy plot twist where he never left the past but his journey to the future was like a spiritual thing instead of his physical body going. The lack of Aku is pretty obvious since Mako passed away after recording the original Avatar: The Last Airbender a few years ago, voicing Iroh. Greg Baldwin was his student and filled in the follow-up, The Legend of Korra, so naturally he would fill in for Aku's lines here in this premiere where Scaramoush called him.

Sorry Scaramoush, but Jack's not a fan of your musical and lyrical talents.

Speaking of Scaramoush, how awesome was fucking Tom Kenny in this episode as that character? He really surprised me here. While I wasn't crazy with his portrayal of Doctor Octopus in Ultimate Spider-Man, I liked his character here. I love how that guy is really branching out more into other action roles instead of being known as merely the guy who voices Spongebob Squarepants. I was hoping that he would have been a new reoccurring villain, but at the same time, I can't be surprised that they killed off Scaramoush in one episode because the original series killed off Demongo in the same episode that he debuted in as well.

The Daughters of Aku... Why do I feel like they have some kinda of X-23 style redemption storyline incoming?

The Daughters of Aku seem to be the new big bads that will be the ongoing villains for this season so Scaramoush served as the sampler for the viewers to show that Jack hasn't lost his touch - completely. He's still just as formidable as he was when we last saw him, despite not having his trademark sword. I thought it was a nice touch that Jack is pillaging the weapons of his fallen foes like a true wandering warrior with no direction. Samurai Jack's powerful usage of symbolism and clever visual metaphors is still very strong here. They haven't skipped a beat in that aspect in the least with age. The same goes for the action and the visual style. At first glance, I was feeling that the visual style was looking a little dated, but they added a few subtle nods to comic books as the episode went on and I can get behind this again.

Watch It or Don't Bother? 

Absolutely. Jump back into the world of Samurai Jack. It seems like we're in for a wild ride this time around. I'm so anxious to see where this goes.