Verdict: Badass (Samurai Champloo)

First, listen to this, and then tell me this isn't likely to be the most badass anime you've ever seen.

Right?

So this is the first anime directed by Shinichiro Watanabe since Cowboy Bebop, and it's pretty damned stylish. Which is good, because it's pretty shallow in terms of plot.

Basically, you have this girl, Fuu. Hold on, I'll get a picture.

Yeah that's a pretty common expression of hers.

She's a kinda gangly fifteen year old with some kind of personality disorder (I think they call it being a teenager, actually). Anyway, she's working as a waitress in a crappy place with abusive customers, when she's saved by not one, but two guys.

One's a reckless, violent ex-con named Mugen.

Mugen needs a shave most of the time.

And the other's a restrained, violent ronin named Jin.

He only wears glasses some of the time.

The majority of the series is spent on a quest to find the "Samurai Who Smells Like Sunflowers". For the most part, you're left wondering if such a guy even exists, or if it's something Fuu's come up with to give her pals something to do to keep their minds of killing one another. Did I mention they want to kill one another?

From the manga, I think.

Yeah, they want to kill one another.

So basically, the show's about how they can go from town to town, making the world a better place by going against their worse natures, and/or how a slightly annoying but well-meaning fifteen-year-old girl can make two sociopaths useful to society.

"Society?"

Whatever. Deep down, beneath the rage issues and body count, they're decent guys. It's a pretty cool show.

Verdict: Badass. Also: three and a half Samurai Champloo vinyls out of five.