I'll explain some of my history first, regarding the 5th season.
It was December 3rd 2015, a Sunday afternoon. I was at my father's house, and after I had lunch, I surfed around the Behind the Voice Actors.com, until I bumped into a news article about how Samurai Jack will have a 5th Season. It even had that awesome teaser poster with Aku and a white silhouette of Samurai Jack in his awesome armor.
When I first saw that, I was so excited that I nearly screamed. Samurai Jack is not only one of my favorite cartoons ever, but one of my favorite shows, period. I rewatched multiple episodes of the first 4 seasons for years, ever since I discovered streaming; patiently waiting for that movie that was going to conclude the series. Little did I know that Samurai Jack will have its well-deserved continuation.
Later, I saw: the behind the scenes footage of the crew and voice-actors; posters; promos; etc. Until February 6th (Which is ironically the birthday of the Pokemon: Mewtwo), when the trailer for Season 5 was released. I was walking around the beach on that day, and I saw the trailer when I arrived home. The music was epic and catchy; Jack's monolouge about how horrible things have gotten was haunting and tragic; and it got me more hyped for this season than ever before.
I remember when the sneak peek was uploaded on YouTube. The first time I watched it was on my tablet while I was on my way home from school on a train.
I showed my best friend both of those and he thought they were awesome. As a result, I promised to share the most recent episode after I watched it.
Genndy Tartakovsky returned for this final season, which serves as a true Grand Finale for the series. The show started airing March 11, 2017, on Adult Swim's Toonami block, and concluded on May 20, 2017.
Before we begin, I'd like to warn you that for the majority of the time, I'll be using the fan-art people have made for this show, so I could honor the fans who also grew up with it.
When Cartoon Network announced a new Season that would finally conclude Jack's journey, I was excited and curious on what conclusion they would give to Jack. Several months and ten amazing episodes later, my curiosity was satisfied. Jack's journey was brought to a heartwarming and action packed conclusion, with great twists and the return of several beloved character from the earlier Seasons.
At the beginning of the Seasons, we find Jack, now with an overabundance of facial hair, continuing to battle the forces of the shapeshifting wizard Aku. However, Jack motivation for the fight has left him, as he has no way of ever returning to the past, due to Aku destroying all of the time portals. Fifty years have passed, and Jack lost all hope of: returning to the past, defeating Aku, and saving his family. This is best signified by his choice of weaponry, with the loss of his magic sword causing him to resort to all kinds of weapons: fire-arms; knives; explosives; a trident; and a heavily armored motorcycle. Frankly, Jack's future seems bleak.
Jack's guilt over constantly failing to save the world from Aku's tyranny are now manifesting in a series of nightmarish hallucinations; where Jack's parents angrily accuse him of abandoning them to their fate, and many other innocent victims futilely plead for his help.
Despite the hallucinations, the loss of his way back home, and the grittier, even more violent tactics, perhaps the most jarring and tear-jerking sign of how broken Jack has become over the years, is in the first episode, when danger erupts on the horizon and Jack - once the quintessential Chronic Hero - simply turns away from people in need without even looking back. It takes severe attacks from his guilt to get him to turn around, days later, and by the time he does arrive, the village in trouble has already been completely slaughtered - leaving nothing else to do but execute the perpetrator, Scaramouche.
On both a meta-level and an In-Universe level, the fact that both Jack and the audience have been denied a conclusion for years. Although while Jack's been waiting 50 years and the audience has only waited 13, it makes no difference. The fans can easily empathize with Jack's torment just the same.
The fifth season marks a shift from the previous seasons' format, in that the ten episodes tell a long and serialized story. That being said, the shift isn't too drastic, as Jack is given a new threat to battle in each episode. Jack spends the early episodes, battling the forces of Aku, before going on a quest to regain his legendary sword with Ashi. The final season set the tone for Jack's final confrontation with Aku, an it payed off handsomely.
One of the best things about Samurai Jack's fifth season was that it aired on Adult Swim, which allowed the creative team to explore more mature themes. This in turn, allowed the series to age with the audience that first watched. It didn't just move to Adult Swim because of the more mature themes, but because it realized that the people who grew up with it have grown up.
Violence in Samurai Jack has always been a part of its identity, but it's always been cleverly disguised behind the physical make-up of Jack's enemies, the vast majority being robotic. Meaning: he could violently dismember them, without it actually being violence. He did occasionally fight humans, but their fates were left pretty ambiguous. And this aspect of the show always had a hokey charm to it, and something a lot of people voiced concern about when Season 5 was given the M-Rating - as excessive violence wouldn't have been in-keeping with the original tone. But by acknowledging that Jack has never killed before and making it a core part of his development, is one of many ways the season pays homage to the earlier seasons, while still evolving it to a more adult audience. And it's this ethos that leads to the majority of Season 5's episodes being so enjoyable.
Jack had never killed before, so when he does it, it means something. It also shows how one can become desensitized to violence when it isn't real. But once Jack sees that he has drawn blood, the violence becomes all to real for him.
When Jack has a flashback of his father killing bandits, he recognizes that killing is necessary, but it doesn't take a tole on the individual. One of the season's themes was exploring what happens when the hero's journey is stalled and he has no immediate way to push forward. The answer was, it gets dark, and things look bleak to Jack in the early episodes. The seasons explores more of the culture Jack comes from, with Jack having now become a Ronin due to his extended years in the future. Jack has failed his mission, lost his sword, lost his honor, and is stuck in the rotten world created by the very being he swore to destroy. He lives in his own personal Hell-on-Earth. The answer to this would be to commit Seppuku; as it is the only way he could ever find peace.
Jack, with the help of Ashi, overcomes his guilt and sense of failure so that he may continue to fight. Jack has become so consumed by his own failures that he forgot the importance of his mission, which is more important his family.
Despite Season 5's dark nature, Samurai jack has always been a perfect blend of action and comedy. Episode 4 that focused on Jack and Ashi trying to escape the bowels of a humongous creature had several humorous moments as it slowly built to their relationship. Jack's awkwardness made for several funny scenes, and makes sense for the more conservative era he originates from. The villains, Aku and Scaramouche, despite being rotten to the core with no redeeming qualities, are the most hilarious characters in this season. Aku's therapy session due to his state of mind, (I'll talk about that later.) is one of the best scenes in the entire season. Another great scene was Aku's confrontation with the Scotsman, which proved as to why he's such a beloved character.
The Scotsman buys his daughters time to escape, even if it means losing his life. And he does it by literally taunting Aku until he gets bored and kills him.
While the Scotsman rants at Aku, he reaffirms his hope that Jack will eventually save the world. Jack may have given up all faith in himself, but his old friend still believes in him.
Just when the Scotsman's poor daughters are grieving him, he suddenly rises from his ashes as a ghost, much to their joy. The Scotsman himself doesn't look worried at all that he's become a blue spirit, and then he tells his kids a new plan for resisting Aku: to emmass a bigger army, and find Jack to finally defeat Aku.
It's also heartwarming on a meta-level, as many predicted that not only would Season 5 kill off a beloved character, but that said character would be the Scotsman. They were right, but the Scotsman returned as a ghost, so he's still not completely gone from the show.
It was these moments of levity that reminded us of what Jack is fighting for: a less bleak and more optimistic future.
Ashi proves herself as one of the best additions to Samurai Jack's mythology. The Daughter's of Aku were one of the highlights of this season, with their upbringing representing the darkness Aku has brought to the world. They were raised by a sadistic mother, that didn't teach them about love, kindness, and compassion. They were instilled with fear and hatred, kept away from the outside world. This all accumulates in a heartbreaking scene when they see two deer kiss and show affection to one-another, (Which is also forshadowing for what will happen to Jack and Ashi.) and The Daughters of Aku can't understand it. Ashi was the last person Jack saved with his good deeds, as he pulled her away from Aku's evil, and showed her the extent of Earth's corruption - showing that the benevolent creator she praised is actually a destroyer.
Her redemption arc was another example of Jack representing hope in a world controlled by Aku - but as mentioned earlier, Ashi's transformation showed Jack not only the importance of his mission, but also that not all hope is lost.
While I'm not a big fan of romance stories, her relationship with Jack was adorable, and felt like Jack deserved it for putting up with Aku's atrocities for 50 years. The characters had instant chemistry on screen, and their love story never felt forced, which made it all the more tragic when Jack learned that Ashi is literally Aku's daughter. Seeing Ashi getting corrupted, as well as Jack surrender when he was forced to fight Ashi was heartbreaking.
Throughout the season, Jack faced a conflict between his own needs and the needs of everyone who existed or ever will exist. His romance with Ashi played directly into this larger theme. Luckily, Ashi is there to help him to do for the world what he did to her.
As I said, one of Season 5's main themes is the hero's journey and the identity of the hero when their journey stagnates. Well, the real main theme of Season 5 is Choice and the exploration of the lack of choice: in Jack's introspections and actions; in the actions of Jack's enemies; in the contrast between humans who choose their actions and machines which are programmed; and in destiny and fate which offer no choice. Of the distinction and parallel between robots and humans, Tartakovsky said: "I wanted to show the human side that's been treated like a machine. Aku builds robots and all these robots are singularly programmed to kill Jack. What if it's humans? What if the one purpose in your whole life is to kill this one person and you're raised from birth that way?"
This perfectly correlates to Jack and Ashi's story.
In Episode 3, Jack has a flashback of his father killing a group of bandits that attacked them. After Jack's wounds are healed, he remembers the wise words his father told him:"The decisions you make and the actions that follow are a reflection of who you are. You cannot hide form yourself". When he confronted the bandits, he gave them a choice: either leave and stay alive, or stay and face their destiny. They chose to stay, so their deaths was of their own making. But The Daughters of Aku had no other choice. They were raised with the mentality to kill this one person, and trained rigorously in order to achieve it, never allowing them to see the world as it is, and instead worship the being the caused all the world to go to chaos. In Episode 4, Jack said: "I have met machines that are programmed with such hate and lies but never a human." Which once again related to Jack and Ashi's story. Throughout Episode 2, Jack thought that the daughters are robots like before, due to how ruthless they are. But when he takes the life of one of the daughters, he realizes that they're not nuts and bolts, but flesh and blood.
When Jack fights them again in Episode 3, he says the same thing his father told the bandits, as well as the words he said to him. But because they know nothing else, they chose to stay, which ultimately lead to their demise.
Jack's father did not tell him it was alright to kill, he told him that it was his choice, and that he would have to live with that choice. The reason why Jack kills defines who he is. Is he a murderer, or a samurai? For the majority of Season 5, he's neither of those; he's a survivor.
When Ashi realizes what a horrible monster Aku really is, she sees the truth and chooses to help Jack. Jack saved her life, and showed her the truth, which gave her a the choice to help and a new purpose.
The line: "You cannot hide from yourself". reminds Jack what he is: a hero, a warrior, and above all, a survivor. And so he chooses to survive and he chooses to fight on, and this makes him who he is.
Same thing goes with Ashi. In Episode 6, when she washes off the substance from her body and wares a new hair, represents her choice of throwing away the identity that she was raised with, and instead becomes who she really is; washing away the darkness she was forced to wear. When it's revealed that Ashi is Aku's daughter, Ashi is corrupted by Aku and turned into what an actual spawn of Aku would look like. She wasn't given a choice at that point, and instead is forced into serving his father. Her identity at that point was as Aku's daughter. But when Jack tells her that she loves her, and through countless struggling, she finally overcame the darkness inside her, and was able to assist Jack.
Fun Fact! All of the daughters have 3-4 letter names that start with A and end with I. That's because as The Daughter's (Both literally and figuratively.) they must have names that resemble their lord father. The I is supposed to represent that it's a female version of the name.
Even though Ashi is the only name that's mentioned in the Season, the creative team confirmed the names of the remaining sisters. Those are as follows: Ashi; Ari; Aki; Ami; Ani; Avi and Ali.
Now, let's talk about Aku. Aku didn't appear that often in this season, but when it did it was important. Villains are often at their best when they're a reflection of the hero, and like Jack, Aku left a lack of meaning in his life. Without being able to finally rid himself of Jack, Aku has slipped into depression, which was alleviated when he believed he could finally kill Jack. It added a human layer to a character, who's supposed to be the embodiment of pure evil, making him a much more compelling antagonist. The other thing about Aku is that he's very overpowered, so when he did show up on screen he dominated any conflict that he was part of. Making his appearance seldom allowed the writers to build up his threat going into the final battle of the season. Mako, the original voice actor behind Aku, had died prior to the development of this season, so he has been replaced by Greg Baldwin. His voice performance was satisfactory, doing a decent imitation as Mako. However, Greg doesn't bring the same comedic charm to Aku's more humorous moment that Mako did. Personally, I was expecting Mark Hamill to voice Aku in this season, because Mako's evil laugh as Aku is only rivaled by Mark Hamill's evil laugh as The Joker. Mark Hamill, despite playing of the most iconic movie heroes of all time, is experienced in voicing villains, particularly the more sadistic but clever villains. Mark Hamill would've been perfect for the job. But, as I said, I think Greg Baldwin did a good job, but let's face it, nobody can replace Mako.
One of the more notable additions to Jack's stable of enemies this season was the scatting robot: Scaramouche, who's quite possibly the funniest character in the season, alongside The Scotsman and Aku. His musical way of speaking and taunting of Jack during their battle added another great aspect to an already excellent story-boarded fight scene. Even after he was defeated by Jack, his quest to return to Aku made more hilarious sub-plots across two episodes. Seeing the situations Scaramouche's head got himself into were great comedic breaks from Jack's darker journey mid-way through the season. My favorite Scaramouche moment in the entire season is when he says this: "Woah, what a freak. Looked like a talking penis." I almost died of laughter when I first heard that!
It was a shame he had to go before the season ended, but that in itself made of great bits of comedy, and irony.
The finally itself really feels like the culmination of both Jack and Aku's stories. In the end, it turns out that Ashi has her father's powers (A simple, but slightly unexpected twist.) and uses them to tore open a portal in time and send both Jack and herself back to the beginning of the series. Aku gets in one last joke as he is befuddled by Jack returning to the past so quickly. Jack killing Aku was the culmination of five seasons worth of story telling, but it wasn't an even footed battle. Instead, Jack strikes down a weakened Aku who cannot fend for himself, a fitting way to go, considering how Aku himself took advantage of the weak and powerless.
This victory, however, did not come without a price, as Ashi (Though much later than expected.) ceases to exist, since Aku was her father, and without him she would've never existed. The fact that she vanished right before marrying Jack is even more heartbreaking. Jack sacrificed himself to save the world, and people across time and space, as the adventure he embarked on was bigger than he was. He realized that Ashi may be gone, but her sacrifice and that of the others saved the world.
Jack melancholy is eased as the series comes to a close when he has this realization, as he takes in the beauty of the world now that it is free of Aku's influence.
The tree is in the shape of half of a heart, representing Jack's broken heart. But the gorgeous lighting and the beautiful field represents how Ashi's sacrifice brougth hope to Earth.
Throughout ten episodes, viewers' are shown Jack's allies from the past from the first four seasons and Jack's good deeds saved them from Aku's tyranny. This continues the theme of Jack being the hero of legend, as he has touched the life of so many people over the last 50 years. This is what culminates in them standing up to save the man who fought so hard and sacrificed so much for them in the past. This allows for the return of many great characters: The Scotsman and his Daughters; The Archers; The Woolies; The Ravers; The "Jump Good" monkey man and his tribe; The Triseraquin; The Spartans; The Talking Dogs; The Robots of Andromeda; and Robo Samurai.
The only problem with Season 5 was the pacing of the season's story. The first 5 episodes build up a lot of momentum, which does go away as thee series starts to focus on Jack and Ashi's relationship. While the episodes are still great and some of the best in the entire series, it would've been better for the main narrative of the season to continue without any one-off stories, due to the shorter episodes count. The final conflict with Aku was saved for the last episode, even though something so significant should have been given a little more room to breathe. That being said, even though the season's final act felt really rushed and it should've been two or even 3 episodes long, it allowed for Jack and Ashi's relationship to develop in an organic way. But to be honest, I'd rather have the final battle feel rushed, than no ending at all. While they didn't pull it off perfectly and it could've been better (Heck, even I have some good ideas for how the finale should've been.), Jack and Ashi's relationship was important to the series's ending. It would not have been as effective if the romance felt rushed and contrived.
Before I end my article, I want to talk about one thing: the animation.
The thing that made Samurai Jack stand out amongst other actions cartoons was that the story telling relied heavily on visuals. With minimal dialogue, the stories were told through body movement, expression and fluid action sequences. Despite a change in working methods, the series maintains its distinctive look and feel.
What's impressive is how the old look and feel are attained while still taking advantage of the new technology. A lot of the more modern aspects, such as the use of CGI are restrained and none of it ever overshadows the distinctive Hand-Drawn aesthetic of the original. There is a distinct focus on light in this season - which is greatly held by the advancements in visual compositing - which means the season can play around with more advanced depictions of light - which beautifully adds to the show's atmosphere. With the more naturalistic light-rays contrasting nicely with the 2-Dimensional look of the characters.
It's also worth mentioning that we can now view the beautiful world of Samurai Jack in glorious 1080p High Resolution, and this is a show that really benefits from it. With the highly silhouetted characters now being a crisp sharpness that really accentuates their stylistic designs.
However, I think the real advancement in visual of Season 5 is less so the technology behind it, and more so the skill that's gone into it. In the years between Seasons 4 and 5, it really feels like Genndy and his team have advanced a massive amount as artists, and it's apparent in practically every shot of the new series. To put it simply, Season 5 is eye-searingly gorgeous, and probably the best looking cartoon series I've ever watched.
I'm truly sorry that this article took so long, but like Jack being prevented from ever going home, so was I interrupted many times in the past from ever finishing it. I had to do chores, help around the house, deliver food to my father, or just procrastinated. After weeks delay, I finally managed to finish it, and share my thoughts with the people who grew up with this series, and the dedicated fans who wanted a continuation for years.
In my "Getting to know Renegade1765(Updated Version.)" I listed off my favorite cartoons ever, and I put Samurai Jack in second place behind Ed, Edd and Eddy. I was debating which one to put as the Number 1, because I grew up with both, but I chose to put Ed, Edd and Eddy at Number 1 because at least that show had an ending, while the movie that meant to conclude Samurai Jack's story was in Development Hell for years. Every time I checked Genndy Tartakovsky's Wikipedia page, the Samurai Jack movie wasn't listed on his upcoming movies. I was concerned about it, but when I first saw the news for Season 5, I was the happiest person on Earth. And after watching it, it instantly took that place as my favorite cartoon of all time.
As I said in my other Samurai Jack article, this series is responsible for making me interested in becoming an animator/artist; as well as in the action genre and Japanese culture. Many people who watched it, including the crew and voice actors as well, consider it a work of art. Phill LaMarr, the voice of jack said this: "I've worked on a lot of shows and some fantastic projects, but this one's special. I don't consider this a regular cartoon - I consider this show a work of art."
The series influenced so many people who grew up with it, myself included, that after 13 years of animation that's hit and miss, it's amazing to see a show that was begging for a continuation, and it payed off wonderfully.
While the season has it's flaws when it comes to the pacing, I have no shame in saying that this is the best season of the entire show, and has strong legs with which to stand alongside the old seasons.
Samurai Jack has always been about the journey, and I don't see why that should change now. And at the one of it all, I'm glad that this story finally has it's conclusion. I'm happy that we've finally got to see: The End of Samurai Jack.
As always, Smell ya Later.
