Samurai Jack Review (Spoilers)

Finally after 13 years Samurai Jack ends

For those who don’t know, Samurai Jack…you know Im going to allow Aku, the main villain of series explain the show’s premise

Yeah that’s the basic version of it; a time traveling samurai looking to defeat the evil Aku. It took 13 years just to tell its ending over five seasons. Why did it take so long? Blame the poor money made from the PPG movie. With being said however Im going to review Samuari Jack as a whole, by looking at both sides The Good and The Bad
The Good
The series is beautiful to look at and watch, even when Samurai Jack upgrades its style to flash in season 5, its still beautifully. I mean you can set any of the settings as a background to your computer or take this one for example

As you can see its just memorizing to look at alone. Now let’s talk about the characters Jack and Aku. Jack is mostly and silent protagonist, but unlike lets say Master Chief , he does have his humor. When he needs character its really good character devolvement and season 5 is chuck of mostly good character for Jack. Now liked talk about the villain, Aku. Aku is just a but load of fun to watch. He breaks the fourth wall a lot. He wants to know he rules the goddamn world and he knows it. On the same level of humor is the Scootsmen, whose throws around insults at people with giving a hoot if there an insulted. With being Samurai Jack’s strength isn’t telling its story, but rather standalone episodes that don’t contribute to the story. My favorite Samurai Jack episodes, “Jack and the Spartans” and “Jack vs the Ninja” really show case this well. There beautiful short stories that you can watch without needing the story to understand things (just the opening). Samurai Jack is an awesome when its telling artistically beautiful one shot episode. Now let me say I loved the majority of season 5. Its really good I loved the Samurai Jack did adopt to an adult very well showing Jack’s PSTD and how crazy he’s gotten over the fifty years he has been stuck there. Allow to me say I love Ashi’s backstory and her relationship with Jack and it’s very well told romance. Heck Ashi has her own tragic hero’s journey that is mostly well told. We see her come to understand that what she was thought her life was a lie. During her travels, she learns how much Jack means for her and those he saved over the course of the show.
The Bad
Samurai Jack almost a perfect cartoon, up until the last two episodes. They’re weak and full of plot holes. For one the ending of "Jack and the Traveling Creatures" (S3E6) didn't really amount to much. In the episode Jack facing against a Guardian, guarding a time portal and Jack gets his butt kicked. The episode ends with Jack being taken away and Guardian saying Jack will come and face him again one day. However, --yeah this image (below) the episode focuses below doesn’t happen

They should have written a big sign at the ending of the episode saying: "You Don't Like This! You Don't Want to See This! Go Anywhere! Do not focus on the future image of Jack we are intentionally focusing on!" Instead both the time portal and the guardian are killed off screen in favor of Ashi. Secondly, the finale and primer movie don’t mess well together because well
Here is Jack’s dad in the primer

Here’s Jack dad in the finale and keep in mind no time has pased, pretty much between the two

How in the blindly fuck did his dad get his youth back? Or was his old aged caused by Aku or something?
Season 5 was also building up to choice between Jacks staying in the future or to go back into the past. Nope that doesn’t happen, instead Ashi just creates a time portal and they just jump through it, no choice just let Jack’s allies to face Aku by themselves. On that note, Aku’s death is really forgettable, like blink and you miss it sort of moments. Jack and Aku’s final confrontation last like a minute and boom goes Aku’s castle. No final words between Jack and Aku, just Jack saying “No More!” and that’s it, a very underwhelming final conflict. One last thing about the finale is that we get a “goodbye” to all the characters that we came to know and love over 4 seasons. They just reduced to down to cameos. (Demongo being brought back to life makes no sense at all.)
The core of the problem is twofold. First Samurai jack, a cartoon that character driven, is only given thirty minutes to wrap up its story. Other cartoons like it, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Gravity Falls, are given over an hour to wrap its tale and they were well received endings. When a five season show only has thirty minutes to wrap its story it’s going to be sloppy and boy was it. The second reason is that this was the finale that was thirteen years in the making. That’s enough time to prefect the ending, retool any flaws. To see these huge flaws in the finale, like Aku and Jacks final battle and characters that we come to know over the previou four seasons reduced down to cameos in the finale is inexcusable.
Samurai Jack was almost a perfect show, but the final two episodes hold it back for being that show. Everything was not only really rushed, but there were several huge plot holes that can’t be ignored. The finale shown wasn’t the one foreshadow in the first four seasons.

Overall
Samurai Jack is ALMOST the perfect show. The first four seasons are legendary and a good majority of season 5 is legendary and it does stand out. I love the setting and the characters of Samurai Jack, they are deep and each one of them has something to say. However, the final hour of the show wasn’t what the fans were promised and Aku’s death isn’t legendary as the show built up to be, but rather forgettable in the end.
Grade
85/100
B+