Samurai Jack Season 5 Review: Episode 6 (XCVII) (SPOILER ALERT)
Are you sure she was the one?Yes. I specifically saw her asking about him.
Aku's bounty hunter?
I sense her evil.
Gotcha!
We will not let you hurt the samurai!
Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub! Yo da dub dub! Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub! Yo da dub dub! Welcome again, fellow TopTenners and visitors! This is MSBS here and I've got another review up about the sixth episode of the fifth season of Samurai Jack, babe! Woohoo! This TV revival has already been a thrilling experience and we're only just getting into the second half of the fifth season! Oh, and I finally just got rid of those runs, so I should be able to catch up on my Samurai Jack reviews soon, babe! I just hope they don't get in the way of my studies for my upcoming AP exams as of the time I write this review. Anyways, be sure to have caught up on the previous five episodes before this one and be aware that this review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS, babe! Also, as this episode does contain a lot of cameos, I'll be mentioning each one as I go along. Alright, baby! Time to whip it out!
So the sixth episode begins by showing a blimp flying past a mountain in the sky, where Ashi is seen riding on it in her search for Jack after he had gone missing at the end of the fifth episode as a result of him mistaking his and Ashi's actions to save the children that were kidnapped to have been in vain when he mistakenly thought that they had died when they were actually just unconscious from having been freed from mind control. Moving o- wait a second!
Did I just see a lookalike of Zorak from Space Ghost to Coast on the blimp? Hmm... why, it appears it is! Thank goodness for the Samurai Jack wikia that I'm able to know all these cameos!
Getting back on topic, two large hooded creatures that assume Ashi to be one of Aku's bounty hunters suddenly ambush her, proclaiming that they will not let her hurt Jack. Confused by this, Ashi clarifies that she only wants to help Jack, as she believes he might be in danger. Assured that she is not an enemy of Jack, the two creatures reveal themselves to be two Woolies, who then tell her the story of how Jack had saved their people from the Chritchellites in Episode IV: Jack, the Woolies, and the Chritchellites. Now one really amazing aspect of the portrayal of the Woolies' story that made it quite a spectacle to watch was how it was reimagined in such a newly high-definition and well-polished visual depiction to the point that it could be considered vastly superior to the original fight scene between Jack and the Chritchellites from the original episode even though it was still good in terms of animation and action even to this day. Seriously, just look at a side-by-side comparison of the original and the new scenes in a YouTube video comparing the two and you'll instantly find the new one to be more crisp and fresh! Moving on, after the Woolies' story ends and the blimp reaches its destination, Ashi thanks them for the story and jumps off the blimp (much to the humorous shock of one of the employees on the blimp who was surprised that she would jump off before the blimp could land), using her kusarigama (a chain sickle, in case you don't know what I'm talking about) to attach it to a tree and allow her to safely land in a forest.
Meanwhile, a familiar face (or should I say, familiar head) reappears...
Scaramouche: I'm alive! Doo do do do! I'm alive! I'm alive!
I guess you can't stop the musical magic that is Scaramouche, babe! That's right! Subsequently after his long defeat by Jack from the first episode of the fifth season of Samurai Jack, Scaramouche is back! Now one thing I forgot to mention in my review of the first episode of the fifth season of Samurai Jack was that though Scaramouche was defeated by Jack, his head was still intact and not finished off by Jack. That said, since his head was not destroyed, this allowed him to reactivate. And after such, he finds himself now only able to hop on his head for movement and unable to get in touch with Aku due to his mobile phone having been broken by Jack before their fight. Thus, he sets out to hop his way to Aku in order to tell him that Jack has lost his sword.
The episode then cuts back to Ashi, where she is walking through the forest when she suddenly sees a horde of beetle drones fleeing from something, with one barely able to move as some of its legs and lower body had been destroyed and is on fire. Ashi then finds that the Three Blind Archers from Episode VII: Jack and the Three Blind Archers that Jack had saved in that episode were the ones that had attacked the beetle drones. When Ashi assures them that she is a friend of Jack, the Three Blind Archers then take her back to their village, where a statue of Jack is shown to have been erected in honor of him. One of the Three Blind Archers then tells the story of how Jack had saved them from the curse of a wishing well at the top of a tower and how he had sacrificed fulfilling his quest to get back to the past and defeat Aku to free them from the curse instead, which the Archer then explains that they later learned that the curse was of Aku's doing. Ashi then asks them if they have ever seen Jack since that day, to which they say no, but also say that they remain loyal to him and stand against Aku and that if he ever needs their help, they will come to his aid. Ashi then proceeds to continue her search for Jack as she is further convinced of Jack's heroism.
Going back to Scaramouche, he is seen hopping but feeling tired from his long journey trying to get to Aku, simultaneously breaking the fourth wall when he glances at the screen and comments on how all his hopping is making him exhausted. Fortunately for him, he finally reaches a port, which just so happens to be the same one that appeared in Episode XLV: The Scotsman Saves Jack, Part 1, but not before being accidentally kicked by a stranger and rolling down a hill in a comical fashion. He then tries to board a ship, but is stopped by a sailor on the dock due to Scaramouche not having a shirt, shoes, and most importantly, a body. Scaramouche then tries to explain to him that he's Aku's #1 assassin, but is still turned down when the sailor points out that he is now Aku's #3 assassin, most likely due to his defeat by Jack and not being able to massacre innocent people anymore. Determined to get to Aku one way or another, Scaramouche undergoes a series of attempts to board the ship, ranging from hiding in a woman's large hair to having his head lodged on the body of a dog, which both backfire in the process. Eventually, Scaramouche is able to pass through without a hitch when he borrows a man's body to finally board the ship. Afterwards, the man then takes Scaramouche off of his body and asks for reimbursement, to which Scaramouche assures him that since he's one of Aku's top assassins, Aku will give him anything he wants so that he can pay back the man. When the man leaves, Scaramouche then says one of the best lines of the fifth season and overall series yet:
"Whoa, what a freak. Looked like a talking penis."
admin, whatever you do, do not draft back this post. No profanity is at use here, so please do not delete this post. Anyways, WHOA-HO! I did not see that coming! For the first time in the fifth season, it appears Genndy Tartakovsky gave Tom Kenny the green light to go and use an explicit sexual adult joke! Now I know Samurai Jack's fifth season is aimed towards a more mature audience, but given the previous seasons were just primarily aimed at a younger demographic, Scaramouche saying that a small-headed man's head resembled a male sex organ was phenomenally and pleasantly hilarious! Tom Kenny gave us the adult jokes from SpongeBob SquarePants, but now he has given us direct sexual humor in Samurai Jack!
Transitioning back to Ashi, she is seen strolling through the forest still at nighttime when she then hears some music playing, which takes her to a rave taking place outside a village. She tries walking her way through the dancing ravers, one of which is shown to be a cameo of a... green-skinned alien version of Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon (honestly, I kind of had a hard time seeing how that was supposed to resemble Usagi Tsukino. Then again, I guess some of the raver's body features kind of were similar to Usagi Tsukino's). She then reaches a raver in an astronaut suit, who she then asks if he has seen Jack. Suddenly, a spotlight shines in on her as all the ravers stop and the DJ, who is revealed to be an older Olivia that Jack had saved in Episode XXVIII: Jack and the Rave when she was a teenager that had been brainwashed by one of Aku's minions through rave music into committing crimes, asks why Ashi seeks Jack. Ashi then tells Olivia that she wants to help Jack since she thinks he is in danger. Reminded of the person who had saved her from Aku's influence in the past, Olivia then takes off her headphones and all the ravers form an S with their hands, to which the lights then dim out and she says "Samurai Drop!"
Oh, no... Don't tell me this is going to be some cringe-worthy pandering crap trying to appeal to millennials. Don't make it like Blossom and Bubbles twerking with that stupid panda from the PPG reboot, Tarta-
We will never forget you
till the day we die
Samurai
Sa-Sa-Samurai
Aku enslaved the children
With his beats from hell
But then he came and fought
the evil away
It was the Samurai
The Samurai
We will never forget you
till the day we die
Samurai
Sa-Sa-Samurai
Samurai-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i
Oh, my gosh. This has got to be the best scene in the entire episode. I loved every moment of it. From the stunning visuals and the ravers' fluid dance movements mirroring Jack's Shaolin Kung Fu dance moves to whoever sang the lyrics to this song in surprisingly good autotune (I don't know if Grey DeLisle, the voice actress who portrayed Olivia in this episode, sung the song or not), the song is definitely going to stick with me for a long time. Now even more convinced of Jack's heroism, Ashi remains determined to find Jack. When she approaches a waterfall, she is suddenly taken to a flashback of how her mother had given them her and her sisters their signature black bodysuits when they were children by having them dive into a pit of black ashes, becoming one with the darkness in honor of Aku.
So let me get this straight... so the Daughters of Aku's bodysuits... weren't really bodysuits at all? So this means... they were technically fighting Jack... IN THE NUDE?!
Eh, whatever. The High Priestess was always a horrible mother to them, so it's to be expected that she would do something like this to them. Anyways, when the flashback is over, Ashi initially walks away from the waterfall due to her traumatic flashback, but then shortly dives into it and tries to scrub off her bodysuit (or burnt skin, to put it more accurately) using rocks all night. By the time morning hits, she has finally scrubbed off her bodysuit and is swimming in the water all the way to land, to where we can see her silhouette behind the waterfall. And I got to say... those thighs... that hip... they sure are...
EXTRA THICC!
Moving back to the topic, Ashi then lets her hair down, changing her initial hairstyle that closely resembled that of Ilana's hairstyle from Sym-Bionic Titan, another one of Tartakovsky's works. And lastly, she creates a new outfit made from some nearby foliage, finally putting her past behind her as she has now literally and figuratively turned over a new leaf. So if you ever think about Ashi as a Daughter of Aku.... Oh! That was the old Ashi! This is a new Ashi! And now she's on the Samurai's side!
Getting back to the ship Scaramouche boarded, he is seen relaxing on a chair when he then spots a woman and asks if she can get them a drink, to which she angrily refuses and says she doesn't work on the ship, kicking Scaramouche off of his chair. After commenting on the woman being "touchy", Scaramouche then spots a phone booth, which he then uses to try to call Aku. Scaramouche is about to tell Aku about Jack losing his sword when Aku tells him that he can't hear him due to the loud background noise from the other passengers talking on the ship. Scaramouche then tries to get the crowd to stop talking so that he can talk to Aku, to which three anthropomorphic dogs that resemble from left to right Big Dog from 2 Stupid Dogs, Spike Bulldog from Tom and Jerry, and Astro from The Jetsons make their cameos and are shown to be angry at Scaramouche's interruption of their conversation. Scaramouche then rudely explains to the dogs that he's trying to use the phone and insults them, going back to tell Aku that Jack has lost his sword. But before he can complete his sentence about the discovery, the Spike Bulldog cameo then grabs his head in offense for Scaramouche insulting him and his friends, throwing Scaramouche overboard, leaving him floating in the water surprisingly alive and not short-circuiting, with his fate currently unknown as of the time around this episode's debut.
With Scaramouche out of the picture, the episode then goes back to the forest, where Ashi is running in the rain to seek shelter in a nearby tavern, where she then meets an older Da Samurai, who Jack had previously encountered in Episode XLII: Samurai versus Samurai, now working as a bartender. Ashi tries to ask him where she can find Jack, but he initially fakes hearing loss until she finally screams out her intentions and all the customers in the tavern crowd up to where she is. Each customer then tells them their tales of how they had fought Jack individually and were bested, with their battle scars ranging from a customer's wires being all tangled up, a customer's entire body being held together by bandages, a customer being implied to only throw up instead of going to the bathroom all the time, to a robotic cameo of Popeye claiming one of his eyes got busted all acting as evidence that they believe Jack is the strongest warrior in the world. Da Samurai then butts in and tells his story about his glory days as a samurai, knowing moves such as...
Funk-a-Chop! Whack-a-Hack! And his most famous one... Turkey Carve!
At the climax of his story, he then finally tells of how he met Jack and was enlightened to the true meaning of being a samurai. Having been enlightened as such, he decided to give up being a samurai and became a bartender at the very same place where he and Jack first met. Shortly after, Demongo from Episode XXIII: Jack versus Demongo, The Soul Collector makes a brief official cameo, arriving at the tavern to collect the souls of the greatest warriors since he had lost the essence of his previous ones due to his fight with Jack. However, he quickly leaves when he realizes the warriors are in terrible conditions and he is in the wrong place.
Having rested enough at the cavern, Ashi then leaves to search for Jack once again, but shortly encounters a strange little girl with large eyes and no known identity whatsoever, who then tells Ashi that Jack is just up the path north from where she is right now. Before Ashi could ask who the girl is, the girl suddenly disappears out of plain sight. Either way, Ashi then proceeds north as she now finally has a lead to where Jack is. Eventually, she then arrives at a cemetery that looks quite similar to the one Jack was in from Episode XXX: Jack and the Zombies. Jack is shown to be sitting down with his eyes closed as the ghosts of great samurai warriors of the past rise and surround him. Ashi is shocked by this and even more so when she finally encounters the mysterious shadow warrior that had stalked Jack for a majority of the fifth season, finally revealing himself to be a physical entity (or at least a spiritual one) rather than a figment of Jack's hallucinations, possibly acting as a personification of Death. Officially now named The Omen according to the Samurai Jack wikia, the Omen dismounts from his horse, appearing much bulkier than before when he was just a shadowy figure as he proceeds to help Jack commit seppuku (which is basically a suicide ritual) due to Jack believing he had failed his purpose. The Omen tells Ashi that she may only witness Jack's disembowelment, but not proceed further to interfere. Ashi defies the Omen and is then countered by him, leaving her engaged in a fight with Death himself as she must simultaneously dodge the Omen's attacks and try to get through to Jack by telling him of all the people he had helped, the countless lives he had saved, how he made her realize that she was more than who she thought she was, and that hope was not lost. The Omen tries denying all these claims as he aggressively tries to keep Jack focused on committing suicide, reminding him of the deaths that lay in his wake because of him: especially the children he had "killed" at the factory. However, Ashi is quick to deny this lie and confirms to Jack that the children at the factory were alive. Having finally been told the truth, Jack finally snaps out of it and regains his confidence in himself. When the Omen then tries to kill off Ashi once and for all for trying to interfere with Jack's seppuku ritual, Jack then counters the Omen's attack and fights him off using the very sword meant to kill himself, ultimately bisecting the Omen and defeating him once and for all. With Jack having escaped Death's grasp, the ghosts of the great samurai warriors of the past then return to their graves, leaving Jack and Ashi alone as Jack compliments Ashi's hair and dress. With Jack's mojo now restored, Ashi asks Jack what's next. Jack tells her that it is time to find his sword as the episode concludes.
Whether you're an old or new fan of the show, this episode truly appeals to both significantly in the greatest way possible, especially to the old fans. If you're a new fan, you'll obviously be amazed at this episode's visuals, storytelling, humor and action scenes. If you're an old fan, you'll obviously be amazed with those things as well. However, you'll also be pleasantly amazed with so much more as well, given that the abundance of homages to characters from previous episodes and the previous episodes themselves from the original series will optimally give you a stellar feeling of nostalgia. And as usual, Ashi's character continues to develop, only more significantly with perhaps the most progress in character development she'll ever receive in the show's revival. That, and Jack is only one step further to truly finding himself again. Oh, and the way Jack complimented Ashi's looks... Looks like it isn't going to be a father-daughter relationship after all. Know what I mean, folks? That's right. As of this episode, it appears a romance is in place between Jack and Ashi. Honestly, while I'd prefer a father-daughter relationship, I would be quite fine with a romantic relationship between the two. Other than that, I personally thought that this was a perfect episode that culminated every penny of appeal to both old and new fans. So with that, here is my final score for the sixth episode of the fifth season of Samurai Jack:
10.0 out of 10.0 stars
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out episode 7 of the fifth season of Samurai Jack after doing so. Until then, peace!
Comments
That penis joke made my mouth drop to the floor - visitor