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126-514: Samurai Champloo ( Japanese : サムライチャンプルー , Hepburn : Samurai Chanpurū ) is a 2004 Japanese historical adventure anime television series. The debut television production of studio Manglobe , the 26-episode series aired from May 2004 to March 2005. It was first partially broadcast on Fuji TV , then had a complete airing on Fuji Network System . It was licensed for North American broadcast on Adult Swim , and for commercial release first by Geneon Entertainment and later by Crunchyroll . It

252-637: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down

378-415: A coin, saying if it lands on heads then the pair can continue their battle, but if it lands on tails they postpone their battle to help her find a samurai who smells of sunflowers, whom she has sought for years. She wins the toss, and they embark on a series of adventures alongside Fuu's quest. During the closing stories, the three finally arrive at the town of Ikitsuki , with each ending up in conflict with

504-525: A complete DVD collection on June 30, 2009. A complete series Blu-ray was then released six months later on December 15. Funimation re-released the series for DVD and Blu-ray on May 24, 2011, through the company's original Anime Classics line. The Blu-ray got another re-release on February 5, 2019. Samurai Champloo was released in the United Kingdom by MVM Entertainment , at first across seven volumes between September 5, 2005, and October 16, 2006. It

630-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )

756-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as

882-467: A group of assassins sent by the government to kill the "sunflower samurai", Fuu's father Seizo Kasumi. Fuu finds Kasumi, having wanted revenge for him abandoning her and her mother, but she relents as he is already dying from an illness. One of the assassins kills Kasumi before he is defeated by Jin. Mugen and Jin then have their duel, their swords shattering, but choose not to kill each other as they now consider each other friends. Fuu learns her father played

1008-409: A lack of extras was noted. Tasha Robinson, in a review of the first English DVD release for Sci-Fi Weekly , was concerned about the opening episode's similarity to the set-up for Cowboy Bebop . In a similar review for Play Magazine , Dave Halverson noted his enjoyment of the story but felt readers should see the anime with as little story information as possible. DVDTalk ' s Todd Douglass noted

1134-468: A lack of historical information from the time and Japanese television codes restricting the portrayal of Japanese minorities in the period. The main cultural influence on the anime is the music and associated subculture of hip hop . Watanabe had been a fan of hip hop music from his high school years, citing his first exposure as " The Message " by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five . He compared

1260-650: A later interview, Jin's voice actor, Kirk Thornton, described the dubbing as a rare project where the actors were able to have a greater freedom in their performances, not having to match the Japanese original. It was broadcast in North America on Adult Swim during its late night slot, starting on May 14, 2005. Starting with Episode 22 on February 3, 2007, episodes were streamed through Adult Swim's online Friday Night Fix channel. It saw subsequent North American broadcasts on Funimation Channel starting March 21, 2011;

1386-484: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it

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1512-406: A mutual friend at Office Crescendo. The eventual unstructured production style was unheard of in anime, and at the outset Obara created a series structure. The three-episode finale was not planned ahead, emerging naturally as part of the design approach. As the project evolved, Watanabe pushed for this structured approach to be discarded aside from the lead characters and premise, and Obara agreed to

1638-432: A narrative to it. His approach was combining two of his favorite things, classic samurai adventure films and series and hip hop music, into a single work. He created the concept for Samurai Champloo during this period, but work on it was delayed due to his work on Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and his segments of The Animatrix at Studio 4°C . Kobayashi had invited Wanatabe to work on an original project at Manglobe when it

1764-595: A part in the Shimabara Rebellion and went away to protect her. Fuu also reveals she lied about the coin toss result, which briefly annoys Mugen and Jin. Recovered from their final fight, the three part ways grateful for their shared adventure. Series director Shinichirō Watanabe defined the central theme of Samurai Champloo as the portrayal and acceptance around death, themes he had previously explored in his science fiction series Macross Plus (1994) and Cowboy Bebop (1998). Another theme outlined in

1890-579: A realistic impression of the period when artificial light sources were scarce and expensive. The variety and more contemporary elements prevented Waki from growing bored with the Edo setting. The approach to the animation, lacking an overarching plan, was described as a reflection of the lead characters' non-conformist personalities. Nakazawa designed the men's kimono to resemble contemporary jackets, incorporating homages to sports designs such as Adidas and Puma . Many secondary characters were designed based on both

2016-432: A second season, during the channel's midnight slot; the remaining 18th–26th episodes aired from January 22 to March 19, 2005. The original North American licensee was Geneon Entertainment and its parent company Pioneer Entertainment, licensing the anime a year before its Japanese broadcast. The dub was handled by Bang Zoom! Entertainment , with company president Eric Sherman remembering it as one of his favorite projects. In

2142-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),

2268-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate

2394-549: A version of American baseball player Alexander Cartwright ; and Ando Uohori, who is a direct reference to Andy Warhol . Samurai Champloo was the debut television production of animation studio Manglobe , which was started in 2002 by Sunrise veteran Shinichirō Kobayashi. The opening animation was contributed to by the studio Madhouse . A production committee to support the project was formed by Victor Entertainment 's Shirō Sasaki , partnering with Tokuma Shoten and North American company Geneon Entertainment . Watanabe acted as

2520-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of

2646-421: Is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of

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2772-481: Is a Japanese rendering of the German saying " Sturm und Drang "), philosophical concepts ("Inga Oho" references a proverb about the workings of karma ), and pieces of classic media (the episode title "Anya Koro" references Naoya Shiga 's novel of the same name ). The English episode titles were created by translator Ryan Morris. Morris did not directly translate the Japanese titles, instead using alliteration to preserve

2898-448: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,

3024-527: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing

3150-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number

3276-701: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider

3402-466: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto

3528-641: Is blended with a score by the prolific composer Yoko Kanno featuring jazz , blues and funk music. The anachronistic soundtrack of Samurai Champloo , though an Edo period piece , draws heavily from hip hop music, while the later series Kids on the Slope demonstrates many classical forms of jazz, and Space Dandy draws from primarily new wave music . His series, Terror in Resonance , utilizes post-rock and ambient music influenced by Icelandic band Sigur Rós . His series Carole and Tuesday

3654-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to

3780-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through

3906-755: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey

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4032-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of

4158-498: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and

4284-548: Is structured like a road movie , with little connection between stories until the final three-part arc, contrasting against the serial structure of its contemporaries. Watanabe particularly cited the movies about the blind samurai Zatoichi as an inspiration for this style. Other influences on the series included Enter the Dragon and Dirty Harry . One episode was based around the Chinese concept of Qi . During early planning,

4410-665: Is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as

4536-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and

4662-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have

4788-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns

4914-615: The Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered

5040-462: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in

5166-457: The Netflix adaptation of Cowboy Bebop but was not involved in its production and criticized it after its release. Watanabe has a distinct vision regarding the importance of the film score of his works and believes that music is the universal language. Cowboy Bebop is heavily influenced by American culture, especially the jazz movements of the 1940s, hence the title " bebop ". This style

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5292-514: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than

5418-738: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of

5544-437: The United States , hours before airing in Japan. He is frequently ranked among Japan's best animation directors. Watanabe directed the anime short film Blade Runner Black Out 2022 , which was released in 2017. On November 29, 2018, it was announced that he would be creative producer of Blade Runner: Black Lotus , an anime series produced for Adult Swim and Crunchyroll . He received an associate producer credit on

5670-757: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to

5796-527: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),

5922-486: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,

6048-736: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently

6174-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand

6300-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which

6426-565: The anime series Kids on the Slope (Japanese title: Sakamichi no Apollon ), a coming-of-age story about young jazz musicians, which premiered in April 2012 on Fuji TV's Noitamina block. In 2009, it was announced that Watanabe would be working as an associate producer on the upcoming live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop , alongside his fellow Sunrise staff members Kenji Uchida and Keiko Nobumoto . During FicZone in Granada , Spain , it

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6552-530: The anime's music. A social card battle game developed by Cybird was released in Japan on August 28, 2011, for mobile phones. The North American DVD release of Samurai Champloo was a commercial success. The final volumes were ranked by Nielsen VideoScan as among the top ten best-selling anime DVDs during mid-January 2006. On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes , the anime has a rating of 88% based on eight reviews. The Western home media releases saw positive responses for their visual and sound quality, though

6678-447: The art style and fight sequences. The music met with general praise for its use and style. Becket additionally praised the English dub. The mixture of traditional elements with hip hop met with some mixed responses. Halverson was enthusiastic about them and called the hip hop representation superior to many Western portrayals. Robinson also enjoyed them, noting that they kept the anime from being too much like Cowboy Bebop . Browne enjoyed

6804-525: The contemporary visual references used alongside the Edo setting, but faulted the show's reliance on them. By contrast, Bonaminio cited its sense of style and unique blend of elements its greatest strength. As part of a 2007 retrospective article on Geneon Entertainment, David Smith of IGN called it one of the best anime published by the company during its lifetime, saying it was almost perfect in what it did and stood out from other Geneon properties. Mike Dent of Otaku USA Magazine , writing in 2015, praised

6930-408: The conventions" for sword fighting and kept his fighting style inconsistent throughout the series, basing his reactions and tactics on combat sports . He broke animation conventions to make these techniques work, confusing the animation team. For his work as art director after joining during production of the first episode, Waki was instructed to create extremes of light and darkness in scenes, creating

7056-578: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there

7182-494: The exploits of tea waitress Fuu, vagrant outlaw Mugen, and ronin Jin. Fuu saves Mugen and Jin from execution, then forces the pair to aid in her quest to find a samurai who smells of sunflowers. Structured similar to a road movie , the series focuses on tolerance and acceptance of minorities contrasted against its setting, with a central theme being the portrayal and acceptance of death. Director Shinichirō Watanabe began planning for

7308-414: The fight choreography and art design to Watanabe's work on Cowboy Bebop and The Animatrix . Douglass cited the anime as a perfect example of Watanabe's visual style, and Browne cited its visuals and technical achievements as high points. Bonaminio included a positive mention of the anime's visible production quality during his summary. Becket felt the animation style had aged poorly, though giving praise to

7434-510: The finished series was inspired by Katsu's notorious habit of directing projects without a set story structure. The word " Champloo " in the title was derived from the Okinawan term chanpurū , with Watanabe comparing the blending of elements in the anime with the meaning of chanpurū. The food depicted in the show was originally accurate to the Edo period, but eventually expanded to include anachronistic dishes such as okonomiyaki . The plot

7560-455: The flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure

7686-445: The forgettable supporting cast, and called many episodes including the ending underwhelming. James Beckett of Anime News Network enjoyed the main cast, but negatively cited a lack of cohesion across the series, and strongly criticised Fuu's frequent kidnappings for story purposes as detrimental to her character. Halverson gave praise to the animation and character designs without specific commentary, while Robinson positively compared

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7812-674: The former role. Nakazawa also acted as both character designer and chief animation director. The art director was Takeshi Waki, the storyboard director was Kazuki Akane , and coloring was led by Eri Suzuki. Additional characters were created by Hideto Komori. Weapon designs were co-created by Mahiro Maeda and Manglobe managing director Hidero Okamoto. The cinematographer was Kazuhiro Yamada, with Syuichi Kakesu as lead editor. Numerous guest creators were also brought in for different episodes as artists or animation directors, including Shūkō Murase Takeshi Yoshimoto, Naoko Nakamoto, Hiroyuki Imaishi and Tensai Okamura . The concept for Samurai Champloo

7938-616: The former's brand, the series was fully moved to the Crunchyroll streaming platform. The anime was first released on DVD in Japan through the JVC label across thirteen volumes with two episodes each from August 21, 2004, to August 25, 2005. A complete collection for DVD and Blu-ray, featuring new illustrations by Nakazawa and a booklet containing an interview with Watanabe, was released in July 2011. In North America, Geneon Entertainment released

8064-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had

8190-513: The greatest anime series of all time. It was followed by the 2001 film Knockin' on Heaven's Door . In 2003, Watanabe directed his first American-produced anime, the short films Kid's Story and A Detective Story , both part of The Wachowskis ' The Animatrix , an anthology of animated short stories from The Matrix . His next directorial effort was the critically acclaimed 2004 anime series Samurai Champloo which began broadcasting on Fuji Television in Japan on May 19, 2004. Following

8316-487: The indigenous Ainu people , foreigners, LGBT people, and Christians ; the historical Edo period was a time when Japan was highly structured, conformist and isolationist. Due to its Edo setting and incorporation of samurai culture and honor codes, Watanabe was worried the anime would be seen as nationalistic in tone, prompting its focus on minorities and tolerance. Watanabe put in as much as he could manage of these themes and subjects, challenging earlier limitations imposed by

8442-430: The language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853,

8568-458: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system

8694-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of

8820-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,

8946-436: The music for adding to each episode's atmosphere, in addition to its animation quality and writing. In a 2019 retrospective for Anime News Network , Matthew Roe states "the mixture of hip-hop aesthetics and classic samurai tropes seems like a more awkward fit than Bebop ' s effortless fusion of jazz and science fiction" and further criticized a lack of emotional resonance, but felt the direction of Watanabe and Manglobe kept

9072-420: The new approach. The lack of a structure meant that the series narrative was constructed piece by piece, with few plot details being decided in advance. The fates of the three characters were also undecided during this stage. Watanabe originally planned for all three to survive, but at one point the team considered Jin and Mugen dying respectively in the final two episodes. Even the identity of the sunflower samurai

9198-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by

9324-409: The original plan, there were three semi-regular characters that would appear through the series. They were Rekku, a Dutchman claiming to be Japanese; Koku, a traveling priest acquainted with Jin's past; and Sara, a female ninja who falls in love with Mugen. While their roles were reduced to one-off appearances, versions of the characters survived. Rekku became the character Joji in "Stranger Searching",

9450-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with

9576-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,

9702-445: The plan was to have strong antagonists with unique weapons for each episode, but the plan never came about, and when Maeda moved to working on Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo , the design work shifted to Okamoto. The incorporation of graffiti was suggested by Sato to further enhance the hip hop aesthetic and tone. He also suggested the inclusion of references to Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat . The music for Samurai Champloo

9828-414: The priest appeared in "Lethal Lunacy", while Sara was a central character in "Elegy of Entrapment". An early antagonist is Ryujiro, the son of a corrupt government official who loses his arm to Mugen in the opening episode and later plots revenge against them. Historical figures or character homages also appear, for example painter Hishikawa Moronobu ; Joji, who is a fictionalized version of Isaac Titsingh ;

9954-481: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as

10080-417: The release of Samurai Champloo , Watanabe directed a short film called Baby Blue , which was released on July 7, 2007 as a segment of the anthology film Genius Party . In recent years, he has been active as a creative music producer, overseeing the 2004 film Mind Game , 2008's Michiko & Hatchin , and supervising the storyboards for episode 12 of Tetsuwan Birdy: Decode . In 2012, he directed

10206-403: The rhythm and meaning. The series follows the exploits of the three leads−Fuu, Mugen, and Jin−when they are drawn together by circumstance and end up traveling together to find the sunflower samurai. The main cast was created by Watanabe, who wanted a cast of heroes who were silly, immature, and dangerous, with "a touch of insanity". He described Mugen and Jin as unconventional people not bound by

10332-519: The rules of the period. The characters were designed by Kazuto Nakazawa , who had worked as both an artist and director on multiple projects including Ashita no Nadja and the anime segments of Kill Bill: Volume 1 . The early character drafts were more to Nakazawa's tastes than the wishes of the production team, resulting in numerous redrafts based on requests. The voice recording included sessions with all three leads together, which caused occasional tensions due to their different work backgrounds. In

10458-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning

10584-429: The samurai culture to hip hop through a similar philosophy of self-identity. The use of hip hop also reinforced the series' focus on its minority and counter-cultural cast, creating a cultural reference by using one with the other. Alongside his liking of hip hop, Watanabe attributed a large amount of the series' inspiration in the works of actor Shintaro Katsu , particularly his historical dramas. The narrative approach of

10710-490: The second episode was intended to appear during the finale, but he was cut due to time constraints and a general lack of people remembering his earlier appearance. Nakazawa had trouble getting a feel for the characters, with Mugen's design still going through adjustments when production on the first episode began. For the animation of Mugen's fighting style, the team used gymnastic footage as a reference alongside incorporating breakdancing moves. For Jin, Nakazawa "ignored all of

10836-524: The series director, in addition to creating the project. Kobayashi, Sasaki, Sanae Mitsugi and Hideki Goto were credited as planners and executive producers, and the producers were Takatoshi Hamano, Takashi Kochiyama and Tetsuro Satomi. The story was composed by Shinji Obara and Yukihiko Tsutsumi of Office Crescendo, with scripts written by Obara, Dai Satō , Touko Machida , Keiko Nobumoto , Seiko Takagi, Ryota Sugi, and Watanabe. Nakazawa wrote and storyboarded episode 15, being credited as Uwadan Shimofuwato in

10962-436: The series going. Reuben Baron of The Verge , writing in a 2021 article on Watanabe's work, called Samurai Champloo the director's second most popular work after Cowboy Bebop , citing its humor and themes as positives. The ambient soundtrack was ranked by IGN as tenth among their Top Ten Anime Themes and Soundtracks of All Time. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] )

11088-455: The series in 1999, creating the characters and premise during his work on Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and The Animatrix , and began pre-production in 2002. The staff included character designer and animation director Kazuto Nakazawa and writers Shinji Obara and Yukihiko Tsutsumi of Office Crescendo. The music was composed by hip hop artists Shinji "Tsutchie" Tsuchida of Shakkazombie , Fat Jon , Nujabes and Force of Nature . The production

11214-678: The series narrative, calling that approach both boring and "impossible". Instead, aside from the opening section, he created an original narrative using the central cast. The manga was collected in two tankōbon volumes, released on July 28 and October 26, 2004. A compilation of the two volumes was released on January 28, 2011. It was licensed for a North American release by Tokyopop . The volumes were released on November 8, 2005, and March 7, 2006. The volumes were released in Australia on February 15 and March 15, 2006. A companion book featuring artwork and interviews, Samurai Champloo Roman Album ,

11340-442: The series on DVD across seven volumes, with volume 2, 3 and 4 also releasing for Universal Media Disc . The volumes were released between January 11, 2005, and January 17, 2006. A complete set followed on July 4 of the same year. Samurai Champloo was among the anime licenses left open for acquisition when Geneon Entertainment ended anime distribution in 2007. Funimation picked up North American distribution rights in 2008, releasing

11466-492: The series pitch was individuality and finding one's unique identity. The series is set in Edo period Japan, roughly sixty years after the end of the Sengoku period . While a historical time period, the anime does not focus on historical detail beyond minor inclusions and references, mainly using contemporary-style dialogue and behavior. A conscious inclusion was emphasising cultural acceptance and tolerance of minorities including

11592-458: The series re-aired on Adult Swim through its Toonami programming block replacing Michiko & Hatchin starting on January 2, 2016. Samurai Champloo debuted in Canada on December 24, 2006, on the digital station Razer . In Australia, the first thirteen episodes were broadcast on SBS TV between March 23 and June 29, 2006. It debuted in mainland Asia through Animax on January 27, 2010. It

11718-480: The series' tone was far more serious, but after the first four episodes had been written, the staff were worried about the tone becoming bleak, prompting a greater focus on comedy. Several episodes incorporate references, homages, and parodies of popular media. The Japanese episode titles use four-character idioms referencing the theme of that episode's story. They drew from multiple sources, including Japanese and Western sayings (the first episode's title, "Shippu Doto",

11844-477: The series' voice actors and staff members. During the production of the second half of the series, it became increasingly difficult for Nakazawa to design all guest characters, resulting in Komori being brought in. Due to most of these characters being older men, when the early plan was for a young cast with several female characters, Komori felt disappointed by his workload. Maeda was brought on for weapon designs when

11970-537: The series. Nakazawa created the illustration use for sponsor announcements. Samurai Champloo was Obara's first time working on an anime series, and Watanabe attributed him with bringing a new style of narrative and pacing to the series. Sato had worked with Watanabe before on Macross Plus . He described the process of discussing plot concepts with Watanabe and building upon voiced ideas, treating his own contributions like sample discs that might be accepted or rejected. The script meetings were unusually long, beginning with

12096-408: The simple premise of the story, but enjoyed each episode's plot and praised the interactions of the main cast and its sense of style. Nick Browne of THEM Anime was less positive, faulting its weaker multi-episode stories and uneven treatment of serious cultural issues despite enjoying the humor born from its main cast. Salvan Bonaminio of The Escapist described the main cast as stereotypes, faulted

12222-416: The sound design of Cowboy Bebop . The fight scenes were choreographed to appear more realistic than other period dramas, which featured a clashing of swords which in reality would chip them. Unique eyecatch artwork was created for each episode based on its themes and content. Woodblock prints portraying the characters, designed by former shojo manga creator Tsubaki Anna, were shown at various points through

12348-439: The speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )

12474-817: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this

12600-481: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This

12726-498: The synopsis and ending up with the final form, alongside off-topic conversation that was sometimes incorporated into that episode's plot. Due to Watanabe's reputation and the success of his projects in the West, the anime was created with a Western audience in mind with the expectation that it would be more successful outside Japan. This resulted in more overt references to Western culture being included. An assassin character who appeared in

12852-555: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Shinichir%C5%8D Watanabe Watanabe

12978-503: The town's corrupt prefect. The outlaw Mugen arrives in town, and Fuu begs him for protection, which he gives in exchange for food. Meanwhile, the ronin Jin, also a new arrival, kills the prefect's bodyguards when they abuse a peasant, ending up in conflict with Mugen when the latter mistakes him for one of the prefect's men. The two's fight ends up destroying the teahouse. The pair are captured and sentenced to death, but Fuu saves them. The pair attempt to restart their battle, but Fuu tosses

13104-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,

13230-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of

13356-480: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It

13482-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending

13608-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or

13734-509: Was "San Francisco", licensed from the rapper band Midicronica . The Music of Samurai Champloo was released across four CDs during 2004 by Victor Entertainment under their JVC label. The first two, "Masta" and "Departure", were released on June 23. "Departure" focuses on tracks by Nujabes and Fat Jon alongside Minmi's main ending theme, while "Masta" includes work from FORCE OF NATURE and Tsutchie including "You". The next two, "Playlist" and "Impression", were released on September 22. "Playlist"

13860-514: Was also licensed for English releases in the United Kingdom by MVM Films , and in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment . A manga adaptation was serialized in Monthly Shōnen Ace during 2004, later released in North America by Tokyopop the following year. The series is set in a fictionalized version of Edo period Japan, blending traditional elements with anachronistic cultural references, including hip hop . The series follows

13986-526: Was attributed to the working environment of Manglobe allowing for easy communication between staff members, and Watanabe's passion for the project prompting famous staff from other notable anime projects to come on board. The non-standard style of production left some members of staff including Sasaki skeptical that the series would be finished. For the sound mixing, Watanabe wanted the same approach and quality as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie , bringing in sound engineer Masashi Yabuhara who had worked with Yoko Kanno on

14112-539: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular

14238-479: Was born in Kyoto . After joining the Japanese animation studio Sunrise , he supervised the episode direction and storyboards of numerous Sunrise anime, and soon made his directorial debut as co-director of the well-received Macross update, Macross Plus . His next effort, and first full directorial venture, was the 1998 series Cowboy Bebop , which received universal praise and is considered by many to be one of

14364-473: Was collaboratively composed by Shinji "Tsutchie" Tsuchida of Shakkazombie , Fat Jon , Nujabes and Force of Nature . All were artists from the hip hop music genre, with Tsutchie being a friend of Watanabe. A number of guest artists contributed to different episodes. The opening theme "Battlecry" was composed by Nujabes, with Shing02 singing and writing the lyrics. The ending themes were created by Minmi , Kazami, and Azuma Riki. The final episode's ending theme

14490-450: Was created by Watanabe in 1999, then known for his work on Cowboy Bebop . He wanted to create a series antithetical to the largely calm and mature atmosphere of Cowboy Bebop , wanting a complete change due to fatigue after working on one project for such a long period. The success of Cowboy Bebop meant he was permitted to develop whatever he wanted for his next project. As with his other projects, he drew inspiration from music, then matched

14616-567: Was dedicated entirely to work by Tsutchie, including "Fly". "Impression" bundles tracks by Nujabes, Fat Jon and Force of Nature, alongside the theme "Who's Theme". Samurai Champloo was first revealed through a magazine spread in the September 2003 issue of Newtype , and it premiered on Fuji TV on May 20, 2004. The series ran for seventeen episodes on the network until September 23, 2004, when they decided to cancel its broadcast. The series resumed airing on Fuji Network System , referred to as

14742-412: Was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Bandai Namco Games in Japan and North America in 2006. It tells a storyline separate from the series, described by the publisher as a "lost episode". Company founder Goichi Suda acted as its director and writer, with Grasshopper's mandate being to preserve the series' original tone and style. The music was composed by Masafumi Takada , inspired by

14868-410: Was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on Viceland in partnership with Anime Limited beginning on August 22, 2017, in its early morning slot. It formed part of a new anime-focused block alongside other series including Cowboy Bebop and Tokyo Ghoul . The series was added to the online library of Crunchyroll in 2016. Following Sony 's acquisition of Crunchyroll and merger with Funimation under

14994-574: Was founded in February 2002, and Watanabe sent the Samurai Champloo pitch in May of that year. The pitch included the central concepts for the series, and draft designs for the lead characters. Watanabe invited Nakazawa on board as he was a fan of his work and wanted the opportunity to work with him. Obara, known more for his work on live-action movies and television dramas, was brought in through

15120-680: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,

15246-474: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )

15372-490: Was published by Tokuma Shoten on June 6, 2005, and reissued in May 2014. An English edition was published by Dark Horse Comics on February 21, 2007. A film comic adaptation of the opening episodes, intended to be the start of a series, was co-published in 2006 by Bandai Entertainment and Diamond Comics . American company Triad Toys licensed toy rights from Geneon in 2008, releasing figures of Mugen and Jin. An action video game adaptation, Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked ,

15498-563: Was re-released as a complete collection on September 3, 2007. It was released in mainland Asia by Singapore-based Odex on Video CD across two volumes in 2006, featuring Japanese and English audio and English subtitles. Madman Entertainment released the series as a complete collection for Blu-ray on June 15, 2011. A manga adaptation written by Masaru Gotsubo was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten 's Monthly Shōnen Ace from January 26, 2004, to September 25. Gotsubo decided not to follow

15624-400: Was reported that Watanabe was collaborating with anime studio BONES on a space science-fiction comedy. BONES subsequently confirmed that the studio was working with Watanabe, but did not confirm the genre of the series. In late 2013, the original trailers for Space Dandy were released to the public. The dubbed version premiered on Adult Swim on its Toonami block on January 4, 2014 in

15750-406: Was unknown to Watanabe during the early stages. Due to this approach, pre-production on the series lasted a year. Watanabe had a great deal of creative control and input, including on music selection and editing. The first episode took a long time to polish, being completed around the beginning of 2004, but it and subsequent episodes had an animation quality higher than other series of the time. This

15876-400: Was unstructured, with the scenario going through multiple revisions, and Watanabe bringing in multiple guest creators to ensure a high animation quality. Reception of the series has been positive, with praise focusing on its animation and music, and proved a commercial success in the West. Samurai Champloo opens in a small town where Fuu, working as a tea waitress , is harassed by the son of

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