Posted 4 September 2018<\/p>\n
“Got to get back…back to the past…Samurai Jack”<\/strong><\/p>\n And with a deep breath, I began watching season 5 on August 15th. I finished on August 21st. I was reluctant to begin watching due to the many opinions about season 5 by the people of the internet. It was up to me to make my own opinions.<\/span><\/p>\n Back in 2017, something happened that Samurai Jack fans thought would never happen. The show returned as a 10-episode miniseries on Adult Swim and it actually concluded Jack\u2019s quest years after the show ended in 2004. <\/span><\/p>\n Coming to you with fresh, sleek HD animation, after fighting with each other for fifty years, Aku destroys all the time portals and gives up attempting to fight Jack. Jack has lost his sword and hallucinations of the people he has let down plague him. He eventually meets Ashi, a daughter of Aku, who turns to his good side and creates a time portal to the past so he can finish destroying Aku, restoring peace back into the world.<\/span><\/p>\n In order for this season to make sense, you MUST (can\u2019t stress this enough) watch seasons 1-4. Unlike those previous seasons, these episodes are NOT self-contained like the earlier seasons so you must watch each episodes sequentially. Much of the old crew returns for season 5 such as Genndy himself and Phil LaMarr once again reprising his role as Jack. There were also some new people as well such as a new music person, Tyler Bates (who also did music for Sym-Bionic Titan) and a new voice for Aku, replacing Mako (Greg Baldwin). It\u2019s easy to see why this new season was on Adult Swim and not the regular Cartoon Network. The main audience who watched \u201cJack\u201d in the past are now grown up and are now part of Adult Swim\u2019s target audience. Also, it definitely would be too dark and bloody compared to CN\u2019s other modern programming. With all the blood shown in this season, kids do not want to see huge amounts of the blood that could have been used to save lives at a blood drive.<\/span><\/p>\n Whenever I watch the old opening, I think about how it might have been like being a Cartoon Network kid in 2001 (before Adult Swim took over prime time). Without knowing much about the show\u2019s broadcast time slot history, as the intro begins, it makes me think of the older child whose parents allowed him to stay up past his bedtime as a reward for a job well done in whatever. Whenever I watch the new intro, I think of that same child is watching the season 5 as a grown up. It\u2019s not as classic-feeling as the old intro but I just love the new artwork in it. It makes sense to have Jack narrate the intro. Despite the feeling of hopelessness in this intro, he will finish what Aku started. Jack narrates the last season of what\u2019s to be finished whereas Aku narrates the first seasons, narrating about what he had started.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve just been a fan of this show for nearly two months as of writing this. Yes, I still have much to learn about the deeper parts of this show but for now it is enough to express my appreciation for the fact that this show now has a proper ending. I wanted to see Jack and Ashi\u2019s relationship further evolve. I\u2019m sure there was a good reason why they had to rush the ending especially due to time constraints, low budget, etcetera. It probably wasn\u2019t the ending that everybody wanted but it was an ending nonetheless after leaving fans hanging for over a decade. For a rating, despite this season\/show having its ups and downs, everything gets <\/span>all 5 of my stars<\/span>. I have no regrets. Every second of this show MUST be watched.<\/span><\/p>\n There have been other times I have started this show but couldn\u2019t go very far due to time or availability of episodes. I found these 62 episodes of Samurai Jack and committed myself to watching every single one. It was a real delight to come home from work and watch my two episodes for the day. I cried tears of joy and uncertainty when I finished watching the final episode. This show is one of those at the top of my list of good animations. It will be pretty difficult to match the quality of Samurai Jack. I\u2019m sure I might find something with similar quality somewhere even if takes years to find it. <\/span><\/p>\n I have an idea on what to watch next. I will post about it when I start watching on Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n Thanks for reading this entire review. I just had so much to say.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Posted 4 September 2018 “Got to get back…back to the past…Samurai Jack” And with a deep breath, I began watching season 5 on August 15th. I finished on August 21st. I was reluctant to begin watching due to the many opinions about season 5 by the people of the internet. It was up to me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-have-watched","category-review","category-revival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoricadesigns.com\/vicsreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoricadesigns.com\/vicsreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoricadesigns.com\/vicsreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoricadesigns.com\/vicsreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoricadesigns.com\/vicsreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/victoricadesigns.com\/vicsreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"https:\/\/victoricadesigns.com\/vicsreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoricadesigns.com\/vicsreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoricadesigns.com\/vicsreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoricadesigns.com\/vicsreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What Happened?<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Observations<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Thoughts about New Opening<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Notable Episodes<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Episode XCVII (Episode 6)<\/strong> –\u00a0<\/span>This was when Ashi was searching for Jack and meets the many grateful people who Jack has helped. By this episode, the obviousness of this show being on Adult Swim gets its cake icing. I hear three \u201cbad words\u201d in this ep that were unheard in the earlier seasons: \u201cdamn,\u201d \u201chell,\u201d and…uh…let\u2019s say it surprises me that even as a robot, Scaramouche knows his parts of the male anatomy. <\/span><\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
Episode XCVIII (Episode 7) (or my name for it, the \u201cDirty Mind Test\u201d)<\/strong> –\u00a0<\/span>Everything we suspected about a rapidly growing relationship between Jack and Ashi are confirmed in this episode. Since this was on Adult Swim, the writers made use of the fact by adding more adult humor when they hint about the couple\u2019s feelings for each other. For one \u201cdirty mind\u201d instance, look at Jack\u2019s head when it turns into a fish. At the end of the episode, Jack and Ashi kiss with the Dean Martin\u2019s \u201cEverybody Loves Somebody\u201d in the background. Rewatch this episode to see what I mean about \u201cdirty mind test.\u201d<\/span><\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
Episodes CI (Episode 10)<\/strong> –\u00a0<\/span>Here\u2019s the ending for which fans have been waiting 13 years. Jack\u2019s quest ends when he goes back in time through a time portal made by Ashi who goes with him, destroys Aku, and liberates the world from his rule. As Jack and Ashi were about to wed, Ashi doesn\u2019t die but fades away in Jack\u2019s arms on her way to the altar (if she really <\/span>died<\/span><\/i> there would be a leftover body, but there wasn\u2019t). Since Aku no longer exists, she wouldn\u2019t have existed either. <\/span><\/h6>\n
<\/h5>\n
Verdict about Season 5<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Closing Thoughts<\/strong><\/h5>\n