20 Years of ‘Samurai Champloo,’ the Best Hip-Hop Anime Ever Made
The influential series opened the door to a world where rap and anime are more intertwined than ever.
The first time I watched Samurai Champloo, it wasn’t the visuals or the story that grabbed my attention. It was the beats.
As a high schooler in the late 2000s, I stumbled across the show’s last episode on YouTube. And before I could get a grip on what the hell was happening—why was one samurai mashing another samurai’s hand into rocks and whining about revenge?—thudding drums and a maudlin piano loop started to dance on my eardrums. The soundtrack matched the action perfectly, with the low end booming when feet connected with faces, and the piano line—dripping with a slight tinge of dread—mirroring the tension of the fight.
At that point, my palette for anime was just beginning to expand, and I’d only seen a handful of touchstones like Dragonball Z, Ghost in the Shell, and Big O. But anime set to rap music? For a kid already entrenched in hip-hop culture, that was completely new—and wildly exciting. I rewatched the scene dozens of times, losing myself in the beat for hours.
With Samurai Champloo celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and with its four soundtrack albums being reissued on vinyl and finding their way to streaming services, I was inspired to revisit the series. Whereas the anachronistic blend of music, action, and humor had me locked in as a kid, the rewatch made me realize that Champloo embodies the entirety of hip-hop culture more than any other anime before or since.
