Samurai Jack was never really made for toddlers, but it still had flamboyance and outlandish characters like The Scotsman, the talking dogs, and Aku himself. Where this sometimes falters is when it needs to remind us that it is a cartoon with cheeky comedic moments. Even the opening credits - once of Aku reciting the legend of how he flung his nemesis through a time portal to the future - is now told from Jack’s perspective, reinforcing a more psychological story. Instead, the emphasis is on Jack’s decaying mind, his waning will. Yes, there is plenty of blood, but it’s not over used. But Tartakovsky isn’t much interested in blood and guts. The fans who were wooed by the show’s artistry are older, and because Samurai Jack is now in a later time spot on Adult Swim, rather than the kid-friendly afternoon block, the tone can accommodate more mature material. But, suffice to say, this is some pretty serious stuff - and it gets more brutal from there. His hair pinned back in a bun, the pale-skinned figure screams, “How much longer can you keep this up?” All of this is in the trailer, so I’m not spoiling anything. Though representative of Tartakovsky’s cinematic sensibilities, the vivid animation is shattered when an apparition appears to him, wreathing in flame and shouting, “You have forgotten your purpose!” He’s later haunted again, this time by a ghostly form that appears as Jack’s former self. He also doesn’t age, so he’s been living for years without death’s release. But Jack still can’t find a way back to his own time, so he can’t reunite with his family. Aku still rules the earth (now with a few more interesting followers). On the surface, everything looks exactly where we left it: the signature animation style makes a comeback (albeit with sleeker lines and richer colors), and the visuals still hold more authority than the dialogue. More than 12 years have passed since the Season 4 finale, but for Jack it’s been 50.
Image via Adult Swim, Cartoon Network Studios He stares into the crashing waves below, despaired. So even without the new season’s brief logline, we need only look at the opening image of the trailer to get a sense of what’s been happening in Jack’s world: the samurai is standing at the edge of a cliff, with only his shadowed silhouette visible from a distance as the wind tosses back his un-cinched hair. They’re bold, they’re evocative, they tell stories, they are frozen moments in time. But compared to what viewers have been through, Jack himself has had it much, much worse.Īn image is worth a thousand words, and the frames in Samurai Jack have always had a tendency to knock you on your ass. Now, Jack is back in the form of a 10-episode fifth season that’ll finally give fans the conclusion they’ve been aching for. Creator Genndy Tartakovsky was able to keep hope alive that he would one day revisit Samurai Jack with a movie, but it seemed trapped in development hell.
#WATCH SAMURAI JACK SEASON 4 EPISODE 5 SERIES#
That day became the unexpected series finale, and the following years weren’t that much kinder to viewers. It was Septemwhen the Season 4 finale saw the warrior reuniting a lost infant with its mother before walking off towards the horizon, continuing his pursuit of the shapeshifting demon Aku - only he didn’t.