Search - Afro Samurai: Season One - Director's Cut [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

Style vs. Substance

Matt Bloom | Livonia, Michigan United States | 05/25/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Alright, so Afro Samurai set out to answer the age old question: "If you take an insanely high animation budget, a breathtaking soundtrack, spectacularly choreography fight scenes, and a well-known actor and combine it with a plot that's ludicrously stupid, will the result still be cool?" The answer is yeah... but barely. As the pinnacle of simplistic action samurai movies, this will not disappoint. In ever other way it does. Sadly, just some minimal dialogue edits could have down wonders for the overall story.
So I will assume you both saw the show on Spike TV or Youtube, and still wish to purchase the series. You are now wondering "Is the extra 15 minutes worth double the price of the edited DVDs?" No, not really; however, it does improve the story in the last 2 episodes. Here is a basic breakdown of what you missed on TV.
All the episodes contain small cuts of slightly more excessive gore, a few f-bombs, and long shots of scenery. Small snippets of dialogue were also cut here and there, especially the ninja's.
Episode one- A fallen warrior that just collapses in the edited version gives a really long speech before dropping in the uncut. The bar patrons bicker and threaten each other and a mini fight break out. The Empty Seven talk a bit more about their plans. Overall, I prefer the edited version of this episode. The dead guy talked way too long about Afro's legend and the dialogue seemed really corny and fake. The bar scene makes the whole town appear violent and psychotic. The scene where the Empty Seven talks expands their background, but their story is severely lacking and the more you show the emptier they feel.
Episode two has some additional scenes of Afro in the orphanage that was useful to the story. In a fairly boring scene, we see Afro's first taste of lemonade. There was also a sort of cute but short scene of Afro hanging out with his girl while Kuma learns about sword fighting. Nothing spectacular was cut. There is still no more explanation for how she can read dreams. Ninja Ninja is also slightly more vulgar. You see a few quick shots of the chick's [...] in an expanded sex, shower, and death scene.
Episode 3-Well we learns why the Empty Seven decided to have Afro Droid fight their other assassins. Mostly, just talking was cut. The Empty Seven battle is the same expect we see Number 3 offer Afro tea, and he just walks by.
Episode four-Okay, so important story parts were edited out here. There are some additional scenes in the orphanage where Kuma's own theories help shape Afro's decision. There's a scene were all the kids say what they would like to do before dying, and the girl says see some fireworks. Kuma also tries to persuade Afro to leave the bandanas alone, but fails.
Episode 5-We also see some more of what happened to Kuma after falling off the cliff and getting rebuilt. These scenes were probably wise to cut because they only continue to make Kuma a more sympathetic character than Afro. There is a bunch of additional dialogue regarding Justice, his goals and dreams, and the power of the bandanas. These are really important scenes that should have not been edited out. There were also a few shots of how Afro reached him, and how Justice revived his body to fight Afro. There is a SLIGHTLY expanded ending, but it really adds nothing to the story.
The extras on the second disc total 40 minutes and could easily fit onto the first DVD. The extras are mildly interesting, but if you miss them it doesn't really matter. I think this was included just to try to convince you to shell out the extra bucks.
Are these extra scenes worth the additional $15? No. The entire series, uncut, is only worth about $[...], which is the typical Ebay price.
O, and in case you're wondering, there is no Japanese audio track because this series was made in America. No Japanese language version exists.
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