Samurai Champloo, Volume 3 (Episodes 9-12)
Mugen, Jin, and Fuu careen through time and cultures like pool balls on a wild carom as Shinchiro Watanabe'sSamurai Champloocontinues. In the accompanying notes, writer Dai Sato comments that he and Watanabe "like counterculture and rebellious music." No wonder Mugen stumbles onto an anti-government cabal of medieval warrior-priests--and shares a Jimi Hendrix song with them. In the darker episode 11, taciturn Jin falls for a woman who has been sold into prostitution to pay her husband's gambling debts. Mugen and Jin finally realize that they're getting no closer to finding the mysterious "samurai who smells of sunflowers," so they take advantage of a lull to read Fuu's diary. Her blunt comments about their looks, demeanor, and behavior don't please her prying companions, but they add a dose of humor to an episode comprised of flashbacks. (Rated 16 and older: violence, profanity, brief nudity, sexual situations, alcohol and tobacco use)--Charles Solomon