Samurai Jack

***Samurai Jack*** is an American action-adventure animated series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network. It follows "Jack", an unnamed[a 1] Japanese samurai who, after nearly defeating the ultimate evil being known as Aku, using a magic katana capable of cutting through virtually anything, is sent forward in time by him to a dystopian future ruled by the tyrannical shape-shifting demon. Jack, who is brought to the future with only his robe, sandals, and the sword, quests to travel back to his own time and defeat Aku before he can take over the world. Jack's search for a way back to his own time period transcends Aku's control, but Jack's efforts are largely in vain due to the ways back to his home being just out of his reach.

Tartakovsky conceived *Samurai Jack* after finishing his work on his first Cartoon Network original series, *Dexter's Laboratory*, which premiered in 1996. *Samurai Jack* was inspired by Tartakovsky's enjoyment of the *Kung Fu* televised drama starring David Carradine as well as his fascination with samurai culture. On August 10, 2001, *Samurai Jack* premiered with a three-part made-for-TV movie called *The Premiere Movie*. It ran for four seasons consisting of thirteen episodes apiece until September 25, 2004, without concluding the story. A revival was produced twelve years later, resulting in a fifth season that provided a conclusion to the overarching story. The fifth season premiered on Adult Swim's Toonami block on March 11, 2017, and the final episode, which served as the series finale, aired on May 20, 2017. *Samurai Jack* episodes are directed by Tartakovsky, often in collaboration with others.

The series has garnered critical acclaim, and won eight Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Animated Program, as well as six Annie Awards and an OIAF Award.

## Plot

*Samurai Jack* tells the story of a young prince (Jack) from Feudal Japan whose father's empire is destroyed by the shape shifting demon Aku. As a child, the prince escapes destruction and travels the world training his mind and his body for years until he reaches adulthood, becoming a legendary samurai. After taking his father's magic katana, he challenges Aku to a duel and defeats the demon. However, before the prince can deal the killing blow, Aku creates a time portal and sends his opponent into the distant future, anticipating that he would be able to amass sufficient power to deal with the samurai later. The protagonist arrives in a dystopian, futuristic Earth ruled by Aku and filled with his robot minions and a large number of alien immigrant races of various species and appearances. The first people he encounters in the future call him "Jack" as a form of slang, which he adopts as his name (his true given name is never mentioned in the series)

Standard episodes follow Jack's search for a way to travel back to his own time, where he hopes to stop Aku before these events come to pass. The cartoon depicts Jack's quest to find a time portal, while constantly facing obstacles set by Aku in a classic battle of Good versus Evil. Typically each time Jack believes he has reached the end of his quest, something causes him to dramatically miss his chance. In one attempt Jack locates a stable portal to the past, but the guardian of the portal defeats him after a long but noticeably mismatched battle. The guardian is about to crush Jack when the portal starts to flicker and glow, seemingly giving the guardian a message; the guardian then has a giant pterodactyl take the unconscious Jack away. After Jack leaves, the guardian states that it is not yet time for him to return to the past, and an image of what is implied to be an older Jack is then seen in the portal; indicating that Jack is predestined to succeed, but it will take years for him to do so.

The final season takes place 50 years after Jack has been cast into the future, though he has not aged as a side effect of his time travel. Jack is in despair from the many years of fighting Aku and from Aku's destruction of all the remaining time portals; he is haunted by warped visions of himself, his family and an enigmatic warrior on horseback. Jack lost his father's magic sword; Aku is unaware of this fact, and has started to give up hope of ever defeating Jack, especially since Jack has stopped aging. Ashi and her sisters are raised by an Aku-worshiping cult to be assassins whose purpose is to kill Jack. They attack Jack and gravely injure him, but at their next encounter he kills them all except Ashi. Jack persuades Ashi that Aku is evil, and she joins Jack and helps him reclaim his sword. The two become romantically involved as they journey to defeat Aku. Aku is informed that Jack lost his sword and confronts him, not knowing Jack has recovered it in the interim. Aku senses that Ashi has part of him inside her, and possesses her body to attack Jack. Jack refuses to kill Ashi, and lays down his sword in defeat. Aku takes Jack prisoner and prepares to kill him, but the people Jack helped all over the planet rally to his defense. When Jack tells Ashi that he loves her, she regains control of her mind. Ashi finds that she has the same powers as Aku and uses them to return the sword to Jack, and open a time portal to send Jack and herself to the past, where Jack destroys Aku once and for all. With peace restored and the future of Aku's rule undone, Jack prepares to marry Ashi, but she fades away as she says "without Aku, I would have never existed." The series closes with Jack secluded in a sun-lit grove of flowering trees, watching a ladybug fly free.

## Setting

*Samurai Jack* takes place in a world where the evil Aku has taken over the entire galaxy. Science and technology have developed far beyond what is available in the present day, and in some ways resembles magic. However, despite scientific advances, the future is decidedly dystopian—for example, in one episode the mafia profits greatly from the sale of simple water. Aliens, bounty hunters, and robots are plentiful, and always ready for a fight.

While the setting is distinctly futuristic and technological, instances of mythology and supernatural events do occur. Mythologies, like Valhalla, and even supernatural forces, such as demonic enemies, make regular appearances, yet do not seem to stand out amongst the technologically advanced inhabitants. Aku himself is supernatural, as is Jack's sword.

Stories take place in a variety of locations. Ranging from beautiful wilderness to futuristic or even dystopian cities, there is often a stark contrast made between the industrial world and the natural world.

## Characters

**Samurai Jack** — The son of the Japanese Emperor who ruled the area where Aku originally appeared on Earth, and is banished to the future by Aku during their first battle, where he is left in every episode to search for a way home. He was born on the day that his father defeated Aku and he seems to be the only mortal (aside from his father) to be a match to Aku.

As a boy, after his father was captured by Aku, Jack traveled around the world to prepare both physically and mentally for his confrontation with Aku. He studied under various scholars, such as Egyptian thinkers, and mastered each art of combat from the cultures he met, training with African Zulu warriors, Viking sailors, Robin Hood, Mongolian warriors, Shaolin monks, Greek Olympic contestants, Spartans, Russian Cossacks, and others.

Later, after being sent into the future, he is taught the ability to jump hundreds of feet into the air by a species of blue gorilla and a jungle man, thus allowing him to reach vast areas he previously could not reach while also giving the impression that he can fly. Jack's magic katana was forged by the gods Odin, Ra, and Rama through three mortal avatars. The sword was forged from the righteous energy within Jack's father; it is able to cut through all but the most magically-protected targets and strongest materials. On the other hand, it is unable to harm beings that are pure of heart, as seen in Episode XXX where Aku steals the sword and attempts to kill Jack with it, but fails even to cut him.

Jack strongly exhibits the characteristics of a stoic hero. He is unfailingly polite and humble despite the completely alien nature of the futuristic world and never scoffs at or disparages the customs of the people he encounters (as unpleasant as they seem to him at times). Despite his almost hopeless situation, he does not bewail his destiny, instead exhibiting a strong *amor fati*. Jack consistently shows an uncommon moral strength of character by helping the poor and defenseless along the way, in one instance even helping talking dogs that worked for Aku, in another, releasing the souls of a family in a haunted mansion. Occasionally, he faces great physical pain, or has to forget his own goals in order to help someone in need.

His real name has never been revealed, in the second episode however, he began using the name Jack when three teenage aliens, after witnessing Jack survive a huge fall by jumping onto cars, referred to him as Jack while praising him when he landed — in this case, more of a generic term, i.e. "dude" or "guy." Later, when asked to identify himself, he replied "*They call me Jack.*"

**Aku** — Samurai Jack's arch-nemesis. His name means "evil" in Japanese. He is similar to Akuma, the evil demon with burning eyes from Japanese mythology. He is an extremely powerful demon wizard whose primary ability is shape-shifting, though he does possess other powers. He requires no food, water, or air and is capable of interstellar travel. He also has the ability to spy on Jack and others from a large sphere he can summon at will in his tower. A significant aspect of the series is that Aku is immortal, and Jack's samurai sword is the only weapon capable of harming and finally defeating him; even the slightest physical contact with the sword's blade causes Aku severe pain, and wounds inflicted by it burn his body and cut away his power. Because of this threat, Aku does not like to fight Jack himself, and only does so when Jack is incapacitated or without the sword. Aku much prefers to let his minions and bounty hunters do it for him. Aku is also vulnerable to varying degrees of other forms of magical or divine attacks such as the powers and artifacts of gods.

Aku constantly antagonizes Jack, often attacking him while he is weak, and other times defending himself from Jack's own gambits. The two seem doomed never to defeat each other, for though Jack has bested Aku on numerous occasions, Aku merely transforms into a small creature and escapes, usually calling out a taunt over his shoulder as he flees, a fact that he himself is aware of and even makes a reference to in one episode.

The episode "The Birth of Evil" reveals Aku's origin. Long ago in the vastness of space, a great formless evil appeared. Before the darkness could do harm to the universe, it was set upon by the kings of three religions: the one-eyed king of Asgard Odin, the Norse Gods Ra, the sun god and king of the Gods of Egypt and the seventh avatar of Vishnu Rama, the supreme being in Hindu mythology. So fierce was their attack on the shadow, that it was completely destroyed, save for a small fragment that was flung aside in the heat of battle. For ages, the fragment drifted through the cosmos and eventually fell to Earth, and caused the impact event that wiped out the dinosaurs when it landed. The land around its impact site eventually formed into the islands of Japan, where the evil fragment slowly grew like a forest and spread like poison over the course of eons, creating an ever-expanding mass of black spikes and toxic tar that devoured and poisoned any who entered. Eventually, the forest grew so large that the Emperor of the land decided to kill the evil at its source. Armed with a magic oil given to him by Buddhist monks, the Lord and his cavalry rode into the heart of the forest, the Lord himself the only one to survive. Once at the black lake at the forest's center, the Samurai Lord doused an arrow into the oil he was given, lit it with a green flame, and shot it into the lake. Instead of destroying the evil, however, the magic arrow gave it both a will and consciousness, and the demon wizard Aku was born. Aku went on a rampage of destruction, burning and killing. He proved to be unstoppable, so with the help of the three gods, Jack's father forged a sword capable of harming him. With it, he was able to defeat Aku and turned the demon back into a black tree. This imprisonment was only temporary, as years later, a solar eclipse releases Aku upon the world once more.

While he is usually presented as a serious and threatening foe, Aku is also a source of comedy due to his outrageous design and sometimes wise-guy behavior, supported by Mako's over-the-top voice acting. Aku's shifts in personality between serious and chaotic suggest that his mind changes form just as his body does. In addition, Aku has a tendency to refer to himself in the third person.

**Ashi** — Ashi is a character that appears in the 5th season of *Samurai Jack*. At first She appears as an antagonist to Jack but as the season goes on she becomes an ally. She was born and raised as a member of the Daughters of Aku, seven sisters who served as assassins attempting to kill Jack. She would later become the only surviving member and unwillingly accompany Jack. It was only later that she came to have doubts about Aku's true nature after Jack saves her life and she sees for herself the destruction Aku has unleashed on the world.

Ashi and Jack eventually fall in love with each other towards the end of the 5th season. Eventually, after meeting Aku in person, it is revealed that Aku was her biological father, after which he corrupts her unwillingly into his service. As a human-demon hybrid, she has the ability to use some demonic powers, similar to Akus. These powers included the ability to help transport Jack back to the past to defeat Aku.