r/samuraijack • u/ckret2 • 14h ago
If you could show people ONE episode to help them figure out whether or not they'd enjoy Samurai Jack, which would it be?
I know a few folks considering watching because I keep talking about the show, but are wary because they think the show as a whole might be pretty different from the show I make it sound like. (And they're right. I won't shut up about Scaramouche.) So I'd like to be able to say "Just watch episode [XYZ] and if you're interested, you might like the whole show."
Note that the point here is to help someone decide IF they want to see it, not to CONVINCE them to see it. If you wanted to CONVINCE them to see it, you'd probably show them one of the best episodes—but if they only watched the show on the basis of the very best, the rest of the show would be inferior in comparison, right?
So, instead, what would you show them if your goal was "if you enjoyed this, then you'd probably enjoy the rest of the series too"?
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u/ckret2 14h ago
My own answer:
My first thought is Jack Under The Sea.
- it's a season 1 episode so more representative of what a new viewer will run into first
- it's probably the most common plot in the show (Jack tries to find a time portal, fails, but makes weird friends along the way)
- it also shows a few common plot tropes (Aku is thwarted by being too evil for his own good. Jack is The Only One who can defeat Aku, thanks to his sword. Jack gets excited about little things that remind him of home. The oppressed people gain hope and strength from Jack.)
- it shows some of the show's odd balance of mythical fantasy & grungy sci-fi
- it's one of those episodes that's good enough that you'd tolerate some of the worse eps to see more like this one, but not so stand-out-from-the-pack good that a new viewer would be disappointed there aren't more episodes like it.
- it has a bit of Aku, so a new viewer can see him and his personality in action, but it's not Aku-centric. The first 2/3 of the episode are "this is what the episodes where Aku DOESN'T show up feel like" and the last 1/3 is "this is what it feels like when he DOES show up."
But I wanna hear other people's thoughts too.
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u/Grouchy-Editor577 14h ago edited 14h ago
I'd say either the 3 Blind Archers or the Ultra Bot episode. Samurai Jack is renowned for how it lets scenes sit and sink in, often with very little dialogue, letting the visuals guide you along, and then rewarding your patience with a super intense action scene at the climax. Both of these episodes follow this formula pretty closely, and the Ultra Bot episode is a good example of how dark the show is willing to get despite being "for kids". So if a newbie has the patience and appreciation for that sort of style and enjoys those episodes, then I'd say that's a good sign.
I actually recently got a co-worker into the show, though he pretty much watched it in episodic order from The Beginning (honestly, the pilot IS a great start), but now that he's finished it, he did point to the episodes I suggest as some of his favorites/most memorable.
I'd also maybe throw in Jack vs Demongo as a brief introduction to Aku.
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u/ckret2 14h ago
Good choices. On the one hand I'm inclined to tilt toward the Ultra Bots over 3 Blind Archers, since you get both those long visual sequences AND robots AND a couple Aku cameos; buuut on the other hand Ultra Bots is one of my favorite episodes so I may be biased.
The pilot's an excellent start to the story, but I wonder whether it's a good representation of what the show's like as a whole, given that the whole first episode happens in the past and then we leave the past completely except for like two episodes and some flashbacks. But once someone's decided "yeah I wanna give the whole show a go" I'd definitely say watch in order from the start.
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u/Grouchy-Editor577 13h ago
I'm also leaning more toward the Ultra Bots episode for those reasons.
I do kinda wish we got more episodes from the past like Jack and the Scarab and Jack in Africa.
I've had this faint idea in mind of a teen/young adult Jack rebelling a bit against his training, yearning for some "normalcy" and having a Princess Jasmine moment "maybe I don't wanna BE the ultimate warrior anymore!". Have the weight of the literal world on his shoulders break him a little bit, have doubts about whether he'll be able to really do it, his anger and trauma getting the better of him, then see how he overcomes it.
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u/Sort-International 12h ago
I really like the episode when he got turned to a chicken, or the one when the bounty hunters make a team and a plan to kill jack, but they fail miserably
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u/Equivalent-Wealth-75 3h ago
Cold-dropping someone into Chicken Jack!?
That you Aku? Because that is evil XD
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u/-Pl4gu3- 12h ago
Minions of Set honestly.
Has great villains.
Has Jack’s fighting spirit.
Shows he’s not [TITLE CARD].
Teases the time portals with him asking Ra for one.
Has scenes with young Jack.
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u/No-Exit3993 10h ago
Jack and the spartans.
The last fight is too iconic, having Jack with shields and not the sword.
The ending hits different, like Mad Max 2s ending.
It is too memorable to not be it.
I binge watched them all last month and, apart from the first three and one here and there, it was the one I remembered. It was the one I was waiting for and telling my wife about, that she would love it (she did). I had almost zero knowledge of spartans back in the day and I just loved it as well.
Back in the day, I only got to see the first two seasons (it took me a quarter of a century to finish the show), and I remember my brother, after this episode, saying "you know, this show is really amazing".
Yes, yes it was. It is.
When we lost cable tv, I just knew I would finish this show someday. Because of this ep.
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u/Relevant-Werewolf-12 7h ago
Jack and the Zombies. Way too intense but 3 blind archers is a classic too.
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u/KeeperOfAngelsNorth 4h ago
Blind Archers was the first episode that I stumbled into and I was instant hooked. The visual poetry, the soundscape, the languid use of time were riveting. It was folk tale and epic myth.
I couldn't shut up about it either which my friends found pretty strange. I was a professional man in my 40s and they couldn't understand why I was watching cartoons. My insistence that it was a higher form of art was met with broad scepticism.
Having said that, anyone who watches the whole extended first episode and isn't hooked, it might not be for them.
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u/Equivalent-Wealth-75 3h ago
There are so many; it's difficult to narrow it down to one.
If I had to pick just the one then it would be Jack and the Three Blind Archers. You get a nice balance of Samurai Jack's attributes as a show, and the art and animation quality had yet to go berserk.
Two alternative options are The Four Seasons of Death and The Princess and the Bounty Hunters. Neither ties directly into any other plots (and so don't expect you to really know anything) and both put the quiet and artsy storytelling style on full display.
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u/ConvictCurt 1h ago
Jack and the Woman. The one where Aku was masquerading as a woman and working with jack was just cool.
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u/surfndaweb 14h ago
First episode of season 5
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u/ckret2 13h ago
Interesting choice. My first thought wouldn't have been a s5 ep, given how the show tone & structure changes.
(Though I fear the people I've accidentally sold on the show by talking about Scaramouche would be disappointed when the rest of the show doesn't feature him nearly as much as s5e1, lol.)
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u/dognose123 14h ago
Either Jack and the 3 blind archers or Jack and the Spartans. Both episodes have just about all of the elements that made the show what it was.