Summary
- Samurai Jack has always had a mature tone that sets it apart from other animated series, with moments of tension and seriousness carried by animation and visual storytelling.
- The show incorporates moments of levity to broaden Jack's journey and show the range of people and places he encounters, but at its heart, there is a sense of tragedy and a theme of kindness leading to detriment.
- The transition to Adult Swim allowed Samurai Jack to explore more mature themes and solutions to the violence problem, resulting in a thrilling final season with a character arc that embraced darkness in order to bring back the light.
Samurai Jack is widely considered to be one of the greatest animated series of all time. The legendary Genndy Tartakovsky created what might be his life's greatest work with the series. Samurai Jack features gorgeous animation, a tense story, and a deeply sympathetic protagonist. While it started off on Cartoon Network, the show seemed from the beginning to be destined for more adult oriented pastures, a sentiment the creator agreed with. In its final season, Samurai Jack would get the chance to do just that.
Even when it called Cartoon Network Home, Samurai Jack always held a more mature tone than most of its peers. Some of the best episodes in the series first four seasons were almost entirely devoid of dialogue, no humor to be found, only Jack attempting to overcome a great challenge. The titular samurai would evade the arrows of three blind archers by blindfolding himself or do battle with a ninja by jumping between the dark and the light. These moments were tense, deadly serious, carried entirely by the animation, sound design, and visual storytelling. Samurai Jack may not have been able to do anything explicitly inappropriate for children, but it took itself very seriously and carried itself as a show designed for adults to enjoy.
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Samurai Jack On Cartoon Network
There were certainly episodes of Samurai Jack that were trying to be funny and more light-hearted. Some characters were clearly designed for this purpose as well, most notably the brash and bodacious Scotsman, whose vulgar insults and whimsical antics clashed hilariously against Jack's ever composed demeanor. These moments of levity are never there to cheapen the experience or appeal to the lowest common denominator. They serve to broaden the scope of Jack's journey, to show the wide range of people and places Jack had to become familiar with so quickly. At the heart of Samurai Jack lies an overarching sense of tragedy, and Jack's immeasurable kindness ultimately serves to his detriment. He cannot stop himself from connecting to the people of all walks of life he encounters, and so he derails his mission to help them, even though his success will rewrite this future anyway.
And of course, a darkness is cast over the entire series, even the most lighthearted episodes. The core conflict of the show revolves around utter annihilation at the hands of a demon, and his defeat could only come from his demise at the hands of Jack. Death was a constant presence in the series, always looming in the background even if it could not be mentioned directly.
Samurai Jack On Adult Swim
However, in spite of all Samurai Jack's successes, there were still some restrictions placed on the show by virtue of being on Cartoon Network. The most notable example is the way violence had to be handled. A recurring problem across many shows on children's networks is how to portray combat and death. Obviously, a show on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon cannot have a character explicitly killing another living being. A more creative solution always needs to be found, and sometimes these are incredibly enjoyable in their own right. Avatar: The Last Airbender poked fun at the ambiguity of Jet's death in their recap episode, and Regular Show famously discovered that as long as they show the deceased exploding, they can kill basically anyone.
As a series heavily drenched in combat, Samurai Jack needed a solution to the violence problem as well. Jack slicing the heads off of hosts of enemy combatants and bringing forth a river of blood probably wouldn't fly with any Cartoon Network censors. The solution Tartakovsky came up with was to have the majority of Jack's enemies be robots, a genius idea in a lot of ways. Using robots is more of a direct workaround, replicating killing ordinary people as closely as possible. These robots share the same basic shape as humans, keeping silhouettes in line with what viewers would expect. As an added bonus, these robots can even spill black oil when slashed, mimicking blood in every aspect other than color. Having Jack destroy the robotic combatants came about as close to slicing apart human beings as was achievable, keeping the basic spectacle of it intact while keeping Jack from actually killing anyone.
Samurai Jack went on a twelve-year-long hiatus after its fourth season. When it returned, Tartakovsky explicitly wanted to bring the series to the more mature point he had always envisioned it reaching. In order to accomplish this, the final season of Samurai Jack aired not on Cartoon Network as it has before, but on Adult Swim. Adult Swim picking up old Cartoon Network shows and allowing them to delve into more mature material is a longstanding tradition, and it still happens to this day with shows like Adventure Time. The move was an exciting one, but it raised the question of how to best shift tones. Simply taking advantage of the loosened restrictions with little transition would be jarring for viewers.
The decision the Samurai Jack team made was to incorporate the fact that Jack had never killed a living being before into the plot. Jack opens up Season 5 desperate and haunted, trapped in the future and on the verge of giving up. He suffers form hallucinations of a version of himself, angrier and hungry for an end to the pain. Jack remarks to this vision that the endless onslaught of machines he has to fight are only nuts and bolts. He's become completely numb to it.
In Episode 2, however, things change course when Jack is attacked by the Daughters of Aku. The samurai defends himself, believing the attackers to be just another squadron of enemy robots. Slitting the throat of one of his opponents, however, he is as shocked as the audience to see blood spill forth.
Escaping with his life, Jack is revolted by what he has done. He grapples with what he has become, what his time trapped in the future has turned him into. It's a sobering look at an unshakable hero, what happens when even the most pure of heart are pushed too far. The third episode of the season is what truly locks in the new changes, as for the first time, Jack willingly kills another person. Faced down by the remaining Daughters of Aku, Jack embraces the changes that have taken place within him while also holding onto the ideals which have guided them.
Jack gives the Daughters ample warning to surrender. When they do not, however, he doesn't hesitate to take their lives. A beautiful moment in its darkness, Jack giving into the darkness to survive long enough to bring back the light. A character arc so perfect, one would think it was planned from the beginning. In reality, Samurai Jack has Adult Swim to thank for such a thrilling final season.