8. Samurai Jack
It's funny, even though I very much grew up on the Cartoon Network shows of the early 2000s, it wasn't until much later that I came to Samurai Jack, tore through the four seasons that were out at the time and fell so deeply in love with Gennedy Tartakovsky's world and style, and instantly counted it as one of my favourite shows of all time. It's a show that flags up its premise at the start of every episode: a samurai wielding a magic sword is trapped in the distant future by a crazed demon warlord, and now seeks to get back to his own time and undo the evil that is Aku. It's a simple, broad premise by design, and it gives the show much more room to focus on its greatest strength, that being the striking, visually stunning style
Every episode is another largely self-contained step on Jack's journey to return to the past, but by loosening the narrative restraints and paying more attention to the worldbuilding, the show is able to really flex its muscles and show how hugely creative it is. I'm in love with the future of Samurai Jack, a fusion of hard science fiction and old-school magic, where robot assassins and strange creatures rub shoulders with Spartans and Scotsmen. The rules are loose here, and the show is able to expand its setting with every episode purely by observing how each corner of its world functions. Every tribe and faction and species feels like they belong in this world, and they build a much stronger aesthetic while also making everything feel much more alive and organic. Jack never stays in one place too long, and the characters he crosses path with rarely ever turn up again, so the chapter-based approach becomes key in building the future of Aku one step at a time
And my good god is it gorgeous. Because every episode focuses on a largely unique story, Samurai Jack is able to have so much more fun with its aesthetic, drawing influences from a wide range of cultures and genres that really emphasises how large and multi-faceted this future truly is. Ninjas, gangsters, Vikings, Shaolin Monks, zombies, fairy-tales, rave culture, Egyptian gods and of course Japanese folk tales are just some of the wide-ranging forces at work in this world, and the show aces the balancing act of wearing these influences on its sleeve while simultaneously making them all feel like organic parts of the show's universe with stories that extend far beyond their encounters with Jack. Tartakovsky knows that every step matters on a huge journey like this, so he makes every chapter feel like a living, breathing part of a larger unit
Speaking of the journey, the way the show lets long sequences of travelling play out with little to no dialogue is just such an effective decision. It maximises immersion and gives the show an atmosphere that makes that organic world pop even more. The show takes its audience 100% seriously, which really made it stand out among some of its contemporaries on Cartoon Network. Not that those shows were bad-I actually think many of them hold up fantastically- but Samurai Jack never felt like it was adjusting the delivery of its story just to play to a younger audience. And when the fifth season dropped on Adult Swim back in 2017, it felt like the perfect fit, where the show could engage with not just heightened violence, but really lean into the trauma and psychological damage that is slowly starting to consume Jack
It's my favourite comeback for any show, and in a year where we got new Twin Peaks, that's saying a lot, but I think the fifth season of Samurai Jack really nailed its return simply by adjusting its content for a new network and an older audience. Tartakovsky's style was still there but it was massively enriched by his decision to expose Jack's story to the weathering effects of time. This samurai was older and more cynical, haunted by the ghosts of his past and confronted by sins he didn't know he was capable of committing. Most shows, even in live action, would shy away from having their clean cut heroes submit to their inner darkness in such an explicit way, but Samurai Jack lets its beloved warrior hit a convincing rock bottom before giving him something to fight for again and urging him to become great once more. I'm loath to spoil a key plot beat here, but if you know, you know
That's another thing this show absolutely aces too: the emotional core. Yes it's a stylish romp through a cartoon dystopian future, but Samurai Jack knows how to make every note of feeling absolutely hit home, too. After all, this is a show about a man who has lost literally everything he's ever known and is forced to start again, and the show mines great emotional depth out of the way Jack finds kinship with other underdogs and outcasts. Jack and the Lava Monster and Jack and the Spartans are two standout episodes for this very reason, where the show empathises with one-off characters caught in similar predicaments to Jack, but the two greatest strings in this show's bow are Jack Remembers the Past and The Tale of X-9. The former is a brilliant piece of character exploration with some of the best deployed flashbacks I've ever seen, while the latter flips the script brilliantly and makes the cold mechanical threats Jack has been facing feel a little more human. It's another example of a show that just knows the value of a single episode, with an emotional fluency that knows how to devastate
But it's also got jokes! Great ones actually, at least in the original run. Samurai Jack always leans into the heavier implications of its plot but the levity is well placed, not least when characters like Aku and The Scotsman are sowing all sorts of chaos and doubling down on the zaniness of this world. It nails its heavy moments and treats its audience entirely seriously, but part of that also comes down to the show's ability to have fun with itself. It is, after all, a moving comic book about an unstoppable warrior with a magic sword, and it's immensely enjoyable to watch, assembling its plots with giddy love for the story it's telling. It thrums with passion with every frame, loving its influences enough to playfully rib them, and the result is just an absolute blast from top to bottom
This is my favourite animated series, make no mistake. Everything here is note perfect, from the eye-wateringly gorgeous animation to the beautifully realised world and the depth of emotion. It's a true gem of a show, the best thing that's come out of Cartoon Network by far, with the greatest comeback season in all of television to boot. Samurai Jack is the perfect balance of breathtaking style, emotional resonance, a smart use of a wide-range of influences and even some sly comedy. It's a show that I find myself returning to regularly, and I think I will be for some time yet. It pushed the envelope for Western animation in terms of telling heavier and more complex stories and making use of Eastern influences, and while I'll always love some of its contemporaries such as Teen Titans or The Last Airbender, there'll always be a special place in my heart for a samurai called Jack
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