Samurai Jack
SHOW TYPE
TV
SHOW LENGTH
23 min
PROTECTION
TV-Y7
RELEASED
2001
Samurai Jack is an American animated science fantasy action-adventure television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network and later its nighttime programming block Adult Swim. It was produced by Cartoon Network Studios.
In the distant past, a Japanese samurai (Phil LaMarr) embarks on a mission to defeat the evil shape-shifting wizard Aku (Mako and Greg Baldwin). Before he can complete his task, though, he is catapulted thousands of years into the future.
He finds himself in a world where Aku now enjoys complete power over every living thing. Dubbing himself "Jack", he sets out on a new quest - to right the wrongs that have been done by his enemy, and to find a way back to his own time so he can destroy the evil for good.
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Comments and reviews
Stu Kline
+8 cloutSep 11, 2026
Look I'll be honest with you right up front. I put the original Samurai Jack on last week after not touching it since it first ran, and it still hits like a freight train. No apologies, no lectures, just a guy with a sword stuck in the wrong century trying to fix what that bastard Aku broke. That's the whole deal and it never gets old. First thing that grabbed me again is how quiet it can get. Jack walks through these ruined cities or those weird floating islands and half the time there's almost no dialogue. Just the wind, his footsteps, the scrape of that sword. I grew up on older cartoons like Johnny Quest and Speed Racer where the action never shut up, but this one knows when to shut its mouth. That mountain episode with the three monks? Pure gold. No speeches about feelings. He climbs, he fails, he learns the hard way. You feel every bruise. That's how you do it. Second, the fights still hold up better than half the CGI sludge they dump on us now. Demongo comes after him with all those stolen souls and Jack just methodically takes them apart. No monologue about empowerment. No sidekick yelling catchphrases. Clean animation, sharp cuts, and that classic Tartakovsky style that looks like someone actually drew it with a pencil instead of hitting a render button. Reminded me a lot of the old Thundarr the Barbarian stuff my dad used to have on VHS, only tighter and meaner. Same vibe of a lone warrior stomping through a messed-up future, but Jack actually has a code and sticks to it. Third thing, and this is why I keep coming back: the show treats manhood like something real instead of a problem to solve. Jack is stoic. He protects people because that's what a samurai does. He trains. He loses sometimes and gets back up without crying into a camera. Aku is pure chaos and ego, a shape-shifting clown who rules everything and still can't finish the job. Simple good versus evil, and the good guy doesn't need a committee to tell him who he is. When he finds the ruins of his old home you see the weight without some therapist character walking him through it. Just a man sitting there remembering. That's enough. I binge-watched a big chunk of the early run over a weekend and it never felt like homework. The bounty hunters Aku sends are a mixed bag in a good way. Some are goofy, some are legit scary, all of them get handled without Jack turning into a joke. There's real craft in how they draw that future world too. It's ugly and beautiful at the same time. Robot cops, flying cars, weird tribes, and that constant sense that Aku ruined everything just by existing. Jack's quest to get back home never feels small. Every episode is another piece of the same long road. People talk about the later seasons and the finish, but this original run already had the juice. It knows what it is. Action, silence, loyalty, a straight sword against a crooked world. I watched a couple episodes with my kid and he got it immediately. No confusion. Bad guy bad, good guy good, swing hard. That's rare now. Grade is simple. Five stars. Not because it's perfect every second — some of the filler hunters are just okay — but because the core never sells out. It looks like a guy who sat down and decided to make something cool instead of something correct. I finished the last episode I queued up and immediately wanted another. That's the test. Compare it to most new stuff and this one feels like it came from a different planet. Older planet. Better planet. Jack keeps walking and so should you if you skipped it the first time. Fire it up. You won't regret the time.
Guest 2b41
anonymous
Sep 10, 2026
Samurai Jack is the quintessence of cartoon storytelling today. there is no two-ways about it. let me break it down for you: Long ago in a distant land, Aku, the shape-shifting master of darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil, but a samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped fourth to oppose him. before the final blow was struck, Aku opened a portal in time, flinging the samurai into the future, where Aku's evil is law. now the samurai seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Aku. the first story involves the samurai landing in the future, he is given a name by some enthusiastic street-urchins (Jack), and finds himself in a rough bar filled with belligerent aliens and talking dogs. these dogs are in desperate peril, and seek jack's help in a very obvious reference to Akira Kurosowa's masterpiece The Seven Samurai. as the series continues, Jack's quest becomes less a focal point of the story, and more a vehicle for various short stories. great storytelling needs but three things: a setting, a protagonist, and a goal. Jack uses this idea to exploit a formula of diversity. anything the animator/writers throw on the wall, generally sticks. the ambiguity of the show allows for a free-form format that has made shows like Cowboy Bebop and Justice League Unlimited fellow masterpieces of the serial animation format. stories range from horror, science fiction and fantasy, to comedy, Wu shu, drama, noir, giant robo and epic action. Jack is a child of a lot of inspiration, things like Star Wars and Akira Kurosowa are obvious influences, but the works of Marvel and DC comics, as well as the work of graphic novelist Frank Miller are all very apparent references. (infact Miller's acclaimed graphic novel Ronin is very similar in plot to Samurai Jack, and there is an entire episode based upon the premise of 300, another Miller book which has also become a Hollywood film.) Jack is, by all means, an action show. in a given show there is maybe 10-15 minutes of action in a 24 minute episode, however in later seasons, the formula of Jack as an action show recedes heavily, and the show becomes more of a sampler-plate of creativeness. the stories are as charming and moving as they are diverse and epic. Samurai Jack is a brilliant show, it's influences are long-spread and it will undoubtedly be remembered as a staple of artistic television.