Samuel L. Jackson's 2000s Anime Series Is Based On An Awesome Manga

Takashi Okazaki described the origins of his manga series "Afro Samurai!" in an interview with UGO, and it began as modestly as possible. It seems that Okazaki was fond of the American Blaxploitation aesthetic and was always drawn to the sound as an aesthetic of hip-hop and soul music. He taught himself to draw Black characters by doodling on Kleenex boxes as a teenager and eventually began incorporating samurai iconography into his drawings. He eventually came up with Afro Samurai, a Black samurai character who lives in a fantasy/sci-fi version of Japan that combines the feudal era with the distant future. Okazaki published his manga in a 'zine cobbled together by himself and his friends, and the story officially began. 

Okazaki made the "Afro Samurai!" manga from 1998 through 2002, and it became popular enough to warrant an anime adaptation in 2007. The anime was produced by the studio Gonzo, which took about three years to complete the show. During production, an errant trailer for the project somehow reached actor Samuel L. Jackson, who took quite a shine to it. Jackson came on board as a creative collaborator, and the RZA was hired to do the music. It became, as the kids say, "a thing." The series debuted on the Spike TV website in January of 2007 and, a few months later, on Japanese TV. Unusually for anime in Japan, it was presented in English with Japanese subtitles. 

The 2007 anime was eventually followed by a much higher-profile straight-to-video "Afro Samurai" movie in 2008 called "Afro Samurai: Resurrection." By now, the TV show was hot enough to attract voice actors like Mark Hamill, Lucy Liu, and, of course, the RZA. /Film covered the movie's premiere way, way back in the day. 

Hipster animation fans in the United States drifted toward "Afro Samurai," enjoying its unique blend of ultra-stylized animated and modern Blaxploitation sensibilities. The series bears the mark of neo-grindhouse, retro-'70s cool that was all over American media at the time (see: "Grindhouse"). I personally recall a time when many of my friends collected the "Afro Samurai" DVDs, and no bachelor's apartment seemed to be without one.

In the universe of "Afro Samurai," rogue fighters long to acquire a prestigious headband that would declare them to be the best fighter in the land. The person who wears the Number One headband, according to the legends, may be granted superpowers and/or immortality. Only the person who wears the Number Two headband is permitted to fight the wearer of the Number One headband, so, as you can imagine, many people are constantly challenging Number Two to duels. 

The story begins when a character named Justice (Ron Perlman) acquires the Number One headband by killing the young Afro Samurai's father. Afro grows up training to be a fighter, hoping to challenge Justice and get revenge. Along the way, Afro faces his childhood friend, Jinno (Yuri Lowenthal), and has a run-in with his former friend and present-day lover, Okiku (Kelly Hu). 

The story doesn't matter quite as much as the style. The action is stylized nearly to the point of abstraction, and the characters are all spindly and skeletal, moving like greased-up earthworm people. It's like "Æon Flux" in overdrive. If you have a strong stomach, you can watch gory scenes from the follow-up movie "Afro Samurai: Resurreaction" online. 

The 2009 movie "Afro Samurai: Resurrection" is a direct sequel to the series, with Afro Samurai now wearing the Number One headband. Jinno is now a cyborg (!), and the plot kicks off when a mysterious warrior named Lady Sio (Lucy Liu) steals the Number One headband without fighting Afro in a duel. This will force Afro to go on the road to look for one of the last Number Two headbands out there in order to, once again, get the Number One headband back. Lady Sio, meanwhile, uses black magic to resurrect Afro's father and use him as a soulless, evil warrior. 

I recall some press releases back in 2006 stating that a live-action version of "Afro Samurai" was already in the works, and one can find some scant press releases on the matter, but as we can see in 2026, that project never materialized. There are a few video game spinoffs out there. 

The reactions to "Afro Samurai" have all been similar, at least according to fan reviews on online forums. Most people seem to love the animation style and the voice work, but the consensus seems to be that the trite revenge plot is as clichéd as they come, to the point of being distracting. Some viewers were also a little baffled by the feudal/sci-fi setting. It's never explained what happened to the world, why tech is so scant, and why feudal samurai codes are back in action. I think the idea is that it's a stylized universe, and not proper sci-fi. Also, it helps that the anime is only five episodes. There's not too much time to dilly-dally. We called it one of the best animated miniseries of all time.