Afro Samurai: Resurrection

After obtaining the Number One headband, which proclaims him to be the best of all warriors, Afro spends most of his days in peace, though his nightmare-filled nights are not so tranquil. His life crescendos into chaos once again when Jinno and Sio, his former friends from long ago, take the headband from him, as well as the remains of his father. Challenged by Sio to don the Number Two headband again and exact revenge on them for their actions, Afro embarks on another journey as the wearer of said headband—an item for which anyone would kill him.

Afro Samurai: Resurrection follows Afro as he fights a second series of battles against all manner of foes, wading through the sea of corpses in his wake so that he may once again quench his never-ending thirst for revenge.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Samurai, Afro Main

Sio Main

Ninja Ninja ing

Jinno ing

Shichigoro ing

Brother One ing

Rukotaro ing

Tomoe ing

Bin ing

Dharman ing

Kizaki, Fuminori Director

Okazaki, Takashi Script, Original Creator

RZA Theme Song Performance, Music

Van seijen, Thea Theme Song Performance

Reviews

May 20, 2015

literaturenerd

Recommended

Overview:

"Afro Samurai 2: the Absurdity Continues". Honestly that would have been a better title than the insanely overused title "Resurrection". However, this is the kind of anime where they probably intentionally used a cliche title to pay homage to early, terrible anime like the infamous "Ninja Resurrection". Afro Samurai is NOT an anime that you are supposed to take seriously! It is basically like Kill Bill the anime...or more accurately Kill Bill the 100% anime since Kill Bill Volume 1 was partly done in anime format.

Story and Characters-

Warning: Spoilers!!!

The story begins where the last movie left off. Afro finally got revenge and claimed the ... title of World #1 swordsman. However, the #1 headband in addition to granting godlike power and immortality also consumes the sanity and soul of the wearer. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mark 8:36 . This quote isn't actually used in this movie, but since Samuel L Jackson is the main character, I feel randomly quoting scripture is appropriate here. Afro is doggedly pursued by several characters who all want revenge on him for killing their friends and family in pursuit of his own vengeance. The primary message of the movie is that revenge only begets more revenge. That was also going to be the main plot and theme of Kill Bill 3, but unfortunately that movie will never be made now. Since Samuel L Jackson was the executive producer of this anime and close friends with Tarantino , I wonder if he wanted to make this as a sort of spiritual heir to Kill Bill 3? The people who want revenge on Afro decide to create an absolutely ridiculous plan to resurrect Afro's father, just to torture him and piss off Afro. Since his father was the only person Afro ever cared about, they figure that the only way to really hurt Afro emotionally is to bring him back and kill him again! Seriously! That's the fucking plot in this movie! The antagonists hilariously succeed, only to get killed by an insane cyborg version of Afro's father. Afro then must put his own father back to rest, and continue his journey of wandering. Afro never really learns anything or pays for his sins committed in pursuit of revenge, so the theme is rather undermined. The movie ends with a bullshit cliffhanger and a teaser for a sequel that now probably will never be made.

Music-

The soundtrack is once again performed by RZA and the Wu-Tang Clan. If you love those guys, you will love this soundtrack. If you aren't a fan of the Wu-Tang...you will obviously hate this soundtrack. Personally, I rather like the Wu-Tang Clan. Wu-Tang Clan AINT NOTHIN TO FUCK WIT!

Animation-

The animation is smooth and gorgeous. It is easily the highlight of the entire anime. The fights look spectacular and are just fun as HELL to watch!


Overall:

If you liked the first Afro Samurai, you will like this one. It has the same awesome fight scenes, beautiful animation, and pulse pounding hip hop soundtrack. Is it a deep, philosophical masterpiece? Hell no! Is the writing and dialogue Shakespearean? Of course not! Is is a fun action series if you feel like rotting your brain for 2 hours? HELL YEAH! I recommend Afro Samurai 2 to anyone who loves mindless action with LOTS of gore and hip hop!

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 13, 2009

hiruma55

Mixed Feelings

When i first saw Afro Samurai back in 2008 I was amazed, to be honest I didn't think a concept like this would work out in the way it did. I mean here you have a black samurai, in an anime, with hip-hop music, unless we're talking Samurai Champloo this shouldn't work. But I really liked Afro Samurai, I thought it was sick and it only increased my respect for Samuel L. Jackson, so when I found out that there was going to be a sequel to the series I was over the moon... However little did I know that this sequel would end up ... like this.

Afro Samurai: Resurrection takes place after the events of the original series with Afro finding peace in the mountains after killing countless people because of his number 1 headband. It seems that after being on this road for so long, Afro seems to be losing his way and it is at this point when Afro is attacked by his old friend/nemesis Jinno and a mysterious female warrior named Sio, who wishes to have the head of the famous number one warrior because of the death of the people he has killed. And that my friends are basic elements of this story for this film and to be honest it sucks. The best thing about Afro Samurai was its originality and I know it's hard to follow up good material with sequels, but it seems like Resurrection really lost its 'cool' factor here, the story is basic at best and the new characters involved are just ridiculous and for some reason you want to kill Ninja Ninja in this anime. I'm happy to report that the animation and art style is still sick and beautiful and while the music hasn't got the flair of the original it's still pretty nice.

Overall Afro Samurai: Resurrection really wasn't the sequel that people wanted, the story is unoriginal and the main female antagonist feels far too simple along with all other new characters. The animation and music however are still pretty good and while it's still watchable one can't help but feel sad for the way this turned out and hope that the third installment rectifies this anime's mistake.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 10, 2009

GuUguk

Not Recommended

Best word to describe this piece is lame...

Maybe be the initial goal ,to create a hybrid concept mixing samurai and hip hop culture to please the more "american" viewers, is exciting. It was done by Watanabe in Samurai Champloo rather succesfully. But, afro samurai resurrection (again) is a disaster.

Total unoriginal story line, crowded with cheesy cliches.
Interestingly the most original? part looked like a scene poped from a Disney movie. A cycle of events are tried to be meshed (which might be actually very pleasing if done correctly), however the unreasonable characters together with the weak connections between events made this attept to fail. ...
There was even a sex scene randomly added inbetween a fighting scene just to complete the golden ingredients for an action movie, too absurd for my taste...

The best thing was the animation needless to say maybe, good fights but since the story could not back them up after while even they became boring.

The music was nice but again the scenes and the mood of the music did not matched at all, which in turn just resulted in more distraction.

As a final word, if you like samurais, bloody fights, semi nude chicks and have time to spare, go and watch it. But do not expect originality, it is just like a cheesy holywood action movie rip-off...

there is a saying in our country, the donkey is still a donkey even with a golden saddle.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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