Samurai Jack S5 #02 — Aku’s Safe Space

March 18th, 2017

 

This episode certainly had some music.

Impressions:

Let's start with what I wasn't a huge fan of. The first episode went out of its way to show Jack Megaman'ing it up, collecting and using the equipment from his enemies and becoming something new. This episode, on the other hand, was more of your traditional Samus Aran start; stripping him of everything to get back to nothing but the morph ball and crippling father issues. So it feels like we got two episodes in a row spent redefining how things are going to start. I also don't really get the whole wolf thing. It's… sort of a reflection of the noble Jack being set upon by a pack of evil monsters, but not in how things played out, so whatever symbolism they were going for is flimsy. Aku's psych bit was also a bit… expository.

The meat of the episode, however, was once again fantastic. The entire second half has no dialogue at all and sells itself on the atmosphere, action, and especially the music to create a tense, pitched, desperate ordeal. I especially love the way that they set up the series of ambushes Jack would be running into naturally by having each girl explore a passage and find a dead-end, but the whole thing was exciting and showed Jack being broken down (literally) and pushed into a corner by the girls. I'm not 100% sold on the shock of Aku having flesh and blood minions. I'm pretty sure that it's like… the third episode of the entire series where he's set upon by a horde of bounty hunters working for him, among a bazillion other times. I am pretty sure that it's the first time Jack's bloodily slashed a throat though. Again, like the first episode, they could've really made that a bit more brutal or show him lose control to really make that especially jarring, but it's just a quibble over the level of visceral shock.

Next Episode:

…

Posted in Samurai Jack | 5 Comments »

5 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • kenuran says:
    March 19, 2017 at 12:12 am

    “I’m not 100% sold on the shock of Aku having flesh and blood minions. I’m pretty sure that it’s like… the third episode of the entire series where he’s set upon by a horde of bounty hunters working for him, among a bazillion other times.”

    I’m not sold on the idea that these “Daughters of Aku” arent just some brainwashed child solders raised by some crazy Aku worshipping cult that Aku himself has no idea exists.

  • algorithm says:
    March 19, 2017 at 1:46 am

    “fantastic”

    I don’t think I remember aroduc ever using this word to talk about a show. At least not in a positive way.

  • jgoi says:
    March 19, 2017 at 6:17 pm

    Another great episode. And after this we got dragon ball super with a ton of talking and same ol’ super speed punches and kicks with no technique between two “gods”.

  • Tiresias says:
    March 19, 2017 at 8:04 pm

    The kill was…not as shocking as it could have. Mostly because the girl died with her eyes closed instead of wide open, staring with a shocked expression. Still, great episode.

  • Longing says:
    March 23, 2017 at 2:57 pm

    Despite it feeling a bit expositional, I liked the bit with Aku. I especially liked the part where he said that he was just going to wait for Jack to die after the last time portal was destroyed. Which didn’t pan out for him.

    I’m amazed there was no real mention of the one bit of “dialog” Jack actually had in this episode. His inner self screaming at him and telling him that he should just end it all. The fact that he’s having conversations with the negative side of himself now is actually quite interesting.

    The wolf thing did feel like a poor parallel. But I’d fathom a guess that the wolf is not dead and will appear in the next episode to continue the parallel situation in a “we’re both wounded” sense.