While fans are currently waiting for Shinichiro Watanabe’s newest original series, Carole & Tuesday, to release on Netflix later this year, and are waiting to see more from the live-action adaptation of his hit Cowboy Bebop series, now is the perfect time to go back and explore Watanabe’s work if you have yet to do so. It’s especially perfect timing now that you can watch through Samurai Champloo easier than ever.
Funimation has released Samurai Champloo‘s entire 26 episode run on YouTube, and now fans can watch the series completely for free. Though there is a bit of a catch in that only the first two episodes are available with an English dub, but fans can watch the entire original Japanese language release with English subtitles.
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Samurai Champloo is an original anime series directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, with characters designed by Kazuto Nakazawa, and mechanical designs from Mahiro Maeda. Produced by Manglobe in 2004, the series was Watanabe’s first big original anime series effort following his work on Cowboy Bebop. Despite the dissimilar settings and time periods, fans noted many of the stylistic similarities between the two. Chances are if you’re a fan of Cowboy Bebop, you’ll be a fan of Samurai Champloo.
The series is now streaming on YouTube, Hulu, and FunimationNOW. Samurai Champloo is described as such, “Mugen is a ferocious, animalistic warrior with a fighting style inspired by break-dancing. Jin is a ronin samurai who wanders the countryside alone. They may not be friends, but their paths continually cross. And when ditzy waitress Fuu gets them out of hot water with the local magistrate, they agree to join her search for the samurai who smells like sunflowers.”
This is not the only major classic anime series Funimation has fully released on YouTube either. If you’re looking for more anime, Funimation has also shared the full Steins;Gate series (which you can find at the link here). Though streaming services have made watching anime easier than ever, there is quite a nostalgic feeling watching full anime episodes on YouTube.
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