Released earlier this month on UMD format for the PSP, Geneon Films presents Samurai Champloo Volume II. This particular release is set in the early days of the 26 episode anime series directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, who doesn’t really have anything to prove in as far as what he’s capable of namely because he was the director for a little show called Cowboy Bebop (which, for anyone who really likes anime, has set a standard for any anime that’s followed it.

There’s no surprise that it’s the same director for both shows as the feel is very similar. Not to say they Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop are the same show, on the contrary the differences are huge but the similarities are there too, like the mixing of samurai style television and hip hop which is in my opinion is breathing some fresh air into a genre that feels like its on the verge of staleness.

The general idea of the show is that when two samurais, Mugen and Jin, cross paths in a tea house in Edo they are sentenced to execution until a small waitress named Fuu steps in and saves their necks (she was motivated to do so out of selfishness). Her price for saving them? She makes them agree to help her track down a mysterious samurai that smells like sunflowers, and that’s how the three get together to form the general premise for the show. Often times they are distracted from their goal and get themselves involved in many different situations, which adds some length to their quest.

The combination of the three characters is almost enough to carry the show; first you have Fuu, who comes across as a cute but snotty and ditzy girl who tries to keep the peace between the two guys who normally wouldn’t be around each other unless they were fighting each other; next you got Mugen, who is kind of the street fighting dirty misguided type; finally, there is Jin, who is more the higher class elegant guy out to save everyone. This pairing makes for a near perfect example of ying and yang. The relationship these two characters have between them also lends itself to some great opportunities for comical dialog, which is where you see the strongest influences of hip-hop culture. The clothing style that’s in this show is also a combination of thug-ghetto as well as time period oriented. That’s really the most compelling aspect of the series - mixing traditional samurai lifestyles with a very modern and urban art style.

Of course you can't help but notice the nearly flawless artwork in this show but again its no surprise coming from Shinichiro Watanabe who must have insisted on the same quality of work that he had on Cowboy Bebop.

These two episodes themselves may be a little slower paced than some of the other ones but they are worth owning if you have the episodes before it. The only thing I don’t like about these episodes is that the characters that are introduced in different episodes don’t seem to come back much. This is kind of a shame considering some of them could definitely be developed into great characters which would really round the show out to almost perfect.

If you haven’t yet seen this show I recommend checking it out but you should definitely start with episode one. Samurai Champloo offers a great mix of drama action and comedy and has a interesting hip hop soundtrack that adds to the scenes its played over. These two episodes are a total of 50 minutes long and are rated 16 and up.

Editor's note: You can also get this on DVD - and learn more about the series by visiting www.samuraichamploodvd.com . The show can also be regularly seen on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming.