Large Fierce Mammal

Even though it’s been around since the month before I first kissed Mrs. LFM and ignited what still burns with a searing heat to this very day, Samurai Jack is a recent discovery for me. While I expect all my readers will set aside the time it takes to read whatever is connected to the links I embed here, I know you’re all busy and it’s still early in the day, so here is a brief explanation of the series:

Samurai Jack is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network. The series follows time-displaced samurai warrior “Jack” (voiced by Phil LaMarr) in his singular quest to find a method of traveling back in time and defeating the tyrannical demonic wizard Aku (voiced by Mako Iwamatsu). Episode plots range from dark and epic to lighthearted and comic, but often contain little dialogue. Stories instead rely on the series’ highly detailed, outline-free, masking-based animation, as well as its cinematic style and pacing. Many battle scenes in the series are reminiscent of samurai films, and since Jack’s robot enemies bleed out oil or electricity and his monster and alien foes bleed out slime or goo, the action of these films can be exhibited while avoiding censorship for blood and violence.

Samurai Jack premiered on August 10, 2001, on Cartoon Network, and has since garnered high critical acclaim. It won four Primetime Emmy Awards, six Annie Awards, an OIAF Award, and received eight additional nominations. Cultural influences on the series range from the 1970s TV series Kung Fu to the works of directors Akira Kurosawa and David Lean. The series ran for four seasons, totaling 52 episodes, and the series ended on September 25, 2004.

Jack and the Scotsman tells the tale of how our Samurai first met the character known simply as “the Scotsman”, but more than that, I discovered on watching it that if one ignores the conspicuous absence of a hot and ferocious Woman by Jack’s side, this particular episode metaphorically encapsulates, to perfection, my life on Earth so far. In Truth, it has all the elements – A Man on a quest. A treacherous bridge across the abyss leading to an unknown destination through what, to a lesser being, would be mists of uncertainty. Ever present enemies one must resolutely cleave through. Bagpipes and the inevitability of a Scotsman. Watch this and understand me.