History Anime / SamuraiChamploo

* BeastAndBeauty : In the second episode, Mugen is hired to kill an oger that is terrifying the locals, but it is actually a trap set by the vengeful Ryujiro, who also kidnaps Fuu. She is guarded by the "oger", who is actually Oniwakaru, a tall, handicapped man physically and mentally scarred by the abuse from those who feared his appearance. Although he tells her he killed a lot of people, Fuu pities him. [[spoiler: A few hours later, Mugen comes but his reflexes are slowed by the poison given by a prostitute bribed by Ryujiro, so he is easlily defeated by Oniwakaru. Ryujiro decides to kill Fuu, but Oniwakaru breaks his neck, before being stabbed by Mugen. Fuu asks the giant why he saved her life and he says "You weren't afraid of me. I'm not alone anymore," and dies watching the fireflies Fuu showed him.]]
* BeastlyBloodSports: In episode 11 Mugen bets on a stag beetle fight.

* BrushOffWalkOff: The "Misguided Miscreants" arc sees Mugen return to his home island, only to get involved in a lot of trouble over finding pirate treasure with his childhood friend Koza, who has developed chronic dependency on others and ChronicBackstabbingDisorder just to survive. After she gets her revenge on Mukuro by having Mugen kill him for her, she runs off with her new boyfriend after thinking that she can finally leave that criminal island and start a new life. When they both see a very implacable Mugen marching along the same road, her boyfriend attacks and gets effortlessly cut down. Koza begs for Mugen to end her life as well, as death would be better than continuing her life of destitution at this point. Without saying a word, Mugen just keeps on walking and leaves her to her [[FateWorseThanDeath fate of being alone]].

* ClipShow: Disorder Diaries is about half clip show, with a bit of character development and a bunch of MANZO THE SAW!

* ContrivedClumsiness: In the third episode, Jin and Mugen leave Fuu to fend for herself. She wanders through an alley where two men are stick out a vase to make her bump into and break, she apologizes, they tell her to pay up, she tells them she doesn't have any money, so they use the pretext to kidnap her.

* DamselInDistress: Fuu. Given how often she gets in trouble, often being BoundAndGagged, she comes off as rather sensible for hiring two capable bodyguards. This is TruthInTelevision. In Edo period Japan, it was not only incredibly dangerous, but actually illegal for a teenage girl to travel without some sort of legal guardian like Fuu does. She would be stopped and questioned by law enforcement on sight. Unless brothel "recruiters" got her first (like one of the episodes shows).

** In Episode 9, Mugen and the unnamed government official attempt to escape from Tengu by starting a fire and escaping as they attempt to put it out. They get caught anyway, but during the fight the Tengu's marijuana crops burn up and everyone gets high off the smoke, and by sheer luck, the smoke crosses over to the checkpoint where Jin and Fuu are about to be executed, allowing them to escape.

* FireForgedFriends: Fuu managed to convince Jin and Mugen to be her bodyguard through persistence and getting in the middle of their DuelToTheDeath. The first handful of episodes show the group on really shaky ground with either them splitting up or starting the duel early, and definitely runs into WithFriendsLikeThese from time to time. By the halfway point they have come to respect each other but with numerous snide comments out of habit, and Mugen and Jin start taking the responsibility of protecting Fuu seriously.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In Episode 5 "Artistic Anarchy", during the match of shogi against the old man, Jin mentions how his master used to say shogi is similar to swordfight in that the one who manages to read ahead wins and says how he was never able to beat his master in shogi. When the old man asks him if Jin was able to best him in swords, the audience doesn't learn the answer. [[spoiler:We later learn that Jin did end up defeating his master and it is the primary reason why he is WalkingTheEarth]].

* HollywoodHealing: Jin, and especially Mugen numerous times get very deep cuts, bruised, cough up copious amounts of blood, lose teeth and usually in one episodes' time are just fine. Their numerous injuries are never mentioned or seen in the following episode. This is somewhat justifiable, given that they're making a long journey on foot, and some time may be presumed to pass between one episode and the next.

* ImprovFu: This characterizes Mugan's fighting style, especially against Jin's traditional MasterSwordsman. He uses DanceBattler moves and his sandals have metal sheets on the bottom to act as a surprise guard.

* KnightKnaveAndSquire: Jin is The Knight, a Ronin Samurai who was taught swordsmanship in a dojo; he is chivalrous and only battles worthy opponents, considering everyone else beneath his notice. Mugen is The Knave, completely self taught, with a battle style that is all over the place; he's a criminal and CombatPragmatist and extremely rude and aggressive to the point he'll start a fight with someone who looks tough just because he's bored. Fuu is The Squire; young and inexperienced with no fighting abilities, she often ends up being a DamselInDistress, but the plot hinges upon her.

* MadeOfIron: Jin and Mugen are pretty damn persistent. While they can't entirely shrug off serious injury, Mugen survives being stabbed, falling off a cliff and getting shot. Jin should have drowned twice and survives a freakin' suicide technique.

* MarijuanaIsLSD: In "Beatbox Bandits", Mugen's fight scene with the warrior priests is quite colorful and non-euclidean.

** At one point, an old man comes across Jin in a {{hot spring|sEpisode}}. They have a (largely one sided) conversation about fireflies, until the stranger gives a suggestive smile and comments that sometimes the male fireflies can attract ''other'' male fireflies instead of females. Jin promptly excuses himself.

* ModelScam: Subverted. The artist that approaches Fuu in this way is attracted to Fuu but turns out to be harmless. Doubly subverted. NotSoHarmless.

* MotivationalLie: Yatsuha gets Mugen to help her battle ninjas by promising to have sex with him, afterwards she knocks him out.

* {{Mukokuseki}}: Thoroughly averted. Everyone has dark eyes and hair color is mostly black or dark brown. Several characters' ''eyebrows'' even look Japanese. When a Dutch character shows up, the characters note his unusual features with red hair and blue eyes.

** Eating contest. Complete with commentators and asking important existential questions.

** The assassin Hotaru passes a poisonous mushroom to Mugen via kiss - it's called "the single night mushroom" because that's how long you're expected to last if you eat it with sake.
* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: In Episode 14, as Mugen is drowning, he has flashbacks of his hellish childhood in Ryuukyuu, and of Kohza and Mukuro, while a {{tear jerk|er}}ingly [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGNZi65KuHM&feature=related beautiful song]] plays in the background. Though technically he ''does'' die at this point, he comes back to life through sheer [[{{Determinator}} force of will]].

* MythArc: Trio's search for samurai who smells of sunflowers.
* NegativeContinuity: While there is an acknowledged MythArc, several episodes come across as rather significant {{filler}} that has no bearing on the ongoing plot. The two episodes right before the 3-part finale show everyone getting either severely injured or possibly killed while the finale shows everyone in perfect health.

* NewEraSpeech: Yakuza boss Rikiei gives a short one to Jin about his views of the future and his criminal enterprise. Rikiei views that Japan's social hierarchy is coming apart and soon, status won't mean anything. Rikiei's acquiring of money is how he views success in this new era especially at the expense of others.

* PercussivePickpocket: Shinsuke steals from Fuu in this manner at the beginning of "A Risky Racket".
* PerformerGuise: There is an episode where Jin infiltrates a Yakuza-run brothel by disguising himself as a surprisingly convincing geisha carrying a biwa (a traditional Japanese instrument similar to a guitar). When asked to play a song on it, he pulls his katana from the neck, and reveals that he is actually a samurai. He also happened to have smoke bombs hidden in the body of the instrument.

* {{Pirate}}: Mugen, formerly. Mukuro and Kohza as well.

* BeastlyBloodSports: In episode 11 Mugen bets on a beetle fight.

* AnAesop: A recurring moral in the series is how bogus Japan's historic and government-supported xenophobia is, so much so that [[spoiler:it forms a large part of the overarching arc with the Sunflower Samurai]]. "Stranger Searching" deals with hostility to foreigners, "Lullabies of the Lost" deals with the persecution of the Ainu and how they're killed for preventable and flimsy reasons, and "Unholy Union" [[spoiler:and Fuu's arc]] deal with the crackdown on Japanese Christians.

A UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 game, ''Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked'' was released after the show aired. It was developed by Creator/Suda51's Grasshopper Manufacture, written and directed by Suda himself, and had a plot mostly unrelated to the events of the show outside of characters and mood.

Most likely due to the popularity of ''Cowboy Bebop'', it was licensed for North American distribution nearly a year before it even aired in Japan. The show can now be viewed on [[http://www.hulu.com/samurai-champloo Hulu]], [[https://www.youtube.com/show/samuraichamploo YouTube]], and [[http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70213065 Netflix]]. It aired on Creator/AdultSwim back in 2004. Reruns aired on [adult swim]'s Creator/{{Toonami}} in 2016.

A two-volume manga debuted in Shōnen Ace on August 2004. Creator/{{Tokyopop}} licensed the manga in an English release in North America and Madman Entertainment lit for an English release in Australia and New Zealand.

''Now shut up and enjoy the show.''

->This work of fiction is not an accurate historical portrayal.\\

* CoolGuns: While the show is set around the time firearms were introduced to Japan, they were muskets not the [[AnachronismStew modern semi automatic pistols]] that appear in the show.

* TheStoic: Jin. Sara too, enough to give Jin a run for his money [[JustForPun and his life]]. The Kawara boss as well. The two engage themselves in a very charming conversation in the fourth episode.

* MST3KMantra: With its opening disclaimer, the series makes it abundantly clear that it doesn't give a damn about being historically accurate and that we as the audience should just enjoy the show.

* SpiritualSuccessor: Of ''Cowboy Bebop''. Created by much of the same production team, stylistically the shows aren't too far removed. The fluid animation, episodic nature, the DarkAndTroubledPast of each character, the running theme of the protagonists struggling to earn enough just to survive another day and the way the music is integrated into the story makes these shows practically siblings. Casting Creator/SteveBlum as Mugen in the English version helps even more (though Mugen and Spike are extremely different characters).

* {{Honorifics}}: Seen in the third episode between a Yakuza boss and his former employee.

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish:
** The baseball episode ("Baseball Blues"; at least for the commanding officers) and the opening song "Battlecry".
** The commanders in the "Baseball Blues" sound like native speakers of American English (or close enough; no worse than a lot of dubs). The one who can speak Japanese does so correctly, but with a hilariously heavy American accent.
** Also Surprisingly Good Dutch: Though red-haired foreigner Isaac is played by a Japanese voice actor, his lines in Dutch are grammatically correct. The other Dutchmen in the episode are played by native (southern) Dutchmen delivering lines in their own language. (Including a [[ShownTheirWork smart bit of research]] - Isaac is addressed as ''opperhoofd'', a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opperhoofd historical gubernatorial title]] for the CEO of a Dutch overseas trading post.)

* TheThingThatGoesDoink is seen in a few places.

* {{Gainaxing}}: Fuu gets a moment when she [[VictoriasSecretCompartment smuggles two bombs in the front of her kimono]].

* AntiVillain: Okuru, Sara, and Kohza.
* ArrogantKungFuGuy: Shouryuu.

* AvengingTheVillain: Mariya's students.

* AxCrazy: The three brothers that want revenge against Mugen, especially Denkibou.

--> '''Watanabe:''' "Spike and Mugen aren't very straightforward in expressing themselves. For example, even if there's a girl they like standing right in front of them, they don't pursue her directly - in fact, they do the opposite, they ignore her almost. I think that part is kind of like me. If I was to sum it up, it's kind of like being a little contradictory or rebellious."

* JumpScare: Happens in [[spoiler:"Cosmic Collisions"]], right at the end of the closing credits: [[spoiler:the relaxing credits theme [[LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand suddenly distorts and fades away]], before showing a grave. Nothing happens for a few seconds before something seems to merge violently from the ground, then it happens to be a zombified Mugen who jumps at the camera with the intention to kill.]]

* JumpScare: Happens in [[spoiler:"Cosmic Collisions"]], right at the end of the closing credits: [[spoiler:the relaxing credits theme [[LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand sunddenly distorts and fades away]], before showing a grave from where a zombified Mugen jumps on the camera.]]

%%* JumpScare: Happens in [[spoiler:"Cosmic Collisions"]], right at the end of the closing credits. %%Does not explain the trope

* RecycledScript: Episode 7, "A Risky Racket," has a lot in common with with Session #8 of ''Cowboy Bebop'', [[Recap/CowboyBebopSession8WaltzForVenus "Waltz for Venus."]] One of the main characters (Spike there, Fuu here) befriends a young criminal who turns out to be stealing only as a way to afford medicine for his sick family member. [[spoiler: Both episodes end with the thief dying and Spike/Fuu having to comfort their sister/mother.]]