Samurai Jack: The Complete Fifth Season - Blu-ray Review

Movie
Samurai Jack was a breakout hit back in 2001, lasting until 2004 when it was unceremoniously canceled. The series was nothing short of PHENOMENAL, but the powers that be axed the show as the 4th season was wrapping up, leaving faithful fans screaming nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! like Darth Vader in anguish. I bought each and every DVD set as they came out and still lovingly cherish them to this day, but I was beyond floored when I heard that they were going to give the series a fifth and final year to complete the story arc that was abandoned some 13 years ago. Now, with this excitement came some trepidation. Usually shows that lie dormant for so long are hard to pick up again and get that same “vibe” and “tone” that the creators had going for them back then. Luckily this is not the case with Jack, as he is back in the saddle (or at least on his motorcycle) and ready to kick Aku’s butt back to where he came from once and for all.

Sorry, If you haven’t seen the previous 4 seasons of Samurai Jack there will be some unfortunate spoilers, but I will try to keep them to a minimum. It’s been 50 years since Jack (Phil Lamarr) lost his sword and was relegated to the wilderness, but thanks to the time travel that brought Jack thousands of years into the future from feudal Japan, he doesn’t age. A wandering Ronin, Jack mournfully continues on with his limited survival as best he can. He has stayed out of the way of the shape shifting demon Aku (Greg Baldwin) for the most part, but he still interferes as best he can, when he can. Things change for the worse when Aku and his minions of darkness decide that robotic spiders and bounty hunters aren’t enough to get rid of the meddling samurai. So Aku decides to train up a group of young girls, bound at birth to him, as assassins in hopes of using their humanity to take down the warrior.

Jack himself is not in the best of shape either. The years have taken their toll on him as the warrior’s drive and will to live is slowly fading. Living for so long without aging is tiring, and the constant battle against Aku’s never ending hordes of darkness has burdened him with a rather severe case of PTSD. Haunted by ghostly visages of his past self, the samurai deals with the guilt of not being able to save his family in the past, as well as the torture of knowing that he may never die. When he’s attacked by the human assassins of Aku, he is forced to take a HUMAN life for the very first time, and ends up saving the life of Ashi (Tara Strong), the last remaining one of the assassins. This gives him a chance to redeem himself once more, as well as finally take the fight straight to Aku and finish this nightmare.

Despite being very dark and heavy at times, season 5 still hasn’t given upon its clever blend of adult violence and humor. There were quite a few times in the season where I was chuckling quite heavily, especially in regards to Aku and his constant headaches dealing with the samurai. Some old friends are back (Scaramouche makes a small cameo) and once the Samurai regains the use of his sword, the show kicks into high gear with some VERY awesome action. The show still uses the trademark styles of blending 1.78:1 full screen TV work, with shots of 2.20:1 and even a 1.33:1 framed shots at the whim of Tartakovsky and his bizarre (yet beautiful) imagery.

The passing of legendary voice actor Maku was a devastating loss, but Greg Baldwin does a solid job at playing the evil Aku, and by the end of the season he has really grown into the role. Phil Lamarr does an amazing job at picking up right where he left off with Jack, and Tara Strong gives a great sense of warmth and humanity to Ashi (after she stops screaming like a banshee). It’s really these three actors that give the season so much life and energy, especially when combined with a stellar story line that wraps of the series quite neatly, but in a bittersweet resolution that fits the shows blend of darkness and light so epiclly well.

I did have a little bit of a problem with the Aku and Jack dynamic though. Aku and Jack’s encounters were some of the best portions of the first 4 seasons, with Aku being a diabolical schemer. Here’s a bit depressed and off in his lair the entire time, with Jack spending most of his interactions with various villains and Ashi. However, that is remedied in the final face-off episode, where the two beings finally hash out their differences the old fashioned way. Still, I can’t complain too much as we’ve had 4 seasons of back story and conflicts to deal with, so Jack being in a slightly different place with his PTSD, and the inclusion of Ashi makes up for the lack of Aku, bringing him full circle back to the shapes hifting monster.




Rating:

Rated TV-14 by the MPAA




Video:

The 5th season of Samurai Jack comes to Blu-ray on a single BD-50 (each season from the complete series boxset comes that way as well), and preserves Tartakovsky’s unique blending of traditional 1.78:1 framing with interspersed action shots in 2.20:1 and 1.33:1 for dramatic effect. The show looks very nice in 1080p, and shows a distinct upgrade from the 480p DVDs of the show that we’ve had for many years. Colors are bright and wild, with stunningly beautiful backdrops of white snow, black trees, as well as BRIGHT red blood dripping from wounds. Shadow and contrast is used extremely well throughout, and Tatakovsky’s unique art style looks lovely on screen. I can’t tell whether it’s still hand drawn, it looks identical to his previous works and the fluidity is incredible. Fine detailing of all the lines and details of the world of Samurai Jack look impeccable, although the simplistic design isn’t always one that is filled with intricate details.


Audio:

I’m actually really puzzled at Warner Brothers using a 5.1 Dolby Digital lossy track instead of the usual DTS-HD MA codec. They haven’t used lossy audio in their TV shows or a LONG time, with the only really big offender in that scenario being Disney with their new TV shows like Star Wars: Rebels and the final season of Clone Wars. The track is decent as it is, but just a bit thin and lacks some of the dynamics of a good DTS-HD MA track. Dialog is well placed up front, and the surrounds get a good workout with the copious battle scenes throughout the series. The LFE is gooooooood, but it lacks that energetic punch that I was expecting, and fits in with the feeling of being “thin” at times.





Extras:

• The Evolution of Jack!
• 5 Pitch Movies










It’s almost surreal seeing Samurai Jack come back after almost a decade and a half of languishing in the knowledge that we would almost never see the show wrap up. However, moving it over to Adult Swim and restarting years in the future allowed for the show to seamlessly blend together and finally complete the arc started back in 2001. The show looks great on Blu-ray, and sounds excellent too, and if you have or DON’T have the first four seasons on DVD they look great with the upgrade to BD, so while this is a great single seasons set for those who want to just complete, the Complete Series Boxset is also available for those of us who want to upgrade the WHOLE series to High Def. A must buy in my opinion.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Kevin Michael Richardson, Greg Baldwin, Phil LaMarr
Created by: Genndy Tartakovsky
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC (2.20:1 and 1.33:1 for small portions)
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: TV-14
Runtime: 220 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 17th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017