http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/samuraichamploo1.gif
-->This work of fiction is not an accurate historical portrayal.
-->''[[LampshadeHanging Like we]]'' '''[[TheyJustDidntCare care!]]'''
-->'''''[[MST3KMantra Now shut up and enjoy the show!]]'''''
--->'''Opening disclaimer'''

What CowboyBebop did for Jazz Music, Samurai Champloo did for Hip-Hop.

Samurai Champloo is an anime series created by Bebop's Shinichiro Watanabe.
The show is set in a fictional version of Edo period Japan, featuring elements of action,
adventure and comedy blended with an anachronistic, predominantly hip-hop soundtrack.

Its name comes from the Okinawan word "chanpurū" (e.g. goya champuru), which means to mix or blend. Thus, the title may be translated as "Samurai Remix" or "Samurai Mashup", keeping with the series' blended theme. (Indeed, even the time frame is mashed up, as episodes in the series will freely mention events 200 years apart as if both were current).

The show is unique, in that it matches modern Japanese hip-hop music with a stylized form of samurai swordplay known as chambara, much in the same way Cowboy Bebop married science fiction to blues and jazz. Champloo's score predominantly features hip-hop beats by Japanese hip hop artists such as Nujabes, Force of Nature, Tsutchie, and Fat Jon, among others.

The world of Samurai Champloo is often anachronistic. Characters' costume design, attitudes and editing methods reflect heavily towards international hip-hop culture. One of the protagonists, Mugen, even fights in a style that resembles Capoeira or break-dancing.

Furthermore, despite its setting in the Edo period (though difficult to pinpoint due to a [[http://www.spookhouse.net/angelynx/comics/SC_dates.html mixture of historical events and anachronisms]]) many of the words and expressions used by the characters are modern slang or English-influenced.

Samurai Champloo revolves around the journey of three individuals: The brash and rude vagabond Mugen, the quiet and stoic ronin Jin, and the young, insistent Fuu.

At the beginning of the story, Fuu helps Mugen and Jin escape from a vengeful local magistrate, and she persuades them, by flipping a coin, to help her in her search for a mysterious samurai who smells of sunflowers. In the progressing adventure she will have the trouble of keeping her two companions out of trouble and from attempting to kill each other.

Like Bebop, Champloo's episodes are mostly self-contained (which has garnered it some criticism), and the show contains an extensive cast. Apart from the main trio, most characters only appear once or twice; rarely more than three times.

Most likely due to the popularity of CowboyBebop, it was licensed for North American distribution ''nearly a year before it even aired in Japan''.

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This show provides examples of:
*AccidentalAthlete
*AirplaneArms
*AnachronismStew: And how!
*AnimeFirst
*AntiVillain: Okuru, Sara, and arguably Kohza.
*ArrogantKungFuGuy: Shouryuu
*AvengingTheVillain: Mariya's students.
*AwesomenessByAnalysis: Mugen, though not overly given to intellectual pursuits, can be an insanely quick study when he wants.
*AxeCrazy: The three brothers, especially Denkibou
*BadAss: Mugen, Jin, Kariya Kagetoki, Sara, etc.
*BadassBack
*BalloonBelly: Mugen, on occasion. With Fuu, it's a case of Balloon Body.
*BigEater: Fuu, notably so - she temporarily becomes visibly one and a half times fatter after overeating.
*BigNo: From a minor character in a later episode
*BLAMEpisode: The zombie episode. It starts off with the Jin and Mugen eating rare mushrooms, and ends with [[spoiler: a nuclear explosion and NightmareFuel]]. ''And it is never mentioned again.''
*BlindSeer: Sara shows some characteristics of this, especially when she [[spoiler: defeats and nearly kills both Jin and Mugen with her spear skills.]]
*BlindWithoutEm: Subverted: [[spoiler: turns out Jin's glasses were just for show, much to Mugen's surprise. The fact that he's very attatched to them probably led to this misunderstanding.]]
*BloodKnight: Mugen and Shōryū mainly, though Jin and Kariya Kagetoki also show traits.
*BloodstainedGlassWindows: Okay, so the church in [[spoiler:episodes 25-26]] doesn't have any glass windows, and the one in episode 19 has none at all, but they ''are'' churches, and people are fighting in them, so...
*BodyguardCrush: Whether it's on Mugen or Jin isn't exactly clear, though...
** In fact, it's so easy to argue that they all had crushes on one another that most of the fanbase happily accepts any pairing.
*** Fuu seems to idolize both Jin and Mugen at different points in the series.
*** Jin is very protective of Fuu, but whether this is a romantic interest or a brotherly/fatherly interest is difficult to say. His emotional restraint also makes this even more difficult to fathom.
*** On the other hand, brash Mugen is often argued to be in denial of a crush on Fuu; he rushes to her rescue very noticeably in numerous episodes while Jin often sits by or engages a different enemy. This tends to make him a more popular choice for {{Shipping}} with Fuu than Jin.
*** And meanwhile, Mugen and Jin's blatant obsession with one another is often viewed as a form of FoeYay.
** On a similar note, Fuugen or OT3 Fanfic tends to crop up more than Fuu/Jin or Mugen/Jin.
*BornInTheWrongCentury: Kariya Kagetoki and Jin
*BrokeEpisode: One of the three major episode situations of ''Samurai Champloo''. Usually the responsibility for getting money/food/other necessary items fell on Jin; Mugen and Fuu forced him to pawn his swords at least twice, and his glasses once.
*ButForMeItWasTuesday: Mugen doesn't remeber many of the people who come after him in the series in a rare heroic (sort of) example of this trope.
*CarryingTheAntidote: the deranged, revenge-driven Ryujiro in episode two
*CharacterDevelopment: Most prominent in the last arc where it shows how much Mugen, Jin, and Fuu changed since their meeting.
*CompleteMonster: Mukuro
*CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Too many to list, but any fight scene from the final three episodes deserves special mention.
*CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The opening theme is '''bitching good'''.
**This Troper also loved the ending theme.
**The ''whole'' soundtrack is beautiful, fun and awesome.
*DisabilitySuperpower: Sara
*DistressedDamsel: Fuu. Given how often she gets in trouble (often being BoundAndGagged) she comes off as rather sensible for needing two capable body guards.
*DanceBattler: Mugen may very well be the ultimate example.
*DefectiveDetective: Manzou the Saw
*{{Determinator}}: Mugen, but only when enticed by hot ninja nookie.
** Jin as well in the very last episode.
*{{Eagleland}}: The baseball episode.
*EvasiveFightThreadEpisode: Played straight sometimes, and subverted others.
*EvilCounterpart: Mugen and Jin both have their own [[EvilCounterpart Evil Counterparts]]: Mukuro and Kariya Kagetoki, respectively.
*{{Expy}}: Mugen is an obvious homage to [[CowboyBebop Spike Spiegel]], right down to the hairstyle and nihilistic viewpoint.
** Sara is a homage to the blind swordsman [[Zatoichi Ichi]].
*FieldOfBlades: Seen in the opening sequence.
*{{Gangsta Style}}: Mukuro
*GovernmentConspiracy: Although it isn't discussed much, the driving force behind the series is essentially the shogunate's attempts to [[spoiler:drive the Christians, of whom Fuu's father is the leader, out of Japan]].
*TheGrotesque: Oniwakamaru
*{{Henohenomoheji}}: The baseball catcher doll in episode 23 "Baseball Blues" has a Henohenomeheji on its face.
*HeroicSociopath: Mugen
*HeyItsThatVoice: Steven Blum, who was known for his role as CowboyBebop's Spike Spiegel, voices Mugen. Meanwhile, his Japanese voice actor is KazuyaNakai, known best for his role as [[OnePiece Roronoa Zoro]].
*HighPressureBlood
*{{Honorifics}}: Seen in the third episode between a Yakuza boss and his former employee.
*IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: English translation attempt to recreate the original poetic Japanese titles with full on alliteration.
*ImplausibleFencingPowers: But they're used tastefully.
*InstrumentOfMurder: In the first part 'Hellhounds for Hire' Jin is disguised as a woman carrying a biwa (a traditional Japanese instrument similar to a lute). 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.
*JidaiGeki
*KiAttacks: With a twist: the main characters don't use them (save for Mugen on one single, lucky occasion), and your garden-variety bad guy doesn't, either. Only a handful of villains have them, and they're the toughest mofos in the ''Champloo'' universe. An additional twist from the final episode: [[spoiler: Jin defeats the most powerful of the ki users NOT by using the same tactics, but through a very zen kendo move that requires allowing oneself to be run through. Force of will comes out stronger than fancy magic tricks.]]
*TheLastDJ: Jin
*LargeHam: Bundai
*LemonyNarrator: Several episodes have one who makes anachronistic references to the future; all of those narrated by Manzou definitely count.
*LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: ''Seventy-three'' named characters. Many of them only appear once, while the rest crop up in, at most, five episodes.
*LookBehindYou
*MamaBear: Sara. [[spoiler:Too bad her son is dead]].
*MistakenForGay: At one point, an old man comes across Jin in a [[HotSpringsEpisode hot spring]]. They have a (largely one sided) conversation about fireflies, until the stranger gives a rather weird smile and comments that sometimes the male fireflies can attract ''other'' male fireflies instead of females. Jin promptly excuses himself.
*MisterDanger: Francis Xavier III, [[spoiler: who is actually a subversion given that he's actually Japanese but disguised as a European]].
*TheMomo: TropeNamer.
*MoralEventHorizon: Umanosuke. [[spoiler:Chased down Fuu, molested her, knocked her out, then [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic tied her to a cross]] in the last episode]].
*MushroomSamba: Incident involving a burning field of pot, and maybe the [[spoiler: episode where they ate mushrooms and were attacked by zombies, died, and got hit with a nuke. Maybe, because so far no-one has a concrete explanation for what the hell happened. Most believe the mushrooms they ate were bad]].
*MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: [[spoiler:In Episode 14, as Mugen is drowning, he has flashbacks of his hellish childhood in Ryuukyuu, and of Kohza and Mukuro, while a [[TearJerker tear jerkingly]] [[http://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]].]]
*MyMasterRightOrWrong
*{{Narrator}}: Detective Manzou - a.k.a. "The Saw" - in three episodes.
*NegativeContinuity: The two episodes right before the 3-part finale show everyone [[spoiler: getting either severely injured or possibly killed]] while the finale shows everyone in perfect health.
*NeverFoundTheBody: Repeatedly. Just who did they think they were kidding after four or five "Mugen or Jin falls off cliff/waterfall/exploding pirate ship" types of incidents?
*NightmareFuel: Zombie episode, especially the credit ending.
** Also, the way the counterfeiter was going to torture the secret police in episode 15. It involved molten gold and a funnel.
*{{Ninja}}: Yatsuha and Kagemaru.
*NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Said word for word after the RopeBridge incident. Probably implied elsewhere.
*NotSoHarmless: Ogura Bunta
*TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Jin and Mugen, mutually.
*OhCrap: Mugen, involves explosives.
** Twice.
*{{Otaku}}: Isaac
*ParentalAbandonment: All three in various ways: Fuu, literally her parents; Jin, his master; and Mugen, his whole family.
*PermaStubble: Mugen
*{{Pettanko}}: Fuu
*{{Pirate}}: Mugen, formerly. Mukuro and Kohza as well.
*PlatonicProstitution
*PluckyGirl: Fuu
*PowerTrio
*PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: Isaac
*PrisonerOfZendaExit: An early episode has an assassin dueling with Jin. After Mugen kills his employer, he tells Jin that there's now no need for him to kill, and gives a WeWillMeetAgain before calmly walking away.
*PsychoForHire: Ryujiro Sasaki, the Three Brothers
** Mugen as well.
*PurelyAestheticEra: The series opens with a title card declaring that it is not historically accurate. It then gleefully throws everything it can get its hands on, from hip-hop to baseball, into the Edo period of Japan.
*TheQuietOne: Jin
*RainAura
*RecapEpisode: Episode 12
*RedOniBlueOni: Mugen and Jin are major examples.
*RockPaperScissors: It's the samurai way of doing things!!
*RopeBridge: Episode 21
*{{Samurai}}
*SchizoTech: Pretty much the entire premise, really.
*ShirtlessScene: Several, but Jin's in the last episode is especially memorable.
*ShoutOut: Lots of 'em.
*ShroudedInMyth: The Ghost of Yoshitsune. Sort of. [[spoiler:It all turned out to be a combination of rumors about AntiVillain Okuru and Jin (including one about [[HoYay how]] [[FoeYay handsome]] he is), deliberately spread by Yukimaru]].
*SingleStrokeBattle
*SinisterScythe: Umanosuke, leader of the three brothers.
*TheStoic: Jin, and how. Sara too, enough to give Jin a run for his money [[spoiler: [[IncrediblyLamePun and his life]] ]]
** The Kawara boss as well. [[spoiler: The two engage themselves to a very charming conversation in the fourth episode.]]
*SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: The baseball episode and the opening song "Battlecry"
** YourMilageMayVary on the baseball episode; while the commanding officers posess extremely good American accents, the rest of the crew isn't so lucky.
** Also Surprisingly Good Dutch: Though red-haired foreigner Isaac is played by a Japanese voice actor, his lines in Dutch seem to be grammatically correct. The other Dutchmen in the episode are played by native Dutchmen delivering lines in their own language.
*SwipeYourBladeOff
*SwordBeam: Shoryuu
*SwordFight: [[CaptainObvious Inevitably]], up to and including many of its subtropes.
** {{Flynning}} was notably averted. It's the speed of the action that adds excitement to the fight scenes, not the amount of movements. The movements used were often very carefully choreographed into the script, making each fight scene very different and unique.
** BarehandedBladeBlock: A subversion, in the 25th episode [[spoiler: Mugen kills the first of the three brothers by allowing his lance to go through Mugen's hand in order to deliver the killing blow.]]
*ThematicThemeTune
*TheStinger: [[spoiler:Shige rising from the grave]] during the end credits of Episode 22.
*VictoriasSecretCompartment: Fuu has a pet flying squirrel named Momo who lives in her cleavage
**[[{{Pettanko}} Her robe. Fuu doesn't have cleavage.]]
*WhenAJerkLovesATsundere: How fans of Fuugen often justify the pairing; based primarily on their constant arguing/making fun of/insulting each other despite repeatedly rescuing (Mugen, moreso)/crying over (Fuu, obviously) each other.
*YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Completely averted.
*{{Youkai}}: The crazed mountain-priests in episode 9 disguise themselves as tengu.
*ZombieApocalypse
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