I was particularly excited when I heard that Samurai Jack is going get another season after the series being so long on hiatus, so you can imagine my excitement when the first episode of Season 5 aired. The episode delivered everything I've ever wanted from the series. Amazing visuals, a more mature story, and interesting new characters. Episodes 2-3 upped the ante and offered us one of the most well choreographed fight scenes in animation. But then the latter half of the season happened.
The last few episodes felt rushed and rather unsatisfying. I don't mind all the cameos by other characters, I just felt like they're only there just to service viewers. The Demongo cameo is a blatant example. Why brought him back at all if they're not going to do anything with him? Speaking of which, I cheered when Scaramouche is revealed to be alive, then I was left disappointed when all he does after his survival is to be a comic relief character who exists solely to get punished by Aku. The Scotsman himself is better than most, though he's still underused in my opinion. The Omen himself is also another letdown. You could remove him from the story and it wouldn't even make that much difference.
And don't even get me started on The Guardian. It might just be the most disappointing element of Season 5 by far. A lot of fans were looking forward to his arc's closure and his rematch with Jack, and all we got is that he got killed offscreen by Aku instead. WHAT? I mean, I'm fine with retconning story elements introduced in past episodes, but at least do it with a little more effort. You could have Jack fight The Guardian again and wins, but before Jack can use the portal, Aku appears and destroys it, killing The Guardian in the process. Now THAT I would be okay with, not just killing him offscreen like that.
I'm fine with Ashi and Jack romance, I just wished it was developed better. Don't get me wrong, Genndy makes their love story as good as he could within the ten episodes time limit, but there's only so much he could do to make the romance convincing. It's not 'Anakin and Padme Star Wars prequel' quality (which is kinda weird considering that Genndy handled that rather well when he helmed the first Clone Wars animated series), but you can't deny that it could've been better. And the ending of their story is emotional, yes, but it didn't impact me as much as, say, Lord of the Rings' ending.
All in all, what I'm trying to say is, Samurai Jack Season 5 could have, and really should have, been longer than ten episodes. In my honest opinion, ten episodes just isn't long enough to provide a closure to everything in a good fashion, but Genndy made the most out of it as much as he could. That doesn't change the fact that I'm left somewhat disappointed by it. They did really, really good with the first few episodes, which left me with high expectations that the later episodes just couldn't meet. I just wished it could have been better.
Season 5 - Decent, but could have been better.
I was particularly excited when I heard that Samurai Jack is going get another season after the series being so long on hiatus, so you can imagine my excitement when the first episode of Season 5 aired. The episode delivered everything I've ever wanted from the series. Amazing visuals, a more mature story, and interesting new characters. Episodes 2-3 upped the ante and offered us one of the most well choreographed fight scenes in animation. But then the latter half of the season happened.
The last few episodes felt rushed and rather unsatisfying. I don't mind all the cameos by other characters, I just felt like they're only there just to service viewers. The Demongo cameo is a blatant example. Why brought him back at all if they're not going to do anything with him? Speaking of which, I cheered when Scaramouche is revealed to be alive, then I was left disappointed when all he does after his survival is to be a comic relief character who exists solely to get punished by Aku. The Scotsman himself is better than most, though he's still underused in my opinion. The Omen himself is also another letdown. You could remove him from the story and it wouldn't even make that much difference.
And don't even get me started on The Guardian. It might just be the most disappointing element of Season 5 by far. A lot of fans were looking forward to his arc's closure and his rematch with Jack, and all we got is that he got killed offscreen by Aku instead. WHAT? I mean, I'm fine with retconning story elements introduced in past episodes, but at least do it with a little more effort. You could have Jack fight The Guardian again and wins, but before Jack can use the portal, Aku appears and destroys it, killing The Guardian in the process. Now THAT I would be okay with, not just killing him offscreen like that.
I'm fine with Ashi and Jack romance, I just wished it was developed better. Don't get me wrong, Genndy makes their love story as good as he could within the ten episodes time limit, but there's only so much he could do to make the romance convincing. It's not 'Anakin and Padme Star Wars prequel' quality (which is kinda weird considering that Genndy handled that rather well when he helmed the first Clone Wars animated series), but you can't deny that it could've been better. And the ending of their story is emotional, yes, but it didn't impact me as much as, say, Lord of the Rings' ending.
All in all, what I'm trying to say is, Samurai Jack Season 5 could have, and really should have, been longer than ten episodes. In my honest opinion, ten episodes just isn't long enough to provide a closure to everything in a good fashion, but Genndy made the most out of it as much as he could. That doesn't change the fact that I'm left somewhat disappointed by it. They did really, really good with the first few episodes, which left me with high expectations that the later episodes just couldn't meet. I just wished it could have been better.