Recycled Script: Episode 7, in which a sympathetic thief befriends a main character, then is killed trying to steal for a sick relative, is closely following the plot of an earlierCowboy Bebop episode.
According to Avatar Extras for Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "Jet", the episode (particularly Aang vs. Jet fight) was inspired by Samurai Champloo and Naruto.
Aaron McGruder cited the show's opening credits as inspiration for the opening credits of The Boondocks's second season, as can be read here.
The Japanese home media rights were originally held by Victor Entertainment, before they switched to their FlyingDog division.
The North American home media releases were handled by Geneon. When their North American division went out of business, Funimation picked up the rights.
Word of God: Shinichiro Watanabe confirmed in a 2019 interview that Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop, Carole & Tuesday, and Space☆Dandy all exist within the same universe, and in that chronological order. This is really nothing much more than flimsy justification to make self-references to the other series, but he said it. Samurai Champloo really doesn't have any significant references to Cowboy Bebop though, which was the only other series that existed at the time.
General Trivia
Despite the fact that the show isn't meant to be a historically accurate representation of Edo period Japan, there are characters throughout the series who did exist or were based on other famous people. Much of the background information, such as clan heraldry, is drawn from history. The list includes:
Manzo the Saw is a lampoon of Hanzo Itami.
Ando, the fashion designer in "War of the Words", is an homage to Andy Warhol. His full name, Uohori Andou, is pronounced like a Japanese rendition of "Warhol, Andy". As an addendum, it should also be noted that there was a famous artist named Ando Hiroshige who lived during the time period of the series. Hiroshige is considered the last master of the ukiyo-e tradition and, unlike his peers, painted mainly popular subjects like urban lifestyles and famous actors.
When Mugen is looking at an ukiyo-e, he mentions "doing it with a squid". While we never see what he is looking at, it is most likely Katsushika Hokusai's famous painting "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife◊" (warning: Link is NSFW). This is a Woolseyism only present in the dub (the Japanese line is more like "Whoa, they're doing it").
Okuru is being pursued by members of the Matsumae clan, which did exist and administered the northernmost island of Japan, Hokkaido. Okuru's appearance and clothing are clearly supposed to indicate that he's a member of the Ainu, a real world ethnic minority from Hokkaido. The Ainu were some of the earliest human settlers of the archipelago but were pushed further and further to the margins by the arrival of the Yamato people, the ancestors of the ethnic Japanese. By the Tokugawa period Ainu language and culture were in decline due to external pressure and today both are nearly extinct.
Jin's sword style, the Mujuushin ("Sword of No Abiding Mind") kenjutsu, was an actual esoteric kendo school in the Edo era. There are at least 3 recorded masters of the style, the last of whom really was named Mariya Enshirou, although there's no indication that he died in a sword fight. The philosophy of the school was "to go beyond conventional ideas of winning and losing". The "ultimate technique" shown in episode 26 certainly counts as the user must accept that they cannot end the fight without sacrificing their life.
The heraldic symbols (or mon) on Jin and Yukimaru's battle attire show they are members of the real-life Takeda and Hojo clans, respectively. Both clans were involved in the 3-way power struggle that preceded the emergence of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Takeda clan was wiped out in the conflict, making Jin even more of a relic from another era. The Mariyas were, incidentally, linked to the Takeda clan in the Sengoku period.
In Episode 21, Johnnythe hermit claims (at first) to be Miyamoto Musashi. Miyamoto was a legendary swordsman and certified Kensei (a title given to a person considered perfect in swordsmanship). In addition, one of Johnny's lessons to Jin was the fluidity of movement on the battlefield, a technique that Miyamoto triumphed throughout his life. This technique led to the prevalent use of one-handed swords for all samurai, thus popularizing the katana.
It should also be noted that Miyamoto is often quoted in Cowboy Bebop, a show many consider to be the ancestor of Champloo.
Kasumi Seizou, the Samurai who smells of sunflowers was part of the Shimabara Rebellion, which did happen and did involve the uprising of Japanese Christians (specifically Catholics). After the rebellion, Christianity was officially banned until 1871. The government raids and the use of fumi-e to force secret Christians to reveal themselves are accurate to the time period.
Whenever Mugen is nearly dead, he sees visions of strange-looking spirits. Word of God is that these are Paantu, guardian spirits native to the Miyako Islands (a subset of the Ryukyu Islands), and the resemblance is◊ pretty uncanny◊. (Incidentally, Word of God also states that Mugen is a Miyako native.)
Reference is made to the Edo period's restrictive trade and foreign policy called Sakoku, which restricted foreign traders and especially Europeans from entering Japan. The one big exception was the Dutch, at Dejima Island off Nagasaki, that allowed the Japanese to learn about Western science and technology even during the Sakoku isolation. The Dutch presence and restrictive policy are accurately depicted in one of the episodes.
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