#samuai

Jack’s path to retrieve his sword after seven episodes have come to a close. And in doing so, delivers one of the best and most impactful episodes of the season thus far.

Feeling as though something ended too soon and wanted more when the credits role is an excellent way to measure the quality of it figuratively. That is the feeling I had after watching episode XCVIII of Samurai Jack. Jack’s story arc involving his quest to retrieve his missing sword comes to a close. And what a close it is. The episode’s opening sets the tone for the type of experience viewers will be in store for. And besides a few times involving Jack, the tone hardly lets up. The episode starts with a flashback of Jack trying to find a time portal to return to the past. While doing so, he is greeted by several small and harmless creatures who began to follow him. Upon finding the time portal, Jack jumps into the portal as Aku grabs him out. After destroying the portal, Aku informs Jack of that being the last portal that could have taken him home. After hearing this news, Jack goes into a rage and tries to kill Aku only for Aku to escape but not before turning the harmless creatures into deadly monsters. It is at this moment that Jack loses himself as well as his disconnection to his sword.

The massacre of the creatures represents another reason, among many others this season, on why moving the show to adult swim was a good idea. While the art style of Samurai Jack is part of what makes the show stand out, it still may not be appealing to all. But the effect of seeing blood pour down the head of one of the creatures after seeing Jack impale the sword through its head makes the scene that much more emotional and impactful when the animals are turned back to their normal form after being killed. At this time, viewers also learn how and why Jack lost his sword. And it was because Jack lost a part of himself that day.

Since the beginning of the season, Jack’s expression has represented a man emotionally defeated and on the brink of giving up. And with Jack's struggles this season, the ultimate conflict to retrieve not just his sword, but a missing piece of himself was to battle himself within. And this fight led to Jack finally confronting the part of himself consumed by only anger and hate. After the confrontation, Jack was finally able to find balance within and be found worthy enough to be granted back his sword. And while I will miss the rugged caveman looking Jack, as a fan it was pretty exciting to see Jack in his iconic apparel. However, Jack was not the only character who had a significant role this episode.

Seeing Ashi’s character arc from the beginning of the season up to this point has been impressive to watch, and episode XCVIII is not any different as her character continues to grow and she continues to play a significant role in the show. As Jack meditated to search for his sword, Ashi spent most of her time fighting off an entire army of soldiers sent to kill Jack. If not for Ashi, Jack could not have been able to complete his meditation and retrieved his sword. But it was the unexpected battle between Ashi and the mother of the daughters of Aku that kept me from blinking for a brief moment. The face paced action along with the weight and conclusion to the battle was well done. 

熊本城おもてなし武将隊の、加藤清正さま。 刀を抜いていますね。

（撮影日：2017年3月19日、愛知県名古屋市内にて）