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The Visual World of 'Samurai Jack'

520 points| ani_obsessive | 10 months ago |animationobsessive.substack.com | reply

89 comments

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[+] lelandfe|10 months ago|reply
For a lot of great behind the scenes artwork: https://characterdesignreferences.com/art-of-animation-8/art...

I used to have an artist roommate obsessed with the art style of the show. If anyone hasn't yet watched the rebooted season from 2017, I highly recommend it.

Edit: one great clip from S5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFDkcvrSaYU

[+] schainks|10 months ago|reply
I was going to post this link, too :)

Balance is important!

[+] thatguy0900|10 months ago|reply
I wasn't much a fan of the rebooted series, I thought the inclusion of the new character took too much focus. Almost felt to me more like a fan fiction ending with someone's OC
[+] franczesko|10 months ago|reply
Genndy Tartakovsky is a truly unique creator. Samurai Jack was so good, that I had to watch how it ends years later since watching the show on cartoon network
[+] dyauspitr|10 months ago|reply
Dexter’s Lab as well. What a fantastic show.
[+] klondike_klive|10 months ago|reply
He really set the tone for the late 90s/early 00s, everyone wanted to copy his style (me included) but few had the chops. I definitely didn't!
[+] rcarmo|10 months ago|reply
Samurai Jack is one of my all-time favorite animation series. The sheer amount of creativity packed into any one episode and the consistency of the visual styling throughout (with a few outliers, as any other artwork) makes it doubly unique, and I cannot praise it highly enough.
[+] AtlasBarfed|10 months ago|reply
The star wars clone wars shorts are just amazing animation. The way he caught the essence of the characters in animation that was superior to the human portrayals was a testament to his talent.

It made the cgi clone wars look so amateurish.

The best sam jack imo is the light vs dark. My jaw dropped at that.

He's definitely one of the few creators where I can feel him tickling my mind, overwhelming me with creativity.

[+] Forgeties79|10 months ago|reply
Clone Wars was so fun. The episode with the special forces troopers that’s mostly silent immediately comes to mind, as well as the one where General grievous just goes to town on a group of surrounded Jedi.

It was also pretty cool watching Mace force crush grievous‘s chest lol

[+] duxup|10 months ago|reply
Samurai Jack is so beautiful and being able to portray things / have the confidence in the art really seems to cut back on unnecessary / clumsy dialogue that so many shows have today.
[+] Forgeties79|10 months ago|reply
The episode with the three blind archers guarding the well that grants wishes is a master class in gesticulates at everything

Whenever I think of Tartakovsky I also think of his clone wars micro series he did for Cartoon Network. The episode with the special forces clone troopers that has no dialogue after the first 30-60 seconds or show is just so unbelievably good. So much tension.

[+] stevenwoo|10 months ago|reply
His first season of Primal has almost zero dialogue and works really well, but it's a caveman and a dinosaur buddy show.
[+] sometimes_all|10 months ago|reply
The Ninja/Shinobi fight is burned into my mind. It's been so long, yet it's the best animation sequence I've ever seen. The art in Samurai Jack was truly next level.
[+] thatguy0900|10 months ago|reply
For anyone who liked samurai Jack's art style, there's a newer show called primal made by some of its creators that has a very similar style to it. Similar to the low dialogue in samurai jack it has no talking at all
[+] TuringTourist|10 months ago|reply
I never watched Samurai Jack when it was coming out as a child. I have begun watching it recently and it is absolutely a breathtaking piece of work.
[+] GolfPopper|10 months ago|reply
As an adult, I was fortunate enough to catch "Jack vs. the Ninja" on a hotel TV while on a trip. I was absolutely entranced, and tracked down the rest of the show. "Breathtaking" is a good description.
[+] keeganpoppen|10 months ago|reply
same. i did watch the more recent "last season", or whatever it is that they made, and i thought the artwork was absolutely fantastic.
[+] photonthug|10 months ago|reply
Always loved these aesthetics. No mention of primal here, which is well worth checking out and pretty remarkable for being almost completely free of dialog and more oriented towards adults.
[+] Dem0ngo|10 months ago|reply
I'm a huge fan of this show and Tartakovsky in general! You may be able to guess that by my username.. :)

Great analysis!

[+] Marazan|10 months ago|reply
A truly breathtakingly daring show booth visually and sonically.

I adored if at the time and it still looks and feels unique to this day

[+] dfxm12|10 months ago|reply
The article only touches on the visual world and even quotes Genndy Tartakovsky as saying we’ve almost forgotten what animation was about — movement and visuals, but I agree with you about the sounds. The background music sets the scene as much as any background visual.
[+] lxe|10 months ago|reply
Samurai Jack could easily be a a part of Death Love Robots because of its unique style and content.
[+] KetoManx64|10 months ago|reply
Except it's not nihilistic, which just about every episode of LD&R is.
[+] throw_a_grenade|10 months ago|reply
Tangential: does anyone know if there is a site that collects backgrounds from cartoons? Those would be gorgeous wallpapers.
[+] photonthug|10 months ago|reply
May I also recommend ren and stimpy in this category ? Beyond that you may even have to go back to looney tunes for more watercolor style layering.
[+] coro_1|10 months ago|reply
Slightly off topic, but I only recently discovered Samurai Jack. I found it through some old VHS archive recordings. The care with the animation is unreal. I'd love any links or suggestions for where to find more authentic versions. Commercials welcomed. The original airings have a different feel compared to the heavily processed versions on streaming platforms and archive.org
[+] bitwize|10 months ago|reply
Samurai Jack always struck me as a 90s-modern, anime-and-Kurosawa-film-influenced update of another animated classic, Thundarr the Barbarian. The premise is quite different, but the vibe of "quasi-solitary warrior wandering through a ruined future, righting wrongs" is very much in force.
[+] blacksmith_tb|10 months ago|reply
Except that Thundarr, while having some great weird and zany plotting, took itself seriously, while Samurai Jack is a parody, an homage, and also _really beautiful_ compared to the extremely lumpy animation that seemed cool in the 80s (and I watched it on Saturday mornings back then, so I should know).
[+] javchz|10 months ago|reply
I loved the small segments of behind the scenes the did for Samurai Jack back in the day in CN. It was my first time as a child to appreciate visuals and sound in a new perspective.

Even to this day a beautiful work of art.

[+] stonecharioteer|10 months ago|reply
The core story of Jack is so similar to the Wano arc in One Piece. It's amazing when people say they don't see the similarities. Aku and Kaido are so similar.