Samurai Jack 2.13

Jack's Sandals

- Jack is enjoying a nice relaxing day, soaking his feet in a stream, reminiscing about his youth, making himself a new hat when some bikers come along and destroy his sandals; Jack chases them to the city where he catches them busting up a shoe store; he tries fighting the bikers barefoot but quickly discovers the perils of doing so; the bikers are so amused that they just drive away laughing
- the store owner repays Jack's act of kindness by offering to outfit him with a few pair of shoes; Jack tries several pairs but none seem to work although there's plenty of humor in his attempts to make them work; finally he spots a kid wearing sandals very similar to the pair that were broken early in the episode; he follows the kid back to his home where he meets the family and shares a meal with them; after dinner the father makes Jack a new pair of sandals

- there was a nice stretch of about 4 minutes at the beginning of the episodes that is completely wordless and much of the second half of the episode when Jack is trying out different pairs of footwear is also without dialogue
- the shoe salesman was very energetic and earnest, he even stands up to the bikers when they first show up
- Aku showed up in little ways: the traffic lights were shaped like his head; one of the signs at the shoe store advertised Aku Air shoes
- this one was a lot of fun

Samurai Jack 2.12

XXV: Jack and the Spartans

- a little different in that it is a story of Jack coming to help others and the story is told as though it happened long ago
- Jack helps the Spartans defeat a robo-minotaur army but the leader of the Spartans knows that the robots will return soon; Jack tells them of a passageway he recently discovered; the king of the Spartans takes 50 of his men plus Jack through the passageway; they attack and defeat the evil robot (is there any other kind on this show?) behind the robo-minotaur army
- at the end the Spartans don't know what happened to Jack; all that they have left of him is his shield

- this story must have been inspired by 300 by Frank Miller or at lthe very least by the same story that inspired the comic book; the comic book came out in 1998, five years before this episode which predated the 300 movie by three years

- the scene where Jack and the king fight the giant robot is great; I love how the fight progresses especially after the king starts using Jack's sword
- there are a lot of nits one could pick with this episode, especially with the climbing scenes, but they work and the show works in large part because it has an emotional heart

Samurai Jack 2.11

XXIV: Jack Is Naked

- Jack bathes after getting muddy battling a swamp creature; his sword and clothes are stolen by a white rabbit; naked, he chases the rabbit but falls down a hole
- Jack unknowingly assumes the identity of a burglar after taking the man's clothes which leads to further complications when he is spotted by an angry mob who mistake him for the burglar; after another change of clothing Jack winds up on stage looking very much like Alice from Alice in Wonderland; later he winds up on a train after spotting the white rabbit boarding the train
- this is a wonderfully wacky episode; there are lots of little moments in  it that I like and I love the overall sense of whimsy; loved the desperation on Jack's face when he tries to control the flying train using the track ball
- Aku, or something that looks like Aku, make a brief appearance but other than that this episode has little to nothing to do with the central of the series; there is no magic portal that Jack is questing for; it is all about tracking down the white rabbit and getting back his sword and his clothes

Samurai Jack 2.10

XXIII: Jack vs. Demongo, the Soul Collector

- Aku summons Demongo, one of his disciples, a demon, and sends him on a mission to capture Samurai Jack; Demongo uses the souls he has stolen from warriors he has defeated to battle Jack; Demongo has the upper hand until Jack finds a way to free the souls that Demongo holds captive; once freed the warriors turn on Demongo
- this episode lacked a setting of note; not all episodes have one but most of my favorites have one; this one took place in a desert with no apparent native flora or fauna; there were no other people in the episode other than the ones mentioned above; my recollection is that none of the warriors had any lines
- not a bad episode but it didn't really stand out either

Samurai Jack 2.09

XXII: Jack and the Hunters

- Aku engages (hires doesn't seem like the right word here since they won't accept pay) a foursome of hunters from a distant planet to hunt and capture Jack for him; the hunters are called Imakandi in the episode but in the credits they are just referred to as aliens; their leader, the only one who speaks is named Lionor in the credits

- the first third of the episode is given to a demonstration of the hunters' prowess as they stalk a hapless group of grazing creatures on what is presumably their home planet

- after they accept Aku's challenge to capture Jack they travel to earth by mystical means and land in a big city; the rest of the episode focuses on their attempt to capture Jack; they track him throughout the city; the climax of the hunt is a sequence that takes at the very top of the city; in the end the hunters are successful but then refuse to turn Jack over to Aku

- so many things to love about this episode; much of it is wordless and visual; there is little that is played for laughs; the elevator chase scene was great; the scene at the top of the city made me think of Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back even though is didn't really resemble it all that much; the arrow that became a snake made me think of Conan the Barbarian movie

- definitely a superior episode and worth watching if one is just skimming through and not watching every episode of the show; one of the more intelligently devised episodes

Samurai Jack 2.08

XXI: Jack and the Farting Dragon

- Jack comes across a village that is being assaulted by noxious clouds of gas; the gas is emanating from a nearby mountain; Jack scales the mountain and finds a dragon which can't seem to control it's noxious emissions and asks for Jack's help
- Jack enters the dragon through it's mouth and goes on a fantastic voyage-type journey through the beast's body until he discovers the source of the problem an egg which contains a tiny fragon that is blowing fire inside the larger dragon's body

- not a great episode, but not a bad one either; definitely not high brow; not as pretty or poetic as some other episodes
- Clancy Brown is the voice of the dragon

Samurai Jack 2.07

Jack and the Three Monks

- the episode opens with Jack fighting beetle robots who are defending a magic portal; Jack defeats the robots but the portal is destroyed by one of the robots before the fight is over
- Jack is frustrated and wanders off looking dejected
- a breeze comes along and sweeps his hat off his head and it goes sailing away; he chases it and eventually recovers it but not before meeting three monks who are headed up a nearby mountain
- Jack decides to join them on their quest to reach the mountain top; along the way he fights a group of goat men, a mountain ogre or troll or possibly a yeti, and the elements; sometimes he travels with the monks other times, usually when he is fighting, he is on his own
- eventually the weather gets to be too much and he slips and falls on to a ledge; once again he feels frustrated and dejected; he has a flashback of his parents and Aku, from when he was a boy; possibly these were scenes lifted directly from the three-part story that opened season one; he gets up and starts climbing again and reaches the top of the mountain only to discover that there are other taller mountains in the distance
- Jack screams at the top of his lungs that he is coming for Aku and that he will never give up

- this is a plot light episode; it is very much about Jack falling down and getting back up again; it is very much about showing that Jack is human and can be knocked down but that he doesn't allow setbacks to break him
- the monks for the most part seem to glide everywhere they go; the exception is one of the last time Jack sees them from a distance climbing the mountain ahead of him; it isn't clear what happens to the monks in the end but that doesn't bother me because the episode is really about Jack
- it took me three tries on three different nights to get through this episode; the first two times I was just too sleepy when I turned it on and ended up missing big portions of it

Samurai Jack 2.06

XIX: Jack Remembers the Past

- opens with an aerial battle; riding on the back of an insect that is almost as large as he, Jack is being pursued by catlike villains that are later identified as Cossacks
- the rest of the episode follows Jack as his traveling brings him to his homeland; everything is in ruins, and overgrown with weeds; he remembers things from his boyhood: (1) chasing a grasshopper with a friend, (2) meeting a man and his son who very much resemble the main characters from Lone Wolf and Cub, and (3) learning how to deal with a bully who is bigger and stronger than he is

- on one level there isn't much to this episode, it is just Jack remembering moments from his youth but it is done so beautifully and adds to Jack's background
- there is very little dialogue in this episode and it totally works
- love the scenes of Jack climbing up the mountain and the one where he comes to a chasm and has to turn back; there's something about these scenes, the images, the way they are paced, and possibly the sounds effects and music that fires my imagination
- nostal-Jack; love the facial expressions as Jack begins to realize where he is; which makes the episode about discovery for both the viewer and Jack, as much as it is about experiencing the past
- love the final image of Jack's parents, it isn't the first time they've been shown, but likely the first since the opening episode of the show
- definitely one of my favorites from season two

Samurai Jack 2.05

XVIII: Jack and the Ultra-robots

- Jack wanders from town to town, all of which have been destroyed, looking for those responsible
- Eventually he finds the robots who have wrecked so many towns; much to his dismay his sword seems to have no effect on them, it can't even cut them
- Jack runs and hides; while he is hiding for the robots who are hunting him he is approached by a scientist who (a) created the robots, and (b) offers Jack a solution to his dilemma: a bionic arm
- with the bionic arm Jack is able to defeat most of the killer robots but then, when all but one of the robots have been destroyed, the bionic arm runs out of juice
- Jack prays to his ancestors and a bolt of light shines down on him and he is granted the strength enough to defeat the final robot

- not great but there were some nice touches in this episode that I really liked
- in the first act, when Jack was wandering from village to village, I liked how the story was split between Jack and scenes of the scientist's lab
- the robot were made of adamantium, according to the scientist who built them, and powered by Aku, who showed up briefly but did not confront Jack himself
- I feared for the scientist when he asked Jack for a high-five and Jack was wearing the bionic arm, lucky for the scientist, Jack had no idea what the scientist was talking about
- I have no recollection of this episode but I must have seen it before
- many of the robots carried swords so there were some nice sword fights, although they also used other weapons

Samurai Jack 2.04

XVII: Jack and the Scotsman II

- Jack helps the Scotsman rescue his wife
- not as subtle as some episodes but it still brought a smile to my face on more than one occasion
- it lacked the delicacy, wit, and creativity that most of my favorite episodes of this show have

Samurai Jack 2.03

XVI: Jack and the Smackback

- Jack is captured and forced to fight in the Dome of Doom

- not a whole lot I can think to say about this one; the story isn't very complex and is somewhat repetitive but on the whole it is a fun gladiator type episode
- most of the fun and originality is found in the champions that Jack must fight
- the fight choreography is also good
- love the look and sound of the Dome's announcer
- love the name the announcer gives Jack: Two Sandals the Treacherous

Samurai Jack 2.02

XV: Jack Tales

Tale 1
- Jack encounters a double-headed, wish-granting sea serpent; after attempting to answer its questions correctly he gets swallowed by the beast; the episode ends with Jack in the belly of the beast, surrounded by a large group of scraggly looking old men

Tale 2
- Jack is approached and then attacked by a family of 4; they are drawn to his sword; eventually they turn on one another as they are revealed to be robots in disguise

Tale 3
- Jack seeks a fairy that grants wishes; the fairy is the prisoner of a gargoyle; Jack unsuccessfully attempts to take the fairy when the gargoyle is sleeping; he defeats the gargoyle but then has to use his wish on something other than a doorway back to the past

- love the use of panels in this one

- love how Jack thinks he knows better and by not listening to the fairy only make the situation worse
- love the bittersweet ending

- Unusual approach to an episode, although I think it may have been done on a couple more occasions
- nice episode but not even close to being my favorite

Samurai Jack 2.01

XIV: Jack Learns to Jump Good

- Jack teaches a wild man and a tribe of white monkeys to defend themselves against a tribe of pink apes that have been bullying them and stealing their food; in exchange for his help they teach him to jump good
- additionally there are a pair of scenes which bookend Jack's forest adventure; in both of them he battles Aku; in the first one Jack loses to Aku who swoops in and steals a magic mirror/doorway to the past; in the second one Jack demonstrates his ability to jump good but the episode ends before the battle does

- there are a few wordless sequences all of which are very nicely animated: Jack fighting back against the apes; Jack training the monkeys and helping them prepare for their next battle with the apes; the monkeys training Jack to jump good; the monkeys using their training to repel the apes
- when the wild man is tells the story of how he came to live with the monkeys a more muted color palette is used quite effectively to visually inform and reinforce the fact that this is a flashback

- one interpretation of the bulk of this episode or at least the final scene is that it is a dream; why? because this is the only episode where Jack demonstrates this ability to jump good, so good that it looks like he is flying; also the fact that the second encounter with Aku looks just like the first one with the exception that Jack knows how to jump good in the second one leads me to wonder how to explain the similarity between the opening and closing and arrive at this possible conclusion; of course I might just be overthinking this episode