Samurai Jack 5.X.1

The Evolution of Jack

14 minutes

The Gendy Tartakovsky and some of the members of his team talk about how Season 5 came to be. The way it is presented makes it feel like it is a teaser for Season 5. I probably would have gotten more out of this short by watching it before watching Season 5 but it also has minor spoilers. I was a bit surprised at how short it is but it makes sense considering how it seems like it is a preview of the season rather that a look back at the season.

Samurai Jack 5.10

CI

Aku is ready to kill Jack but he can't decide how to do it. Many of the people whom Jack helped over the years show up and attack Aku's stronghold. They are mere gnats to Aku but they distract him. Jack gets free but then Ashi, in her new form, attacks Jack. She prevents him from getting to his sword. She and Jack fight while Jack's friends fight with Aku.

Many of Jack's friends are killed. Ashi finally pounces on Jack. He is absorbed into her form. He finds that she is still alive in there. She has given up all hope until he finally tells her that he loves her. Ashi reasserts control over her new body. She gets Jack his sword and then uses her powers to transport them back in time to the moment just after Aku flung Jack into the future.

Jack fights with and kills Aku. The day is saved. Jack and Ashi prepare to get married but on their wedding day she collapses. She cannot exist if Aku was killed in her distant past. She fades to nothing. Jack is left alone.

Samurai Jack 5.09

C

Jack and Ashi are both embarrassed and act as if they should not have kissed. They clean up. Ashi finds some clothes to wear in the prison ship. Jack puts his gi back on. He tells her a little bit about his past.

Ashi wakes up the next morning. Jack is gone. He is trekking through the desert on foot. He gets to an area that looks familiar. He is exploring the area when Ashi catches up to him. She is angry at him for leaving.

Jack and Ashi don't get to speak for very long before Aku and Scaramouche show up. Aku is feeling like his old self ever since Scaramouche told him that Jack lost his sword. Aku's mood dims momentarily when he sees that Jack has his sword.

Aku smells something that smells like himself. It is Ashi that he smells. He realizes that she is his daughter. He forces her to fight Jack. When she doesn't seem to be making any progress he transforms her into a being like himself, but faceless.

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XCIX

Jack and Ashi visit a market where the food looks delicious to Jack but not to Ashi. They catch a ride on a giant creature only to discover that the other passengers on the creature want to kill them. They attempt to cross a great desert on foot but a sandstorm forces them to search for cover. They find it in a crashed spaceship.

The shelter turns out to be the remnant of a prison ship. The ship's most dangerous inmate has escaped from it's cell and comes after them. It is an organism that is made up of lots of little leach-like creatures. Jack and Ashi run from it but are unable to find their way back out of the prison ship.

The pair locate a control room and a device that should help them to neutralize the creature pursuing them. The creature eventually catches up to them. Jack can't figure out how to activate the device. He tries, she tries, until finally, somehow, the device gets activated and fries all the little leach-like critters.

Samurai Jack 5.07

XCVIII

Jack returns to the high mountain top where he lost his sword. He remembers how Aku destroyed the last portal to the past and how he tricked Jack into killing three harmless creatures.

Jack and Ashi get to the place thanks to a giant bird. They search for the sword but it is nowhere to be found. Jack meditates. Ashi waits. An army of orcs arrives ready to kill Jack. Ashi protects him. She kills the orcs and then has to fight her mother whom she also kills.

Jack experiences a mystical dream while he meditates. He makes tea. He finds balance. He is visited by the three gods who gave his father the magic sword in 3.11 (Birth of Evil). They zap him, just like they zapped his father, and his sword is returned to him.

Samurai Jack 5.06

XCVII

Ashi searches for Jack. She meets lots of people who were helped by Jack. She shares moments with them.

Ashi continues to search for Jack. She stops and scrubs herself clean, makes herself some new clothes, and searches some more. She eventually locates Jack in a cemetery. The ghost warrior is with him. Jack looks ready to kill himself.

The ghost warrior warns her to stay back and not interfere. The ghost warrior encourages Jack to end his life. Ashi tries to reassure Jack that he has done much good. She tells him of the many people she has met who are grateful for what he did.

The ghost warrior attacks Ashi. It is ready to deal her a devastating blow when Jack steps in and destroys it. The episode ends with Jack suggesting that it is time to find his sword.

Samurai Jack 5.05

XCVI

The Scotsman, now an old man in a wheelchair, is accompanied by his daughters and other armies. Together they attack the stronghold of Aku. The villain is bored but he annihilates the other armies and then turns on the Scotsman. The Scotsman is killed but his ghost lives on. His daughters and his ghost go looking for Jack.

Jack and Ashi leave the island on the back of a giant sea serpent. The night before, while Jack slept, she saw visions of her teacher telling her to kill Jack while he slept, but she refused. Ashi now wants proof of all that Jack has told her. He refuses at first but he eventually relents. 

They travel on and find a decimated village. A survivor tells him that someone evil took their children. Jack and Ashi go after the children. The evil robot-like creature has hypnotized the children. They attack Jack on command. Ashi goes after the device that is controlling the children.

She eventually finds it and defeats the villain. Jack thinks the children are dead. He sees the ghost warrior. It tells him that it is time. Jack leaves with the ghost warrior, before Ashi finds him.

Samurai Jack 5.04

XCV

Jack survives the fall. He lands in a snow bank. Ashi, one of the Daughters of Aku also survives. She isn't ready to give up the fight, regardless of what he says. She believes that Aku is great and good and that Jack is the evil one. Jack restrains her but then a great beast comes along and swallows them both.

Ashi's arms are tied to her side but she continues to fight Jack as they make their way through the great beast. He saves her life on multiple occasions. Eventually they make their way out of he beast, through a blow hole. They were on land when they were swallowed but now they are at sea.

They find a small island. Jack takes a moment to relax. He turns his back on Ashi. She is ready to kill him when she has a change of heart.

Samurai Jack 5.03

XCIV

Jack floats downstream holding on to a log. He sees the dark rider. He eventually leaves the river and finds a cave. He pulls the dagger out of his gut and sews himself up. The white wolf joins him in the cave. Jack dreams of his youth. Jack heals up, with some help from the wolf that brings him food and helps to keep him warm.

The Daughters of Aku resume their search for Jack. They follow signs to his passage along the river. Their efforts eventually lead them to Jack. He warns them to back off but they keep coming. He kills three of them. The fight continues. They corner him on a tree limb that juts out over a cliff. He kills them too but them the tree limb breaks and he falls.

Samurai Jack 5.02

XCIII

Aku is bored. His great plan didn't work out exactly as planned. He destroyed all the portals to the past but Jack has stopped aging. He doesn't know that Jack no longer has his magic sword.

Jack is attacked by the Daughters of Aku. They attack him while he is in a wooded area. They pursue him to an ancient structure. The fight continues there. They outnumber him 6 to 1 and seem faster. He eludes them put they keep coming.

One comes after him. She is much closer to him than any of the others. he turns and attacks her. She stabs him in the side with a dagger. He slashes her throat. He didn't realize that they were human. He hears the others coming and jumps in the roaring river.

The attack on Jack is paralleled by another fight. This one is between a white wolf and three large cat like beasts. The wolf seems hopelessly smaller than the the cat-like beasts but it fights on. The episode ends with the three larger beasts and the wolf dead.

Samurai Jack 5.01

XCII

Jack is an older man now. He is haunted by his past, memories of his parents. His magic sword is gone. He rides a motorcycle. He fights with guns and knives. 

Seven girls are trained from infancy. They are the Daughters of Aku. Their mission in life is to find and kill Samurai Jack.

Jack arrives at a burned out city. Scaramouch, the minion of Aku who destroyed the city, has been waiting for Jack. Scaramouch is a robot but his voice is magical. He has a sense of humor but his jokes fall flat on Jack's ears. Scaramouch seems to get the upper hand in the fight but Jack is victorious in the end.

Samurai Jack 4.X

Genndy's Roundtable

55 minutes

This is a special feature in the DVD set for season 4 of Samurai Jack. It is a roundtable discussion with show runner Genndy Tartakovsky and six of the artists who worked on the show. They introduce themselves and talk about some of the challenges and triumphs they experienced while working on the show. A scenes from a few episodes are shown in the course of telling stories about working on the show: Jack and the Three Blind Archers, Chicken Jack, Jack and the Rave, The Birth of Evil, Tale of X-49.

I met Andy Suriano, one of the artists, at Heroes Con several years ago. I bought a print from him of Jack and Aku which I still have.

I really like this feature. I don't recall if I had watched it before. It didn't drag in the least bit. It was fun to hear these artists talk about their work.

Samurai Jack 4.13

LII: Jack and the Baby

Jack rescues a baby from ogres who are getting ready to cook the baby. Jack goes looking for the baby's mother. He entertains the baby with the story of Momotaro, a story which Jack's mother used to tell him. Jack struggles to find milk for the baby.

Jack and the baby eventually find themselves back in the woods where they first met and where the ogres live. Jack battles the ogres once again. This time he makes sure that they will never harm the baby again. The episode ends with the baby's mother showing up and Jack walking off over the horizon.

Samurai Jack 4.12

LI: Young Jack in Africa

Young Jack is taken by a friend of his father to live and train with an African chieftain and his people. It takes Jack time to accept his new surroundings. The chieftain's son, who is about Jack's age, doesn't warm to Jack as quickly as his father but eventually they become friends.

One night, after Jack has been there for some time, the village is attacked. The attackers are also humans but they work for Aku. They carry bladed weapons that they spin above their heads and that have large flat sides. Jack is the only one to evade capture. Jack follows the attackers back to their village.

Jack steals one of the attackers weapons, trains with it, and then comes back to free his new friends. 

Samurai Jack 4.11

L: Tale of X-49

X-49, a robot heavy who used to work for Aku, comes out of retirement for one last job: kill Samurai Jack. X-49 was the best of the X line of robots, possibly beause he had been given an emotion chip. It made him sensitive in a way that the other robots were not. His fellow robots were eventually killed off. He retired and spent his time in retirement with Lulu, his dog.

X-49 agrees to come out of retirement and hunt Jack down after Aku kidnaps Lulu. He tracks down Jack. The confrontation occurs in an old robot factory. Jack, in the end, proves to be a little little too quick for X-49.

Samurai Jack 4.10

XLIX: The Four Seasons of Death

Summer... Jack crosses a desert. He is attacked by creatures which look real. Jack eventually comes to the realization that the heat is making him see things that aren't really there.

Fall... An evil-looking scientist, who lives in a windmill, makes a mixture. He uses the it to infect a nearby well. Jack comes along and takes a drink from the well. He collapses but when the scientist moves in to get a closer look at Jack he discovers that all is not as it seems.

Winter... Miners, blacksmiths, and wizards work to create a mighty sword but it is no match for Jack's magic blade.

Spring... Jack is passing through a thorny wood when he encounters a magical woman who convinces him to stay a while. She gets very angry when he tries to leave.

Thoughts

Aku shows up very briefly in this episode.

This is different. There is no single thread that binds these four stories together. They each have their own flavor. I vaguely remember this one from the last time I watched it, years ago. 

Samurai Jack 4.09

XLVIII: Jack vs. Aku

Aku tires of watching his minions fail to kill Jack. He proposes a duel in which Jack cannot use his sword. Jack accepts provided that Aku cannot use his super powers, receive assistance from his minions, or fight Jack as anything other than a human.

Samurai Jack 4.08

XLVII: Jack and the Flying Prince and Princess

Prince Astor and Princess Verbina, siblings, are sent by their parents, the rulers of the planet Chrystallis to find the Royal Navy. Their mission goes awry and they wind up on Earth. Jack sees them crash land but some of Aku's minions get to the royal siblings before him.

Samurai Jack 4.07

XLVI: The Scotsman Saves Jack - Part 2

The ship takes Jack and the Scotsman to the region of the ocean known as the Great Unknown. They hear music as they near an island. Everyone is hypnotized by the music except the Scotsman who says it sounds like a screaming cat.

Everyone disembarks once they arrive at the island. They take all their gold and treasure with them. They walk to a cave where they find a trio of singing women. Everyone is still hypnotized, except the Scotsman. The women get angry at him for insulting them and not falling prey to their magical voices. They order the others to attack the him.

Samurai Jack 4.06

XLV: The Scotsman Saves Jack - Part 1

The Scotsman finds Jack on a ship. Jack has lost his memory and his sword. He insists that his name is Brent Worthington. The Scotsman takes him on a quest to find out what happened to him. Jack doesn't want to go but the Scotsman forces him.