My fellow Samurai Jack fans, your wait is nearly over. In a series of late-night bumps answering fans questions from social media, Adult Swim has revealed that the seminal early-’00s show — about a young, powerful samurai facing down an unspeakable evil named Aku — will return very, very soon.
“March 11th, 11:30 p.m. is what’s going on,” the bump stated. When more fans asked about the show, another bump answered, “What did we just say?”
This is terrific news. Anyone who watched Cartoon Network in the early aughts should remember the original run Samurai Jack as an action-packed, reference-filled, often-hysterical wunderkind that was animated like nothing else on television. Samurai Jack told the epic, self-aware saga of a noble samurai who was flung into a dystopian future by Aku, a shape-shifting master of darkness, after Aku razed his homeland and enslaved his people. The only way for Jack to defeat Aku was to return to past and undo the future the evil entity created.
It was created by Genndy Tartakovsky of Dexter’s Laboratory and Powerpuff Girls fame (and who got his start on Batman: The Animated Series and Tiny Toon Adventures). Tartakovsky was known to speak a lot about the importance of action while creating Samurai Jack. It was made around the same time that he directed the widely acclaimed Star Wars: Clone Wars mini-series, and both series employ similar techniques to push their action forward: excruciatingly long gaps of time to build tension, jarring and apocalyptic sound design, extreme facial close-ups, and relentless speed and high-flying acrobatics once the action got going.
There’s one Samurai Jack fight scene in particular that illustrates all these elements, and will likely also prove essential to watch before Season 5 rolls around. It comes in the third act of “Jack and the Traveling Creatures”—a Season 3 episode that opens with Jack’s long, long struggle across a mysterious lake and unforgiving mountainous terrain and ends with this duel with the immensely powerful Guardian of the time portal. The outcome of this duel is essential (more on that in a minute), but I won’t spoil yet it if you don’t remember it. Just watch it first…
[UPDATE, 6/8/21: This video actually got yanked from YouTube, so I’m dropping one here that explains the fight instead.]
Hold up, lemme freeze-frame that last shot of the episode for you.
Like all episodes of Samurai Jack’s initial run, it ends with Jack failing to reach the past to defeat Aku, BUT — crucially! — this one also ends on this totally badass look into Jack’s future, a future the exceptionally powerful Guardian can’t help but acknowledge and admire.
“You can’t use it yet, Samurai Jack,” he says. “Not yet.”
Over this image:
If Jack’s update looks anything remotely like this at any point in Season 5, it will be a joy to watch. The original voice of Jack, Phil LaMarr, will return to the role. His nemesis Aku has been re-cast, due to the death of original (and masterful) voice actor Mako in 2009.
If that image isn’t enough for you, here’s one released by Adult Swim last summer as another Season 5 tease:
The new season of Samurai Jack will run for 10 episodes on Adult Swim, starting on March 11 at 11:30 p.m. The countdown officially starts now.
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