Synopsis: two swordsmen, Mugen and Jiin, accompany Fuu to search for a Samurai who smells of sunflowers in a world where hip hop culture has somehow taken off in the early 1800s inside of Japan.
Typically when fiction writers write their first work, the writer will try use their most underivative ideas, but their inexperience will lead to lower levels of polish. Predictably, Samurai Champloo is both more polished and derivative than Cowboy Bebop. Relative to other anime, it is still very original but it does not compare to Cowboy Bebop in that regard.
The ending was largely fine, a sad ending for example would have been out of place, but even this one felt a bit bittersweet and anticlimactic. I would have ended the story having Jiin and Mugen run back to travel with Fuu, making up some ridiculous excuse as to why they did.
I’ve got to say — reading the other reviews was fairly uninspiring, as they largely focused on the way it successfully fused Samurai and hip hop culture. Much more interesting discussion is found by searching for debates on whether Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo are better; that makes people draw out all of the ugly details.
My take is that Cowboy Bebop is better, mostly because it had more peak moments, while Samurai Champloo was more consistently high quality but was less of an outlier.
Other differences worth mentioning:
Cowboy Bebop took itself more seriously; Samurai Champloo is more self-aware about being a rule of cool adventure show.
Samurai Champloo feels like a thematic sequel to Bebop — its characters move on, while Bebop’s hold on to their pasts.
On the surface, both series are similar, but under the surface, they are more different: Cowboy Bebop features a cast that slowly comes apart, while Samurai Champloo has a cast that slowly comes together.
There are rarely extended sword on sword fights in Champloo, a decision I suspect is intentional — they left that for the final fight between Jiin and the antagonist. In Cowboy Bebop, they made the Spike vs Vicious fight unique by having Vicious use a Katana.
The character designs in both series are fantastic; it is hard to choose a definitive winner here.
Neither series has a lot of meaningful romance in it. I assume this is due to Watanabe being uncomfortable writing it, but this was ultimately the best for Samurai Champloo due to its goofy atmosphere. Cowboy Bebop, on the other hand, would have been funner to watch with love-related drama.
Samurai Champloo’s track is better, while Cowboy Bebop has better standalone songs (this seems to be a recurring theme in terms of comparisons).
In terms of characters, Spike mogs Fuu, Mugen, and Jiin. It is a bit jarring to see graphics contrasting Samurai Champloo characters (usually Mugen) with Spike. He’s just too iconic.
I really enjoy serious anime. Neon Genesis Evangelion, Code Geass, Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note, Ergo Proxy. Every anime that mixes serious with silly could be improved, for me, if you removed the jokes. Naruto without the jokes would be better. Samurai Champloo was too silly for me to get into. It reminds me of those mashup songs that takes a Carly Rae Jepsen pop song chorus and puts DMX rapping over it. I don't want to have fun while watching anime, I want to cry thinking about how heroic and tragic the characters are. I feel the same way about the Star Wars trilogy, that it could be improved if you removed all of the childish aspects.