---

SC FAQ--Some Frequently Asked Champloo Questions

((c) 2005-6-7-forever'n'ever, Paula O'Keefe, based on characters owned by Manglobe/Shimoigusa Champloos)
=+=====Updated November 18th '07 with the long-awaited source of the Episode 11 mystery track! See below!=====+=

---

This is going to be a slightly different FAQ--instead of just a general listing of info about the show, I'm going to address what I've actually found to be the most often-asked questions so far. So this will be a fairly short list to begin with, but should grow with time =)

---

NOTE: After three years, it's been brought to my attention that we have been consistently misspelling the name of the beautiful Okinawan song that appears in Episode 14. It is not "Obokuri-Eemui", but rather,"Obokuri-Ee Umi" (umi=ocean). I have corrected every reference to it on the site, and I most deeply apologize to you and to Asazaki-san for spreading this bit of misinformation for so long.

---

Q: What does "champloo" mean?
A: Champloo, also spelled Champuru, is an Okinawan word meaning "mixed up" or "stirred together". It's usually applied to a kind of stir-fry dish, but in a more general sense it's used to mean "improvised, made up as you go along". In the context of the show it's probably intended to evoke the sampled, scratched sound of hip-hop music and the show's own combination of old, new and invented elements into an entirely original whole.

It's also been pointed out (by takkun) that the titles "Cowboy Bebop" and "Samurai Champloo" are exact counterparts to each other. Both "cowboy" and "samurai" are romantic, solitary warrior figures with a strong mystique and mythology attached to them; "bebop" is a form of jazz music characterized by improvisation and free-form experimentation with much importance given to the player's individual style, and "champloo", as described above, has a lot to do with improvising and mix-and-matching disparate elements into a new creation.

Q: What's this I keep hearing about a second season of Samurai Champloo? Aren't there only 26 episodes?
A: Yes, there are only 26 episodes and no more to come. However, all the official sources, including the series' Japanese homepage, press releases, and Fuji TV's advertising at the time, have consistently referred to episodes 18-26 as the Second Season--this can be seen even in the prelude to Episode 18 itself.

Basically it went like this: Fuji TV, as co-producer of the show, had the right to air SC both on its network station, Fuji TV, and on its satellite channel, BS Fuji (Broadcast Satellite Fuji). Fuji TV aired the first episode on May 20, 2004. When they reached episode 17 (September 23), they announced that they were dropping the show from the network station (leading to a flurry of panicky anime forum posts worldwide about the show's "cancellation") and switching it to the satellite channel, basically equivalent to a show moving from network TV to cable here in the US. Unfortunately, this meant that SC restarted with Episode 1 on BS Fuji, and we had to wait seventeen weeks while the satellite channel re-aired all the episodes before finally beginning new shows--with Ep. 18--on January 22, 2005. (Since, as we mentioned, Fuji is a co-producer of the show, and since almost an exactly identical course was followed by Cowboy Bebop in its initial TV run, one must wonder if this hadn't been the plan all along.)
At any rate, it's probably (a) the switch in on-air venues, and (b) the over-three-month break between segments of the season, that led to the official designation of Episodes 1-17 as the First Season and 18-26 as the Second Season. Don't believe anyone who thinks this means more episodes are being made and tries to convince you of it. Sorry, it's done.

For a more detailed breakdown of the series' broadcast history, look here: Champloo TV Timeline.

Q: Well, what about a Champloo movie then?
A: In 2004, in his interview for the Champloo Roman Album, Watanabe was asked the question, "Will you do a movie?" His reply: "I have no plans to. The series ended in a way that kept it open to a sequel, but I don't know if that would be a good thing or not. There is no reason to create a sequel unless it's more interesting than the original. Though I won't rule it out."

Q: What is the piece of music played in episode 14 while Mugen is having his near-drowning experience? Where can I get it?
A: That is "Obokuri-Ee Umi" (Babel Fish translation: "Obtain Bearing"), performed by traditional Okinawan singer Ikue Asazaki, from her 2002 album "Utabautayun" (Babel Fish translation: "Morning Promontory"). It became an instant favorite of Champloo fans when the episode was aired and has been made available as a sound file through various fan forums; it may be again at any time. However, we do honestly recommend that you buy the album, which is all just as hauntingly beautiful as "Obokuri-Ee Umi". It can be found through a number of online music dealers, including CD Japan (they have the best price), Amazon Japan, HMV Japan and elsewhere. It has not appeared on any of the Champloo soundtrack albums, and it probably will not do so in future.

Or, if you'd just like to hear it again by itself, here you go.

Q: OK then, what about the piece of music played in Episode 11 when Jin and Shino are escaping to the river?

A: We have finally answered this question!! Our friend and Champloo music expert Silent_Edge on 13 Nov. 07 wrote: "I'm proud to say that on the HydeOut Productions: 2nd Collection, track 6 entitled 'Counting Stars', is officially the mystery track on episode 11. My work is done."
---hydeout productions is a project headed by Nujabes, co-creator of the Champloo OST album Departure.
Buy it thru Amazon Japan: hydeout productions 2nd Collection
Nujabes' MySpace.
hydeout productions website.
--A million thanks to Silent for answering this persistent Champloo FAQ!

Q: That conversation between Jin and Fuu by the riverside in episode 24...what's that all about?

A: Second to the Ep. 11 music query above, THE most asked question in Champloo history to date. There are many, many theories about this cryptic little chat. I personally think that, though it might lead one to think Fuu is trying to make an emotional choice between Jin and Mugen, this can't be so, since there's simply nothing in the series anywhere else that points to it. But we have no way to know, so your guess will always be as good as mine.

My guess, if you'd like to hear it, is simple (though it took me a year to come up with it): by the time Jin finds her, Fuu has already made up her mind to leave them and go on alone, which she does in the next episode. That's why she seems so wistful, that's why she tells Jin she's sorry, that's why she doesn't want to discuss any future plans or concerns of Jin's: she believes that by this time tomorrow they'll be separated for good. She knows it will hurt them, and she's sorry, but she's made her decision. I think this is the simplest explanation that fits all the facts and doesn't go out of character for anyone, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm sticking with it.

Q: Fuu must have something shady in her past that we never hear about, right? because she wears her kimono tied in the front, and it says here that only prostitutes wear it that way. In fact it's supposed to be the main way to tell a prostitute from a geisha...

A: Here's the reply, by our own Neko-san: "Actually, I can answer this for you, having worn full kimono before: the woman's obi is not just one belt, it is several, of varying widths, lengths, and thicknesses. I'll describe only the two needed to understand this for now: The obi proper is the VERY wide, VERY long belt that you see around the waist and that forms the bulk of the big knot in back (Fuu's is dark purplish red). Fuu is quite clearly NOT a prostitute, because the knot is in the back. The prostitutes who do wear that style are quite recognizeable, because the tied obi is bulky enough that they look pregnant. This photo from The Costume Gallery illustrates that quite well.
Tied on top of that is a cord known as the obi-jime that helps keep the obi proper in place. Fuu's is, rather unusually, not a cord at all, but a ribbon or a thin sash. THAT is what the large pale pink bow in the front is: the obi-jime . It's unusual to see one that wide, so that it why it looks like the obi is tied in the front.
BUT IT'S NOT.
SUPPOSEDLY there are kimono knots simple enough to do by yourself, especially if you're wearing a thin, narrow obi that's easier to manipulate. (This is the origin of the hanhaba, or "half-width", obi that's used for yukatas.) Most Japanese women these days need someone to help, because it's not something they do everyday, but there was a time when the majority could do it by themselves, at least for the everyday tying (formal occasions require more elaborate knots, and more help). But even with help, it's a fairly time-consuming process. The reason prostitutes had their knots in front was NOT just that they did not have help, but also that they wore fairly elaborate knots, and had to save time where they could."

Q: What exactly is going on with Kohza, Shiren, Mukuro and Mugen (episodes 13-14)? Why does Mukuro tell Jin that Kohza has betrayed them both?

A: I'm officially naming this the third most-asked-question, since I'm losing track of how many times I've typed it out.
Here's my understanding of the situation (though I may be missing a nuance here and there):

==Kohza isn't trying to kill Mugen. All she wants is to get away from Mukuro and off the island, by any means and through anyone she has to use.

==I think it's like this: Mukuro had already been planning the gold theft for some time before Mugen, Jin and Fuu show up (this is why he's "recruiting" more crew members when he catches them on the beach). Mukuro had promised to give Kohza to Shiren in return for Shiren's help in smuggling him onto the gold ship, but he didn't know that Kohza and Shiren had already begun plotting together to steal the gold for themselves and run away. That, then, is Kohza's escape plan until she sees Mugen again. Then, because she still has feelings for him (and she knows Mukuro hates him and will go after him), she comes up with an alternate plan. I think that if Mugen had agreed to take her with him, she would have told him about the gold theft and suggested that if he would kill Mukuro, she and Mugen could keep all the gold and go anywhere they wanted. But when Mugen refuses, she gives up on him and turns her attention back to the only other person who can help her, which is Shiren.

==It's not that she hates Mugen, she still does care for him I think; it's just that she can only afford to help a guy who will help her, and Mugen's of no use to her anymore. After all, she has limited resources --herself, basically, and whatever small influence she may have over Mukuro--to offer in trade for assistance, so she needs to offer them where she has some hope of a return. [It's a hard world for a young girl alone, y'know?] Anyway, I'm sure that's why she runs to Jin and Fuu when she realizes Mukuro has set the gold ship up as a trap--she knows she could have done something to warn Mugen, and she feels guilty and hopes it's not too late for someone else to save him, though she's already chosen another guy for herself.

==The rest of the setup is also fairly complicated. Again, I think that if Mugen had agreed to help her, she would have ditched Shiren completely, but without Mugen she sticks to her original plan. I suspect that this would have involved Shiren having to kill Mukuro, but this is where Jin oh-so-conveniently comes in. Since he seems so distressed about his comrade's apparent death, Kohza sees a way to get Mukuro killed, and herself and Shiren away from here much more easily. She tells Jin where Mukuro is hiding out, guessing that he'll take revenge, and she'll be rid of Mukuro with no blame attached to her or to Shiren. Pretty neat for Kohza. (Jin, of course, knows nothing at all about her history, the gold, Mukuro or Shiren, nor would care; all he knows is (a) what he senses, which is that Mukuro is a nasty piece of work; and (b) what she tells him, which is that this isn't the first time Mukuro has tried to murder Mugen. He's an ideal fall guy in this case.) ==This is why Mukuro's last words to Jin are about how easily they were both tricked: he sees that this is all Kohza's doing, that she double-crossed him with Shiren and then used this relatively innocent bystander to do her dirty work on the way out.
(A lot of fans really hate Kohza, and there are certainly reasons to, but you can't deny she's a very sharp thinker.)

Q: What time period is the show set in?
A:From Newtype, October 2003, article/interview with series director/creator Shinichiro Watanabe:
"The show is set during the Edo era some 60 years after the confusion of civil war lifted. But forget the historical details. Think of it basically like some period in time 60 years after the end of a war."

What's referred to as the Civil War period in Japan is (obviously) not the age of the American Civil War, but the Sengoku Jidai or "Warring States Era". The latest generally listed date for the ending of the Sengoku Jidai is 1615; it spanned through the middle 15th to the early 17th centuries. It started in the late Muromachi period in 1467 with the Onin War (Onin no Ran 1467-1478), lasting through the entire Azuchi-Momoyama period, until final peace and order was achieved in 1615 of the Edo period.
SO: We can pretty safely assume that Champloo is meant to be taking place in roughly 1675. Not (evidently) quite the 1675 we know here, but some other "alternate reality" 1675, where police palanquins have flashing lights on top, and baseball has popped into existence a bit early. --Or, in other words, approximately a hundred years after the time of Inuyasha. =)

Q: But that's what I was asking about! If it's the 1600s, what's with the breakdancing moves and guys beatboxing? And Jin's fancy glasses, and the yakuza guy's Oakley shades, and...
A: OK, deep breath. These details are anachronisms: things deliberately shown in a time period at which they didn't exist. Anachronism is at the very core of Champloo's "everything old is new again" spirit, and many, many examples of it will appear. There's still more than enough solid evidence and historical detail in the series--even beyond Watanabe-sensei's statement above--to set the series solidly in the late 1600s, so the mental trick is to accept that while still being able to roll with the appearance of these anachronistic oddities. Many of us think that's the fun part. =)

If you'd like a crash course in the out-of-their-time elements of the show, we have it right here:
Dating Champloo.
The Complete Guide to Anachronisms in Samurai Champloo.

Q: The show's called "Samurai Champloo," so both Jin and Mugen must be samurai. Right?
A: Sorry, wrong. Jin is (formerly), but Mugen definitely isn't.

One of the commonest mistakes in anime fandom is the assumption that any swordsman can be referred to as a samurai. The word has nothing to do with your fighting style, your appearance, or or your skill as a fighter. The samurai were a particular social class in Japanese society, a warrior nobility, and you had to be born into a noble samurai family to become a samurai (even women of such families were considered samurai to a degree, and were trained to fight; though they were more likely to learn the bow or the naginata--long lance--than the sword, there were noted female swordfighters as well). Samurai are often compared to European knights, and to some extent they are similar, but the crucial difference is that any warrior can distingush himself in battle and eventually be knighted, while no amount of brilliance on the battlefield can earn a non-noble the name of samurai. (The only time this was ever waived was in the period 1588-1591, when the shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi enacted two ordinances absolutely dividing the warrior and farmer classes. The part-time warriors called ashigaru, who fought with the bow and lance --later, the matchlock pistol--and were farmers when not at war, were redefined as warriors by these ordinances and thus entered the social class of samurai, even though not born there.)

Jin is certainly a samurai by birthright, made most clear by his daisho--set of two swords--which only members of that class were permitted to wear. His formal manners, dojo training, the family crest on his clothing, and even his expensive eyewear all suggest his origins in a noble family. Having become ronin, he has fallen in status and is not likely to regain full samurai standing, but is still permitted to wear the daisho which gives him some measure of respect. As for Mugen, he's just plain one of a kind. --Seriously, there's no way to call him a samurai. He's not even Japanese by birth, coming from Ryuukyuu, which was an independent kingdom at the time with much closer ties to China than to Japan. It's not an insult to him to say this and I'm sure he wouldn't take it that way, because it's just the same as telling him he's not an aristocrat, and he knows that =)

Q: So if a samurai can become a ronin, what's a ronin?
A: --Quick answer: A ronin is an unemployed samurai.
--Better answer: The term "ronin" means a samurai without a master to serve, that is, one not presently employed by the household of a ruler or lord. This is more than just being out of work: the importance of service and loyalty was so deeply engrained in the bushido philosophy that being masterless was not only a drop in status but a deeply distressing experience, as can be guessed from the literal translation of the word "ronin" (literally "wave men"/ "men of the wave"; "men without direction or home, tossed about like a leaf on the sea"). However, even an unemployed samurai has noble status and is entitled to be recognized as such, hence the existence of the ronin title; in fact several famous samurai --including Sekiun Hiragaya, the founder of the Mujuushin Kenjutsu school--remained ronin all their lives. This is pointed out in the opening scene of episode 1: though Jin and Mugen are both wandering, freelance swordsmen, Jin is still plainly a former samurai and so is referred to as a ronin, while Mugen, who has no discernable status or social class, is simply an armed vagrant.

Q: Didn't the same director who does this show also work on "Cowboy Bebop" and "Wolf's Rain"?
A: Cartoon Network started this one by putting that "from the Creators of Cowboy Bebop" banner on their trailers for "Wolf's Rain"; they'll pay big karma points for that fib somewhere down the line. It is true that Shinichiro Watanabe was the director of "Cowboy Bebop" and should be regarded as the creator of that classic series, and of Champloo. However, Watanabe did NOT work in any capacity on "Wolf's Rain" and had nothing to do with it whatever. The series creator of "Wolf's Rain" is Keiko Nobumoto, also screenplay writer for the Bebop series and movie, and WR's director is Tensai Okamura, whose closest affiliation with Bebop is having directed one segment in the Bebop feature film "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".

For the record, here's a rundown of who did what:

Worked on both Bebop and WR:
Tensai Okamura (Bebop (see above)--movie only; WR--director/storyboards/continuity)
Keiko Nobumoto (Bebop--screenplay; Bebop movie--screenplay; WR--series creator/screenplay/scriptwriter)
Toshihiro Kawamoto (Bebop and WR--character design; Bebop movie--storyboards; WR--animation director)
Atsushi Morikawa (Bebop--art director, movie only; WR--art director)
Dai Sato (Bebop--scriptwriter/stage setting; WR--screenplay)
Masahiko Minami (both--producer)

Worked on both Bebop and Champloo:
Shinichiro Watanabe (Bebop and Champloo--director; Bebop--scriptwriter)
Dai Sato (Bebop--scriptwriter/stage setting; Champloo--scriptwriter)

Writer Dai Sato is the only principal to work on all three series.

--I have rec'd a note from one "duckroll" who argues that this is incorrect: that in fact Nobumoto-san, as screenplay writer, should be credited as the true creator of Bebop, and furthermore that "Wolf's Rain" has more claim to be described as "from the creators of Cowboy Bebop" than Champloo has, since WR shares more creative entities with Bebop than SC does, including the same screenplay writer. I respect this person's ideas, but I believe our dispute hinges on a difference of opinion as to who is the real "creator" of a movie or series. It is the opinion of this website and its writers that a director with as distinct a vision and style as Watanabe, which pervades and gives form to the entire production, deserves primary creator credit on his projects, just as has long been the tradition in live-action film; and that "Wolf's Rain" cannot be properly considered as "from the creators of Bebop" without his input. (The email I get testifies that this is a common feeling: many people made the assumption that Watanabe must be the director of WR after seeing Cartoon Network's trailers.) --However, if we have understated Nobumoto-san's contribution to "Cowboy Bebop", we apologize, and hope the updated information above gives her the credit she deserves.

Q: I don't do fansubs. What's the DVD release schedule for this show in America?
A: The complete series has now been released on DVD in the USA. The first English dubbed DVD, Volume 01, containing episodes 1-4, went on sale in the USA on January 11th, 2005. The release schedule for the remaining six discs in the set was:

Volume 02--March 29, 2005
Volume 03--May 31, 2005
Volume 04--July 2005
Volume 05--September 2005
Volume 06--November 2005
Volume 07--January 2006

Q: Can we see it on American TV?
A:Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block acquired the US broadcast rights to Champloo in January 2005; its debut USA airing ran from May 2005 to March 2006. (--for details on why it took ten months to run a 26-episode series through just once, see Champloo TV Timeline link above.)
It's not airing at present (Nov. 2007), but it may return to the schedule or to Adult Swim Fix sometime in future.

---more to come---