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Back then, I didn't watch any episodes of Samurai Jack, but I did however watch clips from both the original series and revival, specifically...you know, the meme. Not only that, but I watched some more clips featuring Ashi and Mad Jack.

Turns out I was right after the completion of 62 episodes. I have a lot of things to describe the pie chart because it looks so interesting. There's only 4 episodes I don't recommend at all from the series overall. To balance off the unrecommendable episodes, Samurai Jack has no epics, but instead 4 blessed episodes. And 10 episodes at least divine are enough to deplete the top 10 list of episodes at most good. The divine episodes are close to being good, so it's no surprise that the top 10 list will fall under some common ratings. And what about Season 5's pie chart? Without making one, There's a buttload of meh episodes, compared to the original series where ample would usually be the most common rating from the show. And didn't I forgot to mention that the embarrassing series finale decreased Season 5's rating a lot? I know you're going to request C and CI as ControChoices, yeah.

Okay, let's clear things out of the way so that I can talk about the writing. Oh yeah, this is going to be fun.

What were you expecting about my thoughts on the premise? I think it's fantastic from utilizing the concept of time travel (in that case someone purposely sending another being into the past or future, which I find a very interesting concept) an imperial samurai who must deal with the future protecting creatures from the wrath of Aku. I really love the premise because it felt like something new and refreshes plenty of concepts from the time travel and protecting people aspect. How did it turn out? Like the same case as Codename: Kids Next Door: It's an amazing concept that seems to be over flooded with cons. One of the few good things I can describe the writing is that it's refreshing. I really like the worlds that were used in the future because they either look creative or breath taking. Not by looking anything generic, but thanks to the amount of emphasis on the animation, they all have variety with few striving to have an interesting description. There appears to be the right amount of depth taken place into these settings that are actually interesting unlike the execution itself. Also, while I was watching the show, I noticed that each setting from the future look like a different time period it was designed to be in like the wild west, medieval times, the roaring twenties and even imperial Japan itself. I didn't see that much feeling to the Japanese culture in Samurai Jack, but it doesn't matter because the settings have great amount of variety.

...but wait a minute! We have the cons to talk about. Alright, let's go:

My main problem with Samurai Jack as a whole is that it's SO boring. The quality was possibly given way too much emphasis to the point where it keeps rubbing its attention into the writing and characters' faces. The plots feel too simple for 22 minutes where the flow of a lot of episodes are often slow and sluggish. Another effect of too much emphasis on something else may also result in beginning shots of nature and nothing but no dialogue and wind sounds going on really long where it feels like filler. The shots of nature would usually take up 2/11's of the episode so it's not really a problem except when the episode is trying to present a setup. In order to make me feel interested, Samurai Jack tries to add in/flood the entirety of the episode with action, fight scenes, supposed suspense and all that it's trying to impress. But as a matter of fact, I find the action more boring than Codename: Kids Next Door's fight scenes because while said show's action is underwhelming, Samurai Jack on the other hand feels very repetitive. They would often repeat frames that are going on in the fight scenes, lack any awesome background music and dialogue and they seem to forget to add in twists and turns that could've been a clever addition to them which makes the fight scenes as stale as rotten bread. The action the sword and objects are impressive, but unfortunately, I saw some of the moves coming. Heck, there are a few implications that doesn't make a lot of sense in a few cases where it left me confused for a second, but later figured out what's the whole meaning behind it. If you're going to aim for action-packed and engaging fight scenes, you have to add in a lot of suspense and surprising twists that I don't see coming so that I can easily get invested into them. But for Samurai Jack, I can't really seem to see some suspense going on because of the repetition and lack of twists. Whenever there's a montage, they also felt like they drag on because they also take up 2/11's of the episode and doesn't involve a lot of engaging twists. All of this is an example of what happened in Episode III (The First Fight), Episode VIII (Jack vs. Mad Jack), Episode XXII (Jack vs. the Five Hunters) and so forth because most of the episode is dedicated to repetitious fighting lacking any sense of twists and turns that weren't impressive for me. Season 5 did fix the issue with repetitious and twist-less fight scenes with the gore and violence, but they only seem to toss in a few twists and become predictable as a result. Even the description for Season 5 feel illogical because I couldn't understand how can Jack remain his young-self for 50 years? It was the time travel effect? Not specific enough. It's like answering a question that tells how can a leprechaun get cranky as time goes by and then they found the answer to your question, which is "I don't even know, it's just magic.". But with the nitpicks aside, Season 5 can still get pretty boring with the pacing and plenty of dumb scenes. Go see Kids Next Door's conclusion on the writing where it has great depth and interesting settings, but the execution is damaged due to the boring action and too much emphasis on the quality.

With a lot of damn effort put into the quality, is it any good?

Well, the emphasis on the quality did pay off. It kind of lost a little of its luster overtime but nothing goes too dated. What makes the animation fresh is the 2D aspect, which feels like a good touch for the beginning of the 21st century. That aspect brings in plenty of abstract backgrounds that were designed out of lines and shapes which I say are very well done. There seems to be a lot of depth put into the backgrounds with buildings and once again, the variety of the settings work really well. The time periods does affect the character designs, who all seem to be diverse of time and culture whether it be the Spartans, the gangsters, the monks, etc. To cope with the tone of the show, they mixed in some cultural music that sounds relaxing (which adds to the boredom of Samurai Jack) and futuristic. Like again, it's diverse depending on each setting it's set on. Because of the filleristic beginnings and dragged on scenes, it appears that the crew has experimented with the animation where the whole thing flows nicely. Nature mostly dominates the crew's experiment with the animation with bunch of animals scattered around the screen. Season 5 apparently increased the quality where it feels fresh with the rain effect, camera focus and lightning effects. However, that also means that the show begins losing its 2D touch and focus more on the SFX. Emphasizing the quality may also result in cons as well. Like what I said in the writing section, frames are looped, there's too much emphasis on the quality and the lack of background music contribute to the blandness of Samurai Jack. In critically acclaimed episodes such as Episode XXXV (Jack and the Haunted House), there are flashy strobe effects that are just an eyesore to look at. And in some cases, Jack's skin would change skin tones, where in that case would be from sand tan to a darker tone of tan. Season 5 might be a little worse than the quality of the original series because of the addition of blood, it poorly flows within the background/water. The blood appears to have a slightly low opacity that doesn't spread across the water and rather feel like a raft. For some reason, there is a rising tone that is just ear-grating that happens if you try making your cartoon feel like a cinematic universe. The character animation got affected the most in Season 5 because the way they move their limbs feel stiff and look just like panning. However, the cons are pretty minor to affect the mild emphasis on the quality consisting of diversity and refreshing aspects.

To make up for the weak writing, the characters are also as good as the quality itself:

The depth of the show takes control of the characters and plays it very nicely. It kind of appears that the crew has rules on writing a show and it pays off for apparently interesting backstories. Characters like Jack, Aku, the Scotsman and Ashi develop strongly by taking control of their problems and toss them away, but unfortunately I couldn't track that much development in the normal episodes. Only the TV movie, two-parters, Season 5 story arc, and a couple of episodes develop the characters well so that's kind of sad. To help Jack on his journey, there's also a lot of creatures from the future where Jack can connect with their reactions to Aku and what affects them a lot. The description of these characters are again fascinating because they're told tragically and relatable where you can easily sympathize with the characters strongly. Their powers and way of life help shape their form and action that help them guide through the face of Aku where they would often need help from Jack to get what they want and what they need. That can also be describe for Jack himself because he does have some difficulties adapting to the future like misinterpreting someone as Aku or confused on how to work future technology. The characters are excellently written with good amount of depth, but there are some of them (especially Prince Astor and Princess Verbina from Episode XLVII (Jack and the Flying Prince & Princess) who lack any depth and plain one dimensional where you can easily forget these characters. It's the cliche that ruins the characters a little because the development is okay, but depth and personalities feel missing to the puzzle. Some of the townsfolk can get pretty annoying occasionally, but they don't appear that much in Samurai Jack or do something that is outright infuriating. Unlike Scaramouch, he was just annoying and out of place overall with his Peter Griffin-like voice that doesn't sound that robotic and bad jokes that affects the tone of the show. And last but not least, I don't understand why would some people want to eat swords in Samurai Jack? That proves how idiotic they are and decide to munch off a weapon that are about to kill them. But like last time, half of the cons are pretty minor because they don't happen that much in the show. There's strong development and positivism inside the characters who are also quite relatable, but other times can get on my nerves.

Now you see why I don't consider Samurai Jack a masterpiece. I feel like Genndy Tartakovsky didn't impress me a lot with Dexter's Laboratory and now this. Well, there’s a great concept, 2D-abstract and gorgeous animation and positive role models, but what seriously killed the entire series is boredom. It affects the fight scenes and victims whom fell to Aku so hard that it felt like the crew put way too much focus on the quality. That results in dragged on scenes and lack of background music so that the show experiments with the animation very often. It's kind of ironic that I consider Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon a lot better than Samurai Jack Season 5 because the average reviewer would usually view Adult Party Cartoon as the worst cartoon revival in all existence while Samurai Jack Season 5 the best one of them all. I don't see everyone's praise on Season 5 because it felt a little predictable, has some of the same boredom from the original series and an annoying bounty hunter. It's an alright show (65%), though this show could've done a lot better. My main gripe with Samurai Jack is boredom, but since it's too late to call in another season, the samurai now lays boring with its action. It's fascinating how this show started off pretty good and later on lost its luster as the emphasis on visuals makes the series "unbalanced", like that one monk from that one episode told Jack.

Description
Back then, I didn't watch any episodes of Samurai Jack, but I did however watch clips from both the original series and revival, specifically...you know, the meme. Not only that, but I watched some more clips featuring Ashi and Mad Jack.

Turns out I was right after the completion of 62 episodes. I have a lot of things to describe the pie chart because it looks so interesting. There's only 4 episodes I don't recommend at all from the series overall. To balance off the unrecommendable episodes, Samurai Jack has no epics, but instead 4 blessed episodes. And 10 episodes at least divine are enough to deplete the top 10 list of episodes at most good. The divine episodes are close to being good, so it's no surprise that the top 10 list will fall under some common ratings. And what about Season 5's pie chart? Without making one, There's a buttload of meh episodes, compared to the original series where ample would usually be the most common rating from the show. And didn't I forgot to mention that the embarrassing series finale decreased Season 5's rating a lot? I know you're going to request C and CI as ControChoices, yeah.

Okay, let's clear things out of the way so that I can talk about the writing. Oh yeah, this is going to be fun.

What were you expecting about my thoughts on the premise? I think it's fantastic from utilizing the concept of time travel (in that case someone purposely sending another being into the past or future, which I find a very interesting concept) an imperial samurai who must deal with the future protecting creatures from the wrath of Aku. I really love the premise because it felt like something new and refreshes plenty of concepts from the time travel and protecting people aspect. How did it turn out? Like the same case as Codename: Kids Next Door: It's an amazing concept that seems to be over flooded with cons. One of the few good things I can describe the writing is that it's refreshing. I really like the worlds that were used in the future because they either look creative or breath taking. Not by looking anything generic, but thanks to the amount of emphasis on the animation, they all have variety with few striving to have an interesting description. There appears to be the right amount of depth taken place into these settings that are actually interesting unlike the execution itself. Also, while I was watching the show, I noticed that each setting from the future look like a different time period it was designed to be in like the wild west, medieval times, the roaring twenties and even imperial Japan itself. I didn't see that much feeling to the Japanese culture in Samurai Jack, but it doesn't matter because the settings have great amount of variety.

...but wait a minute! We have the cons to talk about. Alright, let's go:

My main problem with Samurai Jack as a whole is that it's SO boring. The quality was possibly given way too much emphasis to the point where it keeps rubbing its attention into the writing and characters' faces. The plots feel too simple for 22 minutes where the flow of a lot of episodes are often slow and sluggish. Another effect of too much emphasis on something else may also result in beginning shots of nature and nothing but no dialogue and wind sounds going on really long where it feels like filler. The shots of nature would usually take up 2/11's of the episode so it's not really a problem except when the episode is trying to present a setup. In order to make me feel interested, Samurai Jack tries to add in/flood the entirety of the episode with action, fight scenes, supposed suspense and all that it's trying to impress. But as a matter of fact, I find the action more boring than Codename: Kids Next Door's fight scenes because while said show's action is underwhelming, Samurai Jack on the other hand feels very repetitive. They would often repeat frames that are going on in the fight scenes, lack any awesome background music and dialogue and they seem to forget to add in twists and turns that could've been a clever addition to them which makes the fight scenes as stale as rotten bread. The action the sword and objects are impressive, but unfortunately, I saw some of the moves coming. Heck, there are a few implications that doesn't make a lot of sense in a few cases where it left me confused for a second, but later figured out what's the whole meaning behind it. If you're going to aim for action-packed and engaging fight scenes, you have to add in a lot of suspense and surprising twists that I don't see coming so that I can easily get invested into them. But for Samurai Jack, I can't really seem to see some suspense going on because of the repetition and lack of twists. Whenever there's a montage, they also felt like they drag on because they also take up 2/11's of the episode and doesn't involve a lot of engaging twists. All of this is an example of what happened in Episode III (The First Fight), Episode VIII (Jack vs. Mad Jack), Episode XXII (Jack vs. the Five Hunters) and so forth because most of the episode is dedicated to repetitious fighting lacking any sense of twists and turns that weren't impressive for me. Season 5 did fix the issue with repetitious and twist-less fight scenes with the gore and violence, but they only seem to toss in a few twists and become predictable as a result. Even the description for Season 5 feel illogical because I couldn't understand how can Jack remain his young-self for 50 years? It was the time travel effect? Not specific enough. It's like answering a question that tells how can a leprechaun get cranky as time goes by and then they found the answer to your question, which is "I don't even know, it's just magic.". But with the nitpicks aside, Season 5 can still get pretty boring with the pacing and plenty of dumb scenes. Go see Kids Next Door's conclusion on the writing where it has great depth and interesting settings, but the execution is damaged due to the boring action and too much emphasis on the quality.

With a lot of damn effort put into the quality, is it any good?

Well, the emphasis on the quality did pay off. It kind of lost a little of its luster overtime but nothing goes too dated. What makes the animation fresh is the 2D aspect, which feels like a good touch for the beginning of the 21st century. That aspect brings in plenty of abstract backgrounds that were designed out of lines and shapes which I say are very well done. There seems to be a lot of depth put into the backgrounds with buildings and once again, the variety of the settings work really well. The time periods does affect the character designs, who all seem to be diverse of time and culture whether it be the Spartans, the gangsters, the monks, etc. To cope with the tone of the show, they mixed in some cultural music that sounds relaxing (which adds to the boredom of Samurai Jack) and futuristic. Like again, it's diverse depending on each setting it's set on. Because of the filleristic beginnings and dragged on scenes, it appears that the crew has experimented with the animation where the whole thing flows nicely. Nature mostly dominates the crew's experiment with the animation with bunch of animals scattered around the screen. Season 5 apparently increased the quality where it feels fresh with the rain effect, camera focus and lightning effects. However, that also means that the show begins losing its 2D touch and focus more on the SFX. Emphasizing the quality may also result in cons as well. Like what I said in the writing section, frames are looped, there's too much emphasis on the quality and the lack of background music contribute to the blandness of Samurai Jack. In critically acclaimed episodes such as Episode XXXV (Jack and the Haunted House), there are flashy strobe effects that are just an eyesore to look at. And in some cases, Jack's skin would change skin tones, where in that case would be from sand tan to a darker tone of tan. Season 5 might be a little worse than the quality of the original series because of the addition of blood, it poorly flows within the background/water. The blood appears to have a slightly low opacity that doesn't spread across the water and rather feel like a raft. For some reason, there is a rising tone that is just ear-grating that happens if you try making your cartoon feel like a cinematic universe. The character animation got affected the most in Season 5 because the way they move their limbs feel stiff and look just like panning. However, the cons are pretty minor to affect the mild emphasis on the quality consisting of diversity and refreshing aspects.

To make up for the weak writing, the characters are also as good as the quality itself:

The depth of the show takes control of the characters and plays it very nicely. It kind of appears that the crew has rules on writing a show and it pays off for apparently interesting backstories. Characters like Jack, Aku, the Scotsman and Ashi develop strongly by taking control of their problems and toss them away, but unfortunately I couldn't track that much development in the normal episodes. Only the TV movie, two-parters, Season 5 story arc, and a couple of episodes develop the characters well so that's kind of sad. To help Jack on his journey, there's also a lot of creatures from the future where Jack can connect with their reactions to Aku and what affects them a lot. The description of these characters are again fascinating because they're told tragically and relatable where you can easily sympathize with the characters strongly. Their powers and way of life help shape their form and action that help them guide through the face of Aku where they would often need help from Jack to get what they want and what they need. That can also be describe for Jack himself because he does have some difficulties adapting to the future like misinterpreting someone as Aku or confused on how to work future technology. The characters are excellently written with good amount of depth, but there are some of them (especially Prince Astor and Princess Verbina from Episode XLVII (Jack and the Flying Prince & Princess) who lack any depth and plain one dimensional where you can easily forget these characters. It's the cliche that ruins the characters a little because the development is okay, but depth and personalities feel missing to the puzzle. Some of the townsfolk can get pretty annoying occasionally, but they don't appear that much in Samurai Jack or do something that is outright infuriating. Unlike Scaramouch, he was just annoying and out of place overall with his Peter Griffin-like voice that doesn't sound that robotic and bad jokes that affects the tone of the show. And last but not least, I don't understand why would some people want to eat swords in Samurai Jack? That proves how idiotic they are and decide to munch off a weapon that are about to kill them. But like last time, half of the cons are pretty minor because they don't happen that much in the show. There's strong development and positivism inside the characters who are also quite relatable, but other times can get on my nerves.

Now you see why I don't consider Samurai Jack a masterpiece. I feel like Genndy Tartakovsky didn't impress me a lot with Dexter's Laboratory and now this. Well, there’s a great concept, 2D-abstract and gorgeous animation and positive role models, but what seriously killed the entire series is boredom. It affects the fight scenes and victims whom fell to Aku so hard that it felt like the crew put way too much focus on the quality. That results in dragged on scenes and lack of background music so that the show experiments with the animation very often. It's kind of ironic that I consider Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon a lot better than Samurai Jack Season 5 because the average reviewer would usually view Adult Party Cartoon as the worst cartoon revival in all existence while Samurai Jack Season 5 the best one of them all. I don't see everyone's praise on Season 5 because it felt a little predictable, has some of the same boredom from the original series and an annoying bounty hunter. It's an alright show (65%), though this show could've done a lot better. My main gripe with Samurai Jack is boredom, but since it's too late to call in another season, the samurai now lays boring with its action. It's fascinating how this show started off pretty good and later on lost its luster as the emphasis on visuals makes the series "unbalanced", like that one monk from that one episode told Jack.