Afro Samurai
(dr. Fuminori Kizaki 2007)
published in Empire No.76, Sydney, 2008
If Australia commissioned Gonzo to make an anime, it would be based on an idea from Yahoo Serious, indigenous people would be break-dancing, drag queens would be side characters, and the action would be based on camera work from VFL matches. It would look like a Mambo ad and sound like Powderfinger on Rove. That’s my way of qualifying Afro Samurai: produced in Japan, but corralled and intoned by Americans for Americans. The animation is exemplary, but the whole tone, momentum, story arcs and stylistic denouement of the series is a pale copy of Tarantino’s canny eye for spaghetti western vengeance and violence.
