Afro Samurai in October
25 September 2007

If the idea of a black samurai in a futuristic feudal Japan seems a little absurd then I'm guessing that you're not familiar with the extremes of the anime genre, or its popularity with cult American audiences. It's this following that is starting to attract name actors to voice the dubbed versions for the American market, and the latest to hit UK DVD is Afro Samurai, whose English language voice cast includes John Di Maggio (Bender in Futurama), Kelly Hu (X-Men 2, The Scorpion King), Ron Pearlman (Hellboy, Cronos, Beauty and the Beast), and starring as Afro Samurai himself, Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction and a whole load more you don't need me to name), who also served as the series' executive producer. We'll leave it to the PR people to outline the plot:

As a young boy, Afro sees his father killed in front of his eyes in a ritualistic fight to the death. The boy grows into a badass young man who, despite the advice from his friends and teacher, can not rest until he rights the wrong done to him. Afro's fighting skills are honed as he secretly searches for the legendary Number 2 headband - the holder of this headband is the only worldly being able to hurt the Number 1, who just so happens to be his father’s killer. After he takes on the mantle of Number 2, he travels a warrior’s solitary path in his search for revenge, fighting off a myriad of enemies all intent owning the legendary Number 2 headband for their own chance to challenge to be Number 1. As well as enemies, occasionally allies also come along the way including Ninja Ninja (also voiced by Jackson), and the stoic warrior strives to keep his focus (and his dignity) while Ninja Ninja jabbers away.

With an original score by Wu-Tang Clan member RZA, Afro Samurai is the smash hit action series of the year. The exciting, action packed and engrossing mash up of ancient Japan and present day, and beautiful artistic animation combined with decapitations, and impalements, mean that Afro Samurai is up there with Kill Bill and The Matrix as well as anime classics such as Akira and Ninja Scroll. This high octane entertainment will really reach out there to all action fans.

Originally broadcast as a 5-part series to an audience of 1.2 million viewers in the USA on Spike TV and in Japan on Fuji Television. It had its UK premiere on Bravo in April of this year and was also featured on Jonathan Ross's Japanorama, while NAMCO are to release a big budget video game of the series on the Playstation 3 in 2008.

On 15th October DDS Media will be releasing Afro Samurai as a 2-disc Director's Cut on UK DVD at the RRP of £22.99. The set will include, we are assured, "extensive extras." including commentary on the voice recordings, the characters and the creation of the original sound track, the original pitch bible the producer used to sell the show, lots of production art and a whole lot more.