Champloo's Groove

SAMURAI CHAMPLOO is settling into a very nice groove, and the latest episode was definitely the best one yet. An intro featuring a recap with hip-hop beats and old-style Japanese, a perfect mix of action and comedy… It’s also come to a point where we really know these characters, and their characterizations are really flowing. If you still haven’t checked it out, do so, now.

Regarding MONSTER, I’ve heard from quite a few people that they never really got into it. The thing with this series is that it really found its groove around episodes 11-12, which is when things really started getting interesting. People who just gave the first few episodes a try unfortunately didn’t get to that sweet point, which I think is where it became obvious that this is one nice series. And it’s not too late to hop aboard either. As we’re now at episode 23, I was curious to see if it was going to go past the 26 mark (anime series are usually 13 or 26 episodes long), knowing that the manga is massive, and I found this page that mentions that it will go to 70 episodes!

Lastly, does anyone know of any interesting new series that will be starting this Autumn? The only thing that’s shown up on my radar is ZIPANG, starting October 7 on TBS. It’s based on a manga by the same guy that did the political series EAGLE, Kawaguchi Kaiji.