[HN Gopher] The Visual World of 'Samurai Jack'
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The Visual World of 'Samurai Jack'
Author : ani_obsessive
Score : 487 points
Date : 2025-06-01 21:57 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (animationobsessive.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (animationobsessive.substack.com)
| photonthug wrote:
| Always loved these aesthetics. No mention of primal here, which
| is well worth checking out and pretty remarkable for being almost
| completely free of dialog and more oriented towards adults.
| franczesko wrote:
| Genndy Tartakovsky is a truly unique creator. Samurai Jack was so
| good, that I had to watch how it ends years later since watching
| the show on cartoon network
| brcmthrowaway wrote:
| What about Pantheon?
| skavi wrote:
| It doesn't appear that Tartakovsky was affiliated at all with
| Pantheon. I would have been surprised if he was affiliated
| given the show's fairly mundane animation.
|
| So what about Pantheon? It doesn't seem relevant to this
| discussion apart from it also being animated.
| close04 wrote:
| Maybe GP was thinking of Primal.
| Papirola wrote:
| Primal was superb
| aceazzameen wrote:
| What a show. The finale wasn't my favorite, but I still
| liked it. Everything else was outstanding.
| debugnik wrote:
| You tell us. What about it?
| dyauspitr wrote:
| Dexter's Lab as well. What a fantastic show.
| arrowsmith wrote:
| I loved that show so much as a kid.
|
| It also produced some well-known cartoonists who went on to
| have very successful careers: most notably Seth MacFarlane,
| creator of Family Guy.
| klondike_klive wrote:
| He really set the tone for the late 90s/early 00s, everyone
| wanted to copy his style (me included) but few had the chops. I
| definitely didn't!
| duxup wrote:
| Samurai Jack is so beautiful and being able to portray things /
| have the confidence in the art really seems to cut back on
| unnecessary / clumsy dialogue that so many shows have today.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| The episode with the three blind archers guarding the well that
| grants wishes is a master class in _gesticulates at everything_
|
| Whenever I think of Tartakovsky I also think of his clone wars
| micro series he did for Cartoon Network. The episode with the
| special forces clone troopers that has no dialogue after the
| first 30-60 seconds or show is just so unbelievably good. So
| much tension.
| photonthug wrote:
| Ok I'm rewatching that one soon, forgot about it. The
| flashback of like, all heroes including Vishnu and zeus
| fighting aku was also rad. Maybe even the pilot, or the start
| of the reboot? Awesome
| lazystar wrote:
| > Whenever I think of Tartakovsky I also think of his clone
| wars micro series he did for Cartoon Network.
|
| the episode with mace windu taking on an entire droid army -
| by himself - is what opened my imagination to the true
| potential that a jedi master has. it's a shame that neither
| the movies, nor any other tv show, have come close to
| conveying "why" everyone fears and respects force users.
| eutropia wrote:
| a million times this.
|
| Clone Wars microseries did more for my love of star wars
| than all the movies put together.
|
| pure effing magic.
| Dracophoenix wrote:
| > the episode with mace windu taking on an entire droid
| army - by himself - is what opened my imagination to the
| true potential that a jedi master has.
|
| As a kid, that was my favorite episode of the series first
| season. I still remember coming back after school catching
| the 5 minute micro-episodes on Cartoon Network.
|
| > it's a shame that neither the movies, nor any other tv
| show, have come close to conveying "why" everyone fears and
| respects force users.
|
| It stops becoming Star Wars as we know it and starts
| becoming Dragon Ball Z with laser swords. Quite a number of
| books and video games in the Expanded Universe/Legends
| veered in that direction, in many cases to the detriment of
| consistency in lore.
| lazystar wrote:
| > It ... starts becoming Dragon Ball Z with laser swords.
|
| this is a billion dollar idea. i wish i had the capital
| to get it off the ground, sigh.
|
| > in many cases to the detriment of consistency in lore.
|
| "Somehow, Palpatine returned" is the current state of the
| lore. it literally cant get worse, so why not have some
| fun?
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| Star Wars Visions is probably the closest you'll get:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lle0NNmvIyU
| anthk wrote:
| Dragon Ball had Star Wars as inspiration too. Akira
| Toriyama loved SW.
| MattGrommes wrote:
| Agree completely. The bit where Mace pulls the screws out
| of the droids with the Force and then uses them against the
| other droids is probably my favorite Force move in all of
| Star Wars.
| usefulcat wrote:
| Yes, I was going to mention that exact episode. The
| distinctive visual style is perhaps more obvious, but the
| show also makes excellent use of sound.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| The way they walked with their heads static and their ears
| moving. So creepy
| Marazan wrote:
| That was the first episode I ever saw of Samurai Jack. I had
| never seen anything like it. I had tuned in after the initial
| exposition so I experienced zero dialogue until the very end.
|
| It was spellbinding. When he dons the blindfold and
| everything goes black and silent for what feels like
| eternity...
| h2zizzle wrote:
| It's hard to understate what a revelation the relative
| thematic maturity of Cartoon Network's offerings was.
| Between shows like SJ and RAoJQ and Toonami-aired anime
| like SM and GW, you go from a period dominated by toy
| commercials to one filled with political and philosophical
| meditations masquerading as toy commercials. It's hard to
| imagine the popularity of today's prestige TV (which is
| probably the closest you're going to get to turning most
| Americans into creatures inclined towards the literary)
| without the generations that grew up watching (and
| creating) shows like "giant robot pilots argue the merits
| of pacificism" and "a samurai walks silently through many a
| beautiful and alien landscape for half the episode".
| cosmic_cheese wrote:
| In case others might not be aware of what the acronyms
| used in this post refer to (they weren't immediately
| obvious to me, even as someone who watched Cartoon
| Network/Toonami/Adult Swim):
|
| - RAoJQ: The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
|
| - SM: Sailor Moon
|
| - GW: Gundam Wing
| h2zizzle wrote:
| Thanks! (Though part of my cheeky intent was to get the
| uninitiated to search the acronyms and maybe discover a
| new series to watch.)
| kklisura wrote:
| > The episode with the three blind archers...
|
| Three Blind Archers is Tartakovsky's favorite episode. [1]
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uvlCjcT7oM&t=647s
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| Wooo I have good taste maybe!
| stevenwoo wrote:
| His first season of Primal has almost zero dialogue and works
| really well, but it's a caveman and a dinosaur buddy show.
| AtlasBarfed wrote:
| The star wars clone wars shorts are just amazing animation. The
| way he caught the essence of the characters in animation that was
| superior to the human portrayals was a testament to his talent.
|
| It made the cgi clone wars look so amateurish.
|
| The best sam jack imo is the light vs dark. My jaw dropped at
| that.
|
| He's definitely one of the few creators where I can feel him
| tickling my mind, overwhelming me with creativity.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| Clone Wars was so fun. The episode with the special forces
| troopers that's mostly silent immediately comes to mind, as
| well as the one where General grievous just goes to town on a
| group of surrounded Jedi.
|
| It was also pretty cool watching Mace force crush grievous's
| chest lol
| throwaway422432 wrote:
| Clone Wars was excellent, and a real departure for the brand
| under Lucas's watch. It set a lot of the canon for Windu and
| Grevious at the time.
|
| Never got around to watching Samurai Jack but really should.
| aceazzameen wrote:
| Tartakovsky's Grievous was awesome. That character ended up
| being such a disappointment in the film. But I still liked
| how they tied that series straight into the final film.
|
| I was at a talk with Tartakovsky a long time ago. I don't
| remember all the details, but he said when they first got
| their descriptions of Grievous from Lucasfilm, they didn't
| have much to go off of. Lucas said Grievous had a cough and
| that was it. Tartakovsky's team didn't know why he had a
| cough, so they created the Mace Windu scene.
| DanielHB wrote:
| I really love that scene where Grievous starts monologuing
| while the Jedi ties his cloak to the train door with the
| force. When the train leaves he just looney toons out of
| there. Honestly the single best use of the force in the whole
| god-damn canon, cracks me up every time.
|
| And Palpatine just raises his eyebrows while she is doing it,
| amazing. Was hugely disappointed when I saw Episode 3 and
| what they did to Grievous, that dude was scary in the shorts.
| AtlasBarfed wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp-L_Xei-Lg
|
| "Shinobi ... warrior of the night"
| Marazan wrote:
| A truly breathtakingly daring show booth visually and sonically.
|
| I adored if at the time and it still looks and feels unique to
| this day
| dfxm12 wrote:
| The article only touches on the visual world and even quotes
| Genndy Tartakovsky as saying _we've almost forgotten what
| animation was about -- movement and visuals_ , but I agree with
| you about the sounds. The background music sets the scene as
| much as any background visual.
| Affric wrote:
| Mm, we live in such a world of words that they are often the
| default method of communication we use but there are so many
| more symbols available and even non symbolic ways to
| communicate.
|
| Sonics is so much wider than language and music but in a lot
| of real time art takes a back seat.
| throw_a_grenade wrote:
| Tangential: does anyone know if there is a site that collects
| backgrounds from cartoons? Those would be gorgeous wallpapers.
| photonthug wrote:
| May I also recommend ren and stimpy in this category ? Beyond
| that you may even have to go back to looney tunes for more
| watercolor style layering.
| justsomehnguy wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44154350
| 01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote:
| Best I can do is video game skyboxes on PixelFed
| https://pixelfed.social/videogamesskies
| navbaker wrote:
| Edit: apparently this link got posted by itself on HN and
| someone else linked to the HN post replying to your question.
|
| After reading the article I googled for "samurai jack art style
| guide" and found this (it has a bunch of backgrounds part way
| down): https://characterdesignreferences.com/art-of-
| animation-8/art...
| lelandfe wrote:
| For a lot of great behind the scenes artwork:
| https://characterdesignreferences.com/art-of-animation-8/art...
|
| I used to have an artist roommate obsessed with the art style of
| the show. If anyone hasn't yet watched the rebooted season from
| 2017, I highly recommend it.
|
| Edit: one great clip from S5
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFDkcvrSaYU
| thatguy0900 wrote:
| I wasn't much a fan of the rebooted series, I thought the
| inclusion of the new character took too much focus. Almost felt
| to me more like a fan fiction ending with someone's OC
| k__ wrote:
| I watched the whole series because of some clips from the new
| season.
|
| The new stuff felt more mature to me and the old stuff more
| like a kids show.
|
| Overall I liked both, but I get it, the new stuff felt a bit
| off.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| I suspect this is because the target audience is the
| original audience, which is now 12 years older; probably
| the same for all the other reboots.
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| It's worth noting that the original four seasons were on
| Cartoon Network prime time, while the revival season
| explicitly aired on Adult Swim. So yes, the target audience
| was older (or, more likely, the target audience was the
| group of kids who watched the original series that aged
| into adults while the show was off the air).
|
| You always got the sense from the original that SJ was held
| back by the censors (Jack has cartoon Wolverine syndrome--
| he's got a legendary cutting edge, but is only allowed to
| use it on doors and robots). But I agree, after four
| seasons of borderline pacifist Jack, suddenly flipping to
| "Oh, I guess Jack kills people now" hand-waived away by a
| flashback of his father using lethal force when necessary,
| was a bit jarring and tonally inconsistent.
| BearOso wrote:
| You refer to it as Wolverine syndrome, but I also
| remember it with TMNT and Leonardo. With the cartoon
| version, they made all the foot clan robots to get around
| it. It's also quite the shock to read the original comics
| and find out the turtles love beer, and Leonardo stabs
| and kills the shredder (permanently) in something like
| the first issue.
| lelandfe wrote:
| 12 years on you can get the original creator back to
| storyboard everything, hire back the old VO team, and still
| have people complaining the show is too different :P
| CursedSilicon wrote:
| _Most_ of the old VO team
|
| Makoto Iwamatsu (Aku) died in 2006 :(
| usefulcat wrote:
| I liked the fifth season because they needed to do something
| different with the story. I feel like they had hit the point
| of diminishing returns by end of the previous four seasons.
| thatguy0900 wrote:
| I think they could have honestly done the same thing but no
| new character, have jack retrace his steps to see old
| characters and that he actually had been making a
| difference the whole time before finding a time portal and
| beating aku.
| schainks wrote:
| I was going to post this link, too :)
|
| Balance is important!
| TuringTourist wrote:
| I never watched Samurai Jack when it was coming out as a child. I
| have begun watching it recently and it is absolutely a
| breathtaking piece of work.
| keeganpoppen wrote:
| same. i did watch the more recent "last season", or whatever it
| is that they made, and i thought the artwork was absolutely
| fantastic.
| GolfPopper wrote:
| As an adult, I was fortunate enough to catch "Jack vs. the
| Ninja" on a hotel TV while on a trip. I was absolutely
| entranced, and tracked down the rest of the show.
| "Breathtaking" is a good description.
| crawsome wrote:
| The backgrounds are really impressive. Right after hand-drawn
| animation stopped being common.
|
| He never topped this effort in the rest of his work. He's been
| taking animation shortcuts ever since.
| aceazzameen wrote:
| The backgrounds in Primal were stunning. Phenomenal hand drawn
| animation too, especially the creatures. No shortcuts there.
| troyvit wrote:
| I feel like one could make a beautiful poster by pausing
| almost any random scene of Primal
| lxe wrote:
| Samurai Jack could easily be a a part of Death Love Robots
| because of its unique style and content.
| KetoManx64 wrote:
| Except it's not nihilistic, which just about every episode of
| LD&R is.
| javchz wrote:
| I loved the small segments of behind the scenes the did for
| Samurai Jack back in the day in CN. It was my first time as a
| child to appreciate visuals and sound in a new perspective.
|
| Even to this day a beautiful work of art.
| thatguy0900 wrote:
| For anyone who liked samurai Jack's art style, there's a newer
| show called primal made by some of its creators that has a very
| similar style to it. Similar to the low dialogue in samurai jack
| it has no talking at all
| coro_1 wrote:
| Slightly off topic, but I only recently discovered Samurai Jack.
| I found it through some old VHS archive recordings. The care with
| the animation is unreal. I'd love any links or suggestions for
| where to find more authentic versions. Commercials welcomed. The
| original airings have a different feel compared to the heavily
| processed versions on streaming platforms and archive.org
| nntwozz wrote:
| Glad to see Primal mentioned in the comments, still waiting for
| season 3!
|
| https://www.joblo.com/genndy-tartakovsky-primal-season-3/
| protocolture wrote:
| Awesome. This made my day.
| underbluewaters wrote:
| Oh my god they are continuing the story! Loved the first two
| seasons.
| block_dagger wrote:
| Akuuuuu!
| 01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote:
| Fooooolish samurai!
| CHB0403085482 wrote:
| Chinese animation is catching up too ~
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skIoRG4B2hU
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| This is cool and all but it's unrelated to Samurai Jack and
| based on the false premise that it was "behind" somehow. This
| is also CGI whereas Samurai Jack and its inspiration is based
| in traditional animation techniques. Probably computer aided /
| digital but there's no escaping that.
| bitwize wrote:
| Samurai Jack always struck me as a 90s-modern, anime-and-
| Kurosawa-film-influenced update of another animated classic,
| Thundarr the Barbarian. The premise is quite different, but the
| vibe of "quasi-solitary warrior wandering through a ruined
| future, righting wrongs" is very much in force.
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| Except that Thundarr, while having some great weird and zany
| plotting, took itself seriously, while Samurai Jack is a
| parody, an homage, and also _really beautiful_ compared to the
| extremely lumpy animation that seemed cool in the 80s (and I
| watched it on Saturday mornings back then, so I should know).
| Dem0ngo wrote:
| I'm a huge fan of this show and Tartakovsky in general! You may
| be able to guess that by my username.. :)
|
| Great analysis!
| capnjngl wrote:
| Hey! Love this show. I turned "The Birth of Evil" episode into a
| music video a LONG time ago.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhxebfw7Wso
| rcarmo wrote:
| Samurai Jack is one of my all-time favorite animation series. The
| sheer amount of creativity packed into any one episode and the
| consistency of the visual styling throughout (with a few
| outliers, as any other artwork) makes it doubly unique, and I
| cannot praise it highly enough.
| sometimes_all wrote:
| The Ninja/Shinobi fight is burned into my mind. It's been so
| long, yet it's the best animation sequence I've ever seen. The
| art in Samurai Jack was truly next level.
| onikolas7 wrote:
| As a teenager I loved Samurai Jack. Gendy Tartakovsky is a truly
| unique creator. I am very excited for his first R-rated feature
| Fixed.
|
| https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8785038/
| stonecharioteer wrote:
| The core story of Jack is so similar to the Wano arc in One
| Piece. It's amazing when people say they don't see the
| similarities. Aku and Kaido are so similar.
| otikik wrote:
| Peak art
| arminiusreturns wrote:
| The meat squad used to call me "the perfect mix of Johnny Bravo
| and Samurai Jack" That's a compliment I'll take to the grave. =)
|
| "There is always hope." - SJ
| farmdve wrote:
| I always enjoyed the near silent Samurai Jack Episodes.
| Especially the one with the Tower and three possessed soldiers.
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(page generated 2025-06-02 23:01 UTC)