The cartoon Samurai Jack, which originally ran for four seasons and was comprised of 52 episodes between the years 2001 and 2004, is now finally back on March 11 with Season 5. Samurai Jack was an extremely popular and critically-acclaimed show which won six Annie Awards, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and one OIAF award and has received eight further nominations.
The story revolves around a young samurai from Japan who spent years in hard training and had his father’s katana with which he had hoped to defeat the evil demon known as Aku. But right before he could deliver the final death blow to Aku, Jack found himself whisked away after Aku opened a time portal, and the samurai was transported to a dystopian future where the evil of the demon Aku is law.
“Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting Master of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil! But a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Aku!”
The creator of Samurai Jack, Genndy Tartakovsky, is well known for other cartoons like Dexter’s Laboratory,The Powerpuff Girls, and Star Wars: Clone Wars, but Samurai Jack has created such a legacy that fans all over the world are now anxiously awaiting the new season of this show to see what will become of Jack.
What we know right know about the new season of this groundbreaking cartoon is that Jack is still stuck in time, not able to go back or move forward. Tartakovsky has said that the new Season 5 episodes of Samurai Jack will be noticeably darker now, especially given Jack’s present dilemma.
“We knew we had to make the tone darker. This story is Jack’s ending, and so it’s driven to a more dramatic conclusion. He’s breaking down. He’s losing his mind, he’s losing his hope, he’s losing his will.”
Genndy Tartakovsky at the ‘Hotel Transylvania 2’ photo call in Cancun, Mexico on June 14, 2015. Tartakovsky’s ‘Samurai Jack’ will return to Adult Swim on March 11. [Image by Victor Chavez/Getty Images]
Genndy Tartakovsky told The Creators Project that during the first four seasons there were no episodic stories as that wasn’t normally something that happened back then and might have confused viewers. However, in Season 5 of Samurai Jack, there will be changes.
“The first four seasons we weren’t allowed to do episodic stories. Back then no one was doing episodic storytelling. You couldn’t have a lot of change in Jack, because if they wanted to run episodes out of order, all of a sudden he’s one way here and another way there. So we had to keep him as a stoic samurai unfazed by anything. In Season 5, we know we’re telling one story, so let’s take advantage of it.”
It was also revealed that Jack will not be alone in the new season. Tartakovsky has said that the Scotsman will be coming back, which is something he is very pleased about.
Tiny #SamuraiJack color & composition studies painted by Bill Wray while he was preparing the title sequence for the original episodes. pic.twitter.com/xMzAg7Aldb
In the new trailer for Season 5 of Samurai Jack, Jack is still trapped in the future. While the trailer appears dark, hope still lurks on the horizon.
“Aku’s grasp chokes the past, present and future. It always seems bad at first. But then, I find a way.”
If you are interested in re-watching the first four series of Samurai Jack to get yourself ready for the new season, Polygon reports that Adult Swim are currently running back-to-back episodes of the earlier shows in a livestream format, and these can be viewed 24 hours a day on the Adult Swimwebsite.
The brand new 10-episode series of Season 5 of Samurai Jack will air on March 11 on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.
[Featured Image by Matt Sayles/AP Images]
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