Afro Samurai Pilot

The Afro Samurai Pilot is an interesting little short for a few reasons. Firstly it's a pretty insightful look into the story, concepts and character designs that the main show would end up using or dropping. Second, its a great showcase of Takeshi Koike's animation style and aesthetic sensibilities.

As for the short itself, it can be described as a three minute long sakuga filled hip hop music videos involving the titular Afro Samurai tearing through his enemies, with all the slick action and hyper violence one would expect from the franchise. In a sense it captures the essence of Afro Samurai. An artistically excellent action ... piece punctuated by hip hop beats.

I've been raving a lot about the art and animation, so what would one expect. It's a mostly monochrome piece with the main colors being black white and grey. This is complemented by intense bursts of red blood spray and wrapped up in Koike's characteristic dark and one tone shadows and you get a slick looking project. The minimalist color palate and background design also makes things feel pretty abstract at times. The animation throughout is just as smooth. The backgrounds having low detail just helps to emphasize the action, making it stand out quite a bit.

The music is an important aspect of the short as well. There are two tracks used in it, the first being "400 Years" by CYNE. Its a great opener for the short, using a very Japanese sounding guitar sample and punchy percussion accompanied by lyrics about emancipation. The last half is accompanied by "Next Time" by Gang Starr, a jazzier track with a verse about the artist's unmatched skill on the mic, much like Afro's skill in a fight. There isn't any dialogue in the short, but the music helps tell as much of the story as the visuals.

So who is this short for? I would recommend it for three types of people. The first kind of person is the Afro Samurai super fan. If you haven't seen this yet, it's invaluable because you get to see the similarities and differences between the original and final products. The second type of person is for the sakuga and staff list nerd. Its an interesting little footnote in Takeshi Koike's career, and a showcase of some of the best animation he's put to screen. The last sort of person is the lover of both anime and Hip Hop. What it offers to them are cool action scenes, cool character designs and a good selection of tracks to boot. If you are any of these three, I'd strongly recommend checking this short out!

Watch only this if you just want a drop more of Afro Samurai or if you are considering to watch Afro Samurai (duly note that this is very short with no real plot, it just showcase what the anime might bring both with the art, action, music and story line, a little tiny glimpse, therefore there is no real spoilers in this one.
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I really understand why that this pilot without any doubt convinced the producers and studio to make Afro Samurai into an anime. IT MADE ME SO HYPED! even though I have seen the series and the following movie :) It makes me wanna ... crave for even more! I would love to be a sequel with other characters but in this setting :3 ^^

Rate of 4
english dubbed

Pro(s)
-art: different then what i have seen.
-art: animations were smooth.

Con(s)
-sound: the song did not match the action you were seeing
-sound: the animated effects tuned out bits of the song
...
-art: what purpose did black and white have?
-art: why start to lead into color only to kill it off? Was that the breaking point being addressed?
-art: the black and white concept is not only hard on the eyes in some of the scenes but ruins definitive details.

plot-very confusing. Unclear to if the trailer showed the appropriate timeline of events. Unclear to what era this being done in for you have a cellphone, robot and what appears to be an ancient backdrop for a background.

character development: is lacking. What made the person be who he was? Is he even the good guy?