Samurai Jack is a cartoon series on Cartoon Network. My son has never seen it (it's rated TV-Y7) but he discovered the series at the library. He read it completely out of order and I ordered this book for his last birthday from Powell's Books for $2.50. It cleared up a lot of confusion for him, so it's suggested to start the series in order. The series starts with this book, and the next book in the series is #1, just fyi.
From the publisher:
"In the distant past, an evil shape-shifter named Aku has brought destruction upon the land. As the citizens' last hope, a youngster is sent away to train as a samurai warrior. But when he returns as an adult to confront Aku, the warrior finds himself flung into the future, landing in an unknown time and place. There, the locals dub him "Jack" and help him in his heroic quest to return to the past and undo the evil wrought by Aku.This digest novelization tells the complete Samurai Jack origin story in an exciting, new, graphic-driven way."
Samurai Jack is rendered in a very graphic, linear manner. He looks neither actually Asian, nor Caucasian. The book has full color illustrations every few pages, which keeps the young ones interested, and helps them visualize many of the made up creatures that show up. There is fighting. But Samurai Jack fights in an honorable manner, if one believes in such. He fights defensively, and often gives up his position or an advantage in order to help someone. He is guided by his mission to find and destroy Aku. If you intend on following the series, it's important to understand what's actually happening. Aku comes into power when Jack is a small boy. His father sends him off to be trained as a Samurai. Jack returns, grown and prepared to fight Aku. There's an incident involving his father, which results in Jack obtaining his father's sword. His father is the only other person in the world who has previously defeated Aku because of this sword. So Aku is running scared. As Jack closes in on him, Aku sends Jack through a vortex or sorts - into the future. When Jack arrives on the other side, he struggles with 2 things: he must find his way back to the "present" so he can destroy Aku and prevent Aku's rise to power, and he must fight Aku and Aku's minions as he tries to get back to the present. In the future Aku is in full power and knows Jack is in his time period, and tries to destroy him the whole time. Whew.
For those parents who (understandably) fear there is too much violence, a few points: 1. Jack never kills a person. All of Aku's minions are sophisticated robots powered by crystals. 2. There are no guns 3) Jack helps a wide diversity of creatures and humans alike in a great example of extreme tolerance and finally, 4) (and I think the most important) the stories are really more about who Jack helps along the way and why. He spends most of his times helping the victims of Aku's reign, no matter how insignificant they might seem to others. And he does so with compassion, brains and a unerring sense of right.
Another thing I like about the series (which I will eventually review the others we read) is that each book feels very much like Greek mythology. It's hard to explain in that it's rather subtle. But there is a task, monsters, a hero and an epic struggle in each one. It's a nice introduction to this type of literature.
I really like Jack. So does my son. And as far as characters to identify with and want to emulate, a time-traveling samurai with a good code of honor isn't too bad of a choice. I don't think it's running on Cartoon Network anymore, but you can watch it here if you're interested.
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