As I was doing some late night work last night, I threw in my copy of Samurai Jack: Season One on DVD. I hadn’t watched it in a while, and sometimes I forget how incredibly awesome this cartoon was. SJ was created by Genndy Tartakovsky, the same mind behind Dexter’s Lab, Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon and the director of the upcoming “Power of the Dark Crystal” which depending on what you read is either a remake or a sequel to “Dark Crystal”.

For those who never saw it, the cartoon followed the quest of a samurai named “Jack”, though I don’t recall you ever finding out his real name, to destroy a demon named Aku (fantastically voiced by Mako) and return to the past. Jack almost killed Aku in the past, but Aku sent Jack into the future allowing him to take over the world in Jack’s absence.

Jack travels the future searching for Aku and a way home. He almost succeeds in killing Aku a few times but something always seemed to get into the way at the last moment to allow Aku to escape. The show ran for 52 episodes before it ended. I always thought Samurai Jack was a little underappreciated during its time. While the artwork in the cartoon wasn’t breathtaking the style in which the cartoon was presented with split screens, slow motion sequences and the musical score more than made up for it.

Apart from Jack, the series had some fantastic one time and recurring characters in it. There was even an episode featuring a group of descendents of Sparta fighting outnumbered against an army of robot minotaurs. However, by far the best one was the Scotsman. He carried a huge bastard sword and had a machine gun for one his legs. He spoke with an outrageous accent and was just flat out hilarious, as you can see from their first meeting.

So if you’ve never seen the show, I recommend putting it on Netflix or something and watching it.