The 2009 Japanese anime television movie Afro Samurai: Resurrection, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Lucy Liu, is a sequel to the Afro Samurai miniseries. Spike broadcast it on January 25, 2009.
Afro Samurai: Resurrection is an anime movie that picks off where the original Afro Samurai anime left off.
In this tale, Afro rejects the Number One Headband, and Sio and Kuma attempt to exact retribution on him.
The story of the film occurs a number of years after Afro defeats Justice and wins the top headband. But because of the heaviness of death the headband conveys, Afro decides to give up his way of life and spends his time carving creatures out of wood.
Samuel L. Jackson’s Afro Samurai – nominated for an Academy Award – found peace after exacting revenge on his father. But a stunning and dangerous woman from his past forces the legendary master to return to the game.
The violence that Afro spread along his gory trail is now out of control, and Sio’s eyes are the only place where the hatred is burning brightest. She won’t give up until Afro learns the harsh lessons he taught those who got in his path. There is no such thing as absolute retribution. The cycle of carnage centred on the Number One Headband must continue.
| Broadcast | Jan 25, 2009 |
| Music | RZA |
| Direction | Fuminori Kizaki |
| Story | Takashi Okazaki |
| Based on | Afro Samurai by Takashi Okazaki |
| Main Cast | Samuel L. Jackson Lucy Liu |
| Language | English |
| Licensors | Funimation |
| Studio | Gonzo |
| Theme | Action, Samurai, Violence, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy |
| Duration | 1hr 40m |
| Budget | $5 million |
| Production | Fuji Television, Spike |
Storyline of the movie
Afro is unaware that he is in grave danger because an old nemesis has returned to exact revenge. Sio, a strange woman who appears to have suffered as a result of Afro’s acts, wishes to torture Afro in an effort to bring about justice. Early in the movie, Afro runs across Jinno, who is currently working for Sio.
Afro is quickly defeated after being abruptly attacked by Jinno. Jinno delivers Afro’s lifeless body to Sio. Afro then hands the top headband to Sio. She locates Rokutaro’s grave and steals his jaw in an effort to biologically duplicate him and make him murder Afro.
Following his defeat, Afro starts looking for Sio. Afro is aware that he cannot instantly confront Sio for the top headband because of samurai code. Only the wearer of headband number two has the right to challenge the wearer of headband number one. So, with Ninja Ninja’s assistance, Afro starts looking for the bearer of the number two headband.
Afro and Ninja Ninja resolve to locate the third brother of the empty seven clan, who also seems to be the sole surviving member, in order to learn where the current number two is. Brother three makes Afro a deal: If Afro wins a game of dice against him, he will reveal where the number two headband is.
But if Afro fails, Afro will be put to death. To play, Afro consents. Dice game: Brother three wins handily. As soon as Afro realises Brother Three was lying, he threatens to murder him.
Brother three then tells Afro where the number two headband is out of fear. He informs Afro that the headband is believed to be in the custody of a man by the name of Shichigoro, who may be in a neighbouring village where a festival is taking held.
Afro and Ninja Ninja witness a man abducting a young child while travelling to the town. The child’s father pursues the offender but is unable to catch up. While fleeing, the kidnapper spots Afro and stops dead in his tracks, staring at him.
Out of terror, he then attempts to shoot Afro. Afro quickly kills the kidnapper, ostensibly to preserve his privacy. Shichigoro, the child’s father, thanks Afro profusely and extends an invitation to a neighbouring town where Afro was going for a drink. Afro agrees to the proposal.
Shichigoro shares his adoption of Kotaro, the little boy, with Afro as they are enjoying a drink. Afro is informed by Shichigoro that Kotaro is the son of his best buddy.
While he was attempting to get the second headband, his best friend was killed. Presumably, he is alleging that Afro killed his closest friend. Shichigoro adopted the son of his best friend after promising to protect him.
Shichigoro also acquired the headband bearing the number 2, but he pledged to keep it hidden because of the harm and suffering it brings. Then, knowing that Afro is there to murder him, he invites him outside to fight. Along with Kotaro, Shichigoro and Afro depart the proprietor of the restaurant and travel beyond the city to engage in combat.
Afro finds the battle to be incredibly challenging at initially because of Shichigoro’s quickness and skill. Up until Shichigoro utilises a secret chain to hit him, Afro does a good job of defending himself.
Afro finds it challenging to anticipate the chain’s motions because of how long it is and how easily it might change course. Afro then guides Shichigoro to the city where the celebration is taking place.
Shigigoros’s ability to utilize the chain is hampered when fighting in a smaller space. Afro is unaware that Sio is seeing his battle. Afro and Shichigoro are killed by a group of men sent by Sio.
With their flamboyant appearances and smoke bombs, these men wreak havoc and incite widespread panic among festival goers. Kotaro, who was dozing off in the eatery, awakens as a result and goes in search of his father. Afro and Shichigoro keep fighting after overcoming Sio’s troops.
Due to Shichigoro’s carelessness, Afro was able to attack and murder him right in front of Kotaro. Kotaro, who is devastated, weeps over the corpse of the man he had come to regard as a father. Then Afro departs the small community.
Afro and Sio and Jinno have a brief altercation right after leaving the little town. Sio displays a cloned, jerking head of Rokutaro to Afro. Afro strikes Sio out of disgust and astonishment, but Jinno stops him. Afro is told by Sio that she will be looking for him at a former place where he and Jinno would first meet. After that, she and Kuma immediately flee, and Afro starts to make his way there.
Kotaro, who wants to exact revenge on his father’s murder like Afro did years ago, follows Afro for several days. Kotaro eventually passes out after going for several days without any food or water.
After an undetermined period of time, he awakens close to a body of water and a shaded rock. The person who saves him is unknown. Additionally, Kotaro is seen holding his father’s sword, which he most likely acquired when Afro departed the small hamlet.
Soon later, Dharman orders Sio’s adopted siblings—cyborgs he rebuilt—to kill Afro. They locate Afro and surprise him. Afro beats them one at a time despite the fact that they are armed to the teeth and are able to hurt him but not kill him.
Sio mauls Dharman in the neck after she learns that he sent the cyborgs to murder Afro without her consent.
Impatiently, she releases the incomplete Rokutaro clone and moves in the direction of where she instructed Afro to contact her.
Afro meets Sio, Jinno, and his cloned father as he arrives at the place with Ninja Ninja (who has been with him throughout the entire movie). When Afro encounters his cloned father, he becomes convinced that this person is in fact his true father, leading Ninja Ninja to give up on Afro and depart.
Afro gets attacked by Jinno since he is damaged from fighting the cyborgs and is unable to flee. After being struck by Jinno, Afro loses consciousness and experiences flashbacks of his father. His father expresses disappointment in him for refusing to bear the weight of the top headband.
Soon after, Afro regains consciousness and wakes up to discover his father’s clone in front of him. Sio and Jinno observe as the clone beats Afro mercilessly. Because he continues to think that the replica is his father, Afro chooses not to defend himself. The Rokutaro clone then chokes him till he passes out.
As he watches, Jinno starts to remember the fun moments he had with Afro when they were younger. He strikes the Rokutaro clone out of wrath since he can’t bear to see Afro slain. But the clone is too powerful, and it quickly eliminates Jinno. In an effort to protect her brother, Sio assaults the clone, but she too is quickly killed.
Sio gives the top headband to Rokutaro, who dons it. A spark is created when the blood from Jinnos body combines with his cyborg wires, shocking Afro into consciousness.
Afro challenges the Rokutaro clone by donning his number two headband and saying “Not at all my father, you. Long ago, my father passed away.” They fight, however the movie doesn’t depict this scene.
In the following scene, Afro is seen leaving the location where he first met Sio. He obviously murdered the Rokutaro clone because he is sporting the No. 1 headband. Kotaro, who was still pursuing him, crosses paths with him.
He hands Kotaro the headband with the number two on it and says, “Whenever you’re ready,” meaning that he’s ready to battle Kotaro when he’s ready to confront him. The movie finishes as Afro departs into the distance.
Where to watch Afro Samurai Resurrection movie?
There are a few options available for watching this movie. The movie is available on Tubi, Hulu and NetFlix. However you may need to pay and obtain a subscription in order to watch. This is an ad free option.
In case you would like to watch it for free then few sites offer this facility such as here or here. This is the English dub version and available on high quality streaming with multiple server options.
If you would like to purchase a DVD of the movie, you may do so on Amazon.
Watch the trailer of Afro Samurai: Resurrection on YouTube in 1080p here:
Reviews on Afro Samurai: Resurrection
If you’ve watched the first season of Afro Samurai, you might share my surprise that the show ended up being a little more complex in terms of character development and plot than your normal hack and slash violent anime. The show’s premise is quite straightforward: When the protagonist reaches adulthood, he embarks on a journey for vengeance after seeing his father’s horrible murder by the primary antagonist of the first season.
The first season focuses on the repercussions of personal trauma as well as how it affects those who are close to Afro and try to relate to him. The main message is obvious, even though several narrative details aren’t actually developed or explained.
In the second season (this movie), after rising to the position of top Samurai, Afro is seen to have largely put his sword away and without any discernible vision. Without giving too much away, he is forced to pick up the art of killing once more when actual zombies from his past appear.
This time, Afro’s victory is to let the past lay in peace rather than exacting revenge. When an old acquaintance of his reappears, our hero’s old lifestyle of excessive sword violence and murder returns.
I believe that this season’s combat scenes are better executed than those in the previous one since they look to be less “comic book”-like and more crisply animated. To give the characters’ attitudes toward fighting more personality, I felt that there was a bit too much emphasis on closeups of their faces.
Afro had a generally grim appearance for the bulk of the inaugural season’s fights, with just brief expression changes. This season seems to want to repeatedly bring up Afro’s lack of experience and some nervousness when parrying/blocking even the most straightforward assaults from his foes.
This bothers me because the first season seems to really focus more on character development through character history and intellectual monologues, but this season seemed to emphasise profanity and facial expressions to create characters.
This can be somewhat attributed to the show’s shorter runtime, but it does attempt to develop character through memories and monologues that, when compared to the first season, feel fairly dense and forced.
Additionally, there isn’t a lot of story point elaboration, which was lacking in S1.
Overall, I liked the action scenes, and the character exchanges were amusing enough, albeit not as profound and compelling as those in the first season. If you’re just starving for further Afro Samurai action and graphics, I’d suggest you should think about getting this merely to round out your collection.
However, if you were hoping for resolutions to issues from the first season or a dramatic change in Afro’s personality, you might feel a little let down after everything is said and done. Get the first season instead if you haven’t, and only get this if you want to know what occurs following the first season’s events.
Summary
The majority of Afro’s days are peaceful now that he has the Number One headband, which declares him to be the best fighter ever, yet his sleepless nights are anything but peaceful. When Jinno and Sio, two long-lost pals of his, take the headband and the father’s remains from him, his life descends into chaos once more.
Afro sets out on another adventure as the bearer of the Number Two headband—an object for which anyone would kill him—after being challenged by Sio to put it on once more and seek retribution on them for their deeds.
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