Is there any one word more closely associated with Japan than "samurai?" Apart from the word "anime" itself, perhaps not -- and "samurai"'s been part of the topical vocabulary for Japan in English far longer than "anime."
It ought to come as no surprise, though, that many of the best anime out there are samurai-themed, since Japan loves to explore its own history through the lens of popular culture. Every year dozens of films set in Japan's feudal past hit theaters (e.g., the recent 13 Assassins); Japanese bookstores have entire sections devoted exclusively to historical fiction; and both manga and anime revisit Japan's past tirelessly and exuberantly.
Samurai-themed stories tend to have a few basic, common ingredients -- the lone swordsman, the cunning ninja, intrigue and politics, violence and honor. What makes anime's approach to all these elements so striking is how they are more often than not just used as the point of departure for far more complex things.
While there are no end of samurai-themed anime out there -- and new ones released every year -- we've compiled a list of the very best to get you started. Among them are stories from the very early years of the samurai (Otogi-zoshi), adventures set during their heyday (Sengoku Basara), tales from the very end of their time (Rurouni Kenshin), and other shows that do end-runs around such classifications (Samurai Champloo, Samurai 7).
Check out our list of samurai anime, and chime in with your own suggestions as well.
Image: Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings. Image courtesy Pricegrabber.
Comments
I know most of the samurai anime in the list except the last 2 so thanks for that. A question though, Basilisk is not really about samurais, why is it no.1?
The list is in alphabetical order.