Samurai Jack (character)
fictional character
Samurai Jack, also known as The Samurai or simply Jack, is a sobriquet adopted by the titular protagonist of the Cartoon Network/Adult Swim animated television series Samurai Jack (2001–2004, 2017). He was created by Genndy Tartakovsky and is voiced by Phil LaMarr. The character is introduced as a Japanese prince raised since youth as a samurai warrior, who trains under several teachers in order to vanquish the demon Aku with his father's sword. However, before he can do so, Aku sends him into the future, where Aku's future self rules over Earth, which has become a post-apocalyptic dystopia, unopposed. Adopting the alias "Jack", the samurai makes it his mission to find a way back to his time and prevent this future from happening.
Conception and character
Samurai Jack, as a character, was originally conceived by the series creator Genndy Tartakovsky. The basic premise of Samurai Jack comes from Tartakovsky's childhood fascination with samurai culture and the bushido code, as well as a recurring dream in which he wielded a samurai sword and wandered a post-apocalyptic Earth fighting mutants with his crush. The show is meant to evoke 1970s cinematography, as well as classic Hollywood films such as Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia and Spartacus. Thematic and visual inspirations come from Frank Miller's comic book series Rōnin, including the premise of a master-less samurai warrior thrown into a dystopic future in order to battle a shape-shifting demon. Similarly, the episode "Jack and the Spartans" was specifically inspired by Miller's graphic novel 300 that retold the Battle of Thermopylae.
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This entry incorporates text from “Samurai Jack (character)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.