I may have problems with the final episode but, my heart dropped when it ended. At least we finally got the ending to this show. Fun fact: it was this show that made me love swords at a young age.

The reason Scaramouche sounded like Sammy Davis Junior is because, SDJ was the actual inspiration for the character.

There is one thing many forget about the ending to the finale. The ladybug Some say that, according Japanese myth. A ladybug symbolizes the spirits of those who've died. Not to mention that the ladybug was the first pure thing Ashi came across in Aku's bleak and villainous world. So, by seeing that ladybug land on his hand. Jack took it as a sign that Ashi will live on forever, even if it's just a memory

Those three gods should've rewarded Jack for his deeds by giving him Ashi back. After all the sacrifices he has done for other, he deserves that one important bit of personal happiness: Love.

Without reward, Without witness, Without hope, That is what defines you.

Excellent review and I completely agree with your rating. That being said, a few points: -The decision to go back to the past was not something that Jack made on his own. It was *all* Ashi's decision. It had to be. In season's 1-4 of Samurai Jack we have seen Jack sacrifice his chance to go back to the past whenever his friends were in trouble in order to help them. If he selfishly went back to the past on his own while his friends were dying on the battlefield, it would have been a betrayal to his character. That being said, the decision to actually kill Aku once he travelled to the past was indeed Jack's decision. -Ashi *knew* that going back to the past and allowing Jack to kill Aku would erase her from existence. If you look closely at the scene where Ashi and Jack travel back to the past she looks at Jack with a sad look on her face while he has his eyes closed relishing the fact that he is finally going home. Then we see her hold Jack's hand, at which point he opens his eyes and sees her smiling (subtle storytelling through visuals at its finest). Jack might have been a hero, but so was Ashi, because she knowingly and willingly sacrificed her life, her very *existence*, in order to allow Jack to fulfill his quest and give him his life back. -Why did Ashi decide to send Jack to the past? In the previous episode, Ashi had asked Jack about his home, and his time. Jack vividly described how beautiful it was and how much he missed it. When Jack said that it was now all "nothing but a memory" and saw the pained expression on his face, she knew that Jack wanted to go back to his time more than anything else. And because she loved Jack selflessly, when she had the chance, she sent him back to the past instantly without any hesitation. -On that note, it's interesting to note that when Jack faced the choice to either kill Ashi or give up on his quest, he chose the latter. If he had known that killing Aku in the past would have erased Ashi from existence, he wouldn't have killed Aku (at least not in the way he did). Which is why Ashi's decision to not interfere in the final showdown between Jack and Aku is really poignant. That's about it! Thanks for introducing me to the word "apophenia"!

The 🐞 throughout Ashi's life, and then showing up at the end to raise Jack's spirit after the whole time loop erasing. Beautiful detail. Thank you for a beautiful Series!

Now I want Genndy Tartakovsky to finish Symbiotic Titan.

Never since both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Return of the King have I felt such satisfying closure at a series ending as strong as it began. Thank you Genndy Tartakovsky. And Keep up the amazing work ERod, you're videos are getting better and better.

i think the main thing about this season and even the series as a whole is one thing: freedom. from jack's major acts to his own demons, not to mention Ashi's whole family problems, it makes sense to end with a sad yet beautiful scene.

Dang it, Genndy! How could you Gurren Lagann your fans with that ending?

oh Scotsman. we knew ye well laddie​.

I love how almost all of the things you mentioned from your top 10 list of things I want to see in the new season of Samurai Jack came true.

mad props to Genndy, for storyboarding this season by hand

Now lets hope Gendi can finally finish Symbiotic titan or some other shows that weren't finished

The BlockBuster Buster can you do Honest Reviews on The Real Ghostbusters and Gargoyles.

the last scene where Jack is underneath the tree and a ladybug flies on him and he smiles letting it fly away and the sun comes up showing the blossoms on the tree and the beautiful yet kind of sad music was about gorgeous and made me want to happy cry, which is great because it is the complete opposite of the beginning scene of both season 1 episode 1 and season 10 episode 1 which both started out dark and bit depressing

it feels sad that samurai jack ended we will miss you

Great video! Been waiting for this since I first saw the Samurai Jack S1-4 review video! It was such an excellent ending to an excellent series. :)

anyone else find it completely incomprehensible that aku is actually dead? like he's one of the most prolifoc villains in western culture and most people who grew up with him i would assume find it surreal that he's actually dead. it's such a weird feeling.

No Guardian rematch... We were fuckin robbed

No, Greg redubbed Pas Aku's lines too. Only Mako's opening prologue from the first 4 seasons are used in the episode.

Didn't Jack kill living individuals in "The Princess and the Bounty Hunters" so saying he never killed in a literal sense bugged me a tiny bit

I loved Samurai Jack and started watching it during my late teens years ago. However that doesn't mean I'm going to ignore the major flaws, inconsistencies, plot holes and timeline contradictions exposing why Genndy's finale doesn't work or make any sense. Though Genndy wanted a bittersweet ending for Samurai Jack, which most if not all the fans like myself didn't want, here some some major mistakes the finale had: First Mistake: How did Ashi know exactly at what point in time in the past to travel to and where to travel to with Jack? Certainly Aku never told her and Jack himself doesn't know how many centuries into the future he was thrown into. It doesn't add up. Second Mistake: Why did Ashi so conveniently stop existing on her wedding day to Jack in front of hundreds of people, foreign delegates and dignitaries? A royal wedding of that magnitude takes months to plan and prepare especially since people from other countries were invited to Jack's wedding to Ashi; meaning Ashi was given a lot of time to be introduced not only to Jack's royal family but also to everyone he knew in that timeline. A year must have gone by at least. Ashi should have immediately been erased from history the very moment Aku was killed in the past. The fact that she lasted for months before she so suddenly just never existed doesn't make any sense; that was completely fabricated by Genndy in his attempt to emotionally stab the audience with Ashi's dramatic death into oblivion. Third Mistake: How could Jack continue to exist in the past if Ashi never existed to send him back to the past in the first place? Jack should have ceased to exist in that altered past timeline also since Ashi never existed to send him back. This is a paradox that doesn't make any sense! Some argued that because time lost its affect on Jack's ability to age that he wasn't affected. But that doesn't make sense as the same rule should have also applied to Ashi since she also jumped out of her original timeline like Jack did and went to another timeline. This inconsistency was never explained. Fourth Mistake: If Ashi never existed in the future because Aku was killed in the past by Jack, then how did Jack go back in time to kill Aku in the past in the first place? That means that Jack never went back in time and killed Aku in the past; meaning that Aku is not dead and the future did not change. It doesn't add up! Fifth Mistake: Why were Jack's parents so young looking with their kingdom perfectly intact when in the first episode of Season 1 before Jack was thrown into the distant future by Aku, they were very old, their kingdom was completely destroyed by Aku and his minions because Aku escaped his prison, his aged mother was living in the icecap mountains with monks who held onto his father's legendary sword, and his father and the rest of his people were slaves under Aku's tyranny? These are contradictions and inconsistencies that were never explained and it they stay true to the original storyline. These are the reasons why the finale of Samurai Jack doesn't work or make any sense!

Let's not forget Mako did Uncle Iaro, Zuko's uncle in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Splinter in TMNT before his death. It was his last role.

Thanks for your insightful review, and for not using the words "rushed", "forced" or unnecessary". Very much appreciated!

Good to hear I'm not the only one who appreciates the Finale for what it is.

I could've asked for a better and beautiful ending to a show that's now my favorite cartoon/art of all time.

Bro this series. Just left me happy and sad. I'm notice to cry. Not even when playing the Walking dead season 1 all the way through. But this made me tear up. AAAAAHHH

Great review Blockbuster Buster! You hit the nail on the head

Great timing! I had just caught up with your previous Honest Reviews when this popped up in my feed :-). Just like the show, your HR on it was also worth the wait. Although I felt it was little rushed (I wish it had been 44 instead of 22 min), overall I enjoyed the ending. I don't think the final moments could have been any different. It would have been nice to actually see Aku be erased from the future and have all of Jack's allies celebrate but this was still a satisfying ending. I liked Jack with Ashi despite what many in the fandom might have called a FRI ;-). Would you consider doing a list of your top 10 favorite episodes?

I'm very glad that you defended the ending, and you're right, it was fantastic, just like the rest of this series. I just wish people would stop throwing a hissy fit over it. Yes, it sucks that she died and it's very sad, but it makes sense why it happened. Honestly, anytime I hear people whine about that or the fact that the Guardian was killed off screen, I just want to send them that eSults video NC made for Whiners.

Tartakovsky mentioned that it was only coincidence that her hairstyle was the same, but I thought I read somewhere else what he was truly going for was to give her the same hair as Vegeta.

I kinda wish I saw the gangsters again, but I'm not complaining. This show was amazing ride, and I am content, (and a little sad), to see that it has finally coming to an end. See ya 'round, Jack!

My only issues with the finale were that it was horribly rushed and paced -- it really needed to be 40 minutes long, or at least 30 -- and that there should have been at least, like, 5 seconds of Jack trying to say goodbye to the Scotsman, before the Scotsman said "Go, laddy! Don't waste time, we'll be fine!" and Jack nods before leaving through the portal. That's it. These two small fixes would have helped absolutely everything. But yes, indeed, at least we now have an ending at last, and the rest was awesome

15:24 It was at that moment Aku knew...he fucked up.

I would have liked in an ending credits sequence, an aged Jack approaches the Guardian, who manages to recognize him despite Jack only ever meeting him in a future that never existed, and their dialog would indicate that Jack's life is fading and wants to spend his remaining time in the company of his friends of the destroyed timeline.

AGGGHHH! DAMMIT E-ROD WHY DID YOU REMIND ME OF THAT SCENE FROM THE KILLING JOKE!?

I honestly felt like Aku should have put up more of a fight against Jack in the final episode. He went down like a bitch in the final episode. :/

I love you bro I'm go glad I found your channel

So E-Rod's big four animated shows are Batman The Animated Series, Animaniacs, Samurai Jack, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

so wheni heard of this season and how hiped people were for it i wanted to see it, thing is: i never saw the original show, so out of respect for the love and reputation this show has i binged the entire show episode by episode so i knew what i was getting into, i do this with a lot of shows that i never started with and a lot of them were just grinding through it, however when i started watching i noticed the art style the fight scenes and the amazing story even in silence. i gained the respect for this show as other people who grew up with it had and i was not disappointed, when i finally got to the new season i was hyped, not all episode's were out yet and i would have to wait. i started with the first four episodes and loved it, each week i came back to see it and i was never disappointed. i'm glad i watched this show and i hope other people agree on that with me. i know this is a wall of text but if you read it up until this point i thank you, i just wanted to tell you guys this, because i know how much you respect the show and wanted to show my appreciation to getting exposed to it as well as let you know new fans are still coming aboard .

And pretty fitting for the Nickelodeon series of the Ninja Turtles 2 have Sab Shimono as Mr. Murakami in maybe 2 episodes because he was on the "terrible" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III as Lord Norinaga. "Help I'm a turtle and I can't get up." Casey Jones came back in this movie, same for Corey Feldman as Donatello after the first Ninja Turtles movie. That's all I can say.

It'll never happen, of course, but if anyone deserves an Annie, it's Greg Baldwin, for nearly flawlessly replicating one of the most legendary voices of all time AND one of the most important for Samurai Jack. Oh, also, I wanted to point out something: when you said they used archival recordings of Mako for the past in the final episode, you were actually incorrect. You gotta listen to the original episode and then the re-animated scene back to back to hear it, but the new re-animated stuff is GREG, not Mako. The only part that had Mako was when they played the original intro for that meta joke. But I'll give ya a pass for missing it because, in all fairness, Greg's Aku was SO good in that scene that I myself also thought it was Mako.

During Aku's death scene that wasn't archival recordings of Mako. It was Greg Baldwin. He sounds very similar to him in that scene but if you did a comparison you would notice the difference. Here's a video the compares the first episode's version of the scene to the final episode's version: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nLuanNFkvZ_OYYE.html I think the reason they sound so similar is because Greg is reading lines beat for beat that Mako had spoken, not lines written for Aku when he took over.

All hale to Mako,the one true Aku

Hey ERod, great video. Question, "What are your thoughts on Samurai Jack being similar to Frank Miller's Ronin?"

I agree the ending was perfect even though I'll admit I did cry.

ashi's demise fit the theme of this season the decisions that you make and the actions that follow are a reflction of who you are

Soon, 12 will become 13 as the runners of our show change as well.

Would you one day please do an honest review of the HellBoy movies? Since their is a reboot in the works and since HellBoy is in your TRINITY OF AWESOMENESS I think it would be fitting to talk about the movies and how you feel about them and maybe talk about the animated ones if you feel like it. Keep up the good work.

I still find it funny how people argued on twitter about the waiting game between Samurai Jack and Rick and Morty. While fans argue that they've waited months for Rick and Morty to return, Samurai Jack fans have been waiting years for Samurai Jack to return. The argument is pretty irrelevant when you see who has the longer patience.

Really loved this 10 episodes. So diffrent from eachother. So strange to go from episode 8 for example and jump back to 2-3. I just love how this show stayed consistent with the original. Sure blood and death but not to much. Like Genndy said - We are not Ninja scrolling it. Only in the first throwback episode with cameos of old character´s did we get some naughty words but other then that this show was exactly like how Jack always had been. I mean as soon Jack get´s his sword back he dose´t kill anyone. I was sort of afraid of that. Hey even when Ashi fought that army she did´t kill everyone but sure brutally almost did. I wish this show could be shown in mini theatre´s with great sound display becuse Samurai Jack is always pleasing to the ears. Headset all the time. I wonder what countries will get this season aired in there language? Whould be fascinating to find our how many managed to get the original voices back. I am trying to raise interest to get this dubbed in Swedish. Even thought no one whould really earn much money.

15:25 It was at this moment when Aku knew..............................................He fucked up.

I loved the final season. Phil Lamarr is coming to my town and i'm going to ask him about it

Glad to know it met with your approval! A lot of people disliked the ending, but I feel it was very strong in its own right. Like you say, the element of tragedy amidst triumph suits the ultimate aesthetic of the show's story. Furthermore, it creates a final challenge for the hero to overcome, one more personal and powerful than ever before. He was always going to save the world, but could Jack weather the loss of a loved one? Without any hope of going back and saving her? To finally move on from the past, and live in the present? Hell... even Batman has trouble with that one.

#childhood fulfilled!

time for a Megas XLR final season

Where did you get that Katana?

I was kinda hoping that when ERod speaks about Makos death, he will do Makos glowing head from NC...

I love Tara Strong, but I kind'a wish they got someone new to voice Ashi, like keep Kari Wahlgren from her first non-speaking role in the first episode, or even someone completely different. (like Laura Bailey or Fryda Wollf since they're both rather underutilized in animation) Only reason I could think why Tara was cast was because of this character's likeness to Llana from Sym-Bionic Titan, but I feel casting the same actress was too obvious. Not that I mind the cast, but still some differentiating would be more interesting.

Nice Review Man!

I'm still thinking about the ending. I live that Jack stopped mourning over Ashi after having the lady bug find him, and crawled on his finger before flying off.

anyone else disappointed that the ending.... SPOILER ALERT ripped off Gurren Lagann's?

I just realise that, but why there are french humorist DVD in your backgrond ?

E-Rod has a Katana. Of course he does.

I'm sorry, but I cannot cope with the ending. 1st- HOW THE FUCK DOES ASHI KNOW HOW TO MAKE A TIME PORTAL?! SHE'S KNOWN THAT SHE HAS HIS BLOOD FOR ABOUT 24 HOURS BY THEN AND THAT SHE SHARED ALL OF HIS POWERS FOR MUCH SHORTER TIME! SO HOW THE FUCK DOES SHE ALREADY KNOW THAT SHE CAN DO THAT?! 2- GENNDY FORGOT ABOUT THE GUARDIAN! Ok... ok... I'm calm now. ahem. In season three, Jack forgot the gate guardian, but after losing, the guardian tells him that he cannot use it yet. However, in the new season, it is implied that the guardian was dead. Big error. The prophecy told us that only one person can kill him, and it was clear that it was Jack. It's pretty safe to say Genndy completely forgot about this episode when creating the new season. 3- When Ashi and Jack destroy aku, Ashi should've immediately died and vanished. But yet it took her several days and the middle of a wedding to die. That was a stupid choice because it forces us to feel bad. We could've seen her dying from a mile away, so this just seemed like padding out time. Now don't get me wrong, I love Samurai Jack with all my heart, but this ending was shit. Period.

I love samurai jack because of season 5 I'll miss him

I wouldnt be surprised if his real name was Kenshiro or Shiroken

The only thing I wished the finale had was jack having a epic final battle with aku I was expecting it to be a combination of all of jacks previous battles with aku but sadly it never happened but I will say despite that it still had a decent end even if it wasn't the bang I was expecting.

An awesome review. Say, here's another great series from about the same time: Kim Possible. Please Review?

SPOILERS: Jack gets back to the past and kills Aku. Nothing else happens

What would be cool would be if after the end they had a short flash after jack touches the ladybug forward to the time jack visited and they show the new world that was created. Earth would still have become a diverse hub world but it wouldn't be under aka' rule. We see all the people jacked helped. I like the idea that we see Ashi with her sisters, maybe their chilling out or going to school or something. Ashi stops and looks at something. It's an old out of the way statue of jack, dirty and filthy (jack would have been remembered with the one statue after drafting aka) Ashi goes to it and just has a feeling like she's seen this guy before. Then her sisters call her away. She goes to leave but then stops and looks back over her shoulder one last time.The screen flashes back to jack in front of the tree and the lady bug flies off into the sunset, then we have the ending that happened.

I miss samurai Jack so much .😸

Oh, fun fact! That was the last remaining time portal in existence!

Epic season. I loved every episode of it. That's like the greatest work ot his great creator.

Im glad you said "I cried like a little girl at a Katy Perry concert" Instead of something else considering the timing and that would have been hilariously horrible.

I'll be honest here: Anyone who watched Gurren Lagann and/or knows about time paradoxes knew what was going to happen to Ashi.

Hey Erod, I was wondering if at some point you could review generator Rex. It's a highly underrated show that not a lot of people talk about.

honestly, as much as I enjoyed the finale it was too short. maybe they should've done what they did with the premiere and made it three parts. I would've loved a scene where Jack reconnects with his mother and father, they help rebuild Japan, his father gets nursed back to health, Jack and Ashi get married, and....this is the one thing I always wanted to see...have Jack become emperor. That would've been awesome

I SWEAR TO GOD: I honestly thought you going to swerve into a Goldberg joke at the beginning.

my main problem with the ending is the grandfather paradox. If jack killed aku, ashi would have never been born, if ashi was never born jack cant go back to the past meaning he could not kill aku as past him was flung into the future and the series happen and so on and so forth in a infinite loop.

who is better bill or Aku

The past Aku that recited the original monologue was still Baldwin.

Hey Samurai Jack fans out there; comment "I" if you want a Samurai Jack spin-off, either on Adult Swim or on Netflix, call Samurai Jack The Next Genderation and have the exact same quality as the main show itself and it'll be forever remembered in the Samurai Jack history books as THE next greatest thing Samurai Jack has ever done in recent memory with THE most mind-blowing Samurai Jack ending in the history of endings yet that'll surly outshine the season 5 ending in every way possible!

But like, wasnt it established from the start that Ashi was a Daughter of Aku?

so does that mean all Jacks friends dont exist anymore

I hope Symbionic Titan will have is day too

Why can't he kill Aku in Present\Future day again? :)

Well done, ERod. :)

Yay samurai jack

Legends of tomorrow was the influence of samurai jack, back to the future and doctor who

damn Erod you made the sound pretty amazing too bad the actual season / episode didn't hold up to you how much you praise it

I loved the idea of a Ninja like character who was fiercely loyal to their leader being an enemy to the samurai who was only fighting for the greater good, which (to my knowledge) is a cool role reversal on the Samurai being loyal to the Shogun and the Ninja standing up against them. I would like to point out that everything eRod said about the action scenes was for the other seasons, and he showed very few (if any) clips from this season during that segment. Yeah, true, you could say the action's just about the same in this season as the others, but he already has a video talking about the other four seasons, and it seemed like he was only talking about the other seasons instead of this one. Honestly, eRod seems a bit nostalgia blind in this video. Just slightly. Apparently Samurai Jack has one of the best ending fight scenes in all animation history, most heartrending endings in all of fiction, and an episode that is the best combination of action and comedy since Shaun of the Dead. As someone who did not watch every episode of Samurai jack when it first came out when I was 9 years old, im pretty sure alot of that is the excitement of having your show come back after 13 years, and wearing nostalgia goggles a little bit.. Also, this is just me being nitpicky on the show, but why did it take Ashi months to disappear after Aku was defeated? This always bother me in time travel stories. Ashi literally died at the most dramatic moment possible instead of disappearing along with Aku like she should've. Im not even talking about the time paradox stuff here, just why it took Ashi such a long time to disappear after Aku was destroyed.

10:51 - 11:17 Kinda reminds me of The Entity, or MissingNo from Atop The Fourth Wall, a Lovecraftian creature who has a bleak and tragic story. Yes, it an absorb and conquer all that he sees until the entirety of existence is a part of it, but what will it do after? It has no aspirations or goals or dreams outside of it's all consuming need to be all that is, and thus, when Linkara tricked it into "killing itself to discover the truth of what lies beyond death, it still was afraid of being without purpose, so it left a part of itself behind hoping it would get the answers when the greater whole returned from death. Alas, that wasn't the case, so that made you feel all the more sad for MissingNo when it finally accepted the inevitable, unable to find any other challenge that it deemed unworthy of it's greatness despite realizing it's own insignificance in comparison to the vastness of existence.

So Aku became a more evil version of Megamind pretty much.

7:37 - The hell you talking about? Jack never had a love interest in this season....... 8:24 - You just had to bring that up didn't ya >:/ 13:56 - *ULTRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!* 18:50 - There see? Never had one......and just like when I saw this episode proper I need to go cry now.....

Two things you did not discuss what is the fabled alternate ending and the Guardian

the real problem i have with season 5 is that it completely ignores seasons 1-4. the show makes just as much sense if you watch episode 1 of the first season then skip to episode 1 of season 5. i see season 5 as a template of what story the author wanted to tell originally but didn't get too because the show got cut. the last few episodes of season 4 really hammered home that jack wasn't just fighting bad guys anymore, so i assume that was setting up jack losing his sword. and the rival turned love interest that was ashi was supposed to be the princes assassin from season 4 episode 5. and in my personal head cannon, jack got home via the guardian's portal and not ashi ex machina. i also would've had it be alternate timelines. jack saves the post-aku world from aku, then goes back and starts a new timeline to save the old world from aku. seems needlessly bitter to leave on the note of, every good thing in the aku future also got errased, but so did all the bad things, so enjoy the world of more good than bad.

perfect end to samurai Jack.