4. Watch Samurai Champloo
Samurai Champloo is an anime series about a tea shop girl and two skilled swordsmen who accompany her through Edo Japan, in search of a "samurai who smells of sunflowers". In the style of typical adventure series; they meet numerous colourful characters in each town they visit,while causing and sometimes fixing problems along the way. Why Should you Watch it?This series is another example of Watanabe's talent to mix seemingly contrasting styles into a final product that works well. Samurai Champloo combines conventions of a samurai film with elements of hip hop culture, yet it's still somehow reminiscent of a spaghetti western. This is because the characters are essentially drifters that meet very Western-inspired circumstances at each town they visit - they have run ins with the law and corrupt government officials, and they blow their money gambling in salons and at brothels. On occasion the characters have even been challenged to showdowns at high noon. The 26 episode series is the ultimate marriage of Eastern and Western cinema, it shows off the compatibility of the two styles the same way films like Yojimbo and Seven Samurai did. The reason the two genres work so well is because they are so similar; when you look at it -the only difference between a samurai and a gun-slinger is a 10 gallon hat.