[9.6/10] Poor Lulu, sweet thing. I will say once again that my favorite part of season 4 of Samurai Jack is the show’s willingness to give other characters the spotlight and make Jack the de facto antagonist for an episode. We barely see Jack in this one. Instead, we spend most of our time with X9, the robot with emotions, and get to know him, understand him, and feel for him enough to where you’re halfway rooting for him even though you know that he, like Jack, is destined to fail so that the show can go on.
His story is one of tragedy. He is better at his job than his compatriots due to a small twist of fate, a cruel joke from an evil man, and it makes him susceptible to manipulation and having to make tough choices to save something he loves even if it means doing something he knows is wrong. There’s the inherent comedy that what X9 loves, and treats like his femme fatale, is a cute little pug. But there’s also the real emotion in how it’s plain how much X9 cares for the little canine, and how he laments what he has to do to save her.
I also love the noir pastiche that runs through this one. From the opening frame, where hard rain pours down on a solitary branch of cherry blossoms, you can tell this one’s going to be a treat. The voiceover, the filter of grain over the flashbacks, the black, white, and red palette that Tarakvosky and company put together, make this one a real joy to look at. The tone is so good, taking something somewhat comic given the circumstances, but making you feel for everyone involved. So much of this show is genre parodies, but doing film noir with a robot may be the best one yet.
I also loved the second half, when we got the actual fight between X9 and Jack. After going so hard on the noir trappings, this one drops almost all of the music and lets the fight take place in near-silence. Instead, there’s just the mechanical whirs of X9’s steps, and the slow suspense of him advancing on and searching for Jack inside of a robot factory.
Jack tricking X9 in shooting open various steam pipes helps create real atmosphere, and plays into his hands. At the same time, the cat and mouse game between them is tense and exciting. There’s symbolism to Jack only winning by tricking X9 into shooting another robot, an image of himself. He then dies, tragically, via a samurai sword to the back, with his dying words being a request to look after Lulu, sweet thing. The simple look in Jack’s eyes show some kind of understanding, and like most noir outings, we close on some final image of tragedy, this one being the photo of a pup our temporary hero will never see again.
It’s amazing. “Tale of X9” does the “robot with a soul” routine better in twenty-one minutes than Westworld has done in three seasons. It’s in some ways an archetypal story, albeit one where Samurai Jack is playing with the form, but that doesn't stop it from being as stylish, affecting, and well-made as anything the show’s done. A real treat from start to finish.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-05-07T02:55:37Z
[9.6/10] Poor Lulu, sweet thing. I will say once again that my favorite part of season 4 of Samurai Jack is the show’s willingness to give other characters the spotlight and make Jack the de facto antagonist for an episode. We barely see Jack in this one. Instead, we spend most of our time with X9, the robot with emotions, and get to know him, understand him, and feel for him enough to where you’re halfway rooting for him even though you know that he, like Jack, is destined to fail so that the show can go on.
His story is one of tragedy. He is better at his job than his compatriots due to a small twist of fate, a cruel joke from an evil man, and it makes him susceptible to manipulation and having to make tough choices to save something he loves even if it means doing something he knows is wrong. There’s the inherent comedy that what X9 loves, and treats like his femme fatale, is a cute little pug. But there’s also the real emotion in how it’s plain how much X9 cares for the little canine, and how he laments what he has to do to save her.
I also love the noir pastiche that runs through this one. From the opening frame, where hard rain pours down on a solitary branch of cherry blossoms, you can tell this one’s going to be a treat. The voiceover, the filter of grain over the flashbacks, the black, white, and red palette that Tarakvosky and company put together, make this one a real joy to look at. The tone is so good, taking something somewhat comic given the circumstances, but making you feel for everyone involved. So much of this show is genre parodies, but doing film noir with a robot may be the best one yet.
I also loved the second half, when we got the actual fight between X9 and Jack. After going so hard on the noir trappings, this one drops almost all of the music and lets the fight take place in near-silence. Instead, there’s just the mechanical whirs of X9’s steps, and the slow suspense of him advancing on and searching for Jack inside of a robot factory.
Jack tricking X9 in shooting open various steam pipes helps create real atmosphere, and plays into his hands. At the same time, the cat and mouse game between them is tense and exciting. There’s symbolism to Jack only winning by tricking X9 into shooting another robot, an image of himself. He then dies, tragically, via a samurai sword to the back, with his dying words being a request to look after Lulu, sweet thing. The simple look in Jack’s eyes show some kind of understanding, and like most noir outings, we close on some final image of tragedy, this one being the photo of a pup our temporary hero will never see again.
It’s amazing. “Tale of X9” does the “robot with a soul” routine better in twenty-one minutes than Westworld has done in three seasons. It’s in some ways an archetypal story, albeit one where Samurai Jack is playing with the form, but that doesn't stop it from being as stylish, affecting, and well-made as anything the show’s done. A real treat from start to finish.