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The cinematography, the fight choreography, the music. how every plot thread came together at the end and Ed was actually useful (Ed was generally forgotten about in the serious episodes of the series for obvious reasons).
Basically it was a distilation of every aspect the series was good at without being bogged down by the series' myriad flaws. Spike, the weakest character in the series, was a joy to watch in the movie because his character stubbornly refusing to develop wasn't an issue. He was free to be a cool motherfucker, which he is. As a space western I'd say it easily ranks up there with the best episodes of Firefly.
I can understand why people who haven't seen the series wouldn't like it though. It's basically the characters and setting you've grown to love at the best they've ever been. I wouldn't recommend watching it the same way I wouldn't recommend watching, say, the Powerpuff Girls movie or any of the Star Trek movies (Bar the reboots) without seeing the series first. You're inherently missing that connection.
It's good and it has moments, and whole episodes, of brilliance but it's really not aged that well. I only saw it towards the end of last year and while it wasn't as overrated as I expected, it was still very uneven and amateur in a lot of ways. Use of music to convey mood and choreography are solid 10/10 though. If you like jazz music you'll probably like it.
Have you ever heard of The Big O? Another series I very recently finished and it just sprang to mind as something you might like. That was a 10/10 90's series.
Incidentally I've been plowing my way through this list for the last few months and I've finished just about everything except Natsume and Jigoku Shoujo. It's a list of intellectual and philosophical anime for intellectual and philosophical people such as myself. I'd recommend any series on this list, except Ergo Proxy. |
Actually I loved the music, I completely forgot about that, it was really good. That's why I like Samurai Champloo too, the music is excellent, they contracted the dearly departed Nujabes to do some of it and when I worked out it was his stuff in the anime I sort of squee'd.
Hmm, well maybe I should give the show a chance then, once I finish Shampoo I'll try the first few episodes and see if I like it.
Oh and speaking of PPG, Vyrien exposed me to that a little while ago. To say the least I was hooked.