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Contains spoilers:

It’s difficult to put into words to describe the experience I felt when I watched this show (which I have multiple times). Is it nostalgia? Longing? Aimlessness? Actually, there is a great word for it which isn’t in English. ‘Saudade’, a Portuguese word meaning “a yearning for a happiness that has passed, or perhaps never even existed”. This word basically embodies the spirit of Samurai Champloo.

Unlike in Cowboy Bebop, where the theme is no matter how hard you try to run from the past, it’ll always catch up, Champloo takes the opposite route and deals with the dangers of dwelling on the past ... for too long. This can be seen through all three main characters, Mugen, Jin, and Fuu.

Mugen’s life as a vagrant and showing hostility to anyone. Jin’s reluctance to form any bonds and continuing to forge his skills as a swordsman. Fuu’s obsession of trying to find her missing father for “revenge”.

It’s only through the non-linear thread of the show that our characters grow, with chance encounters often happening to get the show going. Now, that can be seen as a criticism as the over-arching plot of Fuu’s search isn’t developed much until near the end, but, it’s only through these “random” episodes do our characters experience the change they much need in order to grow as people.

Let me refer to Episode 11, “Gamblers and Gallantry”, one of my favourite episodes. Without saying too much, this is Jin’s episode and his character growth is meaningful. This is the first time he shows any affection, and to a woman no less. However, she is forced to work in a brothel and Jin does what he’s most skillful at, by slashing his way through his problems. This doesn’t work out and so, he works hard to earn money instead to buy her off, something that is quite uncharacteristic for him to do. By the end, Jin sacrifices his own happiness so she could escape. This was a significant turning point for Jin, displaying an act of selflessness.

There are many other examples of growth in the show but that would take too much space and I might go into rambling territory (especially about the phenomenal soundtrack).

The only reason I am even writing this review is because I have tried many times before to write how I truly feel about this show but simply couldn’t put it into words or didn’t try. So, much like the show, I’m freestyling this in order to get it over and done with. This just might be a personal bias but the reason I love this show (to a damn fault) is because it came at a perfect time during my high school years, I was pretty depressed and had no idea what I was doing. Champloo showed me that people from all walks of life can get lost, and that obsessing with your past can critically halt your progression as a person. It’s only through random encounters in your life, whether meaningless or meaningful, that you’ll grow. Life is a gamble, so just play your cards.

Endless potential is at the root of all that's great. Whether it's musicians or sports players, you can see someone's potential right from the start.
This might be a little exaggeration but I feel that way about this fledgling series, I can see this becoming a great story if all the cards are played right.

Much like Hunter x Hunter, it has an average introduction but the slow introduction of other characters in the team will certainly make the story shine bright. I also wish to see our two main characters more fleshed out, especially Ryudo.

I can't really criticise anything currently because not much ... has happened yet, the only thing I can think of is the generic introduction. Aside from that, the pacing is good, the art is very clean, and there is a clear love for baseball.
I hope this series goes places, especially at a time like this when there's no significant sports manga in the mainstream.

Take the least interesting elements of OPM and plop them into a magical world (suspiciously like Harry Potter) and you get this.

In all seriousness, I'm only about 17 chapters in and I'm still hoping there's some sort of interesting factor for me to look forward to. It tries to be tongue-in-cheek/satirical about the Harry Potter world but it's mostly surface level.

The biggest problem I have is with the main protagonist, Mash. If you're gonna write a jokey character like him, why should I care when things get serious? At least with Saitama, we get a lot of his inner thoughts and feelings. His motivation is ... force-fed to us in the early chapters and we never get anything deeper.

Otherwise, this doesn't capture the charm like OPM and just rehashes things that we've seen before.

If you want to read something that's funny and has substance, go read OPM or Mob Psycho. If you already have, just read them again, it's not like you can't have enough.