Samurai Champloo — Season 1

Fuu, a waitress who is being intimidated by the village prefect's son and his guard, begs 19-year-old vagabond Mugen for help. Across town, skilled 20-year-old rōnin Jin kills the prefect's bodyguards as they prepare to kill a peasant. Jin enters the restaurant, where Mugen mistakes him for the prefect's elite bodyguards and, seeking a worthy adversary, engages him in combat. One of the prefect's son's guards sets the restaurant on fire and it burns to the ground. The local authorities capture both Mugen and Jin, who were knocked unconscious by coal gas, and sentence them to death. After escaping their execution with some help from Fuu, she asks them to join her on a quest to find a mysterious man who smells of sunflowers.

A bodyguard of the prefect's son plots revenge against Mugen after he sliced off his arm in the restaurant. To do so, he convinces his large, ogre-like companion from his remote hut in the woods to kidnap Fuu.

Mugen and Jin, annoyed with Fuu's demands, disband the group at a fork in the road, each taking separate paths, unknowingly joining the ranks of two gangs involved in a conflict. Meanwhile, Fuu is captured by yakuza and turned into a harlot and dice dealer.

A dice-rolling contest will decide the fate of the gang warfare. Who will end up dying as a result?

Fuu models for ukiyo-e artist Hishikawa Moronobu, only to end up targeted as a kidnapper group's next victim. Will the others be able to save her in time?

The trio enters into an eating competition with Mugen's and Jin's swords on the line. After a mysterious man wins the eating competition, they must find a way to get their swords back and save the mysterious man. Will they succeed?

While Fuu, Jin, and Mugen are going to get some soup, Fuu's purse is stolen by a thief in the town.

A singing swordsman hunts for Jin, challenging any samurai wearing glasses he can find, accompanied by a beat-boxing duo of thugs when he becomes infatuated with Fuu.

Mugen, Jin, and Fuu need to cross a border so they purchase travel passes since they don't have any. When their passes turn out to be fake, the trio are sentenced to death. However, the guards offer Mugen a chance to save his friends; if he can deliver an object through a forest full of bandits and return in time, Jin and Fuu will be spared.

Mugen faces the lethal challenge of a Shaolin-trained swordsman and proves equal to the test, while Jin gets stuck doing all the housework. Can Mugen defeat this trained swordsman or will he suffer from his mistakes?

Jin comes to the rescue of a lady in distress. He falls in love and tries to rescue this woman from the hard life she has come to face. Will he save her and himself? In the meantime, Mugen trains a rhinoceros beetle for a bug-fighting tournament in which he expects to win money.

Mugen steals Fuu's diary that she has been keeping since they first started on their journey to find the sunflower samurai. The episode is a humorous recap on what has happened so far in the series as seen through Fuu's viewpoint, which is in turn criticized by Jin and Mugen.

Mugen's past memories lure him back into his violent past, a pirate makes secret plans, and the lust for gold brings betrayal.

When Mugen finds out what the pirate was planning to do, he gets his revenge.

The shogun's prettiest ninja ends up giving Mugen an evening that he will never forget. Meanwhile, Fuu gets large from eating too much.

When Mugen, Jin, and Fuu get into a quarrel and separate, they have unexpected encounters. New opponents appear, old grievances return, and Mugen and Fuu meet a mysterious archer.

Jin ends a life he hoped to spare.

Fuu gets a facelift when kids trade in the sword for the graffiti brush; Jin keeps a promise to a long-lost friend and confronts the shock of the new, while Mugen learns to read and conquers a castle.

A cynical charlatan fleeces the hidden Christian flock, Fuu gets closer to the Sunflower Samurai, and a truth is finally revealed.

Fuu, Mugen, and Jin meet up with a blind girl who is a traveling musician. Because of her blindness, she is able to sense the emotions of the group. Is this girl more than just a musician?

Jin learns the Way of Water, a woman's sorrow comes to an end, and Mugen both gives and receives an assassin's last gift.

On the way to Nagasaki the trio fall through a mine shaft. They're introduced to its charismatic owner and start working for a share of treasure. As the days drag on, things take a turn for the bizarre.

An American sea vessel arrives in town and a canny ninja-turned-team manager enlists our heroes to do battle with them on the field of honor... which in this case is a baseball diamond. Behold Mugen's pitching skills and tremble!

Fuu, Mugen, and Jin have finally arrived in Nagasaki to find Ikitsuki Island in search of the Sunflower Samurai. There seems to be one small problem that might keep them from getting there though: a group of assassins are following closely behind.

As Jin duels Kagetoki Kariya, the most powerful man in the shogunate, Mugen has to contend with three brothers who want his head.

As Fuu finally confronts the Sunflower Samurai, Mugen and Jin face their ultimate tests. While Mugen must face the remaining brothers, Jin continues his battle with Kagetoki Kariya. And there's the small matter of their own duel.