Afro Samurai (Season 1)

Afro Samurai (2007) is a five-episode Japanese-American animated series you can watch online on iFILM. Gonzo studio adapted Noboru Takagi's manga into a revenge story set in a brutal futuristic Japan where power flows from two numbered headbands: Number One is untouchable, Number Two is the only one allowed to challenge him — but fair game for everyone else.

The title character watched his father, the former Number One, get cut down when he was a child. He spent his life becoming the Samurai. Now he moves through an army of enemies to reach the man at the top. Samuel L. Jackson voices both Afro and his loud internal alter ego Ninja-Ninja, carrying the whole dramatic weight of the show on those two performances alone. The rest of the cast includes Ron Perlman and Kelly Hu. RZA of Wu-Tang Clan scored it.

Hip-hop production design layered over a samurai revenge arc, with graphic violence and no interest in softening anything — that's the pitch, and the series commits to it completely. Stream Afro Samurai online on iFILM.