 In his pure elite and technical Mujushin Kenjutsu and his common collected demeanor, Jin represents Samurai in the title. And in his unorthodox, wild and adaptable Shampoo Rukendo, Mugen represents Shampoo, which means improvised or mixed up. Samurai Shampoo was created in 2004 by Shinichiro Watsunabe, who also created Cowboy Bebop. Samurai Shampoo, while being a great anime, also featured one of the greatest fitting and unique soundtracks in anime history. Produced by Fat John, Tsuchi, Force of Nature, and of course, the Lei Junseba, also known as Nujibes, who produced a contemporary hip hop and jazz soundtrack that complimented Samurai Shampoo so perfectly. The story of Samurai Shampoo is about a waitress, Fu, who encounters two polar opposed master swordsmen, Mugen and Jin, who are forced to become Fu's bodyguards on her conquest to find the Samurai who smells of sunflowers. Samurai Shampoo was excellent, the way it masterfully incorporated many different periods of history, often using hip hop and pop culture as a base for certain episodes, and inserting satire when necessary. But Samurai Shampoo was about the journey and development, not only the journey throughout Japan, but more importantly the development of Fu, Jin, and Mugen, and what the end of Samurai Shampoo meant. In that final episode, Fu, Jin, and Mugen all encountered people of their past, a past that we don't know very much of, for any of these characters, and it gives this episode significance. We know Jin as a man who fought only for himself and no one else. He opposed any negative views of martial arts, and everything he did was to better his own personal skill. Jin is very to himself and he doesn't open up much, and he also didn't have any friends. Mugen relates to Jin in that aspect, he too works alone, but it has severed his connections to his previous life. And lastly of course we have Fu, while Yang is the purpose of this journey, she's in search of her father, a figure whom she doesn't really remember, but she must give him revenge for the wrongdoings she thought he did to their family. But this journey wasn't one that Jin and Mugen longed for, it was just faded to happen. The two of them ended up on this journey, and it concluded with all three of them gaining knowledge and growth that will help them in their future endeavors. In both Jin and Mugen's case, they learned what camaraderie was, for once in Jin's life, he fought and cared for someone other than himself, and in my opinion, this is what led him to become the victor of that final fight against Kadia. As he was holding on to his own life for the sake of someone other than himself, this was an amalgamation of their journey, every episode where he and Mugen had to save Fu, or where she poured her sorrows and her burdens on to them, or even where she saved them. The last episode was simply the journey encapsulated into one fight and a great moment. For Mugen, his growth on his journey was the same as Jin's, a genuine camaraderie, and him appreciating and understanding that there are others around him who will fight alongside and fight for him. And finally for Fu, this journey gave her the ability to move forward, to move on. First, Fu constantly grasped onto this notion of her father, who she sees as a big strong man who left her mother for no good reason, but when she finds him, she sees a sick, skinny, frail, small man on his deathbed. And it's at this moment that Fu understands that she must move on, and it's also in this moment that we understand that Samurai Shampoo was never about the end goal, but about the journey. And the second way is that Fu is afraid to leave Jin and Mugen, she wants to travel across Japan with them, but she understands that this is unrealistic, and with the added help of her journey and experiences, especially after seeing her father, she's able to move on even to the point that she spearheads the departure of the three friends. One thing worth mentioning is that the ending surprised me. I did many times think that Jin and Mugen were going to have a traditional, honorable death like Samurai pursue. I expected the edgy, gloomy death, Jin being buried alongside Mugen in the rain, and Fu crying over their bodies. But when they appeared in the scene following, talking to each other, Mugen was telling Jin how we didn't really want to kill him anymore, and he considered them as friends, Jin's first friends. This small moment epitomized their growth. A journey is defined as a long and often difficult process of personal change and development, alongside Fu telling the old lady that she still considered this frail, sick man as her father. And this short scene, it embodied that this journey was a journey successfully completed. My Champloo is a good contrast to current endings in anime and TV and in movies as well. Often times nowadays, a happy ending is sometimes looked down upon as being cliche or boring. But in this story, it was so fitting, the three of them walking away from this adventure. It was a journey that served its purpose of growth, discovery and development. So why have them die? Now we can imagine how Jin and Mugen and Fu are going to apply this growth in their next adventures. As Fu repeatedly stated, she needed to say goodbye. Samurai Champloo was meant to end there. Their adventures didn't need to be prolonged for any other reason. As I stated many times, this ending was so fitting. They all grinned, waved goodbye, and that was that.