| “ | I was THE Samurai! I was all about that slicin' and dicin'! Talkin' bout the Funk-A-Chop! The Whack-A-Hack! And of course the ever famous... Turkey Carve! But Samurai Jack enlightened me of the true meaning of being a Samurai. Shorty after, I gave up my blade and top knot and become the Bartender here at the place we first met. | ” |
—Da Samurai talking to Ashi about Jack., Episode XCVII | ||
Da Samurai (often misspelled as The Sam-Moo-Rhai) is a character who first appeared in Episode XLII: Samurai versus Samurai as a samurai wannabe.
Character outline
Da Samurai first introduced himself by gloating to be the best sword fighter ever, even greater than Jack. He wears outrageous purple and yellow clothes, and green high-tech sunglasses that are very expensive and have a wiper built in.
He used a robotic boombox to herald his arrival and wields a katana he nicknamed "Mama". Da Samurai challenged Jack to duel, believing that there could only be one samurai. By the end of the episode, he sees the error of his ways and chases after Jack to learn how to be a real samurai.
Biography
Original Series
Da Samurai's true appearance
Not much is known about Da Samurai's background. He made his first appearance when he entered a tavern in the middle of the forest.
Upon entering, he spent several minutes constantly bragging about his samurai skills and bullying the people around him. When he tried to hit on a beautiful woman, she ordered her robot bodyguards to deal with him, but he defeated them all with relative ease. Samurai Jack was in the tavern at the time, but paid little attention to these events.
Only when Aku sent a few robots of his own was Jack forced to reveal his identity, fighting and destroying them. Da Samurai, having witnessed the way Jack easily defeated the assassins, started mocking Jack, believing himself to be the superior samurai.
Jack reluctantly accepted his challenge, and the two of them dueled outside the tavern using bamboo sticks, since Jack didn't consider his opponent to be worthy of facing his blade yet. After a very comical battle where Jack completely overwhelms and humiliates Da Samurai, an army of sword-wielding robot assassins arrive to kill Jack.
Jack and Da Samurai go for their swords
Da Samurai tries to run back to the tavern only to get himself restrained by the assassins. A big battle ensues in which Jack destroys the entire robot army using only his bamboo stick. He then frees Da Samurai from the restraints. The destroyed robots reassemble themselves into one giant robot and take a shot at Jack with a laser beam. Da Samurai pushes Jack out of the way, and gets hit by the beam instead.
After Jack permanently destroys the big robot with his sword, he tells Da Samurai that he (Da Samurai) has taken the first step towards the true path to the way of the samurai. The episode ends in a comical way with Da Samurai running after Jack, calling him "Sensei" and asking what the next lessons of becoming a samurai were.
Fifty years later
Da Samurai fifty years later
Fifty years after being defeated by Samurai Jack, Da Samurai has become the Bartender of the bar they met each other as revealed when he crossed paths with Ashi. When she tried to ask where Jack was, due to mistakenly believing she was intending to challenge him to a fight, he and the patrons took turns warning her of how powerful and skilled he was. He recounted his first meeting with Jack, thanking Jack for enlightening him, but mostly talked about his own feats and skills. When Demongo made an abrupt entrance and then exit from the bar, Da Samurai became annoyed and called him a freak.
Skills and abilities
Upon making his first appearance, Da Samurai was shown to be a very muscular man. This was proven wrong later on, when Jack revealed that his muscles were actually fake, and that he was a somewhat overweight man, instead of the athlete he tried to make himself look like. Even so, before this was revealed, Da Samurai had demonstrated an impressive level of physical strength, speed, agility and sword-fighting skills when he fought and defeated a group of robots at the tavern.
He has several named fighting moves:
- The Helicopter: Da Samurai spins very fast and uses his katana to try and slash the people around him (like a helicopter rotor).
- The Crazy Eight: Da Samurai used this move on one of the robots he fought. He was quickly moving his katana in the form of the number 8, then he sliced off a ceiling lantern which fell on the robot's head. Da Samurai then used his katana to decapitate the robot.
- The Sucker Punch: just like the name suggests, this move is a typical sucker punch. Da Samurai points into a specific direction, making his opponents turn around, then punches them hard in the face, while calling them "Sucker".
- The Monk Dunk: Da Samurai used this move on another robot he fought against. He used his katana to slice the top of the robot's head making it look bald (similar to a monk), then he grabbed the robot and performed a slam dunk by throwing it through a wall lantern like a basketball through a basket.
- The Funk-A-Chop: Da Samurai does a 90-degree split and follows up with a swing with his katana. He brags about this move to Ashi.
- The Whack-A-Hack: Da Samurai dances in lieu to real-life MC Hammer whilst hacking his katana wildly. He brags about this move to Ashi.
- The Turkey Carve: Da Samurai simply does a standard downward slash, with enough force to cut through a roasted turkey. He brags about this move to Ashi.
Quotes
- "Wassup Y'all. Da Samurai is in the Hiz-zer-reh-ouse"
- "D-D-D-D-Da Samurai. That's right, ain't no bout about that. Don't call me bad, call me badder I'm the samurai dude who invented groove. Ain't no stopping this booty-kicking brother"
- "And this here, is my Mama. Don't you be talking bad about my Mama, or she'll give you a whoopin'. Ain't that right Mama? Uhm hum. Uhm hum, that's right baby". COS! I! AM! DA SAMURAI!"
- "Catch Sucker."
- "What's up fellas? Nice Hat. That's better"
- "Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. UMATAIALAHAI"
- "Hey, what kind of swill are you trying to serve me? Now you're lucky I'm in a good mood, cos Mama would knock you out"