Animator Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of Dexter's Laboratory and producer/director of the Powerpuff Girls, has a new series, Samurai Jack, set to debut on the Cartoon Network on August 10 at 7 pm (Eastern and Pacific time).  This week's issue of Entertainment Weekly waxes poetic about a series that has 'action, samurai swordplay, an all-powerful villain, and some of the coolest, semiabstract, stylized animation out there.' 

 

But is Samurai Jack a bona fide attempt at creating an American anime?  Well, it is action-packed, it is set in a post-apocalyptic future, and Japanese Samurai films are clearly an important thematic influence, but Tartakovsky's visual style owes more to the 1950s UPA cartoons of Pete Burns (Mr. Magoo) and Bob Cannon (Gerald McBoing Boing) than to the works Miyazaki or Otomo.

 

Anime style or not, Samurai Jack could turn out to be a very interesting property.  Some episodes have only a minute or two of dialogue, relying instead on a purely visual narrative that is fast-paced and stunningly different from the typical Cartoon Network style.  The Cartoon Network has ordered 36 half-hour episodes of Samurai Jack, a strong vote of confidence in the new series.  Although the premiere of Samurai Jack is still almost two months away, it has already appeared on ICv2's DEW (Distant Early Warning) line radar, and this is one 'blip' we will be keeping under close surveillance.