Samurai Champloo: Sub or Dub?

Samurai Champloo is 26 episodes, directed by Shinichirō Watanabe at the studio Manglobe, and its English dub was produced at Bang Zoom! Entertainment for Geneon. Funimation's complete-series Blu-ray, reviewed by ANN in 2019 with a grade for each track, carries both the English and Japanese audio, so the choice is about whose voices you want. This page does not judge performances itself; where it describes them, it names the critic.

The short answer

Two Anime News Network reviews written fourteen years apart grade the two tracks level. Theron Martin gave both the dub and the sub an A- for the first DVD in 2005, and James Beckett gave both a B+ for Funimation's complete-series Blu-ray in 2019. Beckett is the dub's warmer advocate: he wrote that "Shows like Bebop and Champloo are the kinds of anime I actually prefer to watch in English". Martin was cooler, writing that viewers who generally prefer dubs would probably be satisfied but that "this isn't a series likely to change the preferences of sub-favoring viewers."

The two casts

Principal cast credited by Anime News Network

Character	Japanese	English
Mugen	Kazuya Nakai	Steve Blum (under the name Daniel Andrews)
Jin	Ginpei Sato	Kirk Thornton
Fuu	Ayako Kawasumi	Kari Wahlgren

The Mugen credit needs a note. ANN's encyclopedia entry lists the English Mugen as Daniel Andrews, and ANN's people page for that name resolves to Steve Blum, filing Samurai Champloo under the roles he played "under the name of Daniel Andrews". Beckett's review names Blum as Mugen and notes that he is most recognized for playing Spike in Cowboy Bebop, the Watanabe series Beckett calls the director's more famous project, whose language question has its own page. Thornton did more than play Jin: the same encyclopedia entry credits him as one of the dub's ADR writers, alongside Tom Wyner.

Who made the English dub

ANN's encyclopedia credits Bang Zoom! Entertainment with the English ADR production, with Eric P. Sherman as director and a producer of the English version, Kristi Reed on the script and David Fleming on the translation. It lists Geneon's license as expired and FUNimation as licensor from 2008. In the United States the dub aired on Adult Swim from May 14, 2005 to March 9, 2006, according to the same entry. Reviewing the Blu-ray in 2019, Beckett wrote that Funimation's set "preserves the same Geneon Dub from back in 2005", so that set carries the original Geneon recording rather than a new one.

The Japanese broadcast was split in two. ANN dates episodes 1 to 17 on Fuji TV from May 19 to September 9, 2004, and episodes 18 to 26 from January 22 to March 18, 2005.

What the critics recorded

Martin's 2005 review is the one to read on the script. He described the English cast as "a collection of Geneon/Pioneer regulars" and wrote that "their voices don't match terribly well with the originals." He found that the English script "does stay tight with the subtitles most of the time", but flagged places where a scene's meaning changed, giving one example: "my whole family will have to commit suicide" became "it will be the death of my whole family" in the dub.

Beckett's 2019 review is the one on the performances. He wrote that "Steve Blum is doing his usual gruff guy shtick with gusto as Mugen", that Kirk Thornton "plays Jin capably", and that "Kari Wahlgren does great work as Fuu", crediting her with making a character often played as a nag "as endearing as possible."

The music

ANN credits the score to Fat Jon, Force of Nature, Nujabes and Tsutchie. It lists the opening theme as "Battlecry" by Nujabes featuring Shingo2 and the first of its ending themes as "Shiki no Uta" by Minmi. Martin's review describes the opener as rapped in English and the closer as R&B-sounding.

Where to watch

We could not load an official streaming or store listing for the series on October 7, 2026, so this page does not say where either track is available. Catalogs differ by country and change; check your own service before choosing.

Which order to watch in is simple, and the Samurai Champloo watch order covers it. Lines from the show are on our best Samurai Champloo quotes page and the Samurai Champloo quote archive, each recording its source, because two scripts do not always word a moment the same way.