The Art of Altercation

The Art of Altercation (唯我独尊, Yuigadokuson) is the eighth episode of Samurai Champloo. It originally aired in Japan on July 15, 2004 and aired in America on July 2, 2005.

Summary
The episode opens in a town where our character of the week, an eccentric rapping samurai named Nagamitsu, makes a grand introductory statement before attacking a man he believes to be named “Jin”.

Jin, Fuu and Mugen arrive in a pawn shop starving. The pawn shop owner is excited to help, but unfortunately, Fuu and Mugen don’t have anything of actual value, but the owner’s greatly intrigued by Jin’s supposedly rare glasses. The man buys them off him, much to his displeasure, and the three proceed to go out and eat.

Nagamitsu happens to walk in the restaurant and catch sight of them, being instantly infatuated by Fuu’s beauty. He sends his underling to try and break the ice, but this doesn’t work, eventually trying to step in himself. Nagamitsu gets called out by someone who thinks they found who he’s looking for and promptly leaves.

Fuu, Jin, and Mugen continue eating until Mugen and Jin catch sight of an intensely gorgeous woman named Budokiba, and she uses her mature womanly charms to invite the two of them to drink with her later. They of course agree because it’s Mugen and Jin, and Fuu, hurt, decides to go meet with Nagamitsu.

Nagamitsu confronts a possible “Jin” (a samurai who has glasses) on a bridge, with a massive crowd watching (Fuu included) and him making as unsubtle an entrance as possible. The other samurai lunges at him as Nagamitsu pulls out his sword, but the other samurai knocks the sword out of his hand. In a humorous twist of fate, the sheath comes down and nails him in the head, making Nagamitsu the victor. Afterwards he catches sight of Fuu in the crowd and starts getting flirtatious with her.

Meanwhile, Mugen and Jin are out with Budokiba indulging in some foreign wine as she turns her sexual charms up to maximum levels. As Mugen continues to drink the wine, she eventually manages to slip something into his drink, which knocks him unconscious (it is assumed she knocked Jin out as well).

Nagamitsu and Fuu are up on a grassy hill where he starts to monologue about himself and his obsessions. Evidently, he wishes to take over Edo castle and become the most powerful and recognized name in all of Japan, having journeyed from the Aki province and fought many samurai in his travels to get there. He eventually got word of a powerful undefeated samurai named Enshiro that he desired to take on in battle, but he was apparently too late. Enshiro was already slain by his top student, and so Nagamitsu vowed to kill this samurai as part of his personal legend. As it turns out, it is indeed our hero Jin that he’s looking for, so Fuu immediately darts out of there.

The next morning, Fuu wakes up from sleeping and finds Mugen and Jin passed out in the alley. The two of them come to their senses and realize that Budokiba did indeed drug and rob them of their cash. In order to get some more, they stage a street performance where Mugen and Jin slice a pair of pears balanced perfectly on top of Fuu’s head. This goes off without a hitch and brings in some money, with the group heading off to the pawn shop to get Jin’s glasses back. Once there, they come across Nagamitsu and his crew trying to pawn off their method of transportation.

After Jin gets his glasses back, Nagamitsu becomes suspicious, with Jin confirming his identity to him and his followers. One of them, a fellow student named Ogura, challenges him to a duel, and Jin clearly has the upper hand in the fight. However he allows Ogura to win, sparing his life while he still vows revenge on Jin. Suddenly, a big dog interrupts the conflict, as does Budokiba who seems fed up with Nagamitsu’s shenanigans and drags him away. The episode ends with the two of them, their kids (apparently they have kids), and their dog Luigi on a boat sailing away as Nagamitsu hopes to find new legendary samurai to conquer.

Characters

 * Fuu
 * Jin
 * Mugen
 * Nagamitsu
 * Budokiba
 * Luigi the Dog
 * Ogura
 * Pawn shop owner

Trivia

 * This is the first episode where we get a look at Jin's backstory.
 * Mugen and Jin don't seem to be angry that Budokiba drugged them.