If “Cowboy Bebop” serves a genre-defying mix of western, noir, and jazz influences, director Shinichiro Watanabe’s follow-up anime sequence “Samurai Champloo” combines hip-hop with feudal Japan. Wandering figures Mugen and Jin type an unlikely friendship, regardless of Mugen being an irascible criminal and Jin being a stoic samurai, with Mugen pursued by the villainous Toube, a violent determine from his previous. As Mugen has his remaining showdown with Toube within the sequence finale, Jin takes on the chilly, calculating murderer Kariya Kagetoki in a fierce sword struggle.

Toube and Kagetoki provide a distinction within the kinds of antagonists throughout “Samurai Champloo,” with Toube bitterly private and counting on explosive methods whereas Kagetoki is as reserved and analytical as Jin. A pair of gorgeously rendered sequences, from Mugen barely escaping Toube’s suicide bomb assault to Jin drawing from his mentor’s educating to face Kagetoki, these twin duels really feel just like the true fruits of “Samurai Champloo.” If “Cowboy Bebop” ends in melancholy, “Samurai Champloo” ends with understated serenity following its violent chaos and does so successfully.