He's been missing in action for a while, but Afro Samurai is back, ready to hack and slash in the latest stylized bloodbath. The story is lacking the emotional depth and drama of the original tale, but the action and set pieces are just as fantastical as ever before. If all you want is a bit of the ultra violence, gore, and phat rocking beats, then you'll dig Afro Samurai: Resurrection.

When last we left Afro Samurai, he had just claimed the Number One headband from his father's killer, finally getting his revenge after a long journey filled with detached limbs and pools of blood. Instead of using the Number One headband as it was intended – making him a god to fighters – he relinquishes and settles down into a life of meager existence. His world is rocked, however, when Kuma returns from the dead, allowing his partner Sio – a buxom beauty – to claim the headband for herself. With threats of reviving Afro's father so that she can torture him slowly, Afro must once again find the owner of the Number Two headband, so that he may preserve his father's honor and keep him dead by battling Number One Sio.

Afro Samurai: Resurrection

Once the setup of the movie is established, it's pretty much the only real story you'll see other than "Afro kills people." Unlike the first series, which had many flashbacks that not only rounded out the mythology of the world but also gave the events an emotional undercurrent, there isn't much in terms of depth here. Afro wanting to preserve the legacy of his dead father by keeping him buried certainly strikes a resonance for those who watched the first series, but other things just don't work well. The reason behind Sio's intentions aren't the clearest they could've been, so it's a lot of guessing as to some points and what some actions mean. She's beautiful and very twisted in how she wants to make Afro suffer, so that makes up for some of it.

The animation ranges from herky-jerky messes where it's hard to discern just what's happening or how exactly someone was killed, but other moments are very stylized, lovely, and make for some great scenes. Bright pink cherry blossoms descend from a tree as war rages underneath. The sliding blur effect of the green ninja eyewear reminiscent of Sam Fisher from the Splinter Cell series. A fight during a parade is one of the movie's greatest highlights, which have Afro and foe jumping not only on floats, but also crashing inside them to fight; the fights inside project the battle onto the skin of the floats, giving the fights a larger than life feel that really looked excellent.

The voice acting was exceptional for the most part, though Samuel L. Jackson does sound a little bit off when doing the characters Afro Samurai and Ninja Ninja; he doesn't sound terrible by no means, just off a little. Lucy Liu - who I've never really liked in her normal acting work - especially surprised me, as she did a really great job; she managed to give villain Sio a lovely breathy sex appeal, which had an undertone of insanity for good measure. Some excellent known voice actors round out the cast as well, including Yuri Lowenthal and Liam O'Brien (famous for their Naruto work as Sasuke and Gaara respectively), and Luke Skywalker himself Mark Hamill.

I wasn't as in love with Afro Samurai: Resurrection as I was with the original, but it wasn't a bad film as long as you don't want anything too deep and don't mind a lot of body parts flying off and blood spraying like a Super Soaker. The movie also establishes that another sequel is probably inevitable, which I hope it is. The plot point that leads to the possible sequel is very Kill Bill when you see it, and the reveal at the end leads to a gasp worthy moment. Here's hoping a sequel does indeed happen, and it follows up on the threads laid out here.

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