Afro Samurai First Look

Earlier this week, as the presentations at its 2007 Editors' Day event were coming to a close, Namco Bandai teased attendees with a trailer for its previously unannounced Afro Samurai game. The early portion of the trailer prominently featured Afro Samurai voice man and GTA: San Andreas veteran Samuel L. Jackson, who talked about how exciting anime sexuality and violence can be when it's done well. Several short, bloody clips from Gonzo's popular anime followed, along with shots of concept art from the show's creator, Takashi Okazaki.

During the trailer, we were told that Afro Samurai is the most powerful, soulful story ever told in manga, and that the upcoming game won't water its content down in any way. Namco Bandai's spokesperson at the event claimed that while many games "use and abuse" the M-rating "like mayo," the uncut, uncensored, unadulterated Afro Samurai will carry an M-rating that everyone can be proud of. The rendered movie sequence that followed was devoid of sex and violence, but showed close-ups of Afro's hands, feet, sword, and clothing soaked in blood. The message "blood is beautiful" flashed up on the screen momentarily before we were treated to our first look at some Afro Samurai gameplay--a handful of clips that added up to around three seconds of footage. All we could really discern from the footage was that Afro Samurai will be a third-person action game and that, at some point, he'll run across a bridge trailing his sword behind him. In all honesty, those two to three seconds looked kind of generic, but then, we were very deliberately being teased, and it's conceivable that we blinked and missed all of the really good stuff.

At the time of writing, Namco Bandai hasn't released any further information on Afro Samurai, save for the fact that it's being developed by a team that counts at least one former Naughty Dog among its number. We'll bring you more information on Afro Samurai as soon as it becomes available. And remember, "nothing personal, it's just revenge."