Samurai Jack is a cartoon of excellent quality; a nice blend of archetypes, inventive plots, artwork, colour, sound and music, animation and perspective. Jack is pitted against Acu¹ the all-powerful evil. As Jack was about to administer the mortal blow, Acu ripped open a portal in time that projected Jack into the future where Acu's power is strong. Jack's quest is to return to the past and there vanquish Acu.

It is a mix of farce and surreal adventure, a story told more in action than in words. Acu's power is, in the main, mechanical; Samurai Jack fights Acu's robotic hoplites, so there is destruction of machinery rather than death of flesh and blood. Life triumphs over enslaving technology. Each episode is a self-contained, satisfying thirty minutes—not too long and not too short, just right.