Titan Manga has revealed Takashi Okazaki’s specially commissioned new cover for Afro Samurai Vol. 2 “director’s cut” edition – in stores October 2022.  This long out-of-print cult classic also features a brand-new foreword by Takashi Okazaki, and celebrates the 15th anniversary of Afro Samurai anime, starring Samuel L. Jackson. 

Taking his inspiration from US soul and hip-hop cultures, Okazaki-san originally published Afro Samurai as a serialized, self-published (doujinshi) manga in Nou Nou Hau magazine from November 1998 to September 2002. It was picked up by Funimation and developed as an anime, airing five episodes in 2007, with Afro voiced by Samuel L Jackson and a soundtrack by RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. Okazaki-san then created these two manga volumes for the US market, which were published in 2008 and 2009. 

In a feudal, futuristic Japan, samurai battle to become No.1 and rule the world, but when his father, who holds the coveted position, is challenged and killed, the young Afro Samurai vows vengeance. Relentlessly pursued by murderous assassins, will he stay alive long enough to keep his promise?

In Afro Samurai Vol. 1 & 2, we witness the beginnings of young Afro’s quest, his battles with an array of assassins and warlords, that climaxes in the epic confrontation with the powerful Empty Seven Clan and a showdown with an old enemy…

Afro Samurai’s lasting impact can be seen in today’s appetite for all things manga and anime, as it was one of the first cross-cultural collaborations that celebrated Asian pop culture and US hip hop, to create an entirely new hybridised visual and musical language.

Afro Samurai Vol. 1 hits stores in August 2022 followed by Vol. 2 in October 2022.