Samurai and Cowboys: Brothers Beyond Cinema! - Which Samurai

I remember seeing a reddit thread about it, but a cowboy, a samurai, an old french pirate, and a victorian gentleman thief could all exist simultaneously around the late 1800s. They'd make a hell of a team.

Fun fact: when Mad Max first appeared on the silver screen the Americans called him a lone ranger and the Japanese called him a Ronin

I imagine a Samurai who served in the Boshin War and Cowboy who had served in the Cavalry during the Civil War would have a lot to talk about, and probably vary similar stories.

I would love to see a movie where a samurai and a cowboy slowly learn each other’s ways and discover at the end that they are not so different. In addition, the cowboy learns about the past to appreciate the present while samurai learns more about the present to let go of the past.

In times when discussions of "cultural apropriation" are on fire here and there, this video is an oasis. Japanese can appreciate cowboys, Americans can appreciate samurai. And that is ok.

I always found it really funny how much the west loves samurai and ninjas and Japan was like “alright bet” and started loving cowboys

The commonality between Western and Samurai films can also be observed in franchises like “Star Wars”, which manages to blend both genres together seamlessly along with sci-fi, fantasy, and historical war films. It’s really no wonder why the series became the global phenomenon it is - there was something in it that every culture could identify with and appreciate.

The connection between samurais and cowboys gotta be my favorite cinema connection

I find the same romanticism of a moral code in chivalry. Another moral code retroactively applied to people who mostly did violence.

I could see a Samurai and Cowboy being popular in both Japan and America, particularly because both warriors are extremely popular worldwide. Hell, you should see the Cowboy craze in France. Famed artist and author Moebius created a series of Bandes Deasinee based off of his cowboy character, Sheriff Blueberry. Hell, Moebius WAS a cowboy for a good bit. I think it's the idea of the Outlaw and Ronin being similar to a Knight Errant of yore: all the freedom to wander and be where you want and do what you want, tempered and even bolstered by a great sense of duty and honor; tied together in a neat little bow of Justice and Heroism. It's the idea of being some kind of great wandering paladin that seeks to bring justice and peace to the lawless and turmoiled; classical Hero stuff that never really goes out of style.

In one of my recent-ish tabletop games set in a weird wild west I played a Samurai Cowboy. He had been disowned and exiled to the west by his father under false pretense to save him from being executed for participating in the Satsuma rebellion, went west and fell in with a group of others both foreign and native and became a deputy and eventually the sheriff of a small town, taking up protecting them as a way to go from being a Ronin back to Samurai, finding a purpose to live out his life. Oh, and he had his trusty pooch with him.

As an American, I find it really humbling that one of the countries that we've come to love a lot about has something about us that they love just as much. America is often the butt of everyone's jokes (for good fucking reason), but It's really heartwarming to see it go both ways. Side note: This also reminds me of how there's a debate in Japan about if King of the Hill is better subbed or dubbed, much like our debates over Anime.

a lot western films even before before the adaptations of samurai flicks actually had characters who mirrored the archetype of the Ronin with the whole post civil war wandering soldier without a cause concept

The fact theres a trope called the samurai cowboy. Fuses the best of both worlds. I'm huge western fan and I'm happy u did this video

To add to the discussion of why both are so well received in the other cultures, they both represent the unknown, adventure, exploration and freedom in a barely known world that is so radically different to what the local culture knows themselves. A representation of what I think is an incredibly basic human desire to go beyond your own borders, both metaphorical and literal, and show one's merit. To a Japanese native, the Samurai are a known quantity, they don't have a significant "interesting" factor beyond what would be expected when looking at a figure of authority. The same is true of the Old West and Cowboys. But then you factor in how both have such similar underlying principles and while many people likely wouldnt be able yo consciously make that connection, they would still recognize subconsciously that there are core shared elements to empathize with.

I've always thought its so interesting that these two groups existed at the same time!

Cowboys got off lucky compared to samurai. Because cowboys weren't explicitly tied to status, they live on in everyday life, tho in a far more practical sense.

monkey punch actually made a manga about this whole concept, it's called "bakumatsu yankee" and it's amazing! It really encapsulates all the ideas that you pointed out would happen if a samurai and a cowboy became friends. it got adapted into an amazing anime, too.

I need to send this to my Western obsessed dad. He could use some culture.

Fun fact: some cowboys rode camels. The U.S. army thought that camels would be better able to deal with the weather and terrain of the west and had some shipped from Africa. When they got here the Civil War was underway and the plan was abandoned and the camels were released into the wild where some were captured and used by ranchers. Also the Gunnie Rose Trilogy by Charlaine Harris is one of the best westerns I’ve ever read.