| “ | Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shapeshifting Master of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil! But a foolish Samurai warrior, wielding a magic sword, stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time and flung him into the future, where my evil is law! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Aku! | „ |
| ~ Aku's narration in the show's opening sequence and Episode CI. |
| “ | Do not worry, samurai, you will see me again. But next time, you will not be so fortunate. | „ |
| ~ Aku after hurling Jack into a time portal that takes him to the future. |
| “ | You're back already?! No, wait! | „ |
| ~ Aku's last words as Jack returns to the past and finally kills him at last. |
Aku is the main antagonist of the 2001 Cartoon Network/Adult Swim animated show Samurai Jack.
He is an evil, manipulative and destructive demonic being who came to be from the last fragment of The Black Mass, which was pure evil incarnate, proceeding to ravage the Earth until he was stopped by the Emperor of Japan. Years later, Aku broke free from his prison and took over the planet again, with Samurai Jack, the Emperor's son, fighting him now, but Aku dispatched him centuries into the future so he could take over the planet. It would take Jack over fifty years to finally defeat him, making Aku one of the most successful villains in western animation.
In the first four seasons, he was voiced by the late Makoto "Mako" Iwamatsu. In the fifth and final season, he was voiced by Greg Baldwin, who also voiced Frank Fontaine in BioShock. While disguised as Ikra, he was voiced by Jennifer Martin.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Although he was thought to be made of evil due to being a small piece of a fragment from the Black Mass that was mixed with the Emperor's elixir-laced poisoned arrow, Aku has agency since the Black Mass was never said to be Made of Evil and he is actually shown to be able to not do evil if bored, proving he simply chooses not to do any good because he lacks any interest in it.
- Furthermore, it is shown that Ashi, born and created from the same essence from which Aku was created, is capable of understanding good and evil, being disgusted by the various evils that Aku himself has caused, joining forces with Jack to stop Aku.
- Though he may help others sometimes or even reward them, he does so not out of goodness but to make them his slaves or ensure they stay loyal to him, making his "generosity" pragmatic.
- While he has lots of comedic moments, such as telling children stories that paint him in a positive light and Jack in a negative one, ordering a henchman in the same way a pizza would generally be ordered, struggling to find Jack's real sword among several fake ones, forfeiting a fight with Jack due to somehow contracting a cold, and speaking to his "psychiatrist" (who is actually himself divided) about his frustration over not killing Jack in fifty years, the threat of his crimes is never played for laughs in-universe, with Jack and several characters always taking him seriously.
- Not to mention, Aku's comedy mostly happens when he is not doing any crimes, while he's serious when he is, with the series finale and Battle Through Time featuring him at his most threatening.
- He is responsible for most of the show's villains, as his rule and influence corrupted several beings from both the Earth and other worlds into becoming criminals or bad people, even individuals as bad as him like the High Priestess or The Dominator.
- Throughout the show, Aku does everything at his disposal to make sure Samurai Jack never returns to the past so he can keep ruling the world for eternity, like wiping out all time portals to strand Jack in the past with no hope of ever saving the world or seeing his loved ones again.
Background[]
- He defeated the Emperor in battle after he unknowingly "created" Aku, capturing him and forcing him to helplessly watch as he destroys his kingdom in Feudal Japan, killing countless of its inhabitants in the process and traumatizing the Emperor before he is given the mystical katana by Odin, Ra and Vishnu.
Season 1[]
- Years later, after breaking out from his prison, he attacked the Emperor's kingdom, successfully taking over his land and enslaving him and his subjects before sending them to work underground as part of his world-conquering schemes with slave masters threatening to whip them if they do not work or try to drink water.
- He summoned a time portal to send Samurai Jack several centuries into the future when Jack comes close to kill him for good, proceeding to take over the Earth and even some other worlds in the universe, enslaving countless of humans and alien species.
- He committed multiple genocides in his way to take over the Earth.
- He posed as Ikra, a beautiful woman, to trick Samurai Jack and destroy a time portal that could take him back to the past just to crush his spirit.
- He created Mad Jack, an evil version of Samurai Jack, in an attempt to kill him.
- What's worse is that Mad Jack was not really defeated but sealed within Jack's psyche, allowing him to resurface years later to mentally torment Jack with his lack of progress in getting back to the past.
- He made a false promise to the Triceraquins of returning their land, which he sank into the ocean, if they take Samurai Jack down, causing Jack to nearly drown inside a bubble before Aku reneged on the deal.
- He turned a Viking warrior into the Lava Monster, destroying his kingdom and making Jack face his morals by leaving him with the decision to kill the Lava Monster to end the Viking's misery.
- He tried to stop Jack from killing him so he can keep causing chaos for all eternity.
- He had the Gangsters try to recover the Jewel of Neptune for him to control all of the world's water supplies for his own purposes, likely intending to threaten people with dehydration.
- Although his stories are comedic, he still attempted to feed the children lies and fake tales of Samurai Jack being evil so they may grow up into loyal subjects for him.
Season 2[]
- He took away a time portal that Samurai Jack tries to use to go back to the past, mocking him to reach it out of sadism and cruelty.
- He implicitly corrupted the lives of the worms.
- He forced Extor to make killing-machines he can send after Samurai Jack under the threat of destroying his village, ultimately sending the machines to destroy Extor's village anyway as a "test run" even though Extor obeyed him.
- He bribed the Imakandi warriors to kill Samurai Jack.
- He sent Demongo, a soul-collecting minion of his who traps warriors in a fate worse than death within his armor, to defeat Samurai Jack. After Demongo failed him, Aku briefly considered forgiving him but chose not to and crushed him inside a ball-sized prison with no remorse, proving he punishes those who fail him horribly in spite of their loyalty to him. It also proves he only viewed his minions as pawns for his goals.
- While Demongo was later shown to be alive, it's likely Aku severely punished him anyway, as Demongo mentioned that he had to recover all of the souls he lost thanks to Jack to regain his favour.
Season 3[]
- Raised an undead army to assault the samurai, then attempted to stab Samurai Jack's chest with his own katana (which refuses to harm innocents), mocking him over how fitting would be for him to die by his own blade, taking the opportunity to even mock Jack's father by calling the Emperor worthless.
- Posing as a hermit, he manipulated Jack into gathering Cronus' gems so he could summon Cronus and order him to destroy Samurai Jack.
Season 4[]
- He sent a ninja to try to kill Samurai Jack.
- He cheated on the fighting match he engages with Samurai Jack, even though Jack was fighting with honor.
- He kidnapped X-49's pet dog Lulu to force him to come out from retirement to kill Jack, indirectly causing Jack to kill X-49 in self-defense.
- It's likely that Aku disposed of Lulu following X-49's failure, though this is unconfirmed, yet probable as Lulu had no more use to him.
Season 5[]
- Prior to the events of the season, Aku makes sure to destroy all time portals in existence, effectively stranding Samurai Jack in the past with no hopes of ever seeing his loved ones, like his parents or mentors, ever again. Because of this, Jack spends fifty years without aging at all as a semi-immortal, suffering for his failures and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that makes him hallucinate his parents.
- He goes to great lengths such as fighting the Guardian protecting the time portal Jack was prophesied to cross when he could best the Guardian, leaving nothing of the Guardian but his broken glasses and precluding Jack from ever having his rematch with the Guardian.
- Grabs Jack as he jumps into the last time portal before destroying it and mocking him for his failure, sending Jack into a fit of rage during which Jack kills three innocent rams Aku mutated into monsters and loses his Katana after this one falls into the hole where the time portal used to be.
- Supplies the Cult of Aku with his dark essence, leading the High Priestess to drink it and give birth to seven daughters whom she would name the Daughters of Aku, mercilessly training them to kill Samurai Jack through brutal methods like burning them with hot coal, fighting a large brutish female warrior and kill all of the cultists.
- Keeps sending assassins such as Scaramouch the Merciless and beetle robots to ravage villages in hopes of drawing Samurai Jack out and seeing him killed.
- He casually slaughtered the Scotsman's army when they attacked his lair even though they weren't a threat to him, nearly killing the Scotsman's Daughters too before just apathetically murdering the Scotsman for insulting him, though he returned later as a ghost.
- Although he first thought he was just an old man who was lost, he quickly changed his mind and showed no remorse for killing the Scotsman.
- He quickly blew Scaramouche's head up due to assuming he lied about Samurai Jack losing his katana even though Scaramouche was unaware that he had recovered it with the help of Ashi, one of the Daughters of Aku.
- While Scaramouche deserved it due to wiping out a village and murdering kids, this was still a totally ungrateful move on Aku's part, as Scaramouche was nothing but absolutely loyal to him.
- He forcibly corrupted Ashi once he realized she is his daughter, taking control of her and making her fight Samurai Jack, who surrendered and allowed Aku to take him prisoner due to being unable to kill Ashi as he had fallen in love with her.
- He broadcasted Samurai Jack's imprisonment at his lair before he prepared to kill him in the most humiliating way possible just to destroy any lingering hope across the world, which prompted all of Jack's allies to finally stand up to Aku to fight him to save Jack.
- He slaughtered most of Jack's allies in the final battle, among them Rothschild, his grand-kids, Andromeda's robots, the Ravers and the Triseraquins while trying to have the corrupted Ashi kill Jack.
- He has no hesitation in trying to eliminate his own daughter Ashi once she broke free from his influence and willingly refused to kill Jack under her father's orders, just before he was too late to realize that he forgot about the ability to open a time portal from his daughter.
- As a last laugh, he succeeded at spiting Samurai Jack even in death, as while Jack returned to the past thanks to Ashi being given Aku's powers and finally killed him minutes after he originally sent him to the future, Aku's destruction came at the price of having Ashi fade away from existence due to her being his daughter, vanishing just on her wedding day with Jack and sending Jack into a brief depression before he came across the string of fate, renewing his hopes of one day finding someone to share his love with, especially holding the knowledge that Aku's tyranny will no longer rule the future.
Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time[]
- He managed to trap Samurai Jack in a time pocket, a rift between time and space that the main timeline can't affect under his absolute control, as Jack and Ashi were returning to the past, forcing Jack to relive many challenges in familiar locations and scattering his family's kamon crests infected with black magic across the pocket.
- He recreated the scenario of how Jack killed the Daughters of Aku, Ashi's sisters, just to emotionally hurt him due to his failure at redeeming the girls even though they were his children too.
- He murdered Ashi by pushing her into Samurai Jack's Katana just as he repelled his other daughters simply to hurt Jack and puppeteers her corpse later on to torment him.
Trivia[]
- Both of Aku's voice actors, Mako and Greg Baldwin, have more famously voiced Iroh, who is ironically Pure Good.
- He is the 2nd icon of the NPE wiki who later got moved to PE, with the 1st being Randall Boggs.
External Links[]
- Aku on the Villains Wiki
- Aku on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
- Aku on the Samurai Jack Wiki
- Aku on the VS Battles Wiki
- Aku on the Cartoon Network Wiki
