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- “Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape shifting 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
Aku is the main antagonist from the Warner Bros and Cartoon Network (Now moved to Adult Swim) animated show, Samurai Jack. He is an evil shape-shifting demon and dictator that took over the world and ruled it for countless eons, He is the arch-nemesis of Jack.
He always antagonized Jack and tried often to attacked and destroy him when he is weaken but always failed.
While he is portrayed as an evil and a threatening villain, he is a source of comedy in the show, due to his outrageous design and sometimes wise-guy behavior, that was supported by Mako's over the top voice-acting
As Of Episode CI in the series finale, Aku is finally destroyed once and for all when Jack used his sword with Aku still inside into the ground that caused his castle to explode.
Background[]
Aku was burned from the surviving remnants of The Black Mass, a non-sapient life form that is the source of evil itself. It was defeated by the combine mites of Odin, Ra and Rama but not before a remnant of it escaped the confrontation eventually landed on Earth that is Aku himself destroying the age of the Dinosaurs that is known as the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction.
Over years and eons, the fragment of Aku evolved into an ever-growing ominous forest of black tree-like spikes, which surrounded a tar-like pit at its center, that devoured any living thing that dared to enter. Eventually, it caused The Emperor to decided that he must kill it to protect his people. a Buddhist Monk gave the Emperor a poison elixir. the Emperor rode with his calvary and his personal army but they were killed when the forest began to gradually kill off all of his men, with the Emperor as the Sole Survivor of the slaughter. When he arrived at a black lake in the forest's center, he quickly doused one of his arrows into the elixir and fired it into the lake, now believing that he destroy the evil forest with the arrow.
But surprisingly, the poison magic in-fact did not killed the forest but galvanizing the evil mass into a humanoid form: it gave it intelligence, sentience, and shape-shifting abilities. Which now led to the existence of Aku himself and inadvertently thanked the Emperor for helping him gaining a physical form, The Emperor quickly attacked Aku with his his mundane and mortal weapons, but it didn't inflict any harm or wounds upon Aku. then Aku easily attacked and defeated the Emperor with him strapping the Emperor to the side of a tree to force him watch as Aku destroyed his Kingdom and slaughtering his people. However, Unknown to Aku, The Deities had sensed the good in the Emperor and Odin eventually summoning him with the help of his horse, Sleipnir. The Deities used their powers to create a single sword (Which eventually became Jack Sword in the future) that was capable of harming Aku. After the Emperor is armed with the sword and a magical suit of armor, He plunged to the battlefield and battle against Aku. Aku eventually was defeated and sealed away in the form of a jagged black tree in a devasted wasteland but not before he vowed that one day he will return to rule the world once more. During the battle against Aku, The Empress gave birth to a son, when he learned this, he was determined to learn from the catastrophe of his battle against Aku and awarded that one day he will return to the world once more. Eventually, The Emperor hatched a plan that would set Jack on his eventual years of training.
Personality[]
Aku was Evil Incarnate; Arrogant, Cruel, temperamental, callous, sadistic and dominating. He forced everyone to obey him or be obliterated. He ruled the Earth with an Iron fist and did not take kindly to disobedience, Aku is also responsible for causing countless and multiple genocides such as him destroying cities, villages, and small settlements being completely destroyed, alongside all their inhabitants.
Appearance[]
Though Aku was capable of shifting his form into virtually anything that he wished due to his metamorphic body, his standard form after he self-upgraded and adapted to the Earth was roughly a humanoid being with a black body, a green mouth, and a red beard which extended from the bottom of his chin. Aku had six horns, four long and two short, that extended from his head, and his eyebrows were made of red, flickering flame. Aku typically assumes a humanoid form, concealing his entire lower body in a massive, thick robe that sometimes manifested as flames. There is one known instance where Aku removes the robe to reveal his thin legs in "Jack and the Zombies". Aku can stand several stories tall and a deep droning noise was often heard around him when he appeared.
Power and Abilities[]
Aku is showned to be the strongest entity in the Show, He had many large powers that even Jack himself admit that Aku is a personification of Primodial evil itself, Only a few people are capable of challenging him.
- Near-Immortality: As a supernatural being, Aku was ageless and nearly immortal. He required no sustenance and was not harmed by mortal means. Only the power of righteous spirits or divine weapons like Jack's Sword, or divine entities, were capable of doing severe harm to him
- Shape-shifting: Aku could change into virtually any form that he desired, from a giant dragon to a small insect, or even a beautiful woman. Aku was able to seamlessly change his size, liquefy himself, or stretch and expand his body. He could even replicate into clones of himself to be in numerous places at once and his mind inhabited numerous bodies. At one point, Aku even manifested a second version of himself who acted as a psychologist. In a way, Aku performed talk-therapy on himself. He typically changed into animal forms during battle, such as a scorpion or an octopus and adapted to the situation. On one occasion, Aku also transformed into a huge, amorphous mass of darkness that greatly resembled the evil entity that he had previously once been/was spawned from and altered parts of himself at will.
- Supernatural Physical Abilities: Aku could alter his physical capabilities to virtually any level that he needed or wanted due to his magical shape-shifting abilities. Aku manifested superhuman strength, speed, endurance, and senses. No parameters or upper limits were established that regarded those capabilities.
- Regeneration: While Aku was completely resistant to most forms of attack, he was not invulnerable; items such as Jack's Sword or magic such as divine energy could damage the substance from which he was made of. However, Aku was able to regenerate to a large degree, even against attacks such as those. These sort of assaults tended to create large, burning holes or gashes in Aku wherever he was struck, which he could close back up with effort. However, his ability to regenerate in those situations was limited. In many of Aku's confrontations with Jack, the damage that was caused by the sword whittled away at his overall mass and his ability to regenerate in the short term, until it tended to leave him as a very small animal of some sort, such as a frog or a mouse, at which point further attacks would have presumably either sealed him away as Jack's father did, or killed him as Jack intended to. Given time however, Aku always restored himself without being any worse for wear. Aku was also observed to succumb to physical pain that involved blunt trauma of equal mass in relevance to the size of his form at any given time, although he was shown to quickly recover from such injuries.
- Dark Magic: Aku was an all-powerful wizard who had vast supernatural powers at his command:
- Eye Beams: One of Aku's most commonly utilized attacks, that ability tended to manifest as beams of white or red light that typically incinerated the objects that it made contact with. It could be used either as continuous beams of light, or as staccato bolts of energy. Aku had used that ability in numerous battles with Jack, and also used it to destroy the majority of Jack's past kingdom. Aku could also harmlessly teleport beings to places of his choosing through that power. The beams could also slice through objects like a plasma torch, or caused them to explode.
- Aku also used a variation of that ability to restore or recreate whatever he chose: he restored Scaramouche's body with them.
- Remote Viewing: Using mystical forces in his lair, Aku could create images on the walls in order to view whatever he wished. Aku tended to use that ability to simply watch Jack travel while he stewed in his unhappiness at being unable to kill Jack.
- Teleportation: Aku used that often for quick appearances or escapes, and to appear before those that he had business with, such as the Imakandi.
- Elemental Control: Aku could magically project and control the elements of the physical world. Those abilities included breathing and projecting streams of fire from his body, manipulating the earth itself, conjuring thunderstorms at will, or emitting waves of sonic force. By combining fire breath with his eye beams, Aku could also project beams of electricity.
- Telekinesis: Aku was shown the ability to manipulate objects through focus alone, even from far away distances. While he used that ability, Aku's eyes tended to flash white.
- Necromancy: Aku was shown to be capable of animating countless dead bodies and bending them to his commanding will.
- Precognitive Dreams: On one occasion, Aku was shown to be capable of receiving premonitions of his own future through his dreams, which he could then act upon to try and prevent or change them.
- Possession & Infection: Aku could use small portions of himself to infect others with his evil. The only time that this was seen was when he incidentally spat up a tiny portion of himself at Jack, which, over the course of a day or so, possessed Jack and gave him the appearance and personality of Aku. On a related note, Aku could also use portions of himself to give power to machinery, as he demonstrated by doing so with the Ultra-Robots. That ability could also work on Aku's biological offspring, since they already had his essence and were a part of him.
- Interstellar Travel: Aku was capable of interstellar travel, well beyond the speed of light.
- Time Travel: That was the very ability that Aku had used that sent Jack into the future at the beginning of the series, though he only used that once and it was a one way portal forward in time. However, due to its side-effect, Jack did not age even after 50 years in the future.
- Object Materialization: The ability to create matter and materials out of nothing: Aku once used that ability to conjure treasures in the presence of the Imakandi. Aku also used his eye beams and created a new body for Scaramouche.
- Corruption: One of Aku's most powerful abilities. Using dark magic, Aku could mutate normally harmless beings into monstrous versions of themselves. During his last known encounter with Jack, Aku used that ability and transformed three small rams into monsters in order to fight Jack. It was also shown that if the corrupted creature died, the spell was broken and the creature transformed back to its original form. Aku also used that power to curse the Well of King Ozric and then later corrupted Jack through his supposed illness. Aku was also able to infuse that power into techno music to corrupt teenagers in "Jack and the Rave". This power extended to the fact that Aku could create life in a way, as shown when he gave the High Priestess a sample of his essence that was originally intended in the use of worship to presumably conceive the Daughters of Aku, as well as enabled him to control or corrupt any and all of his offspring into his likeness, who were complete with supernatural powers.
- Eye Beams: One of Aku's most commonly utilized attacks, that ability tended to manifest as beams of white or red light that typically incinerated the objects that it made contact with. It could be used either as continuous beams of light, or as staccato bolts of energy. Aku had used that ability in numerous battles with Jack, and also used it to destroy the majority of Jack's past kingdom. Aku could also harmlessly teleport beings to places of his choosing through that power. The beams could also slice through objects like a plasma torch, or caused them to explode.
- Combat Skills: Despite never having been shown to have trained at all in any form of Martial Arts, Aku was a very skilled practitioner in hand-to-hand combat. Though not a match for Jack, Aku was at least capable of defending himself reasonably well against Jack during their duel, while he limited himself to human physicality. Aku was also shown to be a fairly skilled swordsman: In Episode XXX: Jack and the Zombies, Aku stole Jack's Sword and was able to force Jack (who was armed with a sword and a shield) into a defensive posture during a bout of swordplay. However, it should be noted that on that occasion, Aku was not limited in the scope of the powers that he could employ.
Weaknesses[]
- Divine magic: Aku could be harmed and subdued by any object or form of magic wielded by the gods Odin, Ra, and Vishnu. This also included weapons forged using divine energy or essence such as the Emperor's (and later Jack's) Samurai Sword.
- Spirit and righteousness: According to one of the three gods, Rama, the strength of the Human Spirit and Virtue of Human Righteousness would allow Aku to be vanquished. Jack's father's magic sword could harm Aku as it burns him and negated his regeneration. The Scotsman music imbued powers in his spirit form was able to affect Aku and also the giant robot samurai of the robots of Andromeda was able to hurt him and also tear off his horns.
- Shortsightedness: Aku gave Ashi the ability to open time portals, not considering that she could turn on him which was ultimately his undoing.
- Color scheme: Regardless of the form he takes, Aku appeared to be limited to the specific color scheme of red, green, and black. This can allow certain people to deduce him if they have enough experience with him.
- Reflections: If Aku was reflected by a mirror or water, it would always reveal his normal form regardless of the guise that he takes. This is most noticeable when Aku took the disguise of a hermit, and accompanied Jack to look for the artifacts of the gods. When Jack and Aku were in the swamp, Aku's normal form was apparent in the water's reflection even while in his hermit disguise, so he splashed the water and used the ripples to hide his reflection.
- Disease vulnerability: In one episode (XLIII), Aku appeared to have contracted a form of illness not unlike the human flu or common cold.
Role in series[]
Seasons 1-4[]
During Jack's time in the future, Aku had managed to terrorize and subjugate a majority of the entire world and declared himself as the undisputed ruler of Earth. While he had a demon army, he was beginning to be unsatisfied with them due to their capability of carrying out his task faster, so he would go on to have a mechanical army under his command and recruit a council of mad scientists to create the X-Model, the first of Aku's robotic army. When all but X-49 were destroyed, Aku would develop a new generation of his mechanical army called the Beetle Drones, who were proven to be successors to the X-Models, and would become Aku's standard henchmen.
Craving for more power, Aku would later establish Earth as a space-faring world and open its ports to surrounding galaxies in order to plunder and conquer worlds beyond. The arrival of aliens, ranged from enslaved species to rough immigrants, would transform the Earth into a hodge-podge of dystopian societies that were primarily ruled by either tyrants or gangs. Aku's rule would even established the safety of the worst kind of criminals who would be inhabited in Earth, corrupted agents making lives of countless citizens worthless, and in some cases, occupied settlements would be inhabited by innocent and helpless residents without any scruples would be decimated. Unsavory and cruel establishments such as the Dome of Doom and Creature Combat Club would be common in the world ruled by Aku.
While Aku was universally hated and feared by almost everyone in the entire universe for his cruelty, there were several others who worshipped him like a god and served under him with immense loyalty.
Season 5[]
Fifty years later, it is also shown that Aku donated a small portion of himself to the Cult of Aku after seeing the statue they built in his likeness. Afterwards, the cult leader drank the potion which somehow impregnated her, creating the Daughters of Aku.
In Episode XCII, Jack fights an assassin named Scaramouche the Merciless who claims to be "Aku's favorite assassin". He tries to call Aku that Jack lost his sword, but Jack destroys his phone before he can get the chance, leading to a confrontation with Scaramouche where Jack seemingly destroys him.
In Episode XCIII, Aku wakes up from his long nap and becomes annoyed with his Royal subjects and minions as they come to his lair, bow down to him and give him gifts while he is trying to do his daily routine. When his minions mention that they built more robots to destroy Jack, Aku states that he doesn't care anymore. Aku then creates a clone of himself to serve as a psychiatrist who asks him about what has been troubling him lately. Aku tell the psychiatrist that it has been 50 years since he destroyed all of the time portals and that he hoped that Jack would have just died off the normal way, but, as a result of the time traveling process, not only has Jack not died from old age but he hasn't even aged a single day and has become biologically immortal, deeply frustrating him.
In Episode XCVI, Aku, after being informed by a henchman that the former's lair was under attack by an army lead by the Scotsman, decides to deal with them himself and flew out of his lair. Later, he transforms into a colossal giant ball and effortlessly slaughtered most of the army. After this, he was confronted by the Scotsman, with the latter insulting and ridiculing Aku, stating that Samurai Jack inspired many to oppose him. However, this leads to Aku killing the Scotsman by shooting him with his eye beams. Aku, with a bored tone, only wondered why the Scotsman brought up Jack before returning to his lair. However, unknown to Aku, the Scotsman returns as a ghost and instructs his army (who are all of his daughters as well) to continue to amass their forces and find Samurai Jack.
In Episode XCVII, Scaramouche (now only a head) tries to reach Aku in order to tell him that Jack is missing his sword and calls him from a phone booth on the boat he was riding, although Aku immediately hangs up after Scaramouche is thrown off the boat.
In Episode XCVIII, in a flashback, it is shown that Aku pulled Jack out of a time portal just as he was about to reach the past and then obliterated it, taunting Jack by telling him that said time portal was the last in existence. In his rage, Jack tried to destroy Aku once and for all. However, Aku backed out of the fight and transformed the Rams that had been helping Jack into mindless beasts that he soon killed, causing him to accidentally drop his sword into a pit in his horror.
In Episode C, Scaramouche finally reaches Aku's tower and manages to tell Aku about Jack's missing sword, not only causing the demon to snap out of his depression, but also give Scaramouche a new body out of gratitude. Aku then flies over to Jack's location (in which it is shown that he also killed The Guardian) where he and Scaramouche then laugh at Jack for not having his sword, only to realize that he actually does. Aku then kills Scaramouche by destroying his head and prepares to leave, however, he stops when he realizes that there is a little bit of himself inside Ashi. Aku then has a flashback in which it is shown that he gave some of his essence to the Cult of Aku, and then comes to the conclusion that the High Priestess must have drank the essence and birthed the Daughters of Aku. He then remarks on how she is really a true daughter of his to her and Jack's collected shock and anger. As Jack tries to kill Aku, Aku begins to possess Ashi and forcing her to fight Jack watching from the sidelines as they unwillingly do so while remarking on how his daughter fell for his sworn enemy. Eventually, Aku turns Ashi into a humanoid replica of himself, which Jack cannot bring himself to kill, laying his sword down in defeat. As Ashi is about to lay the final blow, Aku quickly orders for her to stop and grabs Jack's sword. He revels at finally besting Samurai Jack after 50 years.
In Episode CI, Aku broadcasts his victory over Samurai Jack to the entire world and tells everyone who opposes him that they have no hope as he prepares to kill Jack, however, he soon realizes that he does not know how he wants to kill Jack. After a period of indecision, Aku decides that it is best to let Ashi kill Jack. As Ashi readies to lay the final blow to Jack, almost everyone Jack has encountered (The Blind Archers, Rothchild and his Canine Companions, The Ravers, The Triseraquins, The Spartans, The "Jump Good" Monkey Man and his tribe and The Woolies) and saved came to his aid and attacked Aku. Aku begins to do a great battle with them while Jack fights the possessed Ashi who is stopping him from taking back his sword, Aku finding amusement in the armies' attempts to save Jack since he is nearly untouchable and cannot be killed by them. Aku splats a great number of Woolies and Blind Archers corrupting them into an army of smaller copies of himself ordering them to attack the rebels. While the rebels are in great difficulty against Aku's army and Jack is unable to take the sword back the Scotsman arrives with his Daughters causing several damages to Aku's army. During the fight, Max and the Robots of Andromeda join the army of Jack's friends with their giant robot samurai. At the beginning, Aku mocks the robot only to be brutally beaten up by it and also have his horns torn off, at point Aku starts to get annoyed and furious and decides to change himself into a rain of spikes to kill all of his enemies. The rain kills many of Jack's friends but is stopped by the powers of the Scotsman. Then, he checks on his daughter Ashi to see if she has killed Samurai Jack, but thanks to Jack for showing his love for Ashi, Ashi frees herself from Aku's possession and stands up against him. The furious Aku attacks her but is surprised to see that she has the exact same powers as he does. Without a moment to lose, Jack and Ashi summon a time portal and send themselves back to the past. The future Aku then looks in sorrow as he realizes that his destruction is imminent, realizing that all around him including himself are going to cease from existing.
Back in the past, after Jack's first battle against Aku, the demon has just sent Samurai Jack to the future. After he finishes his speech of meeting him again in the future, he was shocked to see that the future Jack and Ashi have returned on that same spot. As Aku tries to process why he is back so suddenly, Jack immediately charges and begins his short final showdown with Aku. Aku, still greatly weakened by his battle with the previous incarnation of Jack then transforms into a giant rhinoceros beetle-like form to fend him off, but the latter quickly slashes him in two halves with his sword. Jack then completely destroys one while the other tries to retreat but does not get very far as Jack manages to stab his severed head with his sword and Aku merges into the sword before Jack slams his sword to the ground, prompting what little remains of Aku to absorb his lair and blow it up. Destroying the sword destroys the last of Aku's essence, finally destroying the demon once and for all; avenging all of the deaths and suffering he has committed (or was going to commit), including pillaging the Japanese kingdom home of the Emperor and Empress and Jack. ending his tyrannical and world domination forever.
However, Aku's death comes at a price as, since he was responsible for her existence, Ashi is erased from existence as she was about to marry Jack, allowing Aku to get one last laugh at his enemy from beyond the grave at last. Jack then mourns the loss of Ashi, but sees a ladybug as a memory of Ashi and smiles, as the string of fate meant that he will find someone who will fill the place Ashi left, and moreover, Jack can finally live off the rest of his days along with his family and friends serene and in peace, knowing that there's a bright future on the horizon as Aku and his tyranny are no longer there.
Video games[]
Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion[]
In Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL, Aku is the last character on the roster menu, being an unlockable character available from the store for 1500 points. His in-game bio states Aku as a master of the air and very powerful.
Aku is most infamous for his neutral signature in air as it comes out instantaneously and reaches fairly far from Aku, allowing him to easily combo at a safe distance simply off of this move. Aku's up signature is a large attack that mows through other attacks and characters and allows Aku to reposition himself to laser again.
Aku also seems to be the glitchiest character in the game, all helping him even more in the long run. One noticeable glitch deals with the way Aku transforms into animals. As soon as Aku jumps he transforms into a bird-like creature. However, jumping and performing attacks at the same time can result in him doing grounded attacks in bird form, distorting his hitboxes and hurtbox. Aku's attack transformations also won't cancel properly if he is hit out of them, making him safe either way as any follow up against Aku risks the opponent getting hit. He can also abuse this fact to land faster out of up special, perform glitched lasers, and perform "Aku ladders."
Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time[]
In the video game set during the finale of season five, Samurai Jack and Ashi open a time portal and travel to the past. However, in an attempt to prevent his destruction at the samurai's hand, Aku separates Jack and Ashi and transports Jack into a time pocket, a rift of spare and time with no future or past. While Jack would face many of his old enemies such as Demongo and Scaramouche, Aku would go on and taunt him numerous times with sadistic glee.
After facing numerous robots, demons, bounty hunters and the Daughters of Aku once again (involving tormenting Jack in killing the fake Ashi), Aku faces Jack and summons an entire army of robots to destroy him. However, The Scotsman, his daughters, Da Samurai and Sir Rothchild come to aid Jack by facing the army as they give Jack the opportunity to finally face Aku in his fortress. After the final fight, a defeated and overwhelmed Aku is confused of what is happening after a time portal opens. Jack tells him that that the rift between space and time that he has created starts to collapse. Future Aku refuses to admit defeat but he is cut down and defeated by jack but as he is defeated he declares that it's not over but Jack and Ashi reunite through the portal and finally make it to the past. Past Aku then meets his end as Jack finally destroys the shapeshifting demon once and for all.
Due to the altered history though, Aku is now trapped forever in the collapsed time pocket version of the future and Ashi is already born in it. As a result, Ashi does not fade out of existence and finally gets married to Jack.
MultiVersus[]
Aku appears as a profile called "Extra THICK", which is unlocked in season Reach Tier 68 in the Premium Season 2 Battle Pass.
Appearances in Other Media[]
- Aku was featured frequently in Cartoon Network commercial bumpers from 2001 to 2007.
- Aku made a brief appearance in the intro to the short-lived programming block, Friday Nights. He could be seen early on standing in the city and rivaled a few skyscrapers in height.
- Aku appeared as an unlockable Nano character in the Cartoon Network MMO, FusionFall. That was his first speaking role since the passing of his previous voice actor, Mako Iwamatsu. Aku was voiced by Greg Baldwin.
- Aku appeared in both the handheld and console versions of Cartoon Network Punchtime Explosion as a boss character. Aku was a playable fighter in the console version as well. Aku was voiced by Fred Tatasciore.
- Aku made multiple background appearances during Cartoon Network's 20th Anniversary Celebration.
- Aku was a major villain in the IDW comic series, Super Secret Crisis War! in which he, Vilgax, Mojo Jojo, and Mandark teamed up.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- HIM, A Villain from the Powerpuff Girl Series was rumored to be another form of Aku and Professor Utonium that is theorize to be one of Jack descendants due to their similar appearance that giving a possible reasons why HIM always targeting the Powerpuff Girls. HIM tyrannical reign in Speed Demon is theorized to be the start of the reign of Aku but this theory is debunked when Aku gets destroyed once and for all in the show's series finale.
- Ironically, He is one of the show most evil and immoral villains due to his enslaving nations, geocoding and torturing for fun despite his comedically tendencies.
- In the first episode, The Beginning, Aku's voice was low pitched, which made him seem more sinister. However, in later episodes, Aku's pitch went higher.
- In the early episodes of the show, the red color of Aku's flame extended to a red outline around his eyes.
- Aku's design experienced a number of inconsistencies across all of Season 5's episodes. Such inconsistencies included:
- His hands having 5 fingers instead of 4 (although 4 fingers were still shown at times)
- The top green line between his eyes missing.
- Expanded red lining inside his mouth.
- Aku's design experienced a number of inconsistencies across all of Season 5's episodes. Such inconsistencies included:
- Aku's appearance is most likely that of an Oni, a yokai, supernatural demon, ogre, or troll in Japanese folkland. For he consists of many horns, four fangs curved backwards and is colored red and green on the face while the rest of his body is black.
- Aku was parodied several times in Duck Dodgers, a Warner Brothers-produced cartoon that starred Daffy Duck that ran alongside Samurai Jack's original run. In the show, Mako Iwamatsu voiced "Happy Cat", a loud and obnoxious cartoon cat with a large amount of merchandise that was showcased throughout the show. The Happy Cat Alarm Clock that was used by Dodgers featured Mako's voice, used Aku's distinct laugh and voice. In the episode "Samurai Quack", a parody of Samurai Jack, Aku was recreated as "Achoo", a combination of Aku and Happy Cat.
- Many of Aku's sudden movements were accompanied by the sounds of creaking wood. That was presumably because Aku's body was created from the black trees that he originally took the form of.
- The Scotsman insultingly called Aku a "Tree Ogre".
- Although he was immortal, Aku still required sleep: Aku was shown waking up from a bed in Episode XCIII.
- After the announcement of Season 5, Aku's line of "Extra thick!" from Episode XLVII became a popular Internet Meme.
- Aku was voiced by the late Mako Iwamatsu for the show's original run. He was known for portraying such characters as Splinter from the 2007 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Film, and General Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- As Mako passed away in 2006, any speaking roles by Aku following would have been taken up by other actors. In FusionFall, Aku was voiced by Greg Baldwin (who, incidentally, was the one who replaced Mako as the voice of Iroh in both Avatar and its spinoff series, The Legend of Korra), and Aku was voiced by Fred Tatasciore in Punchtime Explosion and Punchtime Explosion XL.
- Interestingly, a storyboard sneak peek of Season 5 had Genndy himself attempting to imitate Aku's iconic voice. However, as it was an animatic, it was not uncommon for the person pitching the scene to do all the voices themselves as placeholders.
- Later on, it was confirmed that Greg Baldwin would voice Aku in Season 5. Baldwin's interpretation of Aku was a mimic of Mako's original version, while he incorporated the pausing mannerisms of German actor, Peter Lorre.
- Aku, throughout the series, balanced between being a truly threatening villain and a villain who was designed to make the audience laugh. In more earlier episodes, Aku was a fairly serious and ominous antagonist, who lacked a lot of the dark sense of humor that characterized him later on.
- Aku shared some similarities with Hexxus, the main antagonist of the film FernGully: The Last Rainforest:
- Both were evil, charismatic beings, who were made from an amorphous dark substance.
- Both were initially trapped inside a tree but were set free by different means (Aku with a solar eclipse, Hexxus via deforestation).
- Both represented destruction of the environment to a dangerous degree.
- Despite his comedic tendencies, Aku was easily one the most cruel and immoral Samurai Jack Villains: he destroyed or enslaved entire nations, tortured innocents for fun, starved Jack's father (and possibly many other slaves of his empire) to death, committed genocide on a daily basis, sent millions to work in labor camps presumably until death, and took away the free will of everyone across the universe, merely because the suffering of others amused him. Of course, that was actually very fitting, as Aku was the embodiment of all that was evil and thus, was incapable of having any redeeming qualities.
- Ironically, it was Aku himself who provided Jack with the means to return to the past when he possesses Ashi and granted her his powers.
- The word 'Aku' can also be found in Egyptian hieroglyphs, where it means "a god or animal in the Tuat (the realm of the dead)". Also, the primordial dark entity from which Aku comes from bears striking resemblance in behavior and concept to the Egyptian deity Apophis, the embodiment of chaos and a god-like monster that's always hungry due to being incomplete and that swallows everything in its path to avoid ceasing to exist.
- In the Brazilian dubbing of the show, Aku's name is changed to Abu. The reason was because, phonetically, 'Aku' sounds similar to the Portuguese pejorative word for anus.
- A Japanese goblin emoji that resembles Aku is seen among the emojis dancing at the end of the 2017 Sony Pictures Animation film The Emoji Movie.
- The unnamed villainous fire demon, who is the overarching antagonist of Genndy Tartakovsky's another award-winning show, Primal, is loosely inspired by Aku.
- Genndy Tartakovsky originally planned to finish Jack's and Aku's story with a theatrical feature-length film based on the series. However, the idea was abandoned after several delays and eventually changed to become a fifth season, not that it wasn't popular anyway.
- Aku's eyebeams were originally yellow in Season 1 and 2, but are white in later seasons and then red in Season 5.
- Aku has been subject to an Internet meme based on a scene (particularly in Episode XLVIII), where he is apparently ordering a large pizza, but actually a bounty hunter, in which he says the line before hanging up. The meme typically revolves around Aku calling things "extra thick", which is purposely misspelled in the title of the videos as E X T R A T H I C C.
- Although it took Jack well over 50 years in order to go back to the past in order to finally kill Aku, from Aku's perspective, it seemed like he accidentally sent Jack a mere 14 seconds into the future and returned with a woman he didn't know was one of his future daughters. Additionally, despite being surprised of Ashi having the exact same powers as he does, it was a mistake for Aku to give his essence to the Cult of Aku and passed down all his powers to his own daughter by using corruption magic.
- Surtr, the overarching antagonist of Genndy Tartakovsky's another award-winning show, Primal, is loosely inspired by Aku.
- Aku has made an appearance at the end of Team Red Pro’s short film Afro Samurai Champloo, where he finds out that there’s more samurai than Jack and maniacally laughs.
- Notable Aku players include: Haxor48, Kyguy, and Tak.io.
- Coincidentally, it is possible for Aku to short hop double laser, a popular technique used by Fox McCloud in the Super Smash Brothers series.
- Aku is one of the few characters to have a signature that functions differently depending on if it's used on the ground or in the air. In his case, his Neutral laser aims downwards in front of him before moving forwards when used on the ground, but fires straight ahead if used in the air.
- Oddly, Aku is the only character who will stop fast falling once down is unpressed.
- Aku is the only character to not have a teetering animation.
External links[]
- Aku on the Villains Wiki
- Aku on the Samurai Jack Wiki
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