One theme in Samurai Champloo is hunger. The protagonist, a teenage girl named Fuu, and her companions—two bickering swordsmen—are mainly trying to make it from meal to meal in feudal Japan.
In one episode, they discover a bag of gold in a river. Thrilled with their good fortune, they instantly treat themselves to a massive meal. As she does several times in the show, Fuu tries to eat in advance for the whole week. While it’s funny to see the anime character triple in size, we can guess where it’s going. By the time the episode’s adventure ends the next day, Fuu sits under a tree, looking slim as ever. With a big sigh, she goes: “I’m hungry.”
Some things, you can only nourish in increments. Humans. Love. Art. It’s nice to finally find a gap in the calendar for a big project—a trip with the family, shooting a short film—but it’s rarely needed and, sometimes, an outright excuse to not get started.
No tank can be filled to the point where it’ll never run out. The only way to not go hungry is to eat a little every day. Nourish the big things in increments.
