"But I have been trained to use the light."

I’ll always be amazed that one of the greatest ninja fight scenes ever put on screen was done by the same guy who made Dexter’s Laboratory. Genndy Tartakovsky has won 3 Emmys and been nominated for many more.

In my opinion, his crowning achievement is Samurai Jack, a children’s cartoon with an incredible focus on its art style. In this video, one of the show’s greatest fight scenes, Jack must fight a robot ninja. That’s it. That’s all it is, that’s all that happens. It’s not that complicated and there’s almost no dialogue. But instead of just putting two ninjas in a room fighting with swords like most children’s shows, Tartakovsky goes way over the top……as he always does.

I want to focus on the use of color (or lack thereof) and how it affects the balance of power. Finally, a color analysis that I, a colorblind person, can analyze.

The mere existence of color in the first half of the fight shows that the ninja is using the shadows to his advantage. Jack sticks out like a sore thumb and can’t see his opponent when he moves into darkness. He survives mainly due to his quick reflexes, but the odds are clearly against him.

But then he reverses his clothes to become a white ninja, fading into the light just as the black ninja fades into the darkness.

Black and white are used to represent duality; one warrior always has the advantage and the other a disadvantage. Neither of them can see the other in their native color. However, they are both very talented and dead even. This is a parallel of the eternal struggle between good and evil; the fight is even and relentless and no one is going to lose or win any time soon.

But then there’s the third element: color. Not any color specifically, but the mere presence of color on the screen alters the fight. I would argue that color represents awareness that the fight must have a winner and a loser. The only part of the two ninjas that isn’t black or white is their faces: the shinobi’s glowing, robotic red eyes, and Jack’s human, expressive, tan (?) face. The visibly obvious color of Jack’s sandals immediately after his transformation at first seem to betray him, but the shinobi becomes aware that his opponent is too smart for that.

The colorful sun setting brings shifts in the light, which parts are black and which are white. This changes the balance of advantage/disadvantage because it changes what parts of the building they are aware of. It is getting closer to nighttime, a time when the white-using Jack will have nowhere to hide. As it starts to get really late, Jack’s eyes narrow in focus as he becomes aware time is running out. Similarly, the shinobi’s eyes show he is preparing for the kill.

While time is on the side of darkness, light has something the shadows don’t. Jack uses the reflective power of the light to blind his enemy’s eyes (disabling his awareness) and deals the final blow. Color returns to the building, showing that the fight is definitely over.