The Eye of Aku Painting

"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 Aku is the main antagonist of the series Samurai Jack. Born from The Black Mass of Darkness, Aku was an evil, shape-shifting demon who took over the world and ruled it for countless eons, the arch-nemesis of Samurai Jack and the biological father of Ashi and her twin sisters. Throughout seasons 1-4, Aku was voiced by Mako Iwamatsu, but due to Mako's death in 2006, Aku was voiced by Greg Baldwin in Season 5. 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. Aku constantly antagonized Samurai Jack: he often attacked him when he was weak, and other times defended himself from Jack's own gambits. Prior to Ashi sending Jack back in time to vanquish Aku's past self, the two seem doomed never to defeat each other, and while Jack had beaten Aku on numerous occasions, Aku merely transformed into a creature, retreated, and usually called out a taunt over his shoulder. Aku was entirely aware of his inability to defeat Jack and even lamp-shaded that in "Episode XLVIII: Jack versus Aku", which eventually discouraged him from fighting Jack further. Aku could have been considered the Deuteragonist of the series as a whole (albeit a rare, villainous one), as while Ashi became that in Season 5. Aku had the most focus in the narrative besides Jack. While he's usually presented as a serious and threatening foe, Aku was also 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. Aku means "Evil" in Japanese. It is written as "悪" in Kanji. The kanji can also be pronounced as "Waru". In Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, Aku made a last ditch attempt effort to save his existence and secure his rule in the future. Origin: Long ago in the vastness of space, a great, formless, mindless entity of evil arose. Before it could do harm to the universe, it was set upon by three deities, each one originating from Norse, Egyptian, and Hindu mythologies: Odin (the father of Thor), Ra (the Sun God), and Rama (the seventh avatar of Vishnu the preserver). The three deities fought a fierce battle against the black mass and burned the entity almost completely out of existence with their divine power. However, during the battle, one small fragment of the entity was incidentally cut from the whole by Odin and was never burned away. Unnoticed by the three deities, that seemingly small fragment floated away from the site of the battle and drifted through space for an untold amount of time, until it eventually, and violently, crashed on Earth during the Cretaceous Period in the Mesozoic Era. It was implied that the fragment of the black mass is the very object that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, although the crash occurred in prehistoric Japan as opposed to the Yucatán Peninsula by a massive asteroid. Over eons, the fragment 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, the forest grew so large that The Emperor (Jack's father) decided to kill the evil at its source. After he was armed with a poison elixir that was given to him by a Buddhist Monk, the Emperor, with his cavalry, rode into the forest. As they rode, the forest began to gradually kill off the Emperor's men and left the Emperor himself as the only survivor. Once he arrived at a black lake in the forest's center, the Emperor doused one of his arrows into the elixir that he was given and fired it into the black lake, with him believing that it would destroy the evil forest. Unexpectedly, the poison arrow's magic had the unforeseen effect of galvanizing the evil mass into a humanoid form: it gave it intelligence, sentience, and shape-shifting abilities. This entity proclaimed itself with the name of Aku and thanked the Emperor for inadvertently helping him. The Emperor then attacked Aku, but with nothing more than his mundane and mortal weapons, he couldn't inflict any harm upon Aku. Aku then easily defeated the Emperor and strapped him to the side of a tree so that he could watch as Aku began destroying his kingdom and slaughtering his people. However, the Deities, after they sensed the good in the Emperor, summoned him with the aid of Odin's horse, Sleipnir. After the Deities took the good from inside the Emperor, they then used their powers in creating an Enchanted Sword that was capable of harming Aku. After he was armed with the sword and a magical suit of armor, the Emperor plunged into battle against Aku. In the end, the Emperor was victorious and imprisoned Aku into the devastated wasteland in the form of a jagged black tree. As he was sealed away, Aku vowed that he would one day return. During the battle, The Empress gave birth to a son. After he was determined to learn from the catastrophe, and was aware that Aku would indeed one day return, the Emperor hatched a plan while orchestrating the events that would set Jack on his eventual years of training. Source: Samurai Jack Wiki Makoto Iwamatsu (岩松 信, Iwamatsu Makoto, December 10, 1933 – July 21, 2006) was a Japanese-American actor, credited in almost all of his acting roles as simply Mako. His film roles include Po-Han in The Sand Pebbles (1966) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), Oomiak "The Fearless One" in The Island at the Top of the World (1974), Akiro the Wizard in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Conan the Destroyer (1984), and Kungo Tsarong in Seven Years in Tibet (1997). He was part of the original cast of Stephen Sondheim's 1976 Broadway musical Pacific Overtures, which earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. He was also one of the founding members of East West Players. Later in his career, he became well known for his voice acting roles, including Aku in the first four seasons of Samurai Jack (2001–2004), and Iroh in the first two seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005–2006). He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7095 Hollywood Blvd. Samurai Jack is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network. Tartakovsky conceived Samurai Jack after finishing his work on his first Cartoon Network original series, Dexter's Laboratory, which premiered in 1996. Samurai Jack was inspired by Kung Fu, the 1972 televised drama starring David Carradine, and Tartakovsky's fascination with samurai culture. The titular character, "Jack", is an unnamed Japanese samurai prince who wields a mystic katana capable of cutting through virtually anything. He sets out to free his kingdom after it is taken over by an evil, shapeshifting demon known as Aku. In Jack's ensuing battle with Aku, just as Jack is about to deal the final strike, Aku sends the samurai forward in time to a dystopian future ruled by the tyrannical demon. Jack quests to travel back to his own time and defeat Aku before he can take over the world. Jack's search for a way back to his own time period transcends Aku's control, but Jack's efforts are largely in vain due to the way back to his home ending up just out of his reach. Premiering on August 10, 2001, Samurai Jack originally ran for four seasons comprising thirteen episodes each until September 25, 2004, without concluding the overarching story. The show was revived twelve years later for a darker, more mature fifth season that provides a conclusion to Jack's story; it premiered on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block on March 11, 2017, and concluded with its final episode, which serves as the series finale, on May 20, 2017. Episodes were directed by Tartakovsky, often in collaboration with others. The series has garnered critical acclaim and won eight Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Animated Program, as well as six Annie Awards and an OIAF Award. Genndy Tartakovsky (/ˈɡɛndi ˌtɑːrtəˈkɒfski/; born 17 January 1970) is a Russian-American animator, director, producer, screenwriter, voice actor, storyboard artist, comic book writer and artist. He is best known as the creator of various animated television series on Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, including Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Sym-Bionic Titan, and Primal. He co-created Sym-Bionic Titan and directed the first three films in the Hotel Transylvania series. Additionally, he was a pivotal crew member of The Powerpuff Girls and worked on other series such as 2 Stupid Dogs and Batman: The Animated Series. Tartakovsky is known for his unique animation style, including fast-paced action and minimal dialogue. Throughout his career, Tartakovsky has won three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Annie Awards, one WAC Winner, one OIAF Award, one Winsor McCay Award, and one Creative Arts Emmy Award among other nominations for his works. Source: Wikipedia

Painting:Acrylic on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:20 W x 16 H x 0.2 D in

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