Once in a crazy, cheroot-smoking Afro-Japanese master assassin’s shockingly brutal lifetime comes a pop-phenom so freaking cool there’s nothing the wall-eyed coterie of jaded subhuman filth who serve as arts writers can do except get down on their sore-pocked knees and scream thanks to an insane pop-god.

The cover shows a snake-eyed, ginormo-’froed black manga dude. The text reads: “Samuel L. Jackson is Afro Samurai.” The box opens like the petals of some satanic flower to reveal super-pop-cool manga images of a demonic ninja/gunslinger, a hot kimono babe and—f--k me with a sharp sword—a giant teddy-bear samurai. Oh, thank you, pop-god.

Even if the enclosed DVDs sucked, this would still be the coolest human artifact ever. But it gets better. Turns out Afro Samurai—featuring groovy music from Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA—is the bollocks of the most enormous and evil-tempered robo-dog. That is, it’s the shit. Set in a noodle-Western, retro, sci-fi Nippon full of psychotic sword-, spear- and nunchaku-wielding cyber-scum, Afro Samurai tells the story ... you know what? Screw the plot. It’s blaxploitation meets manga meets the spaghetti Western meets young African-America’s obsession with all things martial-artsy. It’s 300 meets Kill Bill on crazy drugs. It’s a dead cool black samurai guy with a huge ’fro killing lots of other guys, and it’s awesome. And it’s mine. Ha. A big hit in Japan, Afro Samurai had its U.S. debut on Spike TV in January. There’s a video game coming and maybe—maybe—even a Samuel L. Jackson live-action movie. Be warned. The hype is going to be ferocious.