Samurai Jack, the critical acclaimed animated show about a samurai, up-rooted from his own time, on a quest to travel back and defeat Aku, the shape-shifting Master of Darkness, ended suddenly in 2004 without resolution.

Twelve years later, Jack is back and the final chapter of his journey is darker than ever. Jack, who up to this point has been battling Aku and his robotic minions, is now faced with the Daughters of Aku, seven young women who’s sole purpose it is to destroy Samurai Jack.

The shows creator Genndy Tartakovsky said in an interview with Polygon that he always planned for this season of Samurai Jack to be the darkest yet, as this marks the end of Jack’s journey, and Tartakovsky wanted to explore themes and acts that he couldn’t before.

“In my perception of the show the darkness was surface,” Tartakovsky said. “It was dark because the show was sad, but it didn’t go down into the soul. Here, we get to go all the way to the bottom. The haunting of the past and the self, is a pressure that you either need to forget or grieve. He’s traumatized and he cannot let go.”

Just like the original 52 episodes, the new season maintains the iconic series’ beautiful, artistic style with intense action sequences filling the screen only to zero in on certain aspects of the scene.

Samurai Jack’s fifth and final season started airing March 11 on Adult Swim.

Images via YouTube