Samurai Champloo (2004) is an anime TV series directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, who is best known for his work on Cowboy Bebop. The show is set in an anachronistic Edo period but with traditional elements being blended in with more modern cultural references and scenarios. Similar to how Cowboy Bebop took inspiration from jazz music, Watanabe wanted to incorporate hip-hop into the show’s soundtrack and identity and brought on four professional hip-hop artists – Shinji “Tsutchie” Tsuchida of Shakkazombie, Fat Jon, Nujabes, and the DJ team Force of Nature – to help make it happen.
A series of four albums was released that contained songs made for the show’s soundtrack. The titles use Zuzana Licko’s Lo-Res 12 Bold with a superimposed pixel grid. Cholla Wide by Sibylle Hagmann is used as a subtitle font and for the tracklist on all of the albums. Some covers also use Cholla Unicase. Most of the symbols on the cover of Masta are taken from Wingdings. It’s not clear if the “Masta” and “Playlist” titles are custom drawn, or from an unidentified font. [edit: it’s VT Pompous Circumstance Chiseled, see comments.] Same goes for the stacked Japanese characters.
Great sleuthing! Added. VT Pompous Circumstance was designed by Susan Townsend of VintageType in 1996. The grunge font was basically made by cutting off serifs from Bernhard Modern and then messing around with the details and adding bits here and there. In addition to the Chiseled style, there was also a Curvaceous one.
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To my search, “playlist” and “masta” are based on VTPompousCircumstance Chiseled, prolly as old as 1997.
Great sleuthing! Added. VT Pompous Circumstance was designed by Susan Townsend of VintageType in 1996. The grunge font was basically made by cutting off serifs from Bernhard Modern and then messing around with the details and adding bits here and there. In addition to the Chiseled style, there was also a Curvaceous one.