(Recommended by a pretty humble guy.)
This post will be fairly short as I feel the anime is straightforward enough to be almost self-explanatory.
Have you ever seen Cowboy Bebop? It’s a lot like Cowboy Bebop. Never seen Cowboy Bebop? Let me go into some depth, then. Three people, connected by fate, stumble upon each other and, through a series of events, band together towards a common goal. These three don’t care about each other that much, as their personalities clash at almost every turn. Through a series of episodic events, the series loosely picks at the layers that accompany each of the three characters and reveals their pasts, insecurities, desires, and whatever else may apply—through means of having them interact with characters that only appear within specific episodes. There comes a point where the three begin to treasure the sake of the journey rather than the destination, thus making the series more empathetic and heart-warming. To add to that, the series also blatantly exaggerates its time era, making up a number of unrealistic events for the sake of comedy and entertainment.
Sounds almost exactly like Cowboy Bebop, right?
And much like its space counterpart, the series is very effective in allowing the atmosphere to caress the hollow characters into people worth following. Only true difference is that while Bebop does this almost immediately, Champloo doesn’t really start chewing on its potential until after the recap segment in episode twelve. Though I’m not implying the first eleven episodes are boring, there’s definitely a boost in creativity and character development/interaction within the second-half of the series. It’s all good fun, with some ample time dedicated to the tragedy of life and what every person must face in trying times.
And then episode 23 rolls around and introduces the greatest obligatory “baseball” episode in anime history. This episode alone may make the series worth watching.
Personal Score: B
Critical Score: B-
The rating for this title and all others can be found on MyAnimeList.
The Visualist's Veranda 
Nice overview on the story and characters.
Been thinking of revisiting it sometime (after Bebop, of course). As much as I have my own gripes with how it ended, for the most part I felt it was a pretty enjoyable series with some awesome action (nothing like a break-dancing swordsman).
Glad you liked it.
I guess this is one I should add to my eventual watch list then. I’ve always kind of just dismissed it for various reasons but guessing I should probably just give it a go. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.