Yasuke

When the trailer for Yasuke dropped on Netflix, I thought to myself: nice. An anime about the black samurai himself. I was truly interested in this anime. Unfortunately, Yasuke did not live up to my expectations.

Story: 1
If you're going to make an anime about historical figures, you would expect it to be true to history. These people walked around in real world Japan and you would expect to respect that. Yasuke's backstory was pretty true to life, but in the story itself, somebody had the bright idea to add magic and giant robots in the anime. What was their deal? What were they doing ... in the story? What are giant robots doing in feudal Japan? The only thing we get is an explaination that doesn't sole anything, but instead causes plot holes that could have easily been prevented with a single Google search. The magic system is just a plot device to give the scriptwriters a lame excuse for the several asspulls thrown in this show. I will admit the magic was used in interesting ways, but it never paid off, just to give the audience one of the most Mary Sue endings I've ever seen in anime. The pacing is way too high for it's own good, to the point that even a lot of plot points make no sense, resulting in an incohesive rushed mess of a story.

Art: 8
Not the best MAPPA has given us so far, but it definitely wasn't bad. The fights themselves were a treat to the eyes and the character designs were nice and did their job. But again, Don't expect godly animation like you see in The God Of High School or Jujutsu Kaisen.

Sound: 6
When watching a historical/samurai story, what type of music would you probably hear, classical Japanese instruments, right? In Yasuke, they decided to give us electronic music. Not what I would've liked, but it was decent. The sound effects also did their job pretty well.

Character: 1
The character writing suffered from strong Mary Sue writing as well. One of the characters, Saki, basically has the entire cast and worldbuilding bend around her, even Yasuke himself. I won't spoil anything, but she starts out weak, but doesn't need training to control her magic, she is in the end always right and everyone on the good side loves her. The story completely revolves around her and there is barely any room for character development outside of Yasuke's redemption. Other characters are also one note and inconsistent, but that is also the bad pacing being bad pacing.

Enjoyment: 4
I tried to like this show. But in the end, I couldn't get over how it ended. There were so many asspulls.

Overall: 1
Yasuke proves several things when it comes to anime:
1. Animation and sound design can't carry a show;
2. You can't use magic and giant robots and expect it to magically work;
3. Historical accuracy is still important;
4. You can't write a multi-arc story in just 6 episodes.

I’ve said this about LeSean Thomas before, but if you’re so obsessed with identity politics that you insist on building your entire career around blaxploitation, then just make Afro Samurai again. That show is kick-ass, and I’m sure Sam Jackson would not mind the plagiarism one bit.

Yasuke is a mess, and while it's definitely not as exhausting as Cannon Busters, I doubt many will be able to call it a good show. I could sit here and expound upon the exact ways in which it’s historically inaccurate—how the real Yasuke wasn’t even a samurai, but rather a mere retainer who Nobunaga kept around as a ... circus freak who’s dark skin fascinated the culturally isolated (and kinda racist) Japanese who had never seen an African before—but I think we all expected this going in. If the insane, unrestrained visual cacophonies of garish CG and headache inducing visual effects didn’t clue you in, this series doesn’t really seek to be historically accurate with all its crazy magic and mechas, despite the fact its alleged history is really the only excuse it has to exist. But if I just mislead you into thinking it sought to be little more than a bombastic action series, then allow me to clarify. This show does have a plot and does attempt to develop its main character, bringing him into the fold of historical records and introducing him to other badass Japanese historical figures to fight alongside, but it quickly devolves into mindless anime nonsense which throws whatever realism it tried to initially reference out the window with the aforementioned magic and mechas. A premise is still a premise, though, and if you can accept such a premise, you may just find this show and its awesome soundtrack to be pretty sick, even if it’s totally nonsensical and ugly as sin. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with the 2D animation per se, but the 3D compositing makes all the fights utterly hideous, Takeshi Koike’s designs are unrecognizable, and LeSean Thomas himself is still nothing if not an amateur. However, none of this is as much of a turn-off as the pitch itself.

Maybe if I could watch Marvel Studio’s Black Panther or Captain Marvel and not feel like I’m being force-fed the sociopolitical worldview of the Disney Company’s board of marketeers, and instead feel empowered by the righteous inclusion on display, then maybe I could get some enjoyment out of Yasuke, but since I cannot do that, I cannot do this. There’s a difference between theming and propagandizing, and I don’t think Director Thomas has figured that out yet.

Thank you for reading.

This show feels like a case where nobody told the writers "No!". That isn't always a bad thing, but like everything in life, there needs to be a balance.

Yasuke has an interesting premise, but the show doesn't really know what it wants to be, and the back and forth between historical set piece and action fantasy aren't meshed well here.

The show introduced itself as a historical set piece in a fictional universe tied to the story of Nobunaga and Yasuke, but that really didn't come into play much the more the story went on. It was more of an excuse to use recognized names for ... their fantasy action series.

Another possible detractor is the short run time. With more run time, they could have delved more into the past timeline to flesh out the world and characters, but with as little as we got, it almost seemed unnecessary. Plus, the pacing was erratically fast. With a full cour, the insane whiplash of events could have been mitigated and felt more natural, but how it turned out, it feels like entire plot lines were either skimmed over or completely forgotten about.

In the end, I think what the main problem was that the worlds of the historical samurai mixed with the fictional fantasy weren't meshed well. Yeah, the characters needed some more work too, but all of the weird power elements in that dated setting can really take a user out of it.

That being said, I enjoyed the show, and the animation and music were pretty good, and I will even look forward to a potential sequel, but I don't think I will re-watch this when I can just re-watch Samurai Champloo and Afro Samurai.

More detailed review starts here:

The story is interesting, as there is a mysterious samurai who stumbles upon protecting a mysterious girl with strange powers, a very similar premise to Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (which is a way better show). He needs to protect her from the evil organization/government that want to use her for their own nefarious reason. While it's good in concept, it wasn't executed that well as the point of events that they go through seem to skip from A to Z within an episode. We skip the amazing journey that we could have seen and just see the beginning and the ending, without seeing them bond as much as they could have with a longer run time.

The art and sound are pretty good, considering that MAPPA produced it. It looks very stylized and the music generally matches the scenes. It is a little too gory at times, but that is just a personal preference.

The characters aren't that great. Besides for Yasuke, the rest of the characters are pretty forgettable. Perhaps with a longer run time, they could have been more developed, but as it was, even Saki wasn't that interesting a character, and the plot is supposed to be based around her. The rest of the side cast have their moments, but none of them feel like real characters with real motivations.

Like I said before, the show is enjoyable popcorn entertainment. Just don't try using your brain too much, or else it will detract from the experience. Just enjoy cool stuff being animated and watch samurais fight magic stuff.

Overall, I am rating this show an 8.
The show is serviceable, which was probably what Netflix was going for when they produced it. It has some issues, but its short run time and slick action should keep you entertained for a quick 2 1/2 hour experience. The show definitely could have been a lot better, which is probably the worst part about it for me, envisioning what it could have been.