Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi

Tokiyuki Houjou, a carefree eight-year-old noble, is content with the serene life in Kamakura and shows little regard for the serious responsibilities that come with his eventually succeeding his father as the next shogun. Instead of dedicating himself to rigorous training in swordsmanship or archery, Tokiyuki excels in the art of evasion, skillfully dodging his advisors and discovering perfect hiding spots. However, his peaceful existence is shattered when a sudden coup brutally wipes out his clan.

Overwhelmed with guilt for being the sole survivor, Tokiyuki contemplates joining his family in death. However, his fate takes an abrupt turn when the enigmatic priest Yorishige Suwa suddenly shoves him onto a battlefield. Yorishige, who prophesies that Tokiyuki will one day become a great hero, leaves the boy with no choice but to navigate his way free of enemy soldiers. As Tokiyuki struggles to survive against these foes, he finds a new thrill in raising the stakes of his usual hide-and-seek games.

With a renewed sense of purpose and the promise of powerful allies from Yorishige, Tokiyuki vows to avenge his family—not through his capability to fight, but through his extraordinary talent for running away.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Houjou, Tokiyuki Main

Yuikawa, Asaki Japanese

Suwa, Yorishige Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Shizuku Supporting

Yano, Hinaki Japanese

Fubuki Supporting

Toya, Kikunosuke Japanese

Mochizuki, Ayako Supporting

Suzushiro, Sayumi Japanese

Nezu, Kojirou Supporting

Hino, Mari Japanese

Kazama, Genba Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Ogasawara, Sadamune Supporting

Aoyama, Yutaka Japanese

Ashikaga, Takauji Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Kou no, Moronao Supporting

Miyauchi, Atsushi Japanese

Umehara, Shouta Producer

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Fukushima, Yuuichi Producer

Matsumoto, Miho Producer

Reviews

Nov 16, 2024

paravel

Recommended

The Elusive Samurai has exceptional, unique direction. If you’re interested in unique animation styles, watch this. It is remiscent of Dororo and has a heavy historical and samurai feel to it with the BIG exception that it is also a comedy, and this is something I found deeply odd— if you like dark humor and intense violence, as well as pedophilia and mature behavior from children being protrayed in a largely lighthearted or satirical manner, possibly due to trauma… This may be for you.

Regardless, I found this anime to be refreshing and innovative. The cruel nature of war and how it drives people mad ... is still well-depicted in some ways. As someone that is not used to humor being portrayed in these scenarios, it took me by surprise. I believe this show will be enjoyed by those that value different and unique perspectives and reflections on history or human nature. The characters were rich in their expressions and motivations, but very mature for children (this is not new for anime, though). In some ways with the comey and the largely children cast, it has the vibe of a shonen (and it is labeled as one, however odd it may be for the R rating). The themes (re: thematic elements) are also mature and may not be fully appreciated or noticed by younger audiences. I do wanna emphasize the importance of a mature audience in order to fully enjoy all aspects of this show.

The enemies are portrayed with heavy archetypes and stereotypes; animalistic traits such as big rat ears for good listeners, huge protruding eyes for one that can “see everything”, whiskers, big cheeks or lips, no eyes, even a drag queen and otherwise monstrous exaggerations that make them seem inhuman. One of the children characters, Kojiro, even says “The one with the rectangular features… the one with the focus lines over his eyes… Don’t just change appearance now, I can’t compare you to anything!”. Exaggerated expressions and actions from both enemies and protagonists are sometimes treated with comedic effect regardless of how cruel the action portrayed may be. One example of the humor is when a character known for eating a lot appears dead and then breaks the bleak atmosphere by saying “I’m so hungry I can’t move.” I don’t think that’s rare for anime but somehow feels significant to mention given the extreme and abrupt changes in tone.

There is some CGI for those that hate seeing it at all. The element of historial accuracy is partially followed as shown by occasional dates, explanations of war tactics and customs such as depictions of religiosity and spirituality connected to Shintoism, Buddhism and the importance of Godlyness/ divinity/ Shrines/ Priests/ Seers/ Prayer at the time as well as female characters at times being left behind due to more dangerous conditions. There is a feeling that it is all a big play being performed as shown in how fun the ED is, with some characters even dressed in modern clothes.

In summary, this show is uniquely directed with frequent changes in tone mostly about a group of mature, sometimes endearing kids fighting adult samurai with exaggerated features, occasional inspiring, introspective moments, childlike moments (they are still kids, after all) and comedy relief throughout.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 28, 2024

PixelB

Mixed Feelings

Well, I do appreciate how the anime depicts actual conflict. I mean, it doesn't take the lazy route where all modern shounen are just good guys vs the evil demons. Oh boy, would it be too difficult to watch humans cutting down other humans, let's dumb it down a little and make the enemies literal demons and monsters so that the audience can understand who are the good and bad guys are!

Yes, this show has people cutting down other people. After all, it's set in a time of wars between provincial lords and successions of people in power. It's the late Kamakura period! It's nice ... to see a historical show -- albeit very loosely I imagine -- when all shounen series tend to be generic power fantasies. However, as always, the show obviously is shounen at heart. The show features some minor magic and superpowers at hand, as well as a nine year old protagonist trying to take revenge over the current administration that threw his clan out of power.

The offputting part of the show, and perhaps the reason people will love or hate this show has to be the comedic and slice of life bits. Even our main character's personality consists of enjoying the thrill of running away. It's a little difficult to take a show seriously when the main character's getting off in a fight to the death. There's plenty of manzai and comedic interactions even when people are fighting. Either way, the show attempts to inject a lot of lightheartedness and humor even in the most serious of times. People can be cutting other peoples' heads off and there would still be a mandatory comedic bit like running out of energy and having to eat a bunch of rice balls in an exaggerated manner. There's one thing for sure: it's not a Gintama. I wouldn't say it was very successful at pulling this sort of dynamic off very well.

Yorishige's the worst of them all, being a running overpowered gag character and also a sort of mentor and father figure for Tokiyuki. While he doesn't possess any actual combat ability, I'd say having such a facetious and light-hearted personality and affecting the entire story with his endless insight of peering into the literal future counts. While Yorishige himself has some obviously more serious scenes, you can't help but think mostly to the comedic bits where he acts as a boke.

I actually don't mind most of the characters, especially the rest of the side characters. Genba's a bit too much of the perverted archetype but the rest of Tokiyuki's retainers aren't bad. The synergy, dialogue, and relationships between each other definitely shines through. If the show treated itself more seriously while still maintaining some slice of life and appropriate manzai when it was appropriate, I'd think the show would be getting somewhere.

Of course, the reality is that actually writing a good story is really difficult. By injecting a lot of manzai interactions, the author is able to keep things light-hearted, maintain the shounen vibes, and still write a relatively competent story. A lot of people maybe would be turned off by a slower paced story, or maybe the author would lose his charm when writing in such a manner. After all, his strength does seem to be in those moments of comedic relief.

The animation is also a huge hit or miss. The beginning especially had some nice animation, but throughout the entire show there's so much cutting corners despite a solid storyboarding and art direction overall. I enjoyed some of the more abstract representations, painting style, and framing of interactions here and there, but the excessive amount of still frames, CGI, and lack of concrete background and even just faces being drawn at far distances does not rank highly. It's these small problems with the animation that ultimately drag it down to an overall mediocre and even unenjoyable experience. Near the end of the season, most fights are still frames and animated with as much shorthand as possible.

Overall, the show attempts to have a similar storytelling with the likes of giants like Gintama, but fails to understand the delicate balance of character personalities when doing so. It's hard to watch gag characters kill people and make me think much of them. Gintoki's most fun traits are things like liking sweet things, being stingy, and being extremely lazy. When Tokiyuki's most fun trait is getting off to battle, you can see the large difference in character development.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 1, 2024

Supersonic_Pain

Not Recommended

I wasn't looking forward to this tbh but I do like to watch all the WSJ adaptations when they come out so I kinda owed it to EluSam to check it out.

I read most of this (I think up to E10) in the manga before the anime came out and found it boring and dry and... that did not change.

It's kind of a boring, dry anime that gives "history textbook" vibes. I genuinely could not tell you what a couple of Tokiyuki's retainers' characters are supposed to be. Not to mention the antagonists are comically evil. If this wasn't a shonen anime, I wouldn't doubt ... for a second they'd all be rapists. It's so overdone that I was shocked when an antagonist did something that wasn't "nyeh, I'm gonna rip children's tongues out and make them slaves and I'm gonna build a harem of women after killing their husbands!"

Not to mention how UGLY they are. One has buckteeth and can speak with his ears, one has big-ass bug eyes, one has creepy eyes and a painted face, one has ants crawling all over his body at all times, it's just an unpleasant show to watch.

For what it's worth, CloverWorks did put a lot into this anime. There are points in this anime where it's very well animated and they have a lot of fun (I'd hope, at least) doing cool things that you wouldn't normally see in a middling WSJ adaptation. Maybe it's because the director has a sense of style (I don't know who directed this, admittedly, but, I mean, just look at it) and knows that, frankly, this series needs all the help it can get, but it was cool.

That being said, and this is kind of unavoidable given how often they're on horseback (which makes my faith in a Steel Ball Run anime just sooooo high), but it'll switch between CGI and not for when they're on horses and it's not, like, awful, but it was noticeable, at least for me.

I did like a couple of the characters. The Emperor's son was cool for the all of one scene he appeared in. Tokiyuki himself is okay. I like the main antagonist, I guess?

Another thing is that the main cast (Yorishige aside) are all little kids? Like, Tokiyuki is NINE (apparently not young enough to avoid a BDSM joke according to this show but that's neither here nor there). I'm no historian so I can't speak to the historical accuracy of the show but idk, it's kind of weird to watch this show and then remember "oh, they're all elementary schoolers". I get that a lot of anime involve high schoolers saving the world against eldritch gods and 1000-year-old vampires and shit but a 16-year-old and a nine-year-old are very far apart, it was kind of weird to me.

Like, it wasn't the worst thing you could watch. I got through it, I guess. I wasn't really actively offended by anything, it's just... not an entertaining show?

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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The official website of the television anime adapting Yuusei Matsui's Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi (The Elusive Samurai) manga announced a second season on Monday. Pr...read more

Oct 6, 8:47 AM by Nioxys | Discuss (23 comments)

Summer 2024 Simulcast List [Update 6/6]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of television anime acquired for simulcast release during the Summer 2024 season. Anime series licensed for hom...read more

Jun 28, 2:58 PM by Snow | Discuss (15 comments)

	Episode 9.5 (recap) not dubbed? Zenomyne - Dec 5	5 replies	by Armaldork »» Yesterday, 12:11 PM
	Poll: Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Aug 31	75 replies	by harshul_sood »» Dec 4, 12:40 PM
	Poll: Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Sep 28	81 replies	by KarmaKushiro »» Dec 3, 3:26 AM
	Poll: Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) InfinityDude88 - Jul 2	179 replies	by Johnny_Louis »» Dec 2, 4:18 PM
	Poll: Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jul 27	95 replies	by satyrelfheim »» Nov 29, 1:17 PM