Shin Samurai-den Yaiba

Deep in a tropical jungle, young Yaiba Kurogane diligently practices swordsmanship alongside his father, Kenjuurou, completely unaware of the modern world. However, one day, the two end up in a container on its way to Japan. There, they encounter Kenjuurou's old rival, Raizou Mine, and his daughter, Sayaka. Out of other options, Yaiba agrees to a deal with the Mine household: if he beats the strongest student in their dojo, he will be welcome to stay.

Using his distinctive skills and extraordinary strength, Yaiba earns his place. Wanting to fight more powerful enemies, Yaiba follows Sayaka to school—where he quickly loses to Takeshi Onimaru and acknowledges him as his new rival. With Onimaru inheriting the sword of his bloodline and obtaining demonic powers, Yaiba must train to become even stronger and beat him for good.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kurogane, Yaiba Main

Takayama, Minami Japanese

Mine, Sayaka Main

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Onimaru, Takeshi Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Kumo-otoko Supporting

Sakaguchi, Shuuhei Japanese

Namako-otoko Supporting

Ichinose, Kana Japanese

Yagyuu, Juubee Mitsuyoshi Supporting

Takahashi, Hidenori Japanese

Miyamoto, Musashi Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Momoi, Keiko Supporting

Hishikawa, Hana Japanese

Hitode-otoko Supporting

Nakamura, Genta Japanese

Professor Kanabo Supporting

Shimoyama, Yoshimitsu Japanese

Okada, Maiko Producer

Ueda, Youko Producer

Takahashi, Yuuma Producer

Muratsubaki, Takurou Producer

Reviews

Oct 2, 2025

HERMIT_PAIMON

Recommended

Pure cinema
This how a remake should be done , hats off to wit studio 🖖.
From details to nostalgic feel you will get everything unless you haven't watched original .
Main problem is that this kind of shonen is hard to attract audience specially in modern days where shonen like demon slayer rule the anime market . Support and advertising the show is another factor on which collaborators failed really hard .
The most amazing thing I liked is mixture of art style which gives you a 90s feel with modern touch .
Nothing much to say , a must watch show if like genuine adventure ... samurai shonen. Probably the best anime of 2025 for me .
Waiting for next season.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Sep 29, 2025

patkarunungan

Mixed Feelings

Thoughts on the New Remake

I am a fan of the original adaptation of Yaiba, and I was so excited with the announcement that Studio Wit will not only make a new adaptation but will also adapt the entire manga, not just those arcs covered by the original.

Alas! All the excitement I had for the remake was obliterated once Episode 1 dropped. It has removed all the humour that made the original, which I call Yaiba Classic, so much fun to watch. If Ranma 1/2 is funny, its humour is on another level.

This new adaptation tries to make the story a bit serious, targeting the older ... segment of the shounen demographic. The problem is that by presenting this as a serious story, it is not seen for what it is: a parody. It doesn't compare favourably to many of the staple shounen, and it is easy to dismiss this as something 'carried only by animation.' In fairness to it, it is one of the best animated shows today.

Some who haven't seen Yaiba Classic don't notice that it's speedrunning some stuff, but it's all too noticeable and painfully obvious to this fan of the old series.

The remake's OP and ED are okay. They don't hold a candle to the OP and ED of Yaiba Classic, but they are fine on their own.

As far as background musick is concerned, the OST of Yaiba Classic is better. It reminds me of this video from Every Frame is a Painting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vfqkvwW2fs

Basically, it's saying that the Marvel Movies use 'temp musick' to the point that it's forgettable.

I'm not sure if the new adaptation of Yaiba uses temp musick, but the background score is definitely forgettable.

If I scored the original an 8 out of 10, I give this remake only a 6 out of 10. It should have been lower, but there are other considerations.

The new remake is reportedly more faithful to the manga, with some scenes that did not appear in Yaiba Classic. Wit Studio is planning to adapt the entire manga, which is my motivation for watching it, to know the arcs beyond the Kaguya Arc.

If the new adaptation only gives the equivalent of what was covered in the original, I would have advised people to skip this and watch the original instead. But because it's going to cover even more material, I won't advise people against it. It's just that I am disappointed.

The remakes for Ranma 1/2 and Spice & Wolf do make a case for supplanting the original adaptation. This new adaptation doesn't, which is why if people like the new adaptation, I do recommend that they check out the original.


NOTA BENE: A grade of 6 out of 10 means that I find this anime slightly above average, and I enjoyed watching it.

A 6 means a decent score and one notch above average. If you're the kind of viewer who treats anything below a 7 as irredeemable, I'd encourage a broader, more nuanced approach to rating.

My enjoyment spectrum lies from 4 to 10. If I have scored an anime below 4, I actively dislike it.

_____________________________________________________________________________

I'll repost the entire text of my review for Yaiba Classic 1) to show the contrast of how I really adore the original, and 2) to provide some information that I think is true for both, except for the humour.

from https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=549689

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

Legendary Brave Swordsman Yaiba (Kenyuu Densetsu Yaiba)

This is one of the best anime I watched during childhood. Now that a new adaptation is in order this year 2025, how does this anime hold?

In my rewatch, this is still a delightful watch.


§ Overview

Kurogane Yaiba has always trained to become the best samurai in the world. One day, his father tells him to go to Japan. He quickly encounters Onimaru Takeshi, whom he defeats. Takeshi holds a grudge, so when he finds the Sword of the Devil Wind, he becomes evil and threatens to rule Japan and then the world. What would Yaiba do?


§ Notes


1. This is Aoyama Gōshō's underrated and largely forgotten anime and manga. It is still to be seen if newer anime watchers would love this because Yaiba is a product of its time.


2. Its power system is fairly basic. A legendary sphere powers your sword, and the only way to level up is, apart from physical training which hasn't been explained sufficiently, one must acquire either new spheres or a more powerful sword.


3. Its audience is children around 10 or people who are children at heart, especially like me who have seen this when I was young. Most anime fans who have seen the staple shounen like Hunter x Hunter or Full Metal Alchemist might not like it as this is not something that will make you think about life, but Yaiba really does it best for what it aims to do.

Since the target audience is grade schoolers, it uses immature and childish humour. It doesn't pretend to be something more serious the way the Elusive Samurai does. If you watch it as an adult, this may be your guilty pleasure because the slapstick humour is great. It still holds up.


4. It is mostly juvenile humour all throughout, but there is an arc where it gets serious for the show. Kids get to practise exercising their reasoning on a moral dilemma. It's not too deep but way serious for its intended audience.


5. We also meet different personages of Japanese history such as Miyamoto Musashi, Sasaki Kojirou, etc. They are a parody of these characters. Despite the power system being basic, it has some depth because it is grounded in Japanese lore and history.

I suspect one of the goals of Aoyama-sensei in creating this anime/manga is for young kids to be entertained while at the same time learn a small bit of history by contrasting the real-life persons they are learning in history class to the parodies in his anime.

There are some life lessons you can somehow gain from this childish anime, though the lesson in the final episode may seem too tacky for my taste.


6. I was surprised on my rewatch that it has a lot of word plays. Maybe not to the level of NISIOISIN in Monogatari, but they're there.


7. Whilst I enjoyed all 52 episodes, it's only halfway through the manga. Wit Studio's new adaptation aims to cover all chapters of the manga, but they'll execute things differently and perhaps make things a little less childish.

If this were to happen, then there's still room for any fan or would-be fan of Yaiba to watch this classic adaptation. I'm not sure if this even deserves the sakuga polish of the new adaptation.


8. The OP and ED are a banger.


§ Conclusion

This anime is a forgotten classic and I hope the interest in it will be revived once we get the new adaptation. But as it stands, the classic version of Yaiba is an entertaining watch. I highly recommend it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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May 10, 2025

therealab

Not Recommended

Preliminary (6/24 eps)

Spoiler

Preliminary review based on 6 eps -

What is good -
Animation - 8/10
It is enjoyable, nostalgic and fun to watch.

Humor - 7/10
Each episode has humor in it making it enjoyable and wacky.

What is bad -
... Plot - 3/10
The show seems like a story made on the go with a basic high level plot and few characters.
All else seems to be added on the fly with new characters appearing and disappearing in episodes.
The plot makes no sense. The "Protagonist" is not good. The "Antagonist" is not evil.

Character development - 4/10
Giving it a lenient 4 just because they gave some context to life of antagonist and he is the character with most depth.
All other characters are pure caricatures that come and go as needed.

Spoilers -

Antagonist - Onimaru has to be the most sensible practical character on this show.
Literally rooting for him. He was a good academic scholar with kendo as special subject.
His life was uprooted by Yaiba (MC). Then he comes in contact with an evil sword at his low point.
Even after becoming evil, he remains sensible and practical.
He conquers Govt with force and people with joy, entertainment, peace.
He has sensible understandable goals.

Now let's look at the MC - Yaiba.
Vagabond brat, useless swordsman who causes trouble everywhere he goes.
He creates trouble for the house that shelters him, for the school, for the city, and for his master so far.
If the escalation continues, he might be a bigger threat to the nation, and then the planet by the end of series that the antagonist ever could.
Is he righteous or pure like any "Good" protagonist?
Nope (He could not conquer his evil instincts and lost to Raijin demon twice)
Is he really skilled?
Nope. He just has better instincts coming from a jungle and having an OP teacher in his father. So he is unconventional and street smart.
He literally used tricks/luck/Deus ex machina to defeat almost everyone so far.
Is he clever or strategic?
Nope. He is dumb as rocks.
Does he have backstory so far? Nope

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: Shin Samurai-den Yaiba Episode 24 Discussion IzanaSolos - Sep 27	31 replies	by Dogstideta »» Oct 19, 4:04 PM
	Poll: Shin Samurai-den Yaiba Episode 23 Discussion deg - Sep 20	31 replies	by Vindicater »» Oct 4, 12:40 AM
	Poll: Shin Samurai-den Yaiba Episode 22 Discussion deg - Sep 13	18 replies	by Vindicater »» Oct 2, 4:17 AM
	Poll: Shin Samurai-den Yaiba Episode 21 Discussion Ashhk - Sep 6	10 replies	by patkarunungan »» Sep 30, 8:26 PM
	Poll: Shin Samurai-den Yaiba Episode 20 Discussion pixelante - Aug 23	11 replies	by MegamiRem »» Sep 30, 6:30 AM