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.
