YASUKE

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionYasuke

REVIEWS

• 

  LuminousMagic

  20/100
  Yasuke is kinda cool sometimes, but incredibly boring otherwise. Robots and magic can't save a bland script.

  

  I went into Yasuke a bit weary but excited. I liked the last Netflix Original, DOTA: Blood of the Dragon despite its flaws, and was hoping Yasuke would have at the very least the same level of quality.

  Unfortunately, instead of the Champloo inspired thrill ride I was hoping for, I instead got a frustratingly mediocre fantasy action show that fails to make use of the creative liberties they've taken. The addition of robots and magic only serve to accentuate the lack of originality in the script and direction of the show.

  There's nothing new to be gained from watching Yasuke other than an even deeper appreciation for Champloo for being an anachronistic samurai show that was willing to use its historical license to tell a wacky and engaging adventure story.

  Yasuke instead opts for yet another droll prophecy plotline which constantly sidelines Yasuke's (the title character) own plotline which while traditional, was a hell of a lot more interesting than magic chosen one plotfuckery.

  Yasuke's arc of coming to terms with his status as a servant, his betrayal by the one he thought would best understand him, and his undying loyalty to Nobunaga, all fall by the wayside in favor of boring magic battles and cliche villains.

  The characters are all uninspired except for Yasuke himself, and that hot Russian bear lady who unfortunately gets the most brutal death in the entire show. There are attempts to make you care for certain characters, but we are never given enough time to meet them, and it all ends up feeling incredibly rushed.

  The production overall ranges from occasionally great to serviceable. There's some cool moments here and there, but for the most part it's what you have come to expect from the average action anime.The synth soundtrack isn't nearly as memorable as their sister Netflix show, DOTA: Blood of the Dragon either, which is a shame because it could have helped a lot of the fights hit that much harder.

  It's not that the soundtrack is particularly bad, I just find that it doesn't really make the show pop. Regardless, the fights when they happen are actually quite fun and well-animated, but it is all in service of this uninspired plot, which makes me care less about the fights overall.

  Lastly, I just want to mention that I have no problems with anachronistic stories that take liberties with their historical fanfiction.

  In fact, I relish those kinds of creative endeavors due to the freedom granted to creators but Yasuke lacks any ambition with its premise to be interesting. Sticking robots and magic onto your boring script does not spice it up, any more than adding ketchup to vanilla ice cream does not make it a better dessert. When you add new elements to your story, it has to actually add something to it, not make it feel confused and unfocused.

  Overall, Yasuke was incredibly disappointing. It's got some cool moments here and there, but it is marred by the incredibly bland premise and lack of well-developed characters besides Yasuke, who himself gets sidelined in favor of said bland premise. Yasuke may not have anything offensively bad about it, but there's nothing particularly good about it either save a few fun fight scenes. While I would love to see Yasuke used in more stories, this was not the way to go about it.

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• 

  CodeBlazeFate

  55/100
  What we have here is kind of rough and mediocre, with a cool aesthetic and likable elements to keep Yasuke afloat

  Yasuke is an odd mixed bag. On the one hand, there are several likable aspects about the characters and the audiovisuals, making the show at least somewhat entertaining, On the other, it’s kind of a dumb, heavy-handed, rushed mess. LeSean Thomas’ 2nd anime showed some promise on the outset, taking on the story of the first black samurai, all while being led by a black director and having music by several black musicians such as Thundercat and Flying Lotus. However, it feels like there were compromises made to fit this into 6 episodes while introducing very weird elements that weren’t once featured in the marketing of this show.

  Let’s start with the positives and work our way down. The music by Flying Lotus is a fun blend of traditional Japanese, Nu jazz and neo-soul, and hip hop production. Essentially, it’s a fun, slick good time and like you took one of his albums and set it in the late 1500s. It isn’t “You’re Dead” levels of greatness but it’s a rock solid OST. The OP, done by Flying Lotus and featuring Thundercat for vocals, is a solid, traditional-sounding track, though their previous anime song, “Unrequited Love” from a far worse Netflix show (Carole & Tuesday) was probably better. The ED features Niki Ronda and is a tender, melodic piece akin to Samurai Champloo’s ED. All in all, Flying Lotus did a bang-up job as expected.

  Visually speaking, the show is kind of nice but has some issues. The art direction is particularly striking at points, especially in the latter half of the show when things get weird. There are several moments where, long with the music and the events unfolding, the show starts feeling like a psychedelic hip-hop record, and it looks mesmerizing. The one AMV-esque sequence the show has in episode 3 is particularly evocative. Director LeSean Thomas knew exactly what kind of eye-popping aesthetic he wanted to go for, and Junichi Higashi was definitely the right art director for the job.

  The fight scenes also showcase some solid animation by the staff working at Studio MAPPA. There are several clean cuts and filthy sword fights that get downright brutal. Takeshi Koike’s character designs also had a fair amount of detail put into them that stayed pretty consistent, even during the battles. Thankfully, they never resorted to using CG for whenever samurai warriors such as Yasuke were clad in their armor. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for most of the mechs in the show. The CGI for the mechs is honestly terrible. They don’t fit well with the show’s aesthetic or world (more on that later) and the frame rate becomes absolutely jittery when they’re around. The first scene of the anime is by far the worst in this regard, as there are even some 2D elements that crumble during it. However, there are other moments where this is the case. Still, all that aside, the anime has fairly solid production values, and you can tell they wanted to do something interesting with the show’s aesthetic. As an action spectacle, the show’s pretty decent.

  However, the writing is...a bit of a subpar mixed bag. Yasuke himself is a decent main character. He’s a somewhat depressed man haunted by the past, the war his people lost, and the deaths of those closest to him decades after the end of Nobunaga’s campaign came to a violent end. He’s long past the point of needing to prove himself worthy as the first black samurai --a slave turned warrior-- as the flashbacks showed that militaristic rise. His characterization isn’t anything groundbreaking or especially compelling, but it gets the job done well enough, and his badassery and reactions to those around him make him likable enough to watch. The kid characters range from annoying to tolerable, with the show’s deuteragonist, Saki, going from an ill girl with uncontrollable powers to a bit of a snarky kid with some spunk. She and Yasuke make for an ok duo, though it never feels like they have to struggle to rely on each other, as the show kind of just brushes past any kind of event or point that could make for a reasonable character arc.

  Some of the side characters are pretty alright, namely the mercenaries initially hired to capture Saki. They have a decent dynamic to them, as they can barely tolerate each other, much less the person who hired them, but are able to get along just enough to bicker constantly without it detracting from them in any way. They even have some solid rapport with Yasuke. This is especially the case for scythe girl Ishikawa and the mech, Haruto. Sadly, it takes until episode 5 for their names to be revealed in the show proper for some reason, and by then, people start dropping like flies They’re at least better than the incredibly bland villains, like the corrupt Catholic priest, the xenophobic rival samurai turned evil general who wants to adhere to the old ways where women and slaves weren’t allowed to be warriors, or the final boss. They’re as threadbare as most of the Dororo antagonists.

  Speaking of threadbare, the show ultimately becomes a case of “strong man takes the kid with crazy powers to a school so they can defeat an ancient evil”. It’s a pretty weak and rushed example of that kind of narrative, too. No time is ever spent training or even really letting the narrative or characters breathe. The show just goes from point to point. Sometimes, it feels like there are episodes that could have been split in two and just have fake endings as a result. Probably the worst example is in episode 5 where the aforementioned hired mercs come back and one of them is piloting a giant mech suit. Where did they get it? God knows. Why did they decide to join the fights of the last two episodes? Because they were asked to...offscreen.

  Speaking of the mechs, despite the talking robot being probably the best character in the show, Yasuke’s sci-fi elements feel kind of tacked on. The mechs in this show are just tossed in here during the late 1500s with absolutely no explanation. There is a giant amalgamation of armor made from evil spiritual magic, but that’s the closest we have to an explanation on how...anything works! There are no mechanical facilities shown in this time period, so how and why do mechs exist in this universe? If you’re going to introduce sci-fi elements into your historical time piece series, you should at least offer s o m e t h i n g so the viewer isn’t just questioning the integrity of the setting. Even the weird, nebulous magic stuff has spirituality to fall back on as an explanation, even if the powers become absolutely ridiculous, tank the frame rate on occasion, and lead to probably one of the most groan-worthy resurrection scenes this side of Sonic 06. Much like Carole & Tuesday, this feels like another Netflix title that just throws in sci-fi elements haphazardly into a bare setting. When there are other rushed elements and weird holes in the script, the last thing we need is for the setting to crumble like this once you think about it for even one second.

  This is probably yet another case of a relatively forgettable Netflix original having striking audiovisuals, but not much in the way of good writing. It's a shame the show turned out kind of mediocre when you consider that if the show gave itself another episode or two so it could have some time to breathe and explain certain things, Yasuke could have been a good action spectacle where the heavy-handed writing doesn’t get in the way of anything. The show definitely commentates on tradition, and the mix of xenophobia and racism of 1500s Japan in a way that validates its black characters without feeling especially self-aggrandizing. However, it really needed a tighter script as what we have here is kind of rough and mediocre, with a cool aesthetic and likable elements to keep it afloat. Anime featuring black creators and musicians is certainly welcome, and we definitely need more shows like this. For what it’s worth, Yasuke is still a decent time thanks to its audiovisuals and the relatively likeable characters. Still, hopefully, the next project LeSean Thomas works on ends up being more polished than this.

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• 

  Obliv

  60/100
  The Story of The First Black Samurai, Yasuke: But Not Really

  ___(may contain minor spoilers!)___ ___Initial Thoughts & Plot___

  Going into this anime, I did have slightly high expectations. With MAPPA having a mvp year, when I saw that they would be animating a series based on Yasuke led by the direction of LeSean Thomas, I was excited. What we got, truly wasn't the story of Yasuke, but rather the story of Saki, flashbacks, mechs and supernatural powers. During the course of the six episodes, there are some scenes that dive back into Yasuke's past, however these flashbacks do not explore that deep into Yasuke's character and motivations, and are just recaps of parts of his Samurai life working under Nobunaga Oda. I did not mind Saki being the focal point as it did make for a very... interesting story although, what I would have liked to see was a story focused mainly on Yasuke's life and his tale. Possibly even with some historically accurate events that took place and scenes that showcase Yasuke's development as a character through the years, rather than random glimpses into his past life. Albeit, with a runtime of six episodes, it would've been hard to accomplish.

  ___Characters___

  When it comes to the cast of characters, the main two that shine are obviously Yasuke and Saki. Some honourable mentions include Nobunaga Oda, Ichika, Natsumaru, Morisuke, and Ichiro. However, with only six episodes, a lot of these characters were extremely rushed and unpolished, which is understandable. With Yasuke being such a unique and interesting character with a mesmerizing story as he is the first black samurai to reach Japan, it's just a bit disappointing seeing that they didn't do more with him, especially since the anime is named after him. I enjoyed every flashback and scene where Yasuke fought, however once again it did not feel like the whole premise and point of the story revolved around him. I also enjoyed Saki's character even though her powers weren't really explained very well, the dynamic of her and Yasuke fit nicely. Would've been nice to see more Nobunaga and Natsumaru screen time as well as some closure on Ichiro.

  ___Soundtrack___

  One of the greatest things about this anime was the soundtrack. When you have Flying Lotus on the staff in charge of the soundtrack nothing can go wrong. The soundtrack that he came up with was masterful and I enjoyed every second of it. I was also pleasantly surprised when I heard that one of my favourite artists, Thundercat, would be performing the opening. They did not miss at all when it came to the music and I even encourage everyone to listen to the full original soundtrack that got released alongside the anime.

  ___Animation___

  In terms of the animation, I really have no complaints. MAPPA did a great job with the art, the character designs, and the fight scenes that were drawn out. I'm not really a fan of the CGI used but when there are mechs and robots flying everywhere on a battlefield, it's to be expected. A lot of the scenery during the downtime is especially beautiful. I still cannot believe how many projects MAPPA has come out with in the past year so props to them for doing a good job even with a heavy workload. OP visuals were very pretty as well.

  ___Closing Thoughts and Rating___

  Despite the many flaws, I did have a somewhat enjoyable experience watching Yasuke. Little things such as the addition of an amazing staff and soundtrack really contributed to my overall enjoyment. I still do believe that a lot of potential was wasted with Yasuke and a more historically accurate story with more episodes would've made for an amazing series. Flying Lotus hinted at a possible continuation of the series on Twitter so there is still hope. My only wish is that they take some time to breathe and learn from the mistakes they made during these six episodes. My ratings change often but as of now I have Yasuke sitting comfortably at a 6/10, which may be even a bit generous.

  This is my first review ever so feedback is greatly appreciated! :)

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