Yasuke

I was really hyped for this anime but unfortunately, it left me disappointed. ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** Story: Felt all over the place and very rushed. We were introduced to new characters and then the next thing you know we don't know what happens to them. An example of this would be the girl's mother. I would begin a new episode and felt like a time skip occurred. I did like the group of mercenaries but then they were killed off suddenly for stupid reasons. Art: Looked really good at some points but then bad at others. Average, nothing too special. Sound: The electronic music fit in pretty well with the fight scenes. Characters: Yasuke seemed pretty unique but was a black samurai which was cool. He was level headed and not the typical shounen protagonist. The girl turned into a badass out of nowhere but was annoying at the start. The boss at the end felt too OP and there was no origin story. Enjoyment: I would not watch it again but did enjoy some of the action scenes. Overall: 6/10 TLDR: should of been longer, would not watch again but did enjoy some parts. Felt too rushed and story made little sense.

When i first saw the trailer, boy i was excited as hell. Was really looking forward for an interesting story about Black Samurai doing some Badass Shit. But you know what they say, don't put too much expectation on something, you'll regret it when it doesn't goes as you thought it would. The story is meh, a typical short anime where main character goes to defeat the villain and then they live happily ever after. Saying the story is "meh" is actually me being generous because holy hell, it doesn't make fuckin sense. I'm okay with the era being the age of samurai with a twist of fantasy power such as black magic and stuff, but why the fuck would you put MECHA. why are there robots in this era? first it doesn't make sense AT ALL, second, they literally didn't explain shit about how they we're so advance into the technology that a war in a samurai age is literally Robots vs Samurai. I know it's a 6 episode series, but damn, they introduce us to god knows how many disposable characters. You could write a much simpler story and maximize the potential of a few characters just like Demon Slayer. The only thing worth watching is the animation. Again, MAPPA did a really good job when it comes to animating it. Everything was fluid, gorgeous, and pleasing to the eyes. I just wish the story wasn't as shit as this. Overall, the story is shit, it doesn't make sense at all. The animation is a banger, soundtrack is okay i guess, i kinda like the hiphop twist. There's no character development, well it is a 6 episode series, so... cant really argue with that. and Enjoyment, mid to none. In short, just watch it for the animation, i mean it's MAPPA, so yeah..

1- The story is ok and simple, although it doesnt meet the historical facts(robots, magic, nobunaga sexual lifestyle...etc). 2- Art is good, some fights and slashing were nice. 3-Sounds are confusing, the music is for chilling electronic beats, which is weird to me since we are talking about samurai focused anime, but the effects were good. 4- I didnt like the idea that you still defending the slavery case. its done and it should be done decades ago. 5- I finished it and i had in my mind like 2-3 mins max from 6 episodes stuck in my head as a souvenir from it, which is not bad. Overall i dont think i will recommend it to anyone, its just meh.

The good: - Yasuke is an interesting and likable melancholic hero who I wish was more developed. - A fair amount the sword choreography uses full animation and actually resembled aspects of real Japanese swordsmanship instead being 100% stylized. - The music is solid and creates many unique moods even though it doesn't always fit what's happening on screen. - Much of the background art looks great and is very nicely detailed. The Bad: - The series needed more episodes to allow for stronger character development and world building. - Cliche and underdeveloped secondary and tertiary characters. - Dialogue and writing leaves much to be desired. - Noticeable pacing and continuity errors perhaps due to a limited scope and budget. - Quality of the character art is very uneven.

(spoiler free) Yasuke: Story: 4 The story is not very good but due to many twists and some good sword fights you can still get a 4. Art: 7 I think the style is pretty good especially for it being from Netflix in fights you see a lot of good effects and in general it looks like a very good anime. Sound: 5 The sound is okay but by good synchronous speakers (I speak of the German because I have seen this with German dub). But you can still give the sound a 5. Character: 7 The characters are often very unique and not normal like in other anime so it deserves a 7 in many ways. Enjoyment: 7 The Enjoyment is a 7 because you can enjoy the anime and it's quite short but still not bad. Overall: 6 The anime is "only" a 6/10 but still worth a try that you watch it.

The music went crazy and episode one was semi promising. Just take out the mechs, the robot with one liners and keep the samurai champloo vibes rolling and you have yourself a 8/10 anime. The flash backs were done very well, so I don't understand where the mechs had to come in and ruin everything. Such a waste of a talented MC. The fighting and gore was also done very well, where if they just kept that identity throughout the entire anime then anyone who would of watched it would of given a better review. Killing off one of the best actors on the show was another blunder that made no sense, he reminded me of nunu from league of legends but that's besides the point. This cartoon/anime was overall a train wreck and I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

WARNING THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS! This is was below my expectations. This show tried to do many things with characters and their connections, but the connections between many characters are confusing and not explained. For example, the teacher of magic met Saki for like 5 minutes of the show, and somehow they share this father and daughter bond. Complaint 2: When watching the trailer I thought it would be cool to see an actual real story animated, and I thought that the premise sounded cool, but for some reason, they introduced to magic, and giant robot mechs, and the origin and what the magic is is not explained, and I don`t understand the technology in this world. I mean magic, sure fine but they never elaborated on this nor did it talk about mechs. I mean the show just randomly dropped mechs like nothing. Compliment: The animation is gorgeous, because of course its Mappa animating it, and the opening and ending songs looked amazing. The ending was so cliché and anticlimactic. There was this intense fight and Yasuke sacrificed himself, but I did not feel any sentiment towards him dying. The show did not give you much material so that you could care for him, and I did not feel a single connection to any characters. CONCLUSION: To be honest, this show is like the same level as like a generic show, like The misfit at the demon academy, and Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon season 3, but if it was animated by a very talented team of animators. The story was kind of meh, because there are so many plotholes and confusions I had about magic and mechs, and the connections this show tried to make with the characters like Saki are so weak.

Story: 4 When looking at this anime I had a lot of excitement for it. I knew that there was going to be fantasy element to it, but the fact that they had to add dumb things like human mutations, mech, and magic elementals just killed the vibe for me. While, I did enjoy the little flash backs of Yasuke's historical past, I think the better alternative is too just have be a historical anime of how Yasuke got brought in Japan and his deeper relationship with Oda Nobunaga. Art: 9 This is something that MAPPA did pretty well on, the animation of the fight scene of Yasuke and other samurai in the snow, made it really fun to watch. Seeing how detailed the gore and realistically well done it did I really enjoyed. Another thing to add is that background scenery were top notch beautiful to look at, which definitely made watching this anime a lot easier. Sound: 8 With a shadow of a doubt I will say that Flying Lotus did an exceptional job with in terms of the opening song to the anime, the vibe it set in made it very interesting to want to continue watching the episodes, even though the story lacked. The little subtle fight scenes with the music in the back also helped give it more flavor when watching. The only concern I had is the little awkward song effects for things like the blast shots from the mecha and swords clashing. Character: 4 This here very much lacked a lot. I think that they didn't support much of Yasuke's background very much or the other characters making it very hard for me to feel any sense of emotions for any of the characters. Also the fact that they switched focus on the character making Yasuke becoming a supporting character from originally a main character in my opinion made it frustrating as I wanted to feel more connected to the character. If theres anyway to fix this, is by having the story focus more on Yasuke's past of being a samurai and not this fantasy crap. Enjoyment: 6 While I did enjoy the first two episodes of the series, I think the last remaining four were alright or mediocre, I think the twist of adding the fantasy element really destroyed the potential hype that it could've had. Knowing that MAPPA is known for it's fantasy, I wasn't even surprised by the genre, but I think it would've been better if MAPPA decided to remove it. Overall: 6 For how I saw this show originally on trailer I definitively had a lot of expectations going into it, but finally now finishing the show I will definitively say that my expectations were pretty crush. If there's anything I think they should've done differently is one removing the element of fantasy, two have more character development with the characters and finally make it pretty historically accurate. If there's anything I really enjoyed from Yasuke is that the animation is amazing, the background scenery is beautiful to admire, Flying Lotus did an exceptional job and the flashbacks were intriguing to listen to.

I was so intrigued by the premise, (the real life story of the first black samurai) but I found myself more invested in the flashbacks, since the scifi/fantasy elements didn't mesh together with that current storyline we followed. It's not a good sign when I'm bored watching a 6 episodes only anime series. it did some good work in the graphic, but the story wasn't fully fleshed out and everything felt hurried. I always love a story with a child prodigy and an older gruff protector with a dark past, but this missed the mark on many fronts. Also, I saw it in the japanese dub (it feels weird calling the japanese a dub for an anime), but I've heard people say that the english voices were actually donee well. I think you might like it if you like a lot of western cartoons, because it had that vibe, especially during the big fight scenes

I was really excited to watch Yasuke after seeing the trailer and listening to Flying Lotus' soundtrack. The visuals were not the best of an animated series but had its highlights, including the fight scenes. While I respected the endeavor to try and meld both historical fiction and sci-fi fantasy, it was tough to pull everything together in such a short series. It was jarring to go so rapidly between learning something about the real Yasuke's history and seeing the ridiculous inclusion of a robot and their horribly corny dialogue. I'm glad I watched this series and had a fun time with it, but I wish it was longer and more focused.

-- Spoiler Free -- Answers to historical accuracy, CGI/3D, and gore. Historical Accuracy Reading some of these preferenced reviews being shown on the front page has left me pretty confused, honestly. For starters, people claim to have been excited about the trailer, but then later on talk about how mechs aren't cannon to the story of a real figure? I actually doubt that they watched the trailer, as both the mechs and magic were a part of that. There's never even mention of the story trying to portray a real enactment of this historically based figure, hence it being tagged as fictional (see "imaginary"). Not all fiction has to be completely made-up, and I think that's what these people are thrown off by. They expect fiction to not have references to real people, but there's plenty of fiction that roots itself in historical events/people and shows a new take on a "what if" type story. It's not advertised as historically accurate, and I never got the impression that it was supposed to be from trailers or otherwise. Talk about juding a book on it's cover - in this case, an anime solely on it's name. CGI/3D If you're looking for a badass main character with some fluid fight scenes, it's pretty good. Not 10/10, but easy to watch. The review talking about CGI and bad 3D animation? There's no CGI in this... It's just standard anime. I tend to have a big dislike toward heavy CGI scenes and can only stand small doses if it's done right - but this is just standard anime. I'm convinced the reviewer hasn't even watched it and reviewed based on other motives. GORE As for a review seen talking about too much gore; I don't see blood as gore. We're talking about samurai here. The most that's shown is blood, which makes it way easier to watch than if every time someone got ran through by a sword their guts spilled out. Yes, there's blood. No, there's not gore. EDIT - After finishing, there's a total of around 6 seconds of "gore", but it's not terrible. As for my actual rating - 7/10. The animation is pretty clean, the art style is enjoyable, and the music is awesome. I don't normally pick up on the musical side of things unless it's just over the top, but this was really cool. There's a focus on the samurai aspect and the mechs play an overall background role which I enjoyed (I'd otherwise have just watched something focused on mechs). Don't go in expecting historical accuracy (for whatever reason) and you'll have a good time unless you're super sensitive to blood. The story was rushed, sure, but not terrible. It did go quicker in the second half as compared to the first half, but that's sometimes just how it goes. Having watched the whole thing, I still don't understand where some people are coming from saying it's a waste of time - especially if you're already running low on anime to watch as it is.

Rest in Peace Chadwick Boseman, who was to depict the character in the now-canceled film adaptation I’ve seen a fair amount of disorganized tv-shows, and as much as I can’t help but appreciate the post-modern themes of ‘Darling in the Franxx’, the second half of the series is certainly not structured in any comprehensible way. To be as vague as possible, it is as if the show threw in a second season of content into the three last episodes of the series, and the takeaway essentially is that the ‘End of Evangelion’ finale is not even comparable to the amount of existential dread coming from this series, while also not being able to comprehend what the fuck even was happening or what I was supposed to make of it. The point of this segment is basically that ‘Yasuke’ is like that, but for an entire tv-show. I didn’t have much prior experience with the staff of the series, the only exception being Stanfield who I was a pretty big fan of after his performance in ‘Sorry to Bother You’ and ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ (and still am for the record, I would like to think this series isn’t representative of the quality the staff can produce), but it was pretty hard to not be confident in its supposed historical allure. A black samurai in feudal japan was certainly compelling and could serve as a basis for some interesting critique of Japan’s still conservative views of foreigners. And if ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ has taught me anything, a fantastical depiction of real events is not necessarily one to be skeptical of. Anyway, ‘Yasuke’, from the creator of the ‘Black Dynamite’ and ‘The Boondocks’ series, LeSean Thomas, with composition from Flying Lotus, follows a non-linear story of Yasuke’s rise to success and trauma of the past, who is tasked, after years of tranquility, to deliver a mysterious child to a distant doctor to ‘save her from the magical forces that are controlling her’. The series goes back and forth between the historically focused (I have no idea if they are based upon recorded history) background of Yasuke’s character and his present that is structured behind a ‘monster of the day’ format, being targetted by magical minions sent by the spider demon who seems interested in the powers that the little girl possess. If you got whiplash from reading that then I did my job. Spoilers ahead - From the moment the series starts with a big purple CGI-looking fight, it’s already clear what this would be, nonetheless, I was surprised, to say the least. Although the historical bits have a level of interest to them, with a more grounded and versatile structure, albeit rushed as to not take too much space, they are interrupted and quickly replaced with a magical narrative that tries to incorporate itself into Yasuke’s backstory but fails without recognizing that the two portions have entirely different tones if not genres. Most of the series focuses on comedically villainous antagonists that fail to make an impact on the narrative of the series or on my experience for that matter, and largely depends on the relationship between an indifferent Lakeith Stanfield and an annoying 12-year old (same thing but whatever), which if my description wasn’t loaded enough, didn’t do much for me. The series is at its most excessive when the 12-year old symbolically break out of her cocoon, kills the bad guy, and tries to conclude a theme of change, after what I can only guess knowing that the character has been pretty agentive throughout the entire series only really pretending to be “sick” when the narrative sees fit. If there was anything to save its overconfidence, then the presentation being consistent with the few action scenes the series was largely advertised with would’ve at least measured up to the excitement I could imagine many have when a series is produced by Mappa that are at this point pretty famous for its presentation. Well, unfortunately, companies aren’t the ones making the products you use, as much as billionaires would like you to believe, it is their workers (that they barely pay). And although I would point to the fairly impressive choreography of action scenes especially earlier in the series, I don’t really feel like it when a larger majority of the conflict is made through fantastical fluff that lacks a real sense of pacing. The color design is especially obnoxious, having a very saturated color palette without any real contrast around the end of the series, otherwise being completely noteworthy. If there was any injustice on my part, it would be watching Samurai Champloo right before this, which, although not masterful, was a much better execution of combining samurais with a modern genre. The fantastical aspects of the series feel severely underdeveloped and unfitting and would’ve fit better with a more cyberpunk presentation, and that’s even ignoring how that’s obviously the direction Flying Lotus was given when composing the surprisingly great score for the series. If there’s anything to take away from this review, I would say ‘Yasuke’ suffers greatly under tonal inconsistency in many departments could’ve worked better if they pursued the same goal. The opening for the series remains a really good intro because there’s a vibe that isn’t constantly obstructed, as much as some of the writing can take you out of it. That and go play ‘Katana Zero’, it’s a great cyber samurai game and it’s the only time I will be able to mention it, soo so good. Strong 3/10

Just finished this new anime on Netflix. The story was about a black samurai who was on a mission to protect a young girl with supernatural power. Since the anime was made by MAPPA, the animation was solid and the fight scenes were satisfying. However, the storytelling was mediocre. The main character was a black samurai, which was super rare, but I felt like this did not have much impact on the plot. Like, the samurai could just be a typical Japanese, and the story would not change too much. There wasn’t any surprises to the plot, as I have seen this countless time before. Also, there was only 6 episodes, and I wanted this to be longer to flesh out the story even more. It was so rushed, especially the girl, who suddenly knew how to wield her power at will. Overall, a good looking anime, but the story was mediocre. 5.5/10

Black Revisionist History Month. Yasuke is weird... but I don't think it's bad. An anime about a historical black samurai is really cool and genuinely love that Netflix and Mappa were willing to bring the idea to life. However, you can really tell that it was directed by a western weeb who grew up on Neon Genesis Evangelion, Naruto, very violent old ova's and thinks that's what the real Japan is like. The liberties the show takes to add mechs, mutants, magic and psychic powers into Feudal Japan without explaining why they're there muddies the shows focus and makes it hard to take seriously, but at the same time I don't hate it. It's not the prettiest Mappa show they've made. A lot of the animation is stiff and clunky, but the sticky violence and fight scenes are very satisfying to watch. The voice acting is... not great. I haven't watched it subbed but the dubbed Japanese citizens have a weird inconsistent mix of Japanese impressions and normal american talk. The music is pretty unremarkable too be honest. The ost is a mix of hiphop and your usual Japanese fantasy background music, but never a fusion of the two which I think is a missed opportunity. I really like the two leads. I don't know how much about the history of the real man so I don't know how much of his story and personality have been "anime'd up" but the show does a good job giving him a strong personality, moral motivation and exploring his historical background (except for the giant mechs and magic) through his flashbacks. I also really warmed up to Saki the child with immense psychic power who Yasuke has to protect. I like that she's a bit of a scamp and has very childish flaws to overcome. I think this show is okay if you're willing to look past some of the obvious nonsense. It won't change your life or anything, but it is entertaining if you've got under 3 hours to spare. 6/10 It's Okay *thumbs up*

This was really disappointing. At the start, I was really excited to watch the show. It did seem interesting as it was about a black samurai. The most exciting part for me was that MAPPA was animating it. But after watching it I just feel let down. Story - 2 This story was full of holes in it. We are just given a glimpse of everything. Nothing is really explained to us. The power system was not explained. The addition of magic and mechas was not needed, and it just brought the anime down. I thought this was supposed to be about Yasuke the black samurai but the story has its inaccuracies. Art - 8 The sole reason I continued the anime was for its art. MAPPA did a good job with that. I always looked forward to a fight as it was just mesmerizing. Sound - 6 There were no exceptional parts over here but it wasn't bad. Character - 2 There was no character development except for a bit in the main character Yasuke.

This anime was recommended to me by someone who shares the same similar taste of anime as I do. I'm a huge history buff, so typically when there's an anime that involves history or war I'm quick to watch it. After watching Yasuke I can see why I hadn't heard of it nor watched it. I was really excited to get into the anime; perhaps I had set my hopes too high. I won't spoil anything, but the use of magic and robots was completely off-putting. The fact that the story jumped from the past to the present so frequently was also not something I was hoping for. The information given about the characters didn't really give them any depth either. Some scenes had lines that were vague and could easily be seen as one thing or another; not really contributing to the things happening around it. Making an anime loosely based on a historical moment isn't bad, but how it was done in Yasuke was. If you're going to add so much extra stuff to the story without explaining it you might as well have just made your own anime completely.

This anime would have needed to be a 100 episodes series to make any single sense. I would have preferred to watch a historical anime about the real person that was Yasuke the black samurai. His life was already amazing enough in itself, but instead, they decided to make a story with robots, mutants, super powers, animaguses... really anything you can think of, all of it was in there... You can't do that when you only have 6 episodes to work with. There were huge plot holes and none of the questions that were raised were answered... I felt like I had lost my time.

This could of be an amazing series but the shortness and lack of time focusing on "arcs" throws it all away. I wasn't able to take in the emotion of a lot of scenes because they got rushed and it's highly upsetting. My biggest hope is they let this series get a remake of some sort. I know it's not likely but if they honestly let the show spread its wings it'd be a top tier This could of be an amazing series but the shortness and lack of time focusing on "arcs" throws it all away. I wasn't able to take in the emotion of a lot of scenes because they got rushed and it's highly upsetting. My biggest hope is they let this series get a remake of some sort. I know it's not likely but if they honestly let the show spread its wings it'd be a top tier

One day I was telling my friend about Yasuke (the historical figure) and how cool his story was, while we were searching for something to watch, and then BAM! Netflix shows us there's an anime about him, like if it was listening to us. I got really hyped and we decided to watch it. I was really expecting a show based on the historic figure, and okay, maybe they could make some fantasy stuff based on Japan at the time, like folklore figures or something, maybe exaggerate a few of his adventures just because it's supposed to be an anime for entertainment and not an academic documentary. Instead, we got a really week plot and characters, like other reviews already pointed out, a mess of world building where Mongols had mechas (like, what????) and then a bunch of random magic and the classic "thousand years old overpower villain defeated by the young, inexperienced hero because power of friendship". My friend dropped the anime by the episode 3 or 4. I watched the last episodes without her one day I was bored after work and it didn't get any better. I supposed they named the anime "Yasuke" for marketing reasons, to attract the public that would be interested on the historical figure. I think they should've thought the obvious, that people interested in the historical figure don't want to watch an anime called "Yasuke" that has nothing to do with the Black Samurai, so they'd be disappointed. My conclusion is, they weren't trying to make an interesting story at any point, they just wanted an average, forgettable anime to make some quick buck through click bait.

If Yasuke had stuck to telling you the main character's story throughout all of its 6 episodes, I'm sure it would be much more highly rated. I'm inclined to say that this show has two 'parts', and both parts deserve their own rating. Part 1 being episodes 1 to 3, and part 2 being episodes 4 to 6. Part 1 explores the character of Yasuke while the rest of the cast remain only secondary actors in a redemption arc. If you're thinking of watching Yasuke, please watch these first 3 episodes as they present you a relatively interesting story. Sadly, after episode 3 passes by and Yasuke is removed as the center piece, the anime devolves into stereotypical shonen stuff. A Mary Sue MC heads out to defeat the big bad, whoopdee doo, seen this a hundred times before with better writing, better animation and better music. Characters die gruesome deaths for the sake of gore and these supposed tear jerker moments are barely able to get a simple 'ew' out of me as the next scene comes up. It's amazing how they go from an interesting enough villain that could've provided a conclusion to Yasuke's story arc to a bland cookie cutter big bad who only exists to show off the strength of the Mary Sue, amazing and utterly disappointing. It's hard to watch what could've been a decent 1 hour movie devolve into a hot mess of cliche writing. But, as I said, you should be happy sticking to the first three episodes and finding those events conclusive enough while leaving the rest to the imagination because let me tell you, whatever your imagination comes up is probably miles better than what reality has brought us.