Yasuke is one of the most intriguing historical figures that I can think of and as a black African man who lives a fascinating life as a noble samurai warrior under the shogunate of Oda Nobunaga. His story can be easily turned into a fantastic historical anime series and in 2021, we finally got one under the hands of studio MAPPA and I cannot stretch enough how god-awful this piece of mess is. To keep the review short, I just gotta say this anime contains about 5% of the actual story about Yasuke and the rest was your usual anime extravaganza that makes little to no sense other than to let people know that it was in fact "AN ANIME SERIES". I don't want to talk about race politics when it comes to entertainment media cause I believe that anyone can make any kind of story about any people that they want if they got a good story to tell and sadly despite how much back talents behind the anime, they still don't believe Yasuke can stand on it own two feet as a historical piece of series without shoehorned in a bunch of old and tired anime tropes that plague the medium right now. One positive thing that I can say about this one is it look and feel like something Yoshiaki Kawajiri would make back in the late 80s and that is also the reason why I don't drop this series right after episode 1.
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angelica-segerback29 August 2021I had high expectations after watching the trailer. Therefor I was very dissappinted when watching the first episode. The English voice acting didn't sound good to me and it was a strange mix of short fragmented scenes and music that didn't seem to fit. I wasn't sure I would want to continue watching it. However, I decided to give it at least one more episode and I also watched it in Japanese this time. What a difference. I ended up enjoying it a lot more and enjoyed the story and the characters.
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ericwaldau-9491129 April 2021Binged this as soon as I could. Wish there was more than 6 episodes. It's absolutely amazing, Lakeith Stanfield is awesome in everything he does so I was so happy to hear he'd be a part of this project. My only complaint is that it is only 6 episodes. WATCH THIS!
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noahstern-4146030 April 2021'Yasuke' may have disappointed some viewers as they thought it was going to be more grounded in reality, with the main character - Yasuke being a realistic portrayal of his real world counterpart. Instead the show takes a rather different route incorporating heavy magical elements.
I'll admit that the lore of the world is pretty basic and not fleshed out at all which leads to a little bit of deus ex machina on top of Saki being kind of boring. Other than this however I found the show to be extremely enjoyable. There's nothing inherently wrong with tropey anime stuff as long as you're not expecting something entirely groundbreaking and serious. Not every anime needs to be Evangelion, guys.
Some of these reviews complain about the 'forced agenda' of the show but I really don't see it. Yasuke really was very highly regarded by most people of his time with no stigma towards black people existing other than the fact that they were foreign. Oda Nobunaga was famously interested in other cultures so it's not too far fetched to say that if he's lived longer Japan may have become a more accepting place. Secondly, homosexuality was accepted in bushido (the general warrior philosophy of the time). Having a gay character is also nowhere near the reach people have described it to be
It virtually goes without saying that the music and animation are absolutely top tier. 'Yasuke', in my opinion is delightfully fun and binge-able. Very much worth a watch. Just don't expect a masterwork or anything. -
residentgrigo29 April 2021Yasuke is best viewed as an Onimusha or Afro Samurai reboot so a real retelling of Yasuke´s story continues to elude us. He even feels like a side character in his own show and don´t ask me why this wasn´t produced as a 2-part movie. The plot is a bit all over, almost like a videogame as villains come and go at random. The miniseries most importantly would have been better off without the badly explained sciences fantasy elements (why is The Force in this?) but the overall picture is better than its assorted elements and the anime works well enough as a one and done pulp adventure. The music is what I will remember the most and a lot of the animation is well done for a TV production. Another "Good Enough" production by MAPPA and reminiscent of the ultra-random OVAs we used to get till the late 00s.
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I watched this in 2 sittings, it's easy to watch and a fun time that feels rushed in the last 2 episodes.
The good:- Main character is interesting and developed to some degree
- Action sequences are mostly cool and exciting
- Good chemistry between the main and secondary characters
- Backstory sequences are interesting but...
The bad:- ...They don't spend enough time with the backstories and character development.
- Needed more world-building (I would say 2 to 4 more episodes to really flesh out the characters and the world)
- Could have done without the "magical" aspects, even if some are central to the plot (something more on the lines of the "Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuioku-hen" action would have been more interesting for my personal taste).
At the end of the day, I did have fun with it and would watch more of this world if it's made. There is potential to really bring depth to these characters and the world they live in.
Regarding reviewers calling this "Woke" or "Political" I completely disagree, There are a lot of cases of shows being worse than they could be, because of "on the nose" political stuff (The Good Doctor and The Rookie for example) but this does not fall in that category. If your problem is the race of the protagonist, than that is on you, not on the show-runners. -
Netflix made sure to inform everbody that Grammy Award Winning producer Flying Lotus executive produced this series, and provided its entire OST.
Yet when the show released it took minutes to realize something is wrong.
Some of the shots, including stills, look beautiful, yet the animations are stiff and lifeless The english voice acting is not very enjoyable, gladly I could switch to German which is better in my opinion.
The trailers painted this as a grand epic with incredible Lo Fi beats, akin to cult classic Afro Samurai, great action and an interesting supernatural touch.
But the series itself goes nowhere. Episodes end at random, the pacing is not great and the production quality is all over the place.
I wanted to make this review to call Netflix out on this.
They went out of their way to advertise this with the FlyLo OST. Yet the trailer music isn't even in the series, nor on the album. They put all of the best action and shots in the trailers.
I expected to at least get some enjoyment from anime fights with a good soundtrack from this, sadly it doesn't provide anything of the above.
Stay clear of Yasuke. Just play the album on Spotify and watch something worth your time. -
I read the low reviews before I watched the show and I was so disappointed at first because I've been patiently waiting for this show to release. After watching all 6 episodes, my only complaint is that it was waaay to short. Everything else about this anime is fantastic. The animation is wonderful, the music is perfect, the storyline is nice and to the point. I don't know what agenda these low reviews have but this show is definitely not anything less than an 8.5/10.
I gave it a 10/10 to counteract the falsely negative reviews. -
srsacdmc29 April 2021While it has the spirit right, script has a lot of problems. World-building is a disaster, trying a bit too much to be different when its just being lazy. Characters are okay, and except for Yasuke, they overall feel quite empty. They feel real, but you never fully understand them. MAPPA's animation saves the show by a lot, even when it can feel too much for the screen at times, specially concerning the CGI. The argument is solid enough for a truly remarkable show, but it never reaches that potential. Dont expect the next Castelvania, just an okay show.
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I thought oh wow, an historical anime about a story of the first black samari this should be awesome right? No. Within the first 5 seconds I knew they messed up. ROBOTS, MAGIC AND FANTASY!? Are you kidding me. Instead of being original and telling a deep story of struggle and war they give us this. And Instead of focusing on the "main" character who they try to show off in all marketing I feel like it's lacking we just get bits and pieces of his life but it's not the main focus. Which I feel like would have been way more interesting than this fantasy plot line. Just disappointed...
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krg-7977430 April 2021It's not perfect. There's some occasional voice acting flaws and story telling beats can be a little strange in the first couple episodes, but those are overshadowed by phenomenal action sequences, stellar animation, and great music and sound design.
If you're looking for a historical drama, this is not it.
If you're looking for a fun binge, I highly recommend it. -
paul-wedel3 May 2021This is a pretty MOR anime, but the soundtrack is incredible. I watched about two minutes in English and was relieved to be able to switch to Japanese. For some reason, every anime just sounds much much better in Japanese and so I found it easier to parse the deliberate anachronisms and tried-and-true anime tropes. I did find the lead character quite likeable. I definitely consumed the album soundtrack a number of times on Spotify before watching. Perhaps that led me to like the film more, as the music connected me first, then the visuals and story. Now I'm going to watch Princess Mononoke.
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So disappointed with this one. There was no character development at all. It should have been about his journey to become a samurai leading up to the war depicted in the first episode. That would have been a lot more interesting than the fantasy elements they added. It had potential to be an experience but feels more like something they threw together with ideas everybody in the room had when it was being written. I wanted and expected to be submerged into Yasuke's journey as the only black samurai in Japan.
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Impressive visuals and soundtrack. Interesting story that seemed rushed and needed more episodes to develop. A lot of things have also been left unanswered which is a shame.
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saldarinilarissa11 June 2021It's a good anime, beautiful animations, beautiful world, beautiful characters. People hate this but then love the Castlevania series which has really ugly animations, stupid story and not so interesting characters.
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imamessiah2 May 2021The art and soundtrack are incredible. The writing though is awful. The characters are clichés with no depth and the story is all over the place. I read they plan for more seasons so that may explain the plot holes. If they make a second season I hope they get some new writers or spend more time on the plot because this show has tons of potential.
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You got your robots, You got your anime chick, You got your drunk lone ptsd boatman that's OP in the first episode and completely useless afterwards, You got your samurai, You got your bounty hunters, You got your temples, You got your lords, You got "im different cause I got friends" scene You got your magician/ninjas/wizards/mage/shaman with their ninjitsu style like magic summoning You got your demons/bug demons/bug angels/ butterflies You got your DBZ energy blast You got your evil army You got your OP character that is coming from being a sickly weak child You got your kid wanting to be Hokage *ahem* I mean greatest samurai ever You got your "Did we win?" We won? Yaaaaay we won!!!" Cringe scene You got your mid-level boss fight You got your final boss fight HELL YOU EVEN GOT TENTACLES
ALL IN 6 Fking EPISODES. -
rag-418271 May 2021It's good action feature anime, How it is to be. So I don't know why people whining about? It's not a bad anime, just short but enough content to make story. Not a childish one, it's a good one. Trust me you don't disappoint.
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Movi3DO6 May 2021Just 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. -
poinla3730 April 2021I was pretty excited to watch this show, especially after the intro scene with a Demon army, superpowers, mechanicals soldiers and good fights.
Then, I lost interest after 3 episodes. The story id really bland, uninteresting and predictable. You have nice character design and potential great character developpement, but eventually, it's just to show off and tick cases.
That's not the first "international" anime-like series from Netflix and they're all very disappointing. But I guess Netflix is more interested in mass producing easily watched-easily forgotten series, rather than quality and long-term series. -
Feels like a homage to the anime films I grew up on like Ninja Scroll and Sword for Truth. Takes me back to watching anime on the Action Channel when that existed. As with those there isn't really much here in terms of story, but the great action will keep you around. It's over before you know it. Also Flying Lotus kills it as always and I'm happy to see them compose something like this 100%.
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It took me about halfway through episode 2 to "get" this show. It doesn't do anything groundbreaking, but is an interesting, well- written spin on the samurai redemption story.
I see a lot of the reviewers on here salty about about the unrealistic aspects of this show (magic, robots, etc.). I've never ever watched an anime show for its realism, so none of that bothers me in the slightest.
Lakeith's voice acting is great and FlyLo's production is solid. I'm happy this exists and enjoyed watching it. -
jdg-9492229 April 2021Was pretty excited for this because the trailer looked cool but it ended up being pretty bad. The animation is the only decent thing, the story and the characters are unintereating and it just gives off a weird vibe, it's like they were stuck inbetween wanting make an anime or an american cartoon.
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fora-847-2636330 April 2021Great potential wasted by sticking to Anime tropes too much and hastened, "loud" narration, instead of quietly slow-developing the fantastic story. Pity! Could have been an 8 easily, and instead I would have given 5 if it wasn't for Flying Lotus soundtrack... :(
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Yasuke was history's only black samurai and one of the only foreign samurai ever. He is one of the only cases of a slave becoming a valued noble and military leader in history. That isn't interesting enough to make an anime out of? Apparently not, because Netflix's 6-episode Yasuke has demonic Catholic priests, robots (with quippy human AI), frickin laser beams, and every magical girl trope from a Japanese RPG you've ever seen in its 3 hour runtime. Why?
Yasuke's unlikely and true journey would've made for a moving production. Toss in some intrigue and some villains for him to dice up while fighting to keep his honor and boom: you have everything you need for a good show, it writes itself.
The issue isn't what some other reviewers say it is. It isn't overly PC, and Samurai Champloo wasn't accurate to history and neither was Ninja Scroll, but both of those still *felt* like ancient Japan, just with fairy tale exaggerations, especially in the case of Ninja Scroll. Seeing a talking mech from what looks like the 31st century with no explanation is beyond stupid. This tries to be Ninja Scroll and isn't. NS does a better job of showing quality fight scenes with more fleshed out characters in 120 minutes than this does in 3 hours. Why wasn't this a movie?
The show doesn't establish anything. Events happen and you feel that you've missed 10 episodes. Armies appear, a resistance exists and so does a villain, and we learn nothing about any of it, and on to the next scene. I saw another review compare this to Onimusha, which is ludicrous because that game built its story and world much more effectively. The magic and implausiblities of that game worked because of, and this is important: World Building!
Yasuke is not pure garbage however. Some of these other reviewers on here clearly dislike this show for ugly, petty reasons they think they're covering up well, but they really aren't.
It boasts great character design, especially for Yasuke and the female Samurai he knew in the past (she's a forgettable character but Ming Na Wen does an amazing job voicing her).
Yasuke has occasionally beautiful and smooth animation, and some decent fight scenes (without characters we're invested in), and when you do see moments of his origin, it becomes engaging before snapping away to the mechs, lasers, and magical girls again.
Yasuke is firmly filed under the "something to watch" category. Ninja Scroll, Samurai Champloo, Kenshin, Sword of the Stranger, you can do so much better than this for sword slinging warring states anime. Again, why was this not a tightly scripted 120 minute OVA? Man I miss OVAs, there's nothing wrong with a one-off, not everything needs to be a series, especially if it's only 6 episodes!
Here's hoping a live action Yasuke movie could be phenomenal, I will be there to see it. It's a shame Chadwick Boseman couldn't play him as planned.