Yasuke

Yasuke 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.

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.

I 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.

This 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.

'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.