The first episode does an excellent job of hooking you in, but it’s the gorgeous animation, fantastic dubbing, and excellent music that’ll keep you coming back for more. If you’ve been looking for a reason to return to the feudal era of Japan, consider this your sign.
At once familiar and novel, it remixes disparate parts into a coherent whole, providing a new twist on the archetypal samurai hero. Not to mention that, when it gets down to fighting business, it downright slays.
There are far worse critiques a show can sustain than the observation that there's not enough of it, or that it stuffs too many attention-grabbing elements in too small of a space. It simply means "Yasuke" would be better if there were more of it, and either by accident or intentionally Thomas and his collaborators leave enough about this hero shrouded to make room for that to occur.
“Yasuke” is too preoccupied with its wacky video game escort mission story and action to dig into what Yasuke’s boundary-breaking work actually means to him and the people he coexists with. There’s also a noticeable lack of attention for the show’s supporting female characters, many of whom have exciting superpowers but otherwise lack characterization.
While liberal with its influences (Dororo and Samurai Champloo come to mind), the show sometimes struggles to find its own individual identity. Fans of the Castlevania anime will notice Yasuke follows a similar formula, jampacking its short-form season with gradually bigger (leading to gargantuan) enemies until an explosive final battle. Nevertheless, the show is certainly worth watching if just for its sumptuous animation and impeccable score.
“Yasuke” is an action adventure at heart, and in its excited rush to layer twists, genre elements and mythology in six half-hour episodes, it feels hurried and overstuffed. ... Still, there’s a lot to see and hear and like in this story: the balletic swordplay, the hallucinatory visions of psychic combat, the subtler battles between competing conceptions of honor. By fancifully filling the gaps of history, “Yasuke” has created an intriguing hero, even if you may end it wanting to know him a little better.
It’s tempting to try and look for something else going on in Yasuke, because everything else about it feels somewhat slight. The action scenes are fun to watch—because how could they not be when they involve a samurai and robots and magic—but there are diminishing returns when every fight has a bigger robot or a more foreboding monster.
“Yasuke” hits the spot for any anime lover while offering new subversions to the samurai genre. It raises questions regarding racism and sexism. And it never shies away from real ruthlessness. While the story features a few too many dots that need connecting, “Yasuke” connects in every other way for maximum bloody impact.
For all its gore, Yasuke is, at its core, a comforting fairy tale about good versus evil. Though unconcerned with the motivations of megalomaniacs, it conveys the true function of institutional power: to engorge and exert itself.
Çok beğendim bayılarak izledim keşke devamı gelseydi şiddetle izleminizi tavsiye ederim
This show is stunning…the visuals, the characters, the music. It all combines perfectly! It takes you on a thrilling journey through an unconventional fantasy/historical world. Only thing missing is season 2…
Yasuke is not only providing the historical context but also artistic images in the fiction world, which made the show a unique masterpiece. I never knew there was a black Samurai in Japan until I watch Yasuke! Beautiful art and music also entertain the whole story. I enjoyed watching it. Super creative and amazing show. Must watch!
Amid the mind-blowing smorgasbord of a heart-thumping soundtrack, superb animation, well-developed characters and explosive fight scenes, it's easy to miss LeSean Thomas's deft satirization of institutional power and systemic bias. But therein lies the genius of this narrative. Art truly imitates life in Thomas's titular character. A fantastic piece of work; well done!
Amazing innovation for the anime world! Fictional indeed because Yasuke’s story is not fully know. I’m glad they did not try to invent facts
Very good anime. with all pretty characters. Highly recommend you to watch this on Netflix.
I'm not an anime expert but very much enjoyed it as a casual viewer. Really high-quality visual with awesome original soundtracks to tell an intriguing story about Yasuke, with a touch of humor. Didn't quite mind the mix of robots, mechs but that could just be me;)
This is what you get when westerners make anime. It was ok, UNTIL! It would have been good as a period piece. Make it like the real stories of Yasuke. BUT! then we get gay Nobunaga, mutants, another "only black man in Japan", bear lady, female Zoro, little girl Jesus, Christians are evil, Voodoo, sentient robot, giant robots, all in just the first 3 episodes. leave the anime to the easterners!
The show overall was very good, I loved the art, cinematography, and soundtrack (Crust is a badass song). Exploring Yasuke's past in the first several episodes was also a nice touch. However, I feel that the ending (episodes 5 and 6) was hastily brought together with lazy writing, which is why it only merits a 7 in my book. A couple more episodes for character development and arc completion would have made the show a lot better. Certain aspects of the ending don't make sense, like how their "hidden village" is walking distance from the castle of the Daimyo. I can live with the robots to an extent...
Las peleas y la animacion estan bien. La historia es donde todo se va para abajo, en resumen, como que a la mitad de la serie se acordaron que solo tenian presupuesto para 6 capitulos y habia que acabar la horrible historia de samurais, mechas y magia de alguna forma. no vale la pena ni para hacer ruido de fondo mientras estas en el movil.
While Netflix has been putting out some great adult anime, Yasuke is good, not great. Where Castlevania and Blood of Zeus excel with respect to story, Yasuke comes up a bit short in comparison. We see the downfall of Yasuke's Lord which apparently led to Yasuke living like a depressed bum a full 20 years after the fact. By the end of the "season" (I still don't accept that 6 episodes constitute a season), it still wasn't clear to me why Yasuke was living like he was. Despite the relative lack of character building, the story still manages to be interesting, especially given the combination of elements of science and magic. No explanation is given whatsoever as to how robots can exist in the 1500s, but it gives the world a unique feel. There's plenty of blood/gore if that's your thing, and if it is your thing, your rating for this show will probably be higher than mine. I appreciated the fight choreography, but I just don't care nearly as much about bodies getting sliced to bits as I do about an interesting story with interesting characters. While I enjoyed the show, the resolution of season 1 was disappointing because it blatantly relies of deus ex machina. I won't say when/how it does, but it's just lazy writing that does not elevate the story -- it just wraps everything up in a neat bow. A stronger ending might've pushed my score up to an 8. The cast has interesting characters who need fleshing out; hopefully the writers will do this in season 2, and hopefully they'll work harder on a more believable ending that resonates.
Amazing story, amazing score, incredible characters. The flying lotus production is a real experience.
Samurai, magic, robot! Who don't want to watch when all of those combined. WATCH THIS!
I loveded the artistic take and creativity of the Anime, great action scenes. Love the background music ( Flying Lotus), Love the story line.
This show has so much emotional depth to it & amazing action. It's also connected to real history in the fact that Yasuke was a real African Samurai. Of course this show is more mystical but it's so unique!
Yasuke is a very cool anime with an amazing atmosphere and original soundtrack. The animation level and style are good, the characters are pretty awesome, Story is very straight forward you won't see any side moments everything is to the point. I like this kinda fantasy mix to real history.
So, Let’s get the positives out of the way first, cause honestly there are not that many. The animation of this show is outstanding, I honestly still can’t believe that animation is still getting better and better with new shows like this, Castlevania and you can tell Netflix is now considering dedicating a lot more into animated shows. The background drawings are gorgeous. There is a minimal amount of 3D animation but its used sparingly and at moments where it makes sense like large army movements but it is hardly noticeable. And that’s all I really have to say in terms of the good. The bad, first off, the characters are just so damn flat. They are boring and play to their archetypal parts like Yasuke, the old and jaded samurai who no longer wishes to take up the sword but has a strong moral compass. The young companion with mysterious powers that she is completely oblivious to at first and is a constant damsel in distress. That’s essentially the depth to our leads. I love Lekeith stanfield and I love how he acts and his ability to show expression in his eyes but none of that translates well to voice over which comes off very flat as well. And that goes for almost the entire cast for a show that was animated for their English voices. You never understand any character’s motivations. The most interesting part of Yasuke is his backstory, a black man once a servant who rises in the ranks to become a top rank Samurai in an army. But all of that is told in backstory. And just in clips that choose to focus on action over character development so that does nothing for understanding Yasuke or his motivations, we don’t even understand how he gained such a unwavering moral compass. He just has it in the first flash back we see of him. Overall this show was so disappointing. I was really hoping this would be a great start to a Netflix original animated series but it turned out to be another generic action fluff that will absolutely be forgotten a day after you finish it.
In contrast to others i like the low information world building that creates silent wild, wide and narrow mystiques and possibilities for everything you might want to know or feel and that it can always return back to what it wants to be
sort of an american Samurai Champloo. that comparison can get in the way when you first start watching though. it's a very compelling series with interesting themes of acceptance and being an outsider as well as the classic honor and love. the music and animation are great and i'll watch anything Stanfield is involved with well worth a watch
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