via Netflix
Yasuke concerns Japan’s first Black samurai, although a history lesson is not what’s provided by this six-part Netflix anime series. Enlivened by a cross-cultural spirit that blends East and West—and the classical and the modern—to create something refreshingly unique, showrunner and director LeSean Thomas’ animated venture (premiering April 29) uses its real-life origins as a launching pad for a fantastical tale of feudal war in which swordsmen and archers do battle alongside giant mechas, sentient robots, and magic-wielding warriors. Think of it as a hybrid of Yojimbo, Mobile Suit Gundam and Lone Wolf and Cub, much of it coated in arterial-spray torrents of blood.
LaKeith Stanfield voices the hero of Thomas’ series: Yasuke, a real-life figure who, in this fictionalized story, is acquired in the 16th century from a Western trader by Lord Nobunaga (Takehiro Hira), who aims to unite all of Japan under his rule. That vision includes breaking with tradition by training both Yasuke and female soldier Natsumaru (Ming-Na Wen) as samurais—a decision that doesn’t sit well with their teacher, Mitsuhide, who views Nobunaga’s plan as a violation of Japan’s sacred heritage. This context is fleshed out in flashbacks that pepper the first few episodes, as well as in the opening sequence, which depicts a large-scale skirmish involving blaster-firing mechas, a trio of sorcerers with the ability to conjure magic web-shields, and the Dark General, whose forces triumph against those of Nobunaga, thereby compelling the defeated Lord to have his trusty right-hand man Yasuke kill him.
Yasuke is a perpetual outcast thanks to his skin color, such that during an early encounter with Nobunaga, the Lord (who’s never laid eyes on a Black man) tries to have Yasuke’s dark complexion scrubbed clean. Two decades later, the samurai lives in a remote village as the “Black Boatsman,” spending his days ferrying locals to and fro, and reluctantly training young Ichiro (Jan Chen) to be a warrior—at least, when he’s not drowning his sorrows in booze at the bar. Yasuke prefers to be alone and miserable, wallowing in his alienation and his shame for having killed his beloved master. Nonetheless, a reclusive existence isn’t in the cards; Yasuke is thrust into babysitting duty when singer Ichika hires him to transport her sick daughter Saki (Maya Tanida) to a doctor to treat her mysterious illness.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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