The Elusive Samurai – Episode 1

Content Warning: gore, blood and sexual violence.

What’s about it? Hojo Tokiyuki is the heir of the puppet leader of the Kamakura shogunate.  He spends most of his days running away from his attendants and avoids attending his lessons because he’s content with being treated as another “puppet ruler.”  Tokiyuki is happy continuing the status quo for the sake of the prosperity of his people until the clan’s most loyal vassal, Ashikaga Takauji, betrays them and kills all their loyal followers. Tokiyuki is dead set on surviving and reclaiming his homeland from everyone who wronged him.

Manga readers rejoice! The animators from CloverWorks animated the hell out of this premiere.  If I were to recommend a summer premiere based on visuals alone, I’d pick this one in a heartbeat.  The vivid colors pop out of every scene from the clothing worn in the royal courts to the devastating destruction inflicted on the lives of ordinary townspeople.  It’s uncertain if this level of quality can be maintained for future episodes, but for now the vanity in me wants to put everything on mute and enjoy the pretty animation.  

The animators truly deserve all the praise for being able to capture the joy that Tokiyuki feels when he’s moving through space, especially since walking and running sequences are notoriously difficult to animate.  It’s going to be challenging for the animators to be consistent with this aspect of Tokiyuki’s personality, and it’ll be interesting to see how they’ll maneuver around this to make their workload a bit easier.  

I’m curious to see how much the story will deviate from the real-life fate of Hojo Tokiyuki and whether or not this’ll have a bittersweet or a tragic ending.  Either way, Tokiyuki is a delight to watch and he’s such a rambunctious kid.  He clearly isn’t the idiot that everyone thinks he is, but is willing to let people believe what they want.  In his mind, if everything is working just fine and the people are happy, why should he change anything? It’s definitely a naive way of thinking, but he’s just a child and there’s no one around to tell him that he should at least be politicking behind the scenes to maintain his family’s position in power.  

The story is quick to remind the viewers that Tokiyuki lives in an extremely violent era and the peace that he desperately wants to protect can quickly be destroyed.  The visuals capture that grim reality by changing his brother’s toy ball to a severed head, which then leads to horrific images of dead bodies everywhere.  The series doesn’t even shy away from the brutal sexual violence that women experience during a war (which depending on the viewer, might feel impactful or gratuitous), and we are left with the reminder that Tokiyuki needs to fight for his survival.

The only thing that took me out of this premiere was the shinto priest, Suwa Yorishige.  His over the top facial expressions were too much for me to bear and basically ruined any seriousness the scenes should have.  The comedy and the violence just didn’t mix well for me so here’s hoping that gets better in later episodes.  Overall, The Elusive Samurai knocked it out of the park and I’m excited to see where the story goes from here.