Yasuke: Season 1

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Ratings

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6.1	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Ratings

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Yasuke

Now Playing: Yasuke

Season Details & Credits

Netflix | Season Premiere Date: April 29, 2021

Summary: Yasuke (voiced by LaKeith Stanfield), the first African samurai, is tasked with protecting a young girl from warlords and dark magic in this anime set in an alternate feudal Japan created by LeSean Thomas.

Genre(s): Animation, Drama, Action & Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Season 1 Episodes

No episode information is currently available for this season

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

The Daily Beast Nick Schager

Apr 30, 2021

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. Read full review

Brittany Vincent

Apr 30, 2021

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. Read full review

Melanie McFarland

Apr 30, 2021

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. Read full review

Niv M. Sultan

Apr 26, 2021

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. Read full review

Austin Jones

Apr 29, 2021

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. Read full review

James Poniewozik

Apr 28, 2021

“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. Read full review

Sam Barsanti

Apr 27, 2021

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. Read full review

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User Reviews

andrekensei40

May 12, 2021

loved the show, great action and animation, the soundtrack is fire, this show is a badass

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

timdrake25

May 12, 2021

The action scenes are gorgeous but don't overshadow the story. They do enhance it in my opinion. I enjoyed the characters and none of them felt overly stereotypical. It's definitely a show you have to pay attention to

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

hiperion40

May 12, 2021

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.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Rpg89

May 8, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. One of the best anime watched in a long time. People hating this maybe racist or something else in between.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

HipLogic

May 2, 2021

While deeply flawed, Yasuke is still worth your time (especially for those who miss the style and vibe of Nujabes/Samurai Champloo and Afro Samurai)

I’ve seen a few different criticism for this movie that I’ll address in order fairness/relevance. Unfair criticism: Getting this out ofWhile deeply flawed, Yasuke is still worth your time (especially for those who miss the style and vibe of Nujabes/Samurai Champloo and Afro Samurai)

I’ve seen a few different criticism for this movie that I’ll address in order fairness/relevance.

Unfair criticism: Getting this out of the way since I’ve actually seen people comment on different review sites this as a ‘bad’ thing, so I feel the need to address it—yes, this is an anime that has some themes that deal with class and race. Since Yasuke is the only black samurai of record (as of this review, anyway) that’s pretty important to the story. For most, I assume, that’s the draw of the anime.

Fair criticisms: The pacing is too fast. The narrative lacks focus (I didn’t know the stakes soon enough, needed better villain introduction/development, I didn’t know why I should root for Yasuke/Saki outside of the fact that their main characters, etc.), and it doesn’t develop the relationships it should, so there’s a lack of payoff in the conclusion.

Why you might still want to give it try: The animation is truly top-notch. The character designs and the fight animation is on the level of Samurai Champloo and Afro Samurai. Further, the OST is clearly influenced by Nujabes, but does a great job of tailoring it’s sound to aid in creating this stylized, very interesting world interpretation of feudal Japan. Fly Lo created something special with his work on this OST. When it comes to style, this anime is trendsetting. What it doesn’t know in story, it truly makes up for with its style and vibe.

The sum of all parts equates to a wonderful and well worth your time audio and visual experience that endures through a weakly written narrative.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

AKthaBeast

Feb 5, 2022

Soundtrack by Flying Lotus is amazing, animation is amazing, story is ehh, nothing against any of the voice actors as they did a good job but seeing anime in English never cut it for me....

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Seasons & Episodes

72

Series Overview
Season 1

72
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: April 29, 2021
- No episode information is currently available for this season