Yasuke

It was an okay show. Good to finally have some black protagonists featured in anime.

Just finished watching the 1st episode, it’s really interesting.

It’s a shame Yasuke hasn’t received more recognition because it’s an exceptional anime. Netflix has been delivering some impressive original anime lately, and Yasuke stands out as one of its best. The animation is breathtaking, perfectly capturing the beauty and brutality of the samurai era with rich detail and fluid action sequences. However, it’s a bit disappointing that the original language is English, given the show’s deep roots in Japanese history and culture—it feels like a missed opportunity for authenticity. Beyond its striking visuals, Yasuke also boasts an incredible soundtrack, with the opening theme being especially mesmerizing, setting the tone for the series in a way that feels both modern and timeless.

Yasuke the figure is true, an African slave, who arrived in Japan in 1579 and became the first black Samurai

Watchable. It reminds me of Castlevania. The whole season looks like an extended pilot. Opening music is totally off point.

It's a pretty show, and it's a fast one. Fast in a more negative way I would say. Usually I am the type of watcher that easily fills in gaps and connects with characters quickly, but I was struggling with this one. Yasuke only has six episodes to flesh their characters out, and half of it is spent flashing back to Yasuke's past. Not necessarily a bad thing, but don't expect me to connect with any of the new characters you introduce in the present.

I love big mechs and magic as much as the next guy but I really wish they would have kept them out of this one.

Even without a lot of historical facts there is enough here to tell a really interesting realistic story similar to Vinland Saga. But they went a different route. One that I personally don't like at all.

The music is dope tough.

Really wanted this one to be a hit but I was sourly disappointed.

The supporting characters had no "character" at all. The show didn't give time for us to form any kind of connection between the hired mercenaries either. Made no sense when the robot and Makita all of a sudden had hearts. [spoiler]Robot kamazazing for no reasons after his "friend" was killed. The bear sacrificing herself to hold back the invading force? Why? [/spoiler] There was no point in this show that these characters ever seemed to care about anyone but themselves. Which is fine really, that can be a character point in itself.

Yasuaki is bland and has no development at all. He is the same through out the show. As a black man I had little to connect with him. Really wish they gave him more character. Instead we got a basic protagonist that happened to be black.

The animation is poor. Watching the characters mouths move made my head spin. Looked more like an English dub when that is the original language. It's clear Netflix didn't give them much of a budget (Ala Castilvania, Son of Zeus) and it shows.

Those are just a few examples but there are more that made this show more of a failed experiment Netflix threw out there.

I had high expectation about this anime, but it didn't live up to it. What I wanted was historical drama, but what I've got was magical mecha fighting cartoon.
I am not against magic or mecha, but in this case they were definitely unnecessary.
The only thing that was okay in this show was animation, everything else is just bad: voice acting (unrealistic and emotionless), plot pacing (overly fast, they told almost nothing about heroes, you don't have time to feel anything for them), dialogs are random...

Overall it feels like cheap anime with big budget. I regret not reading comments before diving into this.

Watched two episodes and it’s disgusting to be honest. What the fuck. Mechas? Fucking magic? I thought this was supposed to be a historical retelling of the story??? Honestly it’s ridiculous so far. Had they not promoted it as Yasuke’s “true” story, it would have been fine but they fucked it up, with random insults of other countries.