The Elusive Samurai Is the Must-Watch Anime of the Summer

It’s always a challenge trying to figure out the best anime premiere of a season when there are so many titles to choose from. However, after watching way more premieres than I probably should, I can confidently say that The Elusive Samurai is the must-watch premiere of the summer season.

At first, I wasn’t even certain that The Elusive Samurai would even make its way onto streaming platforms. When I was drafting our recommendations on the most interesting anime of the summer, I wanted to include The Elusive Samurai, but it wasn’t confirmed for a Western streaming release at that time. You may say that given the amount of money Viz Media put into making the series that it was inevitable that the series would be streamed worldwide, but there have been instances where quality titles were never localized. A few years ago, that seemed to be the case with Summer Time Rendering being held for nearly a year before releasing on Hulu and just last season, Girls Band Cry, despite its quality, didn’t stream on any legal streaming service. At the time, it just wasn’t a guarantee that it would be localized. 

That fear was probably misplaced though, once you start to look into the talent and pedigree of the people who actually made the series. The manga that it’s based on came from Yusei Matsui, who most people will probably know from his last major series, Assassination Classroom, which was one of the more popular and affecting titles of the mid 2010s. The anime adaptation is also being helmed by Cloverworks, who are being kept busy after last season’s Wind Breakers and it’s pretty clear that they’re putting all of their budget into making the premiere as engaging as possible. 

I’m pretty sure that the folks at Cloverworks wanted to try to hook as many people as possible with this premiere as they had an uphill battle to fight. The series is a historical fiction based on real-life events. That isn’t a deal breaker per se, but they’re based on events that Westerners almost certainly never heard of. While anime based on real-life people isn’t uncommon, just look at Golden Kamui and The WInd Rises, it does pose a risk of alienating audiences who aren’t familiar with the stories of Hojo Tokiyuki and Ashikaga Takauji. While most Japanese viewers will be aware of these names, Westerners may not even bother if the show is so focused on trying to recreate historical events. Thankfully, The Elusive Samurai seems to lean much more heavily into the fiction side of things and is bursting with enough energy to make people forget about its historical elements.

The premiere centers on Hojo Tokiyuki, a prince who is set to become the new head of the Hojo clan, something that he’s not all that inclined to take. Firstly, his father is a puppet ruler and because of this, he doesn’t really have any freedom of his own. While some may think this is a blessing, living a life of luxury without having to do anything, Tokiyuki enjoys his freedom and doing what he wants. He’s not rebellious though – he is just an 8-year-old after all – but rather he’s carefree to the point that his one notable skill, being able to evade and escape any situation, is used to avoid doing the things that he doesn’t want to do, like archery practice. 

This lighthearted attitude is pretty evident for the majority of the premiere, mostly thanks to The Elusive Samurai’s bright and immediately eye-catching color palette. While plenty of anime do choose to have bright colors present all throughout their aesthetics, they rarely are used to paint a scene in a meaningful way. It’s the difference from having a character sport pink hair to make a character stand out versus using a variety of shades of pink to depict a cherry blossom tree in bloom that Tokiyuki climbs. One feels like it’s meeting a quota while the other adds to the majesty of the scene. The Elusive Samurai is textbook evidence that how you use color is just as important as which colors are used and can elevate a moment into something more impactful.

Take one of the main supporting characters of the premiere, Suwa Yorishige. Yorishige is a priest who meets Tokiyuki at that cherry blossom tree and tries to convince Tokiyuki that he’s going to be vital to the history of Japan. Tokiyuki balks at this before running away, but the scene is memorable just for its use of color. Yorishige is absolutely radiant with color beaming off of him in every direction, adding a certain layer of extravagance to his already over-the-top and ostentatious self. Think of him like Reigen from Mob Psycho 100, only with the charisma of Gurren Lagann’s Kamina. Without the show’s commitment to these lavish visuals, I don’t think this shady priest would be nearly as memorable as he was.

This becomes even more evident in the second half of the premiere when Ashikaga Takauji, a samurai loyal to the Hojo clan, launches a rebellion against them and massacres the entire clan, with the bright and cozy palette being replaced by violent reds and grim blacks. The tone shift is sudden and harsh, but it really does show the beauty of the series and lets Cloverworks really flaunt their animation capabilities. This is an anime premiere that isn’t just exciting because of the story and narrative behind these real-life events, but because there’s genuine artistry present here.

That artistry is on full-display in the climax, which doesn’t hold back from depicting the brutality of Takauji’s betrayal. Generals are killed, women are raped, children are slaughtered, and everyone in the Hojo clan, sans Tokiyuki, are executed. In that moment, Tokiyuki wishes to die in order to join them, but it’s in this scene that everything is crystallized and connects every element of the premiere in a way that feels almost masterful. Tying together Yorishige’s premonition, the inner conflict of Tokiyuki, his abilities of evasiveness, and the violence of Takauji’s rebellion, Yorishige throws Tokiyuki to his death and announces that there’s a Hojo clan survivor. And in that instant, we’re treated to a stunningly animated sequence wherein Tokiyuki does whatever he can to survive. 

It’s one of those moments that just perfectly encapsulates the show’s potential. We see how the evasiveness of Tokiyuki can be a vital tool in his arsenal, the painterly quality of the animation depicting both harsh violence and blistering speed, Yorishige not only keeping a calm and cool persona but also validating his claim he can see the future by effortlessly evading a slew of arrows, and the exact moment Tokiyuki decides to avenge his fallen clan. I was sold on the show already, but that was a scene that will live rent free in my head probably for the rest of my time with The Elusive Samurai. 

I’m also pretty aware that the show is unlikely to reach these artistic heights again for some time. Remember, the “Rule of Three” is a very real phenomenon and Cloverworks was probably aware that they had to do a lot to overcome most of the hurdles Westerners would have getting into The Elusive Samurai. They succeeded, but now we’re going to have to spend some time fleshing out the actual plot of the show and seeing how Tokiyuki will be able to avenge his fallen clan. We may not get another sequence quite like the premiere’s climax for the rest of the season, but I’m okay with that. The premiere did its job of getting me interested in future episodes, and I’m more than happy to stick with it. 

There are plenty of shows that have dropped solid premieres this season, like My Deer Friend Nokotan and Mayonaka Punch, but if you haven’t at least seen the premiere for The Elusive Samurai, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Go and watch it now and come about the historical fiction train with me.