There is a new Afro Samurai in town… The Japanese animation studio Mappa animates the last work of LaSean Thomas in a six episodes series released on Netflix. The protagonist is the most famous of the foreigner samurai, Eusebio Ibrahimo Baloi, better known as Yasuke.
The True Story
The story of Yasuke is very popular in Japan, in fact since the late 20th century the character was portrayed in various videogames, manga and anime series. So it is no surprise that the creator LaSean picked it up, the true story is pretty fascinating… In 1579, Yasuke arrived in Japan in service of the Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano. At that time several Africans accompanied the Portuguese to Japan during the Nanban Trade. Soon, Yasuke was introduced to the daimyo Oda Nobunaga, a very powerful Japanese magnate, who was very intrigued by the skin color of the African. According to the legend, Yasuke was a strong man able to speak Japanese, with which Nobunaga enjoyed spend his time. Yasuke was offered to service the Oda clan during its war to unify Japan as a samurai. And so he did until Nobunaga’s death.
Yasuke, the last fiction
The portrayal of Yasuke’s story of the anime series Yasuke tells the original story only as a memory of the protagonist, in fact the plot is focused on the adventures of the black samurai 20 years after the fall of Oda Nobunaga. Set in an alternate reality where mecha samurai and magic are the standard, Yasuke will help the child Saki, a young girl with incredible mystical powers, defeating the dark supernatural mage Yami no Daimyo.
The Long Path of The Black Samurai
The result of Yasuke’s first season was pretty well received by the critics. Personally I find the mystical part of the series confusing and departing from the protagonist’s story. It would have been nice to see more sword fights and more depth to legends like the loyal attendant Mori Ranmaru or “the” ninja Hattori Hanzo, both central figures of the Sengoku Period along with Nobunaga and Yasuke. The soundtrack is simply beautiful and like the anime Afro Samurai and Samurai Champloo have demonstrate in the past, hip hop and jazz match particularly good with samurai’s duels. The anime series has a lot of potential and very good openings for a second season, due the particularity of the period. And actually at that time a young Miyamoto Musashi, the Japanese sword master by definition, were walking around…
There is a new Afro Samurai in town… Did you see him? What do you think?