The Elusive Samurai

Top animation showcase, a variety of animation techniques and approaches, including the use of high-quality 3D that you almost won't notice, a festival of creativity with shots you wouldn't expect in anime (including live-action) ... This season (and probably this whole year) there isn't a series with better animation and greater creativity. And also a very spontaneous and unique look into Japanese history from the creator of Assassination Classroom. And it shows, the whole series has a similar energy, as well as the jokes are similarly crazy. The biggest problem with Elusive Samuraje is, that half of them have poor timing and sometimes they are quite ridiculous. Simply throwing a humorous interjection into a strong dramatic moment is inappropriate, it disrupts the whole atmosphere and the joke just doesn't sound right. And it's a shame, on one hand these jokes feed the energy of the whole work, on the other hand they feel like an unwanted slap in the face. I've been struggling with the humor and it's the main reason why I haven't fallen in love with this work yet. And again, it's a shame, because Elusive Samurai has what it takes. Besides the mentioned top production values (because the music is great too), the characters and story are also well done. There are some emotions here, it's very easy to start cheering for Tokijukimu, and most of his entourage is very nice, except for Jorišige, who is often annoying and sometimes a little awkward... The villains are interesting, memorable, shonenishly exaggerated, sometimes even funny. In short, this is a very good anime, where I hope for a second season, even though I know that CloverWorks has a lot of planned projects and continuations and whatever they touch in the last two years is a hit. Unfortunately, I have to repeat that I haven't fallen in love with the series yet, I just really like it, which is a strong 4* for me, or also 8.4/10. (09/29/2024)