The Elusive Samurai Season 2

Episode 1

Boy, is it great to have The Elusive Samurai back. I don't know about you all, though, but the charming live-action recap that we get at the top of this Season Two premiere isn't quite enough to jog my memory, so let's do a quick rundown of our ever-expanding cast:

⏺ Tokiyuki is our young hero with the fleetest of feet, the orphaned son of the Hojo clan whose entire family was slain in the 1333 siege of Kamakura at the hands of that traitorous bastard, Takauiji Ashikaga.

⏺ Shizuku is the adopted daughter and assistant of Tokiyuki's deeply weird mentor and benefactor, Yorishige Suwa. She seems to be very much in tune with the divine powers that populate the land of Japan.

⏺ Kojiro is the kid with gray hair who serves as Tokiyuki's ride-or-die second-in-command.

⏺ Ayako is a fighter who is practiced in swordplay and is frankly so strong that it's kind of scary.

⏺ Genba is the thief in the kitsune mask who was recruited to Tokiyuki's crew during the mission to sneak into Sadamune Ogasawara's mansion and steal the Imperial Command that Sadamune needed to annex the gang's home turf in Suwa territory.

⏺ Fubuki is the once-wandering warrior who wields two blades. Tokiyuki met this guy and learned some vital new techniques when the Elusive Gang protected a small village from Shōkan's raiders last season.

All right, are we feeling just a little more caught up? I sure am, and thankfully this first episode has the good sense to take its time getting us back into the swing of things, so even if you don't remember all of the details that we learned in 2024, we can at least get a handle on our heroes' dynamic as a team of young rebels. The whole first half of this episode is basically a side-quest that the Elusive Gang embarks upon to provide their beloved Tokiyuki with a token that will remind him of his home in Kamakura: Freshly caught sea-bream. As our narrator and their always useful maps helpfully explain, this is near-impossible task given the logistics of transporting fish from the coast back to the base without it going rotten.

As we all know by now, though, the Elusive Gang are a bunch of mule-stubborn little freaks who are all variously skilled at causing mayhem and destruction, so they manage to catch the sucker, dress it up for serving, and storm their way through a Takeda blockade filled with soldiers going both directions. This is where we get our first taste of CloverWorks' skills at work. Any worries that I might have had about this season not living up to the standards of the first were quickly brushed aside thanks to the gorgeous colors and animation on display in this sequence. It doesn't just make for good entertainment; you can feel the love and camaraderie this outfit shares in every frame of this incredibly stupid adventure. These crazy little child-soldier gremlins will do anything for Tokiyuki. What's a little spilled blood and casual warfare when it means the young master can have his perfect meal?

It's not all fun and games, either. The kids' mission also served as a bit of tactical reconnaissance to figure out just how possible it might be to bypass the enemy forts and retake Kamakura. What's more, there's news of an upstart team of warriors that Tadayoishi has assembled, the Kanto Hisashiban, who are making a name for themselves as the territory's muscle. They're the focus of the second half of this premiere, which has heaps of exposition to unload as we also get acquainted with these new antagonists. One of the guys looks like a vampire, there's a dude who wields a giant-ass blade in a sheath that looks like a surfboard as a weapon, and we've also got a creepy son-of-a-gun in a horse mask, because why not?

This section is where we get to indulge in a bit more of the flashy action that The Elusive Samurai is so good at serving up, though baddies like this always need more than their requisite introduction episode to make a real impression. Plus, with all of the developments involving Prince Moriyoshi's imprisonment and Takauji's polticial maneuvering, it's not like the episode has any time left to relish any of the villains' bloodletting. I do have to commend the production's excellent use of mixed-media to make all of the info-dumping more compelling. That shot of Evil Demon Puppet Takauji is going to haunt my dreams.

While this isn't the most bombastic or dramatically potent way that The Elusive Samurai could have begun its second season, I'm glad that the series was still able to remind us of everything we loved about the first. The animation is top notch, the characters are still great (and also insane), and there's plenty of building tension that our elusive young hero will have to duck and weave around and through if he hopes to take back his home and put Takauji in the ground.

Episode 1 Rating:

The Elusive Samurai Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.