Elusive Samurai is an anime I didn't expect to watch for this season. The only time I saw the promotional material for it was CloverWorks' Twitter account promoting it for the Summer 2024 seasonal anime. I originally wasn't interested, but I decided to take a little look at the promo, and what caught my eye is the animation being weirdly smooth, a little too smooth. The character designs were also colorful, and vibrant to say the least. So I decided to give it a try.

Now that the season is over, what did I think?
I think Elusive Samurai is a rather wacky, but well-animated show that has a unique and decent starting storyline. The characters are wacky, weird, and highly stylized into this symbolic story of a real life era in Japan. 1333, the Kamakura period. I have no knowledge of Japan's history, especially in an era that has apparently not been adapted yet in media.

Elusive Samurai obviously dramatizes events with symbolisms and literal character depictions of the real people who lived in these times. So take the 'reality' aspects of this show with a grain of salt.

Story-
The story is quite intriguing. Like I said, I have no knowledge of any of Japan's history so to see it depicted like this is interesting. It definitely has a more Shogun feel with the story in particular, but less gritty, less serious, and more wacky. To see a prince start from the bottom of the barrel due to a betrayal and war, is very interesting and the fact that Tokiyuki is a talented young man with very agile capabilities, and has a rather almost masochistic attitude towards fighting. To the bottom, rising to the top with his trusty crew. I always wondered how people back in the day managed territories or provinces that were new and smaller, which is what this answers for. Tokiyuki getting a new found family and retainers for the future of the Hojo Clan was quite interesting too! It takes one step at a time, and seeing the dangers around them during these times, which includes possible invasions, civil wars, actual wars, and disagreements that lead to death made me think how hard and difficult these times were and it gave me an impression on history itself. Takauji itself is another story that captivated me, a symbolic demon that lost his goddamn mind. (Unrelated but I think he hot af, don't @ me)
All in all, the story is interesting, intriguing, and decent so far. Would like to see more.

Characters-
Characters in this show is split. I think I really like Suwa, his crazy and wacky (sometimes creepy) faces he makes towards Tokiyuki, his future seeing sight, his role as a father figure and priest, his goofy personality that bounces off the MC quite well, AND VOICED MY GOJO'S VA!? What is there NOT to like?
Tokiyuki is a decent character too, starting from bottom to top. He obviously has childish traits as he is a little child but his achievements and feats are no laughing matter, he is quite masochistic when it includes the adrenaline of fighting, his determination, his beliefs, and OF COURSE, the power of friendship.
Takauji as a villain has not been seen too much, but whenever he's on screen it's like he DEMANDS his presence on screen, he is an intimidating and actually menacing villain. Takauji has that crazy eyes, crazy happy go lucky attitude while murdering and creating chaos around him. I may have bias because those type of villains interest me more, but ANYWAYS- he is a rather creepy villain that you wouldn't know he would be the bad guy until it was too later. The way he manipulates everyone around him is crazy. He one ups his victims like flies before they start DROPPING like flies. One scene in particular that had me hooked was Takauji and his brother, when he was painting Buddha on a wooded wall, that scene as a whole made me even more interested in Takauji as a villain. His symbolic depictions are fire too.
The last character I like is Genba. Genba is just a goofy goober that wants money and a highly skilled thief that just takes shit. He is a funny guy and I really like his character design. His personality as a arrogant, sneaky and conniving 10 year old that is also a wacky and horny bitch is not what I thought he would be but here we are. His interactions with other characters are funny and I really like his vibe.

Now, everyone else, almost irrelevant. ALMOST.
Shizuku is Suwa's 'right hand man' type of person, she is the first person from the main crew that Tokiyuki has seen in episode one. But, idk she has been in the sidelines a LOT in the show, the only part that she was needed was the introduction and the episode where she made Tokiyuki see spirits, that's it.
Nezu has done nothing until he is needed to fight or jump motherfuckers alongside Ayako. Nezu had a sort of mini arc towards the end of the show, around the 11th or 12th episode but his little arc was just kinda 'there', at least for me. He is quite close to the MC but I never seen interactions 1 on 1 with them so sometimes their closeness is just a tad bit forced.
Ayako has almost no screen presence, other than some few gags of her being a strong girl that Tokiyuki can't beat. She had a few hardcore moments like her fight with one of the 3 men invading a village alongside Nezu.
Fubuki is a little better, he was introduced way later in the show, has some fire ass skills and a very honorable attitude about fighting. But, it was dwindled after the village invasion arc as his only other trait is being hungry. That's it. Being hungry, like Luffy. He is RAW as hell don't get me wrong, but how you gonna do this man like that after his sheer AURA presented in that arc. He probably will have more screen presence in the future, so I won't go too hard on him.

The rest of the characters of the crew I just mentioned are just 'aight', but they kinda underdeveloped and I think there are WAY too many characters to keep count in just 1 big MC group. But, I'll let it simmer and cook once season 2 is announced.

The villains that are not Takauji are just DISGUSTING XDXD Why they gotta do them like that. I do like that they take them in a literal sense, like Sadamune having great sight so his eyes are bulging out of his sockets. We got a Master Splinter motherfucker that has great hearing so his ears have teeth. Ant Man motherfucker having a cold dark heart so ants are literally at his chest. The symbolism is crazy in this show, but everyone who's not Takauji are just ugly ass mofos XD They are great characters though as they provide new sides to the stories, some hilarious interactions and scenes as well.

By the way the humor in this show is outta pocket on many levels. I actually was shocked how crazy some of the humor is and I straight up laughed. The BDSM scene was CRAZY. Genba flashing was crazy. Tokiyuki bouncing booty while drunk was crazy. Any Sadamune and Master Splinter scene was crazy. Suwa 60% of the time is outta pocket.
I forgot to mention that this show has 4th wall breaks too. There was just a lot of shit going on.

One thing I'll say is that the show is VERRYYY gory and violent, they go batshit wild with it. They be doing too much sometimes, body parts, blood squirting, women and children murdered, DOG SHOOTING!? Like they have some wild shit, I didn't expect it to be super gory but that's what I get after ignoring the R-17 tag.

Animation-
The animation MWAH! What is more to say? This is the cleanest shit I have ever seen, it gave me those Disney/Studio Ghibli vibes with it's soft color palette and painted backgrounds. It is so pretty. Possibly one of the best. Although, there was some obvious production struggles as there is CGI unfortunately, in this case, a little janky. Due to the overwhelming amount of crazy animation this show has, it dwindles just a little then it picks right back up. The only episodes that have a complaint from me is episode 4 and episode 12, those are just CGI fest and still frames. It isn't as bad as people think though, I still think it is ok but compared to the rest of the masterpieces of episodes? Mid. They also have some cool sets like cutout animation, stop motion, and sometimes 'real' esque animation too. I hope the animators got that bag.

Voice Acting-
Won't say too much because I am glazing at this point, everyone did a fantastic job and GOJO VA GOJO VA GOJO VA RAAAAHHH

Music-
Music is great as well, definitely fit for those old era Japanese times, although I swear to god I heard a Thriller sample in there somewhere XD

There isn't much more to say, I say that with even some of its faults, and little bit of nitpicks, it is a good show! I would recommend!

8.8/10