Shonen heroes are often blessed with special powers. From overwhelming strength or speed to extreme stretchiness, their ace-in-the-hole lets them emerge victorious in all the battles they must fight. But what if a hero’s power was their ability to run away?
The Elusive Samurai is what it says on the cover: a period piece set in 14th century Japan following Tokiyuki Hojo, the nimble heir to the regent of the Kamakura shogunate. He shirks his training, preferring instead to dash around the town, dodging his weary teachers and performing acrobatics across the rooftops.
When his family is betrayed and slaughtered, however, things change. He’s now suddenly torn from his carefree life. Staring down a bleak end amid fire and blades, however, a not-so-subtle priest gives Tokiyuki a not-so-subtle shove, kick-starting a campaign for revenge and the eventual reclamation of his homeland, with Tokiyuki’s knack for running away as his trump card.
Based on the manga by Yusei Matsui, which has been running in weekly Shonen Jump since 2021, The Elusive Samurai is in the midst of its first season (airing in the U.S. on Crunchyroll). It’s a series I’ve wanted to check out for a while, on my ever-growing backlog of manga. With CloverWorks (The Promised Neverland, Bocchi the Rock!) tackling production, though, I figured the first episode would be worth a shot.
Instantly, it’s made clear that The Elusive Samurai is going to be a visually stunning series. Not counting an extremely catchy and fun OP, the story starts with a full-motion video preamble about Takauji Ashikaga and the history of Japan, before literally closing the book and cutting to Tokiyuki running around.
The ensuing animation is simply gorgeous, as the young lord leaps and bounds around town amid Takauji’s send-off ceremony. In a matter of minutes, the viewer sees every aspect of Tokiyuki’s idyllic palace life: his father’s puppet regency, the stoicism of Takauji, and how Tokiyuki finds joy in shirking responsibility, choosing to simply take in the simple pleasures of this life.
A seemingly chance encounter with a priest reinforces The Elusive Samurai‘s comedic chops, too. The series plays up both wordplay and physical comedy to great effect, with Yorishige Suwa and his assistant as perfect comedic complements to disrupt Tokiyuki’s life.
It would all be calm before the storm, though, as The Elusive Samurai is very much a samurai story, and that does entail its fair share of blood and carnage. It’s enough to push Tokiyuki to the edge, literally; but when he goes tumbling over, he finds his agile nature belies a remarkable ability to avoid death and danger. In a fluid, beautifully animated montage, Tokiyuki goes flying through a mass of samurai, dodging blades and arrows alike, emerging like a phoenix.
This becomes the heart of The Elusive Samurai, a show that can pivot on a moment’s notice from light-hearted comedy to gruesome violence. It might feel dissonant at times, but it works incredibly well, mirroring Tokiyuki’s own shock and emotions in the moment. It’s remarkable how CloverWorks manages to navigate what might have been a difficult adaptation, otherwise.
Intersperse some incredible landscape work, more clever animation and transitions, and even the way CloverWorks frames it all, and The Elusive Samurai is easily one of the summer’s best visual treats when it comes to anime. It’s so dedicated to the bit that, in Episode 2, an early joke about a dice game becomes a full-blown visual gag that evolves over the course of the entire episode.
I’m keen to see how the emotional and comedic layers intertwine in the coming episodes, but suffice to say, The Elusive Samurai is easily one to keep tabs on this summer. We’ve had no shortage of stellar manga adaptations over the last year or so, including Delicious in Dungeon and Frieren. And right now, The Elusive Samurai seems poised to be just as beloved.
