Review of The Elusive Samurai

I wasn't looking forward to this tbh but I do like to watch all the WSJ adaptations when they come out so I kinda owed it to EluSam to check it out. I read most of this (I think up to E10) in the manga before the anime came out and found it boring and dry and... that did not change. It's kind of a boring, dry anime that gives "history textbook" vibes. I genuinely could not tell you what a couple of Tokiyuki's retainers' characters are supposed to be. Not to mention the antagonists are comically evil. If this wasn't a shonen anime, I wouldn't doubtfor a second they'd all be rapists. It's so overdone that I was shocked when an antagonist did something that wasn't "nyeh, I'm gonna rip children's tongues out and make them slaves and I'm gonna build a harem of women after killing their husbands!"

Not to mention how UGLY they are. One has buckteeth and can speak with his ears, one has big-ass bug eyes, one has creepy eyes and a painted face, one has ants crawling all over his body at all times, it's just an unpleasant show to watch.

For what it's worth, CloverWorks did put a lot into this anime. There are points in this anime where it's very well animated and they have a lot of fun (I'd hope, at least) doing cool things that you wouldn't normally see in a middling WSJ adaptation. Maybe it's because the director has a sense of style (I don't know who directed this, admittedly, but, I mean, just look at it) and knows that, frankly, this series needs all the help it can get, but it was cool.

That being said, and this is kind of unavoidable given how often they're on horseback (which makes my faith in a Steel Ball Run anime just sooooo high), but it'll switch between CGI and not for when they're on horses and it's not, like, awful, but it was noticeable, at least for me.

I did like a couple of the characters. The Emperor's son was cool for the all of one scene he appeared in. Tokiyuki himself is okay. I like the main antagonist, I guess?

Another thing is that the main cast (Yorishige aside) are all little kids? Like, Tokiyuki is NINE (apparently not young enough to avoid a BDSM joke according to this show but that's neither here nor there). I'm no historian so I can't speak to the historical accuracy of the show but idk, it's kind of weird to watch this show and then remember "oh, they're all elementary schoolers". I get that a lot of anime involve high schoolers saving the world against eldritch gods and 1000-year-old vampires and shit but a 16-year-old and a nine-year-old are very far apart, it was kind of weird to me.

Like, it wasn't the worst thing you could watch. I got through it, I guess. I wasn't really actively offended by anything, it's just... not an entertaining show?