Review of The Elusive Samurai

6/10 ~ Good start Funny enough I found Elusive Samurai because I was trying to find ' Blue Eye Samurai' not realizing that was a netflix exclusive. Thinking I was going into a cross dressing revenge story about a samurai... well that made the first few episodes a bit confusing haha. The first few ep of Elusive were extremely good, with some pretty unique visuals and an interesting story telling. Similar to Vinland Saga where both stories felt like a retelling of the events that transpired, dramatized to stay interesting, describing people with superhuman strength and abilities was a good way to tell a story likethis. I also really enjoyed that the MC was just a complete psychopath, at the age of 9 this just makes it even crazier.

The show asks you on too many front, an expectation to enjoy it:
- be somewhat familiar with Japanese history, or atleast interested in it.
-- if you do not enjoy history alot of the plot will immediately be lost on you
- both understand and enjoy classic Japanese comedy / play write.
-- I personally found much of the comedy to either go over my head or just not to be funny. I did not enjoy the presentation which hurt it considerably.
- Japanese modern day culture, and be fine with how ANIME this is.
-- despite this taking place hundreds of years ago, it uses alot of liberty with modern day problems, comparisons and even explaining things to characters with in real world modern comparisons which... was odd to say the least. I know some real history buffs who immensely enjoy Japanese coculture and what not that could not sit through this show because of how 'ANIME' this is, unless you are an omega weeb I cannot see many getting past this.
- if you enjoyed Kingdom, this felt similar ish on many of the episodes

After the first few episodes it was very apparent of how large of a story this was trying to tell and it became increasingly obvious that this was more set up then anything, and could not and was not set up to be stand alone in any capacity, if I was not stuck on a plane I would have turned it off and waited for it to be completed down the line. Very little actually happens after the first few seasons, and honestly becomes very monster of the week formula with the lessons that the MC and his companions learn, bit boring to be honest. The graphics of that first fight you see when the MC is pushed off the cliff is where I felt the entire budget for the season went to get you to watch the show... there is almost none of that at all after the fact, really felt like a cocktease... very disappointing.

I enjoyed the MC a bit, and some of the villains were enjoyable to watch, but the entire rest of the cast was pretty bad...

For me giving this a 6/10 is pretty generous, I may re-evaluate this review when I rewatch the whole show in its entirety when it is concluded.