The Elusive Samurai

Episode 10

Dammit, this show has no right to be as interesting and compelling as it is. We already got a huge extravaganza of dark mood and bloody spectacle a couple of weeks ago; all this episode had to do was live up to its title and offer some yuks to get us to the next big set piece. Yet, despite being the true owner of the “A Perverted Boy and Disturbances of Holy Power” title that got misappropriated a while back, this week's chapter of The Elusive Samurai somehow managed to get under my skin and into my head with some of its ideas and imagery. We still get to laugh about the perverted boy which just makes all of the surprising depth to come later that much more invigorating.

As it turns out, the perv in question isn't Genba, but Tokiyuki of all people, as his efforts to fetch Yorishige's random future-sight catalysts have his retainers suspecting that their young lord is developing the kind of debaucherous tastes fit only for the bluest-blooded of nobles. I honestly wouldn't be complaining if this stupid plotline was the focus of the entire episode because it made me laugh a lot. Like I've always said, the dumbest of jokes only become more hilarious when their execution is given an undue amount of polish and effort, and The Elusive Samurai's impeccable production values just make it funnier when poor Tokiyuki listen to his best friends all eagerly unite in unwavering support of their lord's sick nasty kinkiness.

The real meat of the episode comes later when some encounters with Yorishige and Shizuku dig into the magical and mythical nature of this setting. Not only is the time that Tokiyuki spends with Shizuku and the forest spirits lovely to behold, but it establishes a lovely and almost Romantic spark between the two kids. I don't mean romantic in the relationship sense — at least, not entirely — but rather the “capital-R ‘Romance’ of classic poetry and paintings” sense. After so many weeks of brutality and bloodshed, the anime's exquisite artistry is brought back to the natural world, showing how powerful the connection between our heroes and the land they walk upon can be when they allow themselves a moment to commune with the spiritual plane that binds them all together.

This atmosphere of magic and wonder is only compounded by the chat with Yorishige and may as well function as a thesis statement for why this show exists in the first place. This era of Japanese history, where the ancient world and the modern world are colliding so violently, is a place where you can have the concrete human stories of real historical figures brush up against the supernatural mythmaking that can only thrive in the absence of skepticism and the need to explain every phenomenon as something “natural.” Like Yorishige says, the story of Tokiyuki The Elusive Samurai simply could not exist outside of this exact point in Japanese history, because the practical boundaries of technology and secular thought would prohibit it from taking root as anything other than idle fantasy. I've been commenting for weeks how The Elusive Samurai has been reveling in this infectious adoration for its setting, both despite and because of how horrifying, strange, and tonally inconsistent this setting has proven to be. What else should we expect from a world where gods, men, heroes, children, and otherworldly demons walk side-by-side to fight for control over the fate of a nation?

This infusion of the magic and the mundane is also what I loved about the detour to check in on the brothers Ashikaga: Takauiji and Tadayoshi. Until now, Takauiji has been presented as one of those otherworldly demon types, a man whose intuition and power have been so keen that there is nothing that can stop his onslaught. The man is made so much more human when his brother is used as a foil, though, and Takauji's monstrousness feels exceptionally more threatening when framed against the concerns of “mortal” men. The scene where Tadayoshi discovers the dark and chaotic devil-maw that surrounds his brother's painting of the Buddha is one of my favorite moments of the show so far because it forces Tadayoshi and the audience to both question whether Takauji even realize how blackened his soul has become. That is the villain that could take this story to the next level.

Rating:

The Elusive Samurai 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 Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.