Lakeith Stanfield will star as the first African samurai in Netflix’s anime series ‘Yasuke’ 2021

[Primetime]

Ehhhh

The animation was a bit disappointing... Don't revoke my Harlem pass but they could've made my breh Yasuke be a handsome ass nygga, or just a cooler character design. And just overall, i felt the art didn't look that great.

But my main issue with the series is two fold:

Spoiler

One, you have a 6 episode pilot to win everyone over on this being a potential franchise [or so was my impression].. but you spend the first 3 episodes having the homie be a drunk sword-less bum getting his ass kicked. The flashbacks are cool, but showing that he could beat up basic goons 20 years ago means nothing when he's getting smoked, captured, and tortured by supernatural/tech goons... to be saved by the lil asian girl who beats the "mid-level" boss.



Which leads me to my second issue: he didn't feel like a strong protagonist.

The girl flat out told him "i don't need you to protect me" And all his wins vs supernatural characters she basically had to interfere so he could win.

I had to double check that the legend of Yasuke wasn't about an asian child and her black cab driver, because it felt like this ish was about how bad ass and powerful she could be.

The brother who made cannon whatsamaycallit is the same one who wrote this?

 

[Primetime]

Let down by this. I like the historical figures and how it was loosely based on history (Nobunaga did commit seppuku after Kyoto was raided and he was surrounded. Yasuke being his retainer) but all the sorcery, mechs, and the magical white girl took me out of the story. First 3 episodes he's getting his ass kicked. I just really dislike how they take such liberties with something so important and a story a lot of people were actually excited and waiting for. Flying Lotus did his thing on the OST but man this was disappointing. Lakeith doing the voiceover aint working for me either.

My thing is, why would these idiots make it about sorcery mechs and magical bs.. but not upgrade the protagonist of the story so he could deal with it in kind? Give him a magical fukkin katana or technique or something to combat it, if you're going to go that left-field with it.

This felt like another of htose Anthony Mackie in Altered Carbon/Boyega in Force Awakens line of "black male protagonists"... where they just get their asses kicked until being handed a pyrrhic victory to advance the plot. Talk about a disappointment.

 

[Axum Ezana]

My thing is, why would these idiots make it about sorcery mechs and magical bs.. but not upgrade the protagonist of the story so he could deal with it in kind? Give him a magical fukkin katana or technique or something to combat it, if you're going to go that left-field with it.

This felt like another of htose Anthony Mackie in Altered Carbon/Boyega in Force Awakens line of "black male protagonists"... where they just get their asses kicked until being handed a pyrrhic victory to advance the plot. Talk about a disappointment.

yep and they always gettin saved by a white man or white woman. shyt is terrible.

like do they think the black male audience is stupid not payin attention always tryna short change our masculinity and leadership. its so fukkin obvious.

 

[Monoblock]

My thing is, why would these idiots make it about sorcery mechs and magical bs.. but not upgrade the protagonist of the story so he could deal with it in kind? Give him a magical fukkin katana or technique or something to combat it, if you're going to go that left-field with it.

This felt like another of htose Anthony Mackie in Altered Carbon/Boyega in Force Awakens line of "black male protagonists"... where they just get their asses kicked until being handed a pyrrhic victory to advance the plot. Talk about a disappointment.

On point. It's like the creators couldn't handle the storyline of a black samurai back in Edo period Japan so they had to add all of that stupid shyt totally missing the opportunity to do something unique. Mechs, bearwolves, mutant religious priest, an Egyptian sorcerer, oh yea and a magical white child that he must protect at all cost. The flash backs were ok but hell even that was annoying after a while. That opening scene had me straight confused

 

[MikelArteta]

I went from invincible thinking id get more animation piff but nah

 

[QBN]

Really disappointing for all the reasons mentioned above. Afro-Samurai still #1 as far as a Black lead in anime from what I've seen.

 

[OnFleekTing]

I like it
I could do without all the mecha and fantasy powers
as far as anime quality goes this is decent to good
Lakeith sounds bored as hell doing the voice

 

[Dillah810]

 

[Ahadi]

Great show. On ep 3 now.

LeSean Smith, Lakeith, Flying Lotus & Thundercat

 

[klutch2381]

The intro goes.

This could’ve been a lot better. I don’t even hate the magic and mechs, but you have to explain the lore. They didn’t even try.

 

[LEEeveryday]

I'm at Ep 2. and this shyt is super high quality. I fukks with it.

 

[Neil Tyson]

Yeah this sucks. Samurai Champloo, Sword of the Stranger, Afro Samurai, Rurouni Kenshin and even Blade of the Immortal gave these nikkas the blue print and they still fell short. I don't mind the magic or the energy beams but please leave the gundams out of it.

 

[OnFleekTing]

Honestly my only issue with the setting is that if its so fantastical with people who have magic powers and mechas and all that
Why make the main character just a regular ass dude? Even Afro Samurai threw the realism away for rule of cool
Yasuke would benefit from some sort of powers to not make him seem so outmatched against everyone
lil asian white girl saved him so often that he had to basically call her a show off

 

[loyola llothta]

My thing is, why would these idiots make it about sorcery mechs and magical bs.. but not upgrade the protagonist of the story so he could deal with it in kind? Give him a magical fukkin katana or technique or something to combat it, if you're going to go that left-field with it.

This felt like another of htose Anthony Mackie in Altered Carbon/Boyega in Force Awakens line of "black male protagonists"... where they just get their asses kicked until being handed a pyrrhic victory to advance the plot. Talk about a disappointment.

You know how they do nikkas in the media

 

[Dillah810]