Farewell Tokiyuki 🥲
The Elusive Samurai
(Yusei Matsui)
January 2021 to February 2026
238 Chapters
I really really enjoyed this series. I like it better than Assassination Classroom and that was a very solid, satisfying series. I found it really refreshing that it was a shonen series that was full of old dues LOL. And they weren’t bishie-ed up at all, in fact, most of them were pretty ugly in a comedic way. I guess maybe you could argue they were a bit too quirky and one-note (big eyes dude, big ears dude, etc), but I think it was necessary to keep track of all the different characters.
I do love an edutainment series. And this one did it with max entertainment. The comparisons to modern day things weren’t just funny, but also helped with understanding things that otherwise would be pretty hard to grasp (like how fast an arrow actually is). And I liked how it didn’t gloss over the unsavoury aspects of former times. People can be really brutal to other people/living creatures… But to it’s credit, Matsui-sensei managed to strike that balance of fact without getting super depressing/preachy.
Tokiyuki was a fun main character. I liked how he was consistent in his fighting style even as he aged. It led to some very interesting fights. And I love how strong the women characters were, in a variety of ways. I do find it hilarious that it essentially became a harem LOL. And I was surprised at how candid they were about sexual relationships? I guess I wasn’t expecting that from a Weekly Shonen Jump series, even though the current readership would probably skew fairly old due to people like me haha.
The mixture of history/politics and fantasy was really well done. It made the fourth wall breaking stuff acceptable/not jarring haha. I liked the commentary/analysis of what made certain historical figures/clans influential and what caused others to fade into insignificance.
Definitely going to buy this physical and have a reread. I hope the tankobons come with extra commentary from Matsui-sensei. It was fun seeing how The Elusive Samurai ended up being the longest running of Matsui-sensei’s series. Three successful series is amazing. Looking forward to the fourth 😊
Categories: Simulpub Review
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