Wanna see a black samurai? No seriously, the main character is a black, retired samurai. “Yasuke” is an American anime made by the same people who made the shows “the Boondocks” and “Afro Samurai.” 

The show is based on the actual first and only black samurai to exist. To quickly sum up the actual history an African slave was bought from a Italian trader by a the Ode clan in Japan. Over time, the African slave was given the name Yasuke. While serving the Italian he learned Japanese and was able to talk with his new companies. At first they thought his skin was dyed blacked so they asked him to remove his shirt and crub his skin only to find that the “dye” wouldn’t come off. Soon the daimyō Oda Nobunaga recognized Yasuke’s usefulness and put him to work. Eventually from hard effort he became a samurai. 

In the Netflix original series, the anime takes a real life person and gives them a rather ridiculous adventure. In the world crafted, the audience is taken to feudal Japan where magic, robots and mech battle suits exist. 

The world and the animation is fantastic as you see the visuals and the combat. You can really appreciate the time and effort put into animating such a show. As for the story itself, it is incredibly basic but can give you some surprises here and there with the truth reveals of certain characters and the powers that people have in the show.

Currently, the anime is sitting in the Top 10 most popular shows on Netflix at the moment and for good reason. It is only six episodes long, each one being around 30 minutes. So if you have some free time, sit back and enjoy a story of Japan’s one and only black samurai.