When one thinks of different countries or cultures, there are certain things that are always thought of. What people most often associate with America, for example, is probably baseball and certain grilled foods like hot dogs. Whether or not people know a lot about Japanese culture, the samurai is probably most often associated with Japan. And what is better than an anime focusing on not just any samurai, but the first African samurai?
It’s taken years for someone/anyone to help realize the legendary tale of the first Black samurai, Yasuke, in some capacity. Alas, Netflix has since taken the reigns on its own end for an animated adventure from creator, executive producer and director LeSean Thomas, revered Japanese animation studio MAPPA, anf world class director and animator Takeshi Koike, and with none other than award-winning actor LaKeith Stanfield voice cast for the title role.
In the spirit of keeping up with all things Yasuke, apparently there’s more than the few that I knew of as the project reported initially back in Spring of 2017 is still stirring about. That one had originally had Gregory Widen penning the script for Solipsist Films and De Luca Productions at the time.
It’s been just over two years since we learned of a feature film in the works focused on Yasuke, the only black Samurai to have served under lord Oda Nobunaga in 16th century Japan. Since then, there are at least two more projects in the works – an indie from director/actor Calvert David Miles and an animated Netflix venture featuring Lakeith Stanfield, something which speaks amply to the viability and potential of a reverent historical black samurai feature project to begin with.
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