REVIEW: ‘The Elusive Samurai’ Episode 11 — “Samurai Who Are Eager To Die & An Elusive Samurai”

In a fun, distorted manner, The Elusive Samurai Episode 11 boils down to what this whole series is about. That it does so with its requisite, often jarring, sense of humor and visual nonsense is almost to be expected at this point. And yet still, the execution is near-seamless as Tokiyuki (Asaki Yuikawa), a child who found strength through running away from his expected demise, must contend with a group of samurai chasing senseless death.

As the penultimate installment, The Elusive Samurai Episode 11 sets up a new potential antagonist even as Tokiyuki realizes his sense of peace in who he is and will be as a leader. He, along with Fubuki (Kikunosuke Toya), Genba (Aoi Yūki), and Kojiro (Mari Hino), gets the assignment from Yorishige (Yuichi Nakamura) to go and dissuade a group of samurai, led by Hoshina Yasaburō, from launching a total rebellion in Shinano.

The province, now led by the vain and cruel Kiyohara (Anri Katsu), is falling further into ruin. Kiyohara, now the tax collector in the Shinano territory, confiscates all grains from the wheat harvest, and anyone who steps up to voice their dissent is killed. An enraged Yasaburo and his men believe that rather than sit and await death, they should race full throttle toward it. But it’s hardly all out of altruistic heroism. Instead, Tokiyuki sees it for what it is — selfish pride. The root of their anger is valid. It’s how they’re channeling it that rubs Tokiyuki the wrong way.

Not to suggest that the episode has an overtly severe tone. The first moments we meet Yasaburo, he’s arguing with Sadamune about making his eyebrows look cuter. Yasaburo’s men lean into samurai caricatures, militant fighters who only seek the glory of death, ready and willing to deliver ridiculous offerings for the sake of their perceived masculinity. One with a blank-faced stare delivers increasingly wild descriptors of how he plans to forge his self-destructive path of glory.

For all that The Elusive Samurai stumbles in its attempts to bridge large-scale tragedy with over-the-top, garish humor, something clicks in Episode 11. Because, more often than not, the big swings are applied to the adult characters. This isn’t limited to the antagonists, with Yorishige being a character who brings out some of the most jarring moments. But with all of their exaggerated designs, from characters who hear well having disproportionate ears to warriors whose features too accentuate their aggression, it paints the picture of how these adults would look through the eyes of a child. Through the eyes of Tokiyuki, in particular.

This realization doesn’t so much make the two tones harmonious but adds an extra layer to the story The Elusive Samurai is telling. At one point, after accidentally becoming drunk due to some sake splashing him in the face, one of Shinano’s samurai asks how old Tokiyuki is. He’s nine, and it has been almost a year since the start of his story began. He’s so young, and he’s witnessed hellacious brutality and all forms of human depravity. It makes sense then that the faces of those who look up at to them would morph into caricatures of their true selves.

It also helps that the humor is strong in The Elusive Samurai Episode 11. Tokiyuki accidentally getting drunk is a highlight, and the voice work by Anri Katsu immediately amplifies Kiyohara‘s presence. And anyone who has ever watched any movie about samurai will understand the comedy of these larger-than-life figures who would instead find the most bombastic and violent way to die as a means of masculine honor.

However, the real strength of the episode — aside from some key, beautifully animated sequences — is the story that Tokiyuki’s character conveys with little exposition. Through quick bursts of flashbacks, we see the ruin in which his home lay after many of his father’s retainers died from the enemy of self-inflicted wounds for the sake of honor.

He, too, almost died that day, believing it to be the honorable thing to do, but was stopped by Yorishige’s intervention. He no longer sees the value or virtue of dying for the sake of battle. Instead, he presses Yasaburo to live and keep fighting for the sake of children who’d be left helpless and parentless if he and his soldiers were to die needlessly.

Tokiyuki is successful, even if Kiyohara’s men begin chase in the closing moments. The most touching exchange comes between Tokiyuki and Kojiro. The former tells the latter that his core belief and want is the ability to live life exuberantly. That is the future he wants and one he acknowledges as something that holds dignity. Kojiro, on his way to being a soldier, agrees, saying he’ll support him in life rather than death. It’s a brief sequence that holds the means of the series together. Both Tokiyuki’s ‘elusive’ nature being a parallel to his desire to live as well as the ideology of a new generation coming through to change the old guard.

The Elusive Samurai Episode 11 expertly bridges the tonally dissonant aspects of the series together. With cohesive writing and some gorgeous imagery, it perfectly leads the way to the finale.

The Elusive Samurai Episode 11 is out now on Crunchyroll.