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Last Samurai Standing really caught me off guard, not because it does anything super groundbreaking but because it knows exactly what it wants to be and Im sure that just like "Shogun (2024)" this one at least going to have two more seasons. Creator Mihito Fuji did mention on to a Screenrant interview how he would be fine with loading everything into two or three seasons and I would guess he fear Netflix might even cancel it after one season although by now it has been approve for a second one, Netflix does like blue balling its viewers with this kind of behaviour although we lucky it has not happen to this great series yet. Fuji loaded season one with as much as he could, introduced characters, developed them, killed some off and left just enough open for what comes next without making it feel incomplete, this is basically what we needed after so many disappointments with shows that get canceled out of nowhere or just leave you hanging for years. The show mixes samurai history with death game tension in a way that actually works even though at times it feels like its borrowing a bit too much from Squid Game but you know what, its fine because the execution is different enough and the samurai setting and the landscape gives it this unique flavor that you dont really get anywhere else, even the fighting scenes feel more personal and brutal compared to other shows that try to do similar things with modern weapons or just people running around, its like Shogun but way more exciting with constant fights and still some drama in it. Shujiro and Futaba have real emotional weight behind their mission to expose this whole government conspiracy, you can feel the desperation in every decision they make and Kiojin is being set up as something bigger down the line, you can see it in every pause and hesitation he has, like theres more to his story that we aint seen yet and Im curious where they take that character because right now he feels like a wildcard that could go either way.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32237534/
- Platform: NETFLIX
Source The series takes place in 1878 when the samurai age was completely over, swords got banned, the class system fell apart and these once feared warriors became basically nobodies living in poor villages trying to survive, its a very sad reality when you think about it because these guys dedicated their entire lives to mastering the sword and following this code of honor only to have everything stripped away by a government that decided to go modern with Western weapons. The show does a great job showing how desperate things got for these former samurai, Shujiro has to deal with his daughter dying from cholera because he cant afford proper medicin, his wife is also sick and hes basically broke trying to sell his charred sword at a pawn shop just to get some food on the table, its heartbreaking stuff that makes you understand why he would risk his life in this death tournament called Kodoku. The setup is nothing complicated or that we havent seen before, in fact reminds me of "Rurouni Kenshin" in a lot of ways, its simple but effective, 292 samurai gather at Kyotos Tenriuji Temple for a battle royale where they have to collect wooden tags from other participants by killing them, each checkpoint on the journey from Kyoto to Tokyo requires a certain number of tags to pass through and by the end only fewer than 10 people can survive because you need 30 tags total, its basically designed to make everyone kill each other until theres almost nobody left standing. The prize is 100 billion yen which back then was an insane amount of money, enough to change your entire familys life forever, so of course desperate people are going to sign up even if it means they might die in the process.
Source The first episode is pure gold right out the gate with this massive nighttime battle at the temple where everyone is just going crazy trying to survive, heads are getting chopped off, blood is spraying everywhere and the chaos is real, but the most impressive thing about it is that it doesnt look like CGI at all and if this is true I can only imagine how hard it was to get all this actors who could wild the sword, very rare nowadays and you can tell because everything feels more grounded and intense. Shujiro has severe PTSD from the Boschin War that ended 10 years earlier, he was in this battle where they won fair and square but then were betray by the government they were actually helping who brought in Western artillery and just bombed the hell out of everyone to get rid of Samurai once for all, he watched his entire team get blown apart and he barely survived by hiding in a trench under dead bodys, now every time he grabs his sword his hands start shaking and he cant even pull it out of the sheath properly. The sword itself is all charred and rusty from the bomb residue which is a nice detail that shows how damaged he is both physically and mentally, this guy used to be known as Kokusho the Manslayer but now he can barely function in combat, its only when he sees Futaba who reminds him of his dead daughter that he snaps out of it enough to protect her. Futaba is this 17 year old girl who has no real combat skills and honestly I dont know how she even got into this tournament, she spends most of the time looking scared and running away from people trying to kill her, some articles I read were complaining about her being too weak and calling it regressive or whatever but I think it makes sense to have at least one vulnerable character so the others can look stronger by comparison, not every female character needs to be some superhuman fighter who defys physics.
The show also has this subplot about rich elites watching the whole thing from a safe location and gambling on who is going to win, its exactly like Squid Game with the VIPs watching from above and making bets, I get that this is supposed to make you hate the rich people but it feels too predictable and even cliche for this type of TV series, we have seen this exact setup in like a dozen other shows already so its not exactly fresh. There is also a government conspiracy angle where the guy organizing Kodoku named Toshio Kawaji is trying to wipe out all the remaining samurai because he wants to modernize Japan and create this fascist police force armed with guns instead of swords, he sees the samurai as a threat to his vision of the future so he is using this tournament to make them kill each other off, its dark as hell when you realize these people are fighting for their lives while the guy running everything just wants them all dead. The home minister Lord Okubo starts investigating Kawaji because he suspects something is wrong but then Kawaji has him assassinated before he can expose the whole thing, so now Shujiro and the others are walking into this conspiracy without realizing how deep it goes, they think they are just trying to win money but really they are pawns in a much bigger political game. One of the best parts of the show is the rivalry between Shujiro and this guy named Bakutsu Kangja who was also in the Boschin War, Kangja went completely insane after the war ended and now he just wants to die fighting the strongest oponent he can find, he sees Shujiro as this legendary warrior and becomes obsessed with fighting him to the death, its a very tragic character because unlike Shujiro who has a family to fight for Kangja has absolutely nothing and just wants to go out in a blaze of glory.
The ending of Seasons 1 really brought some finale type of action with Shujiro finally killing Kangja in this exhausting sword fight that felt way more real than most choreographed fights you see in shows like this, blood is flowing everywhere and both of them are completely worn out by the end, Kangja gets the death he wanted and Shujiro has to keep moving forward even though you can tell hes barely holding it together. The show also introduced this enforcer named Gentosai who is hunting down all the students from the Kihachi school; the truth is that this could be a complete spin off if they wanted to, including Shujiros sister Roa, apparently their master said only one student could inherit the school and the rest have to die, its another tragedy where these people who trained together for years now have to kill each other or be hunted down forever, Gentosai is like this unstopable force that nobody can kill, the guy is old but has such strength and talent with the sword, at the same time he is also terrifying every time he shows up on screen. The season ends with Shujiro and Futaba heading towards Tokyo while Kawaji is going in the oposite direction, so you know these two are going to have a showdown eventually and its probably going to be the climax of season two if we even get one, in paper we will but we never know with Netflix. The show hit a almost perfect Rotten Tomatoes score with 100% Critics and 86% Audience, trended globally and people online are comparing it to Squid Game none the less this show made me so happy to have something Samurai related to watch as I wait for Shogun. My biggest complaint is that some parts feel very generic and as I mention above cliche for a Samurai series, something Showgun avoid more than others but so far I would say this is one of the two best Samurai Tv Series from the last 10 years, like we have seen these character types before in a hundred other shows, the whole thing about everyones family being sick with cholera and needing money for medicine gets repetitive, also the decision to have the games take place in the open streets instead of a contained arena makes it feel less tense because you keep thinking these people could just run away if they really wanted to but the series did well to explain how Kodoku would find them whereever they go or hide. Hands down a 8 out of 10 for me, its a solid samurai death game show that knows what it wants to be and does over complicate things, if you already have Netflix its definitely worth checking out, btw getting all this names is not easy and I know I must have butcher or got one or two confuse.
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