Spoilers

Saki and Yasuke encounter a band of warriors…

We left Yasuke with a demonic priest who’d been hunting down the young super powered girl Saki skewered by a large stone cross. It marked the end of the season’s initial mini-arc and demanded the show step in a new direction as we headed into the second half.

The question on my mind was whether the show would drag on and deliver nothing but a bit of a vague wander through Japanese countryside with no real plot progression. I suspected it would end up being just like some of its recent Netflix brethren in this regard. The fact it was animated by the same studio (MAPPA) who made the final season of Attack on Titan didn’t seem to help.

I was wrong.

The second half of the season takes the embers of the first half and pours a carton of lighter fuel on them. With almost no looking back, the show examines the position Yasuke and Saki find themselves in now the world knows she exists.

Hunted, they flee in search of allies but rather than a slow, ponderous meander they get there quickly and by the end of the season the main threads have been tied off and the big story resolved.

Was it too fast? I don’t think so. The stakes here are pretty clear and the threat to the world they inhabit clear enough. The motivations of the characters make sense within their own context and it roars through what essentially becomes one extended battle across the last two episodes taking place across multiple fronts.

To my delight the mercenaries from the first half return and have some standout moments – even if they’re a little cliched and rushed to carry the impact they might have done otherwise.

Emotionally there’s not a lot going on here – it’s a show about two people learning to trust one another, to rely on one another but it’s done out of necessity as much as anything. There’s no moments of deep revelation or personal growth – there are a lot of exciting battles with some conversation between. It might sound like I’m down on that – I’m not – I enjoyed this second half of the season much more than the first.

There’s plenty left undone though. Hints of secret societies, of Yasuke’s love for a woman who betrayed him and of a larger world into which Saki, the young girl who’s also the chosen one, now enters.

It may end with both main characters enjoying something of a bucolic idyl but these elements are waiting in the wings and I’d not be surprised to see a second season commissioned soon enough. LeSean Thomas has delivered a solid first season which could easily be seen as a prologue or introduction to the world of Yasuke.

Verdict: Yasuke is fun if not ground-breaking. It tells a common enough anime story, but it does so with confidence and flair. It’s also nice to see PoC involved not just in the acting but behind the scenes too. Yasuke is not going to change how anyone perceives anime as an artform or even challenge how anime thinks about itself, but it’s good enough that I’m happy to recommend it to those looking to scratch their anime itch.

Rating? 8 giant witch doctor spirits out of 10.

Stewart Hotston