Netflix has just added another entry in its ever-expanding series of ambitious anime projects, which today released a trailer for Yasuke, the (semi-) historical story of an Afrikaans man who became a prominent fighter in feudal Japan. The part is really, to be clear; it’s just that Yasuke’s story is now interwoven with that of the old warlord Oda Nobunaga, and there is nothing that makes video players and anime artists likes more than pushing a bunch of demons and magical shit into the lives of the famous and feared Nobunaga.
Therefore, presumably, some of the wilder things in the above trailer, which the always capable see LaKeith Stanfield stem Yasuke, who allegedly came to Japan in the late 1500s in the company of Jesuit missionaries, before attracting Nobunaga’s attention. He was eventually named Nobunaga’s weapon bearer, a role that enjoyed great privilege during the era, and Yasuke is generally described as the first black samurai. When Nobunaga was killed, Yasuke fought his killer for a while and then disappeared from the sight of history – possibly because he became a devil fighter subject to some evil prophecy., if the new anime is to be believed.
Animation duties on Yasuke is handled by MAPAA, which recently aired the final season of Attack on Titan. The series is scheduled for release on April 29.