Pain & Blood
Episode 5 of Yasuke Season 1 begins with our heroes all together, discussing their options going forward. Unfortunately they’re out of time, as the Dark General arrives before them. Yasuke soon learns that the Dark General is being used as a conduit for Daimyo. She wants to use Saki’s lifeforce to rejuvenate herself and live for longer. Morisuke uses his powers though to project his mind into the astral plane, where Saki is currently being held captive. As he tries to free her, Daimyo shows herself and begins to fight. Saki manages to free herself from Daimyo’s mental cage and the pair thwart her threat for now. Yasuke meanwhile, decides to buy the pair some time while this is going on, confronting the Dark General. He wants to fight the old way. Realizing that the General is Mitsuhide, the two trade blows. With Daimyo’s link broken, the two armies square off without the magical force on them. As things look bleak, our four assassins suddenly show up and decide to fight as well. It turns out Saki reached out to them through the astral plane and asked them for assistance. In exchange, they’re promised a handsome fee. This turns the tide of battle, as Yasuke manages to kill the Dark General and this first wave of attackers. It doesn’t take long before more enemies arrive and begin fighting. Daimyo’s reinforcements shoot a volley of arrows, killing several. Robot is in no mood to retreat though and initiates a self-destruct protocol. He charges straight for the enemies and explodes within the front lines. Unfortunately it does little to quell the armies marching on the group, as the soldiers continue to flood forward. With Robot gone, Nikita bides them even more time and fights off as many bad guys as she can. Unfortunately, she too meets a grisly end. With Saki left as their only hope, can she be enough to thwart Daimyo and her wicked plans?
The Episode Review
The penultimate episode of Yasuke sees Daimyo square off against Yasuke and Saki, with the group fighting to the bitter end. The only trouble is, it comes off the back of some rushed characterization for our main players and gives little reason to be emotionally attached to these assassins. This is precisely what I mentioned a few episodes back, and with a longer run of chapters this could have been a deeply moving and emotional moment. It would also allow time to actually drink in this world and culture. That’s a shame because despite that, Yasuke does have some intriguing elements. The action is certainly well-shot and crafted too. The show has a really nice ebb and flow to it, delivering some decent action alongside a simple but effective story. The ending certainly leaves the door open for more though, and as we fast approach the season finale we’re left with lots of intriguing questions hanging over the direction of this.
