You know what’s funny? A few weeks back I learned about the first Samurai of African origin who served under the Japanese hegemon and warlord Oda Nobunaga in 1581 and 1582. This took me by surprised. I mean, to think there was actually a real black samurai is kinda insane to me. Now, I learned that there’s going to an animated series based on this historical figure on Netflix.
A few months ago, Netflix announced a brand new anime series that’s going to be executive produced by Lakeith Stanfield, of Atlanta and Flying Lotus and co-directed by the one and only, LeSean Thomas. Yep, as you can tell, I’m very interested in this anime now. Honestly, I only truly got excited because of the fact that , one it’s based on a historical samurai figure of African decent that will expose a lot of people tp this figure who didn’t know about him (like myself) AND, because LeSean Thomas (known for The Boondocks, Children of Ether and Cannon Busters), all of which I liked, will be working on this project.
The synopsis is this:
In a war-torn feudal Japan of mechs and magic, a retired ronin must take up his sword when he is charged with the task of transporting a mysterious child who dark forces want to eliminate.
Image from game called Nioh
The story’s protagonist is based on the historical figure Yasuke, a samurai of African origin who served under Oda Nobunaga during Japan’s Warring States period in the 16th century.
That’s all we know about this series for now. I’ll definitely be keeping up with this for sure.
