Netflix just added a new entry to its ever-growing list of ambitious anime projects, for which a trailer is released today for Yasuke, the (semi-) historical story of an African man who became a prominent warrior in feudal Japan. That part is all real, to be clear; it’s just that Yasuke’s story is closely intertwined with that of the old warlord Oda Nobunaga, and there are nothing video game makers and anime artists love more than push a bunch of demons and magical shit into the life of the famous and feared Nobunaga.
Hence, presumably, some of the wilder stuff in the trailer above, which it always looks capable of LaKeith Stanfield voicing Yasuke, who reportedly came to Japan in the company of Jesuit missionaries in the late 1500s, before he caught Nobunaga’s attention. He was eventually called Nobunaga’s armor bearer, a role that was of great privilege at the time, and Yasuke is generally described as the first black samurai. When Nobunaga was murdered, Yasuke fought his killer for a while and then disappeared from view of history – possibly because he became a demon-fighting skipper subject to some evil prophecy., if you can believe the new anime.
Animation tasks Yasuke are handled by MAPAA, recently released the final season of Attack on TitanThe series is scheduled for release on April 29.