©松井優征/集英社・逃げ上手の若君製作委員会
I don’t think there will be many people out there who will claim “The Eager to Die and an Elusive Samurai” as their favorite episode of the show. That’s okay; every anime needs to take a break from time to time to set the table. The main difference between this week’s setup for future conflicts and those that came before is that we don’t have a completely new member of the cast—good or evil—to make the whole experience feel fresh. Shinano-no-Kami and his minions are your typical Elusive Samurai villains, meaning they’re a bunch of insufferable lunatics whose temper is matched only by their willingness to exploit and kill any poor civilians who get in their way. But, like I said: This show has had its fair share of psychopathic clowns facing off against bureaucrats before, and these guys don't even have any disturbing body horror side powers to fight against Tokiyuki and the gang.
What the hell. Still, the episode does a good job of providing a light-hearted thematic conflict between Tokiyuki and the Suwa suicide squad led by Yasaburo Hoshina. These guys are the stereotypical “It’s a good day to die!!!” type of warriors who care more about the heroic final battle against the enemy than the tactics and strategy required to win a war. That’s all well and good for men who care more about creating legends than actually serving the common good…except, as our narrator so aptly points out, Tokiyuki’s entire clan was wiped out by “graceful” and honorable deaths, and it was all just a bloody and depraved death. When that happens, the common people don’t care whether some random soldier in a battle they’ve never heard of gets shot by a hail of arrows or survives to fight another day. For every King Leonidas, there are hundreds of millions of people every day whose most lasting contribution to public memory comes from fertilizing the land in which they were buried.
Plus, Hoshina’s men are a bunch of drunken Dang-Ass Freaks. Not only does this give Tokiyuki the moral high ground to berate these useless weirdos, it also leads to the episode’s best gag. You all know I’m here for the dumb-looking bastard who ends up being a very dedicated cannibal whose dream is to crawl out of a man’s chest by crawling up his rectum. Even funnier is the episode’s climax, when poor Tokiyuki gets drunk after being doused with some sake and mercilessly pummels Hoshina with his super-fast ass. What more is there to say? Our hero just glorified a grown man and his ragtag army into shape with alcohol-fueled supersonic ass bounces. Genius.
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The Elusive Samurai is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop culture, you can also find this information on Twitterhis blog and podcast.