Warning! Contains reveal for The Elusive Samurai #110! Friendship and loyalty are key elements of the Shonen manga, but one Shonen dance series, The Elusive Samurai, is taking them to a terrible extreme. The Elusive Samurai, by Yusei Matsui, follows the historical revolutionary Tokiyuki Hojo as he tries to regain his reign. The series is rapidly coming to an end and is no longer dealing any punches with its characters, as the last few emotional chapters have shown.
After sustaining severe injuries during the battle, Suwa decided to stay and let Tokiyuki escape the Ashikaga forces. Suwa was both a father figure to Tokiyuki and a loyal servant, making his devotion to the young lord unmatched. It is this devotion that allows him to carry out a shocking plan in Chapter #110 of The Elusive Samurai to fake Tokiyuki’s death by skinning the faces of the corpses of those who died in battle. To avoid suspicion, he even skinned his own corpse, and it is hinted that he actually slit his own face while still alive. This is a terrible loyalty show that takes this concept to an extreme level few other series can achieve.
The Elusive Samurai takes Shonen’s friendship to a dark pole
This isn’t the first time The Elusive Samurai has pushed the boundaries of classic Shonen stories. Despite having a younger cast than many other series, the manga has always been more brutal, frequently killing its characters, and also introducing Shonen Jump’s most unsettling villain. Despite all this brutality, the series is still a lot of fun when it comes to its main group of characters. Their friendship provides the bright core of the series as the final chapters have shown. Despite Suwa’s impending death, the main characters enjoy their final moments together before he has to make one last sacrifice for Tokiyuki.
This masterful tonal balance is what makes Suwa’s show of loyalty more touching than disturbing. While other manga like Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man are making Shonen Jump more R-rated and more brutal overall, The Elusive Samurai is following that trend, much more gruesome than its predecessors. But in doing so, it shows that the new generation of dark comics can be as bright and hopeful as their predecessors while also taking their stories to more violent extremes.
The Elusive Samurai Shows Shonen Jump Manga Can Be Brutal And Bright
The Elusive Samurai seems to be coming to an end, with a head-to-head confrontation between Tokiyuki and Takauji just around the corner. The manga series is consistently one of Shonen Jump’s most creative and enjoyable series, with a fantastic cast of lovable heroes and despicable villains. Now is the perfect time for new fans of the series to catch up. because if Elusive Samurai continues to deliver brutal and innovative twists on classic Shonen genres, the series will establish itself as one Shonen dancemodern classics.
The elusive samuraihapter #110 is available to read from Viz Media.