The Elusive Samurai Has the Best Anime Premiere of the Summer So Far

The Summer 2024 anime schedule is now in high gear, but The Elusive Samurai is already standing out with one of the hottest set of starting episodes of the new wave of anime overall! There were a ton of new anime to keep an eye out for this Summer with plenty of blockbuster returning franchises , and highly anticipated originals, but one series seems to have snuck under the radar until its premiere. Appropriately so, hilariously enough, given that the series itself focuses on a young hero who's more adept at evading and hiding rather than direct one on one fighting.

The Elusive Samurai might be making the jump from Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine , and might be from the creator behind Assassination Classroom , but it wasn't exactly high on anyone's radar. That was until the premiere of the first episode showcased a much more brutal presentation than its initial aesthetic seemed to tease, and the second episode took it to even further heights to demonstrate the kinds of action we'll get to see as the series continues.

What Is The Elusive Samurai?

Originally created by Yusei Matsui for Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 2021, The Elusive Samurai has been a fairly quiet hit for its 160 plus chapters thus far. While it indeed had its fans, it didn't really have the same amount of fan anticipation or call for attention for a potential anime adaptation you might have seen for the other hits of the same generation like Sakamoto Days, Undead Unluck, Jujutsu Kaisen , and more. But that's likely going to change after the anime airs this Summer.

The anime introduces fans to Tokiyuki Hojo, an heir to the Hojo clan meant to take over a town in feudal Japan, but there's immediately already something off about the situation. Tokiyuki's father is openly a puppet of those around him, and Tokiyuki himself has no interest in learning martial arts or the way of the sword. He'd rather play tag or play hide and seek, and he's very good at it. But one day, the Hojo clan is betrayed by Ashikaga Takauji, one of the clan's most trusted warriors.

When the rest of his family is brutally murdered, Tokiyuki is approached by a mysterious shaman named Yorishige Suwa who claims that Tokiyuki will, in the future, become the most notable warrior of their time. Now on the run, Tokiyuki must eventually overthrow his clan in only the way he can . It's not only a story that takes fans by surprise, but its presentation takes it all to another level.

Already highlighting the devious faces and characters Matsui littered the original manga with, director Yuta Yamazaki and the team for studio CloverWorks ( My Dress-Up Darling, Spy x Family, Bocchi the Rock ) has taken all of this to an impressive new level with the episodes seen thus far. It's made for an impressive blend of story and action to see play out, and has made The Elusive Samurai the stand out release of the Summer 2024 anime season thus far. You can now find the anime streaming with Crunchyroll.