The Elusive Samurai Episode 8 Review: A Mastermind Strategist

The 8th episode of The Elusive Samurai prepared us for the upcoming battle between Shokan and Tokiyuki. Let us see how this episode turned out.

The Elusive Samurai Episode 7 Recap

The story opens with Tokiyuki experiencing his first New Year since joining the Suwa clan. His days are filled with peaceful moments and playful interactions with his aides. They spend time training, playing, and simply living the carefree life of children their age. However, this calm is soon overshadowed by trouble, starting with Yorishige suddenly losing his ability to foresee the future.

Though Yorishige assures everyone that this has happened before and is just a temporary phase, the situation grows more complicated when Tokiyuki volunteers to defend Suwa Clan’s northern border. With others busy guarding the other borders, Tokiyuki feels compelled to step in. Despite Yorishige’s firm opposition, Tokiyuki and his elusive warriors choose to forge their own path.

While travelling to the northernmost point of Suwa territory, they unexpectedly face a new threat. A lone warrior, around Tokiyuki’s age, armed with twin blades, attacks them. He is highly skilled and easily holds off both Ayako and Kojiro without much effort.

The Elusive Samurai Episode 8 Review And Recap

The enemy is finally gearing up to destroy the village and wreak havoc. But it is not going to be that easy for them to plunder as they never thought that there would be a genius tactician within the hero’s party.

Fubuki, the enigmatic swordsman with exceptional talent, is an excellent teacher and a benevolent leader. He is the one who comes up with all the key points that they will have to follow in the battle and even strategies a way that can actually help keep the enemies at bay even when his party is greatly outnumbered.

Perhaps due to his proficient leadership, our hero, Tokiyuki, seeks him out and asks him to teach him a proper move. Tokiyuki is an evasive fighter who heavily relies on defence rather than offence. Thus, he cannot apply all the other available moves in combat. Fubuki understands and realises Tokiyuki’s ineptness in a battle and comes up with a technique that is supposed to be perfect for Tokiyuki. This move is called the Demon Heart Buddha Blade, but it can only be used in a one-on-one match.

Elsewhere, Shokan and his followers finally make their move and step towards the village, facing all the traps and blows coming their way nonchalantly. But just according to the plan of Fubuki, we see Tokiyuki gearing to battle against Shokan. Here, we also get a sneak peek at the character of Shokan and understand just how depraved he is. He seems like a pervert who derives pleasure from others’ miseries, especially children.

His intentions for this village are anything but simple. Now that he killed all the adults here, he plans to cut off the children’s teeth and tongue and slice their right leg’s tendons to make them slaves. Plus, he admits to feeling elated when he kills all parents and professes this election further increases when he forces their kids into slavery. And all the while he was describing his entire plan, he was drooling.

Not only Shokan but there is another very enigmatic character, Shiro, whom, at first, we thought to be just a deranged retainer. Turns out he is even stronger than Shokan, and he will face Fubuki.

Verdict

Today’s episode is definitely a very intriguing one, as it sets the stage for the upcoming face-off that is going to happen. The artwork is definitely my favourite aspect of this anime, and I really do not care about the CGI that they use. I can honestly claim that this was a really entertaining episode.

Also Read: The Elusive Samurai Episode 7 Review: Another Weirdo In The House