Last Samurai Standing

The premise of a Battle Royale but with Samurais is an incredibly fun idea!The fight scenes are incredibly well-choreographed, bloody and a visual treat to watch! There is also some wonderful cinematography and it genuinely feels like they brought the Meiji era to life! The music score is also excellent. I found that all the actors did a terrific job and special praise has to go to Junichi Okada as the main character Shujiro Saga. He does a great job in bringing depth to the character and also performing the fight choreography.While the story sounds generic on paper, I do love how they explore conflict between the old Samurai era and the new one while also handling some of the politics in a digestible way. It does have a lot of generic tropes including the old broken down man, the young naive girl who can be quite annoying and overly silly bad guy. However, I enjoyed a lot of this show and it is a great start for Season 1. I am most definitely looking forward to where this goes next!

Solid story, engaging characters, strong TV show. Based on a series of novels, Netflix use everything from the usual battle royale recipe to deliver a compelling plotline, well paced in only six episodes, with great action scenes. Each cliffhanger works to hook the viewers till the end of the show and the last episode delivers a gripping finale. A bit short maybe, but definitely worth the watch.

A surprisingly refreshing take on the "Battle Royale" and "Killing Games" genres. One, because it takes place in a time without modern or advanced tech so many stories of the same genre heavily rely on to make their games work (and the methods they come up with to make such a game work in the late 1800's is a thrilling subplot in and of itself). And two, because the plot refuses to be defined as a large scale social and moral allegory for our modern time, and instead puts the focus on far more interesting plots and developments; especially action! The only weakness I'd say that this show has is that this show prioritizes entertainment and action so much that it will only keep characters that help keep the series fresh and entertaining, and will ignore or fully cut out characters that are too boring. Like how a lot of the plotlines and stories that lead up to the main character entering the games essentially become irrelevant for the most part even before the second episode is over. Or how if the direction of the story starts to become too predictable and monotone, it will cut off characters (even the ones with serious potential) without hesitation, even early on, to keep things fresh and unpredictable. In short, it's a standard "Killing Games" show with the pretentious allegories dialed downed to a 2, and the action and entertainment dialed up to an 11. It comes at a cost, but for those looking for that higher action and suspense other Battle Royale stories lack, this is exactly what you've been looking for.

The strongest part of this series are the fights, which are brutal, down to earth and fast paced. Apart from that it's Squid Game in Japan, with all silliness that comes with the whole concept and some nice visuals as well. Worth to mention - this is not historically accurate.

Squid Game set in historical Japan. Similarly lowbrow and at times downright silly. Characters that couldn't be more stereotypical. The fights are sometimes well-choreographed, but have nothing to do with realistic combat from that era.