YMMV / Yasuke

• Awesome Art: As simple as the story is, it is told with solid animation (some obvious computer graphics robots not-withstanding) and, not to mention, a killer soundtrack (see below).
• Awesome Music:
  • Even if you find the dialogue or writing cringe-inducing, there's no denying the absolutely jaw-dropping soundtrack by FlyingLotus makes everything 100 times more bearable that without.
  • Warlords is an exciting track that punctuates many of the battle scenes, and is a mix of rhythmic, intense, and imposing.
  • Using What You Got is a track so catchy and true to the style of Flying Lotus that it would be worth a 10 hour extended version (so settle for the 10 minute extended version as attached).
• Complete Monster: The Dark Daimyo is the demonic ruler of the Daimyo who wants to create a Hell on Earth using little Saki's powers. Banished to the Astral Plane for centuries, the Dark Daimyo, having fed off the misery and suffering of Japan, sends her sorcerous soldiers out to wreak havoc and take as many lives as they can in their search for Saki, even killing her top generals who fail to acquire the child. Showing a sadistic love of mentally torturing her victims, when the samurai Yasuke and Saki enter her palace, the Dark Daimyo poses as his master Oda Nobunaga to get him to kill Saki for her own amusement, hoping to kill the child herself and gain immortality.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: Another criticism is that in just 6 episodes with Yasuke going from escorting a sick girl to stopping apocalypse and The Big Bad not introduced until episode 4, the whole story feels rushed.
• Retroactive Recognition: Tokusatsu fans may recognize Yasuke's Japanese voice actor, Jun Soejima, as MC Che.ck-It-Out from Kamen Rider Zero-One.
• Spiritual Successor: Both this series and Afro Samurai might have been based on the same person.
• Tear Jerker: Haruto's slow realisation of Ishikawa's death by Boom, Headshot!, resulting in his subsequent Heroic Sacrifice. Even if the development of their relationship was unclear, Ishikawa is implied to be the first person to refer to Haruto as a friend.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Yasuke himself, despite being the Title Character, has been relegated to a side role while the story revolves around Saki developing her psychic powers, making him a Decoy Protagonist in a show that is named after him and leaving behind a lot of potential to show more of his character development and backstory, which was only shown in flashbacks. This may or may not have been lampshaded in-universe where Yasuke asks Saki why she even needs him around if she can defeat the enemies easily in which Saki answers that she actually doesn't need his help and only wants him around so she won't be lonely.
  • Despite similarity being lampshaded by Haruto, and said character subverting the Black Dude Dies First trope to survive to the end alongside Yasuke, the significance of Achoja being another black combatant apparently living/working in Japan at the same time isn't explored whatsoever, and on top of his own plights as a black man in Japan being under explored (much like with Yasuke), the two don't share much dialogue, and none that acknowledges this implicit similarity.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: An article from Anime News Network pointed out one of the common criticisms of the show, that Yasuke and his historical role in Oda Nobunaga's court is a fascinating story when the narrative focuses on it. However, the relegation of it to the B plot along with the addition of historically inaccurate elements such as robots and magic muddles the storytelling and makes it far less effective. Had the story focused on the man and his role in history, rather than making him an interchangeable protagonist in a story set after Oda's historical death and divorced from the Sengoku period wars, the end result would have been far more interesting. Instead, it acts as mere window dressing for a far less interesting main story. Some of this disappointment could also be blamed on the marketing, which emphasized the historical aspects while downplaying (though by no means hiding) the more mystical and science-fiction aspects, which play a much larger role than many might assume. Those hoping for a more grounded historical series will inevitably be disappointed by the widespread presence of mecha suits and magic.