Category: Comics

Last Samurai Standing: Season 1 (2025)

Creative Director: Jun’ichi Okada

Directed by:

• Michihito Fujii (eps. 1-2; 6)
• Kento Yamaguchi (ep. 3; 5)
• Toru Yamamoto (ep. 4)

Teleplay by:

• (eps. 1-6) Kento Yamaguchi & Michihito Fujii; based on Last Samurai Standing by Shogo Imamura and drawn by  Katsumi Tatsuzawa

Stars: Jun’ichi Okada, Masahiro Higashide, Yûya Endô, Hideaki Itô, Gaku Hamada, Arata Iura and Nobi Nakanishi.

Tagline:  None.

The Plot…

The year is 1878.  A cholera epidemic rages through Japan.  Shujiro Saga’s baby daughter died from the disease.  Now Saga’s wife has fallen ill.  Saga is a former samurai. Samurai were outlawed ten years prior.  With epidemic raging, survival is hard.

Flyers begin showing up everywhere advertising a martial arts tournament in Kyoto that has a grand prize of ¥100,000.  Shujiro Saga sees this as an opportunity for his family and goes.

Martial artists from all over Japan have come to enter the tournament.  They are gathered in a fortress-like setting.  An official tells them that if they do not want to be in the tournament they are to leave now.  They will have 30 seconds to decide.  Once in the game, there is no quitting.  He begins counting down.

Some people yell out they want to know what the game will be.  The official continues to count.  Around the perimeter of the fortress armed guards stand ready to fire.  The official reaches zero.  Soldiers rush out and give each person a numbered tag.  They are now participants.

The official says that the tag must stay on their person.  If it is away from their body for more than 10 seconds they will be killed.  The goal is to pass seven checkpoints on the Tōkaidō Road from Kyoto to Tokyo.  They will have one month to arrive in Tokyo.  Points will be needed to pass each checkpoint.  They earn points by taking other participants tags.  They can do this by any means necessary.  Anything goes. The official concludes by saying, “The game begins at the end of this countdown… 10…”

When the game begins, it is mass chaos.  Nearly 300 martial artists go to war.  There are samurai, archers, brutes, knife fighters, and more. Across the way Shujiro Saga sees Futaba Katsuki, a young girl frozen with fear.  She will be easy pickins.  Saga rushes to her aide.

Kyojin Tsuge recognizes Saga as the former samurai known as The Manslayer.  Tsuge says that he has calculated that the points needed to finish in Tokyo allow for up to nine combatants to win.  Tsuge proposes that Saga, Futaba and he form an alliance.  Saga agrees and they head out.

The giant swordsman Bukotsu Kanjiya who loves to kill wants to end Saga The Manslayer‘s life.  Bukotsu has a bloodlust and murders any in his path.  Other teams have formed with each plotting to survive.

It will be a long road.  Not all will survive.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)… 

Last Samurai Standing is based on a 2022 historical fiction graphic novel written by Shogo Imamura and drawn by  Katsumi Tatsuzawa.  Although the characters and tournament are fiction, real-life historical figures and events add to the backstory.

Junichi Okada who served as producer and stars in the series is a charismatic lead.

Hideaki Itô is awesome and frightening as the giant swordsman.

Last Samurai Standing gets my highest recommendation.  Bring on Season 2.

Last Samurai Standing: Season 1 (2025) rates 5 of 5 stars.