"In the six-episode first season, which debuted on Netflix November 13, a group of samurai are tasked with traveling from Kyoto to Tokyo and killing each other along the way to win a bounty that would change their lives, and the series' trailer really amps up the bloodshed and backstabbing to lean into the Squid Game comparison. That's understandable, given how successful that series was for the streamer,"
"But Last Samurai Standing has its own history: It was originally a 2012 novel, Ikusagami, by author Shogo Imamura, and then a 2022 manga series based on said novel. It also is, of course, Japanese rather than South Korean, so its historical and political concerns are set firmly within the Meiji period of the late 19th and early 20th century,"
Last Samurai Standing follows a group of samurai traveling from Kyoto to Tokyo who must kill each other to win a life-changing bounty over six episodes released on Netflix. The series is set in 1878 during Japan's Meiji-era transition from feudalism to industrialization, showing villages and the underclass left behind while cholera devastates communities. The show emphasizes gorgeously choreographed martial-arts and sword-fighting sequences, prioritizing stylistic combat and blood artistry over blunt-force gore. Marketing emphasizes competition and bloodshed, inviting Squid Game comparisons, but historical and cultural context and action style differentiate the series.
Read at Vulture
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