Samurai Legend is a Must-Watch Spring Anime

Yaiba: Samurai Legend had flown under the radar for many anime watchers ahead of the spring show season. Fire Force Season 3, Wind Breaker Season 2, and the adaptation of The Beginning After the End seemed to be at the top of people’s lists after early rounds of teasers.

However, Yaiba: Samurai Legend is shaping up to be a sleeper hit. Social media is abuzz with fans gushing over how great the visuals look and the nostalgic feeling of the simple story and characters. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why you should not miss out on buying into this charming and refreshing show.

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What is Yaiba: Samurai Legend?

A Throwback to a Classic Era of Anime

This newest version of the show is a remake of an anime released in the 1990s called Kenyu Densetsu Yaiba. The title in Japanese translates to “Brave Sword Legend Yaiba.” In Japanese, Yaiba is a word meaning blade or sword. Yaiba is also the name of the main character, Yaiba Kurogane.

The series follows Yaiba from his beginnings raised in the jungle by his famed sword-wielding father Kenjuro Kurogane to his journey to improve his skills after arriving in modern day Japan. Yaiba meets Sakaya Mine, the daughter of the Mine dojo, who takes the young boy in to train as he satisfies his desire to fight stronger and stronger opponents and become a true samurai.

“So this is a girl… Neat! So neat!” -Yaiba Kurogane

Very soon into the story, Yaiba discovers that he is a chosen warrior destined to combat great evil and must improve his skills to fight off demonic forces which threaten the entire planet. The story combines classic tropes of coming of age adventure, fantasy fights, and good versus evil into a simple but satisfying blend.

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Why the Remake Has People Excited

An Anime With Immaculate Vibes

New fans of the show were very impressed with the quality of the remake. The visuals, animated by WIT studio, are gorgeous and feel like they were produced with care. People on social media found themselves unexpectedly drawn to the charm of the show despite its simple premise and characters.

“In the current anime industry, where even the most prioritized, passion-driven projects usually end up being compromised in some way, Yaiba feels like it could be one of the few that isn’t.” -X user fokeman.

Although just the first episode has been releases so far, fans were enthralled by the way even simple fights had great attention taken in their animation to make them dynamic and interesting. Episode 1 was a spectacular showing of how to introduce the plot and the important characters while still making room for a theme or message.

In the modern era of anime, there is a long-forgotten art that used to be prevalent in older media where episodes were based around communicating a theme or idea. In Yaiba: Samurai Legends we are shown through Yaiba’s combat encounters how being different and doing something unexpected can lead to great reward. This is first shown against Yaiba’s fight with the ape, where he intentionally turns his back to his opponent to create an opening to win the battle. The theme goes further with Yaiba and his father’s arrival to a new place, seizing the opportunity to train at the Mine dojo. The theme is then further reinforced later, where Yaiba takes what he learned from his ape fight in the beginning to win against the dojo’s supposedly most gifted student while struggling against him initially.

Yaiba: Samurai Legend follows on the success of the recently released Dragon Ball Daima, which saw Goku and friends shrink to the size of children in what felt like a throwback to the origins of the series. In Yaiba: Samurai Legend, the main character follows many similar beats to Goku. These include his stubbornness, innocent kindness to others, and even specific plot details like him meeting a girl for the first time and his desire to seek out stronger and stronger opponents.

Classic anime fans have at least one reason to rejoice this season in Yaiba: Samurai Legend, which may help blunt the impact of any of the other shows they are looking forward to not living up to expectations.

Yaiba: Samurai Legend can be streamed on Hulu.

YAIBA: Samurai Legend

Release Date

April 5, 2025

Cast

• 

  Minami Takayama

  Yaiba Kurogane (voice)

• 

  Manaka Iwami

  Sayaka Mine (voice)

• 

  Yoshimasa Hosoya

  Takeshi Onimaru (voice)