The Elusive Samurai Season 2 Episode 1: Live-Action Takauji Scene Splits Fans

On July 17, The Elusive Samurai (逃げ上手の若君) opened its second season, and the Japanese reaction video covering the premiere drew 38 comments — and the top comment, 21 likes, wasn't even about the episode's biggest talking point. That honor went to the anime's choice to cut to live-action footage twice in a single episode: once for an opening narrator, once for Ashikaga Takauji himself.

The comment section split down the middle over it. Some viewers called the live-action inserts an obvious way to cut animation costs, pointing to a spike in still frames as proof; others argued the effect was doing exactly what it should — marking Takauji as something that doesn't belong in the same reality as everyone else. Once that argument cooled off, the thread turned warm fast: fans got emotional over a manga-faithful flashback of Tokiyuki's brother sharing his own sashimi, cracked jokes about a new character's uncanny resemblance to the manga's own author, and traded regional trivia about why the story's setting is packed with sushi restaurants.

Underneath the jokes, a couple of commenters admitted they're already a little nervous — not about anything that happened on screen, but about whether the show's broadcast slot can be trusted to see the story all the way through.

The Elusive Samurai (逃げ上手の若君) came back for Season 2, and the Japanese reaction channel Chokotto Hannou-shuu had its recap of the premiere up within a day. The video only pulled in 38 comments — small next to some of this show's bigger threads — but almost everyone who showed up was talking about the exact same thing: the anime cutting to live-action footage, twice, inside its very first episode back.

That's basically one half of the room. Season 2 opens with a live-action kōdan storyteller setting the scene, then swaps to a live-action Ashikaga Takauji every time he taps into something inhuman, and a chunk of commenters were not into it — to them it read less like a bold swing and more like a shortcut.

• “Mixing in live-action is obviously a workaround to cut down on the animation budget... There are already way too many still frames in episode one, and that's not a good sign.”👍4⇄実写混ぜてるのは明らかに作画枚数を減らすための苦肉の策だよね…… １話目から止め絵カットが多すぎて、もう不吉な予感しかしない— @yrenaled3856 · 👍4

Not everyone agreed, though. A few replies pushed back hard, arguing the live-action cuts aren't a budget dodge at all — they're doing exactly what they're supposed to do, marking Takauji as something that doesn't belong in the same reality as everyone else.

• “I do think the live-action worked to give episode one some impact. They're not going to cut to live-action every single time Takauji uses his god-power or a demon shows its face, right?”👍1⇄実写は1話目のインパクトを付ける意味では有効だと思った まさか尊氏が神力使ったり鬼が顔出す度に実写にしないだろうな？— @虚無金魚35 · 👍1

Once the live-action fight cooled down, the thread got a lot warmer. Episode one also adapts a manga arc longtime readers already loved — Tokiyuki's older brother quietly handing over his own sashimi — and it landed just as hard on screen, on top of fans just being happy to have the returning cast back.

• “Next episode is the one where Sadamune — the funny old guy with the bug eyes — gets a massive likability boost.”👍20⇄次回、面白目玉おじさんだった貞宗殿の好感度爆上げ回— @void5963-qq9q · 👍20
• “Moronao, Takauji AND Morotoyasu all showing up — I was genuinely hyped.”👍6⇄師直、尊氏、師泰がめっちゃ出てきたのほんとに興奮した。— @user-suyasuya0843 · 👍6

From there it turned into exactly the kind of tangent this fandom is known for — a joke about a new character looking suspiciously like the manga's own creator, and a burst of regional trivia nobody asked for but everyone appreciated, about why Kofu, the story's own setting, is stacked wall-to-wall with sushi restaurants.

• “That's basically Yoshito Usui 😂”👍2⇄臼井儀人やないか😂— @mamesan_jp · 👍2

• “The whole reason the protagonist is struggling is that the shogunate collapses after Kublai — Tolui's second son from The Yurt of the Jaduhgar — invades Japan. Fun fact: the guy said to be one year older than Tokiyuki is the radiant Zhu Chongba.”👍8⇄天幕のジャードゥーガルに出てくるトルイの次男クビライが日本を攻撃したせいで、幕府が滅亡して苦労する主人公、因みに若君の1歳年上とされているのが光り輝く朱重八さん。— @アレクシオス-p7t · 👍8

Under all the jokes, though, there was some real worry too. A couple of commenters pointed out that Season 2's comment section is noticeably quieter than Season 1's ever was, and that the anime's noitaminA broadcast slot doesn't have the cleanest record for actually finishing what it starts.

• “It's airing in the noitaminA slot, and that block has a habit of dropping anime that look like they'll run long, so honestly I'm pretty worried. That slot has a track record of not being able to promise a show actually airs all the way through, every season.”👍7⇄ノイタミナ枠　長期になりそうなアニメぶん投げる枠だから、かなり心配ではある。 この枠に、全シーズン完走放送は期待出来ない前科持ちの枠だという事— @kasa-branca4449 · 👍7

Nobody in the thread sounded ready to bail on the show over any of that, though. If a handful of viewers are already worrying about whether it sees the story through before episode two has even aired, that says a lot more about how badly they want this one to stick the landing than any complaint about a few live-action cuts ever could.