Last Samurai Standing: The true history behind Netflix’s new series explored

Netflix’s latest release, Last Samurai Standing, has quickly captured viewers’ attention on the platform. Premiering on November 13, the series features six gripping episodes, each running between forty-seven minutes and an hour.

Written by Michihito Fujii and produced by Kosuke Oshida for Netflix, the show features Jun'ichi Okada, Yumia Fujisaki, and Yûya Endô in the main cast. The synopsis of this dark and suspenseful themed drama, on Netflix, reads:

"A former samurai enters a deadly tournament for a hefty prize, embarking on a bloody journey from Kyoto to Tokyo with allies both familiar and unexpected."

The series is adapted from the book Last Samurai Standing and is set in the Meiji era.

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Exploring the history behind Netflix's Last Samurai Standing

The story of the Last Samurai Standing revolves around Shujirio Saga, a character played by Jun'ichi Okada. The show is about Koduko, a game where samurai have to defeat each other, which Saga participates in. The ultimate winner of the game, as the title Last Samurai Standing stands for, receives 100 billion yen as the reward.

While Kodoku sounds just like a game in the series, in real life, the term in Japanese translates to poisonous magic or curse poison.

The practice involved locking several insects in a small container and letting them battle until one remained, just like the game shown in the series, where almost three hundred people compete against each other, taking reference from the real Koduko. The substance from the winning insect was used to place a harmful spell on a person.

Interestingly, the show has drawn inspiration from the true history of Japan, with its setting primarily set around 1878, during the early Meiji era, following the end of the Edo era, also known as the Tokugawa period. During the Meiji era in Japan, the country transitioned from traditional samurai culture to a modern way of life.

The series illustrates how the samurai slowly lost their power as Japan changed, with swords banned and new laws in place.

Speaking of the same, writer Michihito Fujii told Time:

"The people who used to be samurai no longer have the privilege and find it difficult to live. Those people who lost their profession, how would they survive? How would they live? Today, the changes that are happening in Japan, as well as outside of Japan, feel quite similar."

Although the series centers on the game, viewers should be aware that it is set in a period when cholera was spreading across Japan. This eventually encouraged people to participate in the competition to earn a living for their families.

While fans are loving the Netflix series and the overall theme, they won't be getting a winner this season, as the Netflix series ends with a handful of contestants still in the game, setting up a pretty big cliffhanger for fans.

Right now, there's no news about the new season. It really depends on the show's viewership and its performance. If it gets a green light, fans can expect the new season to pick up from the same moment with more fights, more twists, and answers to who moves ahead in the game.

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Why is Last Samurai Standing more than action?

Speaking of Netflix's Last Samurai Standing, Michihito Fujii, in a reported statement to Time, said:

"Okada-san [and I] really wanted to create action that nobody has seen before, and we wanted to update the Japanese period piece. People often use battle royale to express this, but [Last Samurai Standing] is a character drama."

He added:

"The strength of the characters as well as the accuracy of the action, as well as the sense of beauty and the sense that we have as a tradition, is something that I wanted to express, and that was my challenge."

Fujii told Deadline that all the samurai in the competition were real performers, clearing up the doubt that they were created using screen effects. He added:

"For the crew, this was really challenging, and we spent about three weeks to arrange this shoot, in the middle of winter"

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