The Elusive Samurai (2024) s01e01 Episode Script

1
(The Elusive Samurai)
A heroic death.
A graceful suicide.
To fight and die in battle
is the greatest honor for a warrior.
This is the tale of a hero who lived through
such a raging age in spectacular fashion.
One known as Takauji Ashikaga.
(Nanbokucho Period)
Or so you might think.
Lord Tokiyuki!
It's time to practice your archery!
(1333 AD, Kamakura - Wakamiyaoji Shogunate Site)
You're not going anywhere, Lord Tokiyuki!
Oh, sorry!
He's so nimble
Fool! This is no time to
admire his skills!
It's dangerous up there, Lord Tokiyuki!
Please come down!
You'll get hurt!
Somebody stop him!
What's the commotion here?!
Lord Ashikaga is about to depart!
Well Lord Tokiyuki
What about Young Master?
Huh?
He's so quick on his feet!
That's enough! Dismissed!
But
Sorry, let me through.
My
You're always so good
at hide-and-seek, Young Master.
L-Lord Takauji?
I, Takauji Ashikaga,
will go to the capital,
to quell the rebellion of
Emperor Godaigo's predecessors.
I'd love for you,
the future lord of Hojo Clan,
to witness my loyalty to the clan.
That's reassuring.
I shall pray for the prosperity
of Kamakura and the warriors,
and also for your success.
Well, then.
Sorry to keep you waiting.
Yes.
Don't be so nervous around Ashikaga.
Kiyoko?
You're the heir to the shogunate.
You'll be the one giving
orders to him someday.
You're also my future
husband, so get a grip.
I don't remember being engaged to you
Lord Tokiyuki!
Where did he go?
Maybe he's hiding over there?
Sorry, Kiyoko!
See you later!
Oh, my.
Good grief
All he's good at is running and hiding.
He's just so different from Takauji,
even though he's a fellow warrior.
Even if he were to succeed the shogunate,
he'd just be a puppet king
like his father.
Indeed, Sir Takatoki.
Then leave this matter to us.
Yes.
Oh, come on, Father.
Even a puppet can live a life of luxury.
While Lord Tokiyuki is talentless
and only good at running,
but he's kind.
He'd make for a good
husband of a prominent family!
I can't find him
I can't handle him when
he hides so seriously.
The other day, he hid in the armor box for
two whole days, it became a commotion!
Doing practice would be much easier
Well, despite nominal,
he is the successor to the shogunate.
He's just so lazy and cowardly,
nothing goes through his head.
Tokiyuki.
Father is sickly and unmotivated.
You should really
succeed to the throne already.
Wait, shouldn't you be
the first line of succession?
No way.
If I, the concubine's son, succeeded,
it would be a source of strife.
It's in our blood to run away
from anything we don't like,
fair and square.
Why are you so proud?
Lord Tokiyuki!
Found you!
All right, let's go practice archery!
Now!
Come on!
Let-us-go!
Hold on to this, Brother.
Huh? Sure
Tokiyuki!
Lord Tokiyuki!
Lord Tokiyuki!
Please stop!
Lord Tokiyuki!
Lord Tokiyuki!
Hey!
Gosh!
Young Master!
I love Kamakura.
I love seeing the smiles on people's
faces when they live in peace.
I don't need status or glory.
If I can live in this town
peacefully, that's all I need.
Call me lazy or a coward.
As a puppet, I have no
use for civil and military power.
That is not laziness or cowardice.
It is a fragment of monster within you.
So spoke my father.
Who are you?
Father?
I see you're as good at
running away as they say!
What in tarnation?!
Nice to meet you!
My name is Yorishige Suwa,
a priest of the Shinano Province!
A priest of Shinano?
Wait, when did you climb here?!
I've been here from the beginning!
I knew you would be climbing this tree!
You're emitting quite a bright light
Oh, my apologies!
Because of the holiness of my nature,
my divine power inevitably leaks out!
I'll tone it down.
I have been asked to pray for the protection
of Kamakura against their enemies.
I have come to inform your father
that it has been completed.
She is Shizuku.
She's excellent in secret arts and clerical
work, so I'm allowing her to assist me.
He's so suspicious
How could he tell I'd climb this tree?
Father can see the future
with his divine power.
Although, he sucks at exorcism.
Shizuku, no need to say the latter.
If you're in doubt,
have a look for yourself!
I can see it, Lord Tokiyuki
In the future, you
You like that
Oh, wait
If I had to say Or maybe
If you do, you'll surely be happy
Hang on, everyone has their
own definition of happiness
Well, you're in good health, and as for
I guess whatever will be, will be?
What?!
You're just murmuring stuff!
I can only figure out fragments of it!
It wouldn't be much fun if
I knew everything in the first place!
But I could see it all now!
If I had to say, you're playing
the straight man in a skit!
Whose fault is it,
you funny soothsayer?!
And I also saw the future two years later.
At the age of ten, you will be
a hero who will shake the heavens.
You'll become the master of the great war,
feared by some and respected by others,
and you can even change
the future of the nation.
I can tell that much, since it's so big
Hm?
Oh, so quick!
You had to say such thing
What a great crisis-sensing ability
That was close.
I don't have enough money in
my pocket to give a fake spirit channeler.
What a foolish man.
Even if he were to deceive me,
he'd only gain superficial prosperity.
Me, becoming a hero
He said that with a serious look
Hmm
To think someone like him could enter
For real
He was so suspicious.
Still
I understand a little of
what this Suwa man said.
Your running skills are
on a different level from me and Father.
If the conditions are met,
I feel like you can be a hero.
That's what I think.
Huh?
What's wrong?
Where did it go?
Maybe it got stuck in the tree?
We will now enter the capital
to remove the rebel army.
Blessings be upon us, O Hachiman!
Come forth, everyone!
Lord Viceroy!
I am here with a report, Ashikaga secretly
contacted Emperor Godaigo!
They destroyed the
shogunate forces in the capital!
When the warriors heard of Takauchi's
fame, they gathered together.
They say the Nitta army is swarming
in the blink of an eye!
Not only that, but the enemy also
sent his son to Nitta Yoshisada
And they're also
sending troops to Kamakura!
(Saburo Kano and Jiro Shiota,
Military Arts Instructors, K.I.A.)
(Chikaaki of Settsu, Shogunate Official,
Committed Suicide)
(His Daughter, Kiyoko,
Murdered From a Plunder)
(The conditions for being a hero)
(Are for him to be
deprived of everything.)
You Why did you betray
I can hear a voice.
Whose voice?
Who
Who will raise me to the heavens?
(More Than 800 Members of Hojo Clan
and Its Followers Commited Suicide)
Father
(Kamakura Shogunate Fall)
I have been waiting for you,
Lord Tokiyuki.
In his final moments,
your father ordered me to help you escape,
because his son was too young to die.
From now on,
I will shelter you in my territory,
which is Shinano-Suwa.
Yorishige Suwa
What are you doing here?
There's no time.
Over here.
My divine eye saw the
possibility of this happening.
We had prepared ourselves
for any eventuality.
We have our men
and horses in the hills ahead.
Let's head there now.
No
I'll just cut my stomach
like Father and the rest.
Not happening.
If you die, what will
be the future of Japan?
Who cares about that?
Well, that's
It'll become That
I have a hunch,
but I can't just decide for myself
If he died, the effect would
While the effect on It wouldn't be
He has to be there
A picture of Hell
Everything in Kamakura is
destroyed by traitorous warriors
Takauji Ashikaga
I can't believe you've
done it so thoroughly.
Sir Takauji
Who are you?
I'm a feudal lord of Shimono.
My name is Takauji Ashikaga.
You can't escape from me, Young Master!
He was just smiling the other day
Was that all a lie?
Let's have our revenge, Lord Tokiyuki!
I will certainly be of assistance!
His smile is also completely fake.
Go away.
How can I believe a bogus prayer master?
How rude!
I am bursting with holiness,
and you call me bogus?!
Father.
A bogus is a bogus. No need to argue.
Back me up here, my family!
I can't avenge anyone.
You'll know it when you see this.
Even Lord Minamoto-no-Yoritomo
took five years to destroy the Heike.
And yet, there's a man who destroyed
a whole country in just 24 days.
You said the other
day that I would be a hero
But it is powerful men
like Takauji Ashikaga,
who will be called heroes
by future generations.
The losers must die gracefully,
lest they be ashamed of themselves.
So just please let me die.
Just like the rest of the warriors.
Is that so?
Then die.
He's from Hojo!
From the depths of despair and beyond
Only on the brink of death
Hey!
The hero inside you
may shine!
Hey
What would you do if I died?
You said you'd be a shame if you died,
but it's the hero inside
you that made you
try to survive happily and undeterred.
Being elusive is but one side of a hero.
Up there! Shoot them down!
You are the monster of survival instincts!
You are most gifted for survival,
and love the tingling tension
between life and death.
You must mean trouble for Takauji,
who just murdered the emperor,
and claimed the throne.
The next heir to the Kamakura shogunate,
who must be killed more than anyone else,
has the talent to survive
more than anyone else.
Takauji becomes a hero by killing.
And you will become a hero by surviving.
You are two heroes
with opposite destinies.
Of course, you can't win
by merely running and hiding.
Companionship,
military strength, and intelligence.
I will gather it all for you to win.
If you keep on living, one day for sure,
Takauji will come to kill you.
Until then,
you stay hidden, train yourself,
and take down the chasing demon!
Now, we shall begin the game
of tag to reclaim the throne!
Yorishige.
What's your aim here?
What's in it for you to
rescue an exiled kid?
All for loyalty to the Hojo family!
Well, I'm just a bogus,
so I guess you won't believe me.
I'll tell you in due time.
After you have taken back Kamakura.
I
I really know no shame.
Even though my whole family was killed
It was only natural
for me to die as well
Thanks to you,
I swooned at the joy of living.
Sir Yorishige.
You will be responsible for this.
Of course.
I will serve you to the depths of Hell.
Just like Yorishige predicted,
two years later, Tokiyuki
shakes up the whole country.
Hyeah!
In an era where dying
gracefully was the norm,
the boy kept on the run at all costs,
and he was determined to get
the head of the new emperor.
Thus marked the beginning of the
turbulent life of the elusive samurai.
Coming forth!
(Episode 2: The Kind Mister)