Samurai fiction has a long and storied tradition in Japanese media, from the traditional "Taiga drama" to the famous "Chanbara" or "sword fighting films." And, of course, anime. What they tend to have in common is an exaltation of the stoic swordsman. A code of honor worth dying for. A duel at dawn where the better man walks away and the other doesn't. But that's not The Elusive Samurai . While samurai stories usually have a built-in romantic view of sacrifice and the honor of a noble death, this anime and manga is most definitely not about that. The Elusive Samurai turns that trope on its head by bringing along a kid who takes one look at all that and decides, quite sensibly, that he would rather run and have fun while doing it. That's the genius of The Elusive Samurai in a single image. Hojo Tokiyuki, rightful heir to a shattered shogunate (or, to be more precise, heir to the puppet masters who ruled in place of the actual shogun), doesn't win because he's the strongest blade in the room. He wins because nobody can catch him. In a medium overflowing with warriors who charge headfirst into glorious death, Yusei Matsui built a shonen hero whose signature move is getting away, and in doing so, made one of the most subversive samurai stories in years. Here's why The Elusive Samurai feels so different.