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I came and read Duranki in the wake of Kentaro Miura's passing far too early at the age of 54 because I wanted to go through his entire body of work, with the future of Berserk being up in the air. Overall, I enjoyed Duranki, but I feel like it's held back by its short length (at least thus far) and the fact that it's a side project and shows. I'll try my best not to spoil anything past Episode 1, but no guarantees.



Starting with the obvious, the art gets a perfect 10. As far as I know, this was done entirely by Miura's assistants ... at Studio Gaga with Miura himself only doing the storyboards, and they do a pretty good job of emulating his style. I particularly like the spread depicting the birth of Usumgallu, which immediately screams at you that this is the legacy of Miura, something I feel is far more impactful now that the man is gone.



The story follows the aforementioned Usumgallu, an androgyne being created from the genetic material of two gods of wisdom as the last God Seed. Their "father" (the gods of wisdom are only genetic templates) takes them down to Mount Nisir, where they're eventually adopted by a human family. The rest of the series follows them just living their life, helping their parents as an incredibly resourceful child alongside Pan, our comic relief humanoid for this series.

Put simply, if you were expecting something with the dark tone and nightmarish abominations of Berserk, you're gonna be disappointed. At least thus far, it's been fairly standard, which is fine, considering we're only a few episodes in, but I just think a number of people will approach this series expecting something closer to Miura's other works and be disappointed.

Onto my issues, of which I don't really have many, and mostly touched on those I do have in my overall section. Firstly, Duranki was made as a side-project, and it feels like it. While the art is amazing, the story itself isn't up to the admittedly incredibly high standards set by the previous work of its creator. It also struggles with its characters (which I'll elaborate on when we get there) and suffers from its short length. As far as I know, this isn't something I can necessarily fault it for, the latest chapter (which, as of the time I'm writing this, is Chapter 6) seems to have come out around the time that COVID began to become an issue, but I feel it's an issue I still have to talk about, since I was actually pretty interested to see where this was going and now the series' future is up in the air.



I feel like the characters suffer from the same issue as the story, they're decent but suffer massively from the expectations of its creator's older works. You could give me any named character in Berserk and I would be able to tell you what makes them so great, who they like and dislike, and their reasons for doing so, something I cannot do for any of the characters in Duranki. Usumgallu also suffers from feeling a bit like a "Sue" character (I don't know what the genderless equivalent is.) They're probably only around 5 years old, and (SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 2) they come up with a crossbow for hunting and immediately know how to call for the help of spirits. I get that they're literally the sort-of child of two gods of wisdom, but explaining your sueyness doesn't make your character less of a sue.

Overall though, I still enjoyed my short trip through Duranki. Be prepared to walk into a side project, but definitely try and check this one out if you want to go through one of Miura's lighter works or want to see Studio Gaga working for themselves before whatever they do next in this post-Miura world.

Heads up, this review contains spoilers.

TL;DR: Yasuke is a very resounding "meh." It struggles in terms of story and character, it has trouble deciding what it wants to be, but it's utterly carried, in my opinion, by it's art and music.

Story: 3/10

Speaking solely on the historical elements, if that is what you are here for, you're gonna be disappointed. While Yasuke's backstory is accurate, the story itself is focused on an older Yasuke trying to protect a girl with magical powers (see my Character section). While I typically enjoy this kind of older, somewhat jaded male protagonist and young girl who is special in some ... way, it isn't done well here.

My issues with the story itself can be summarized as "The story tries to introduce too many characters for it's short episode count which causes the majority of them to become forgettable and the show struggles deciding what it wants to be." For the first, as an example, the story introduces four minor antagonists around the end of episode 1, all of which I couldn't give you more than a single thing I remember about them (with the exception of Haruto, the one actually decent minor antagonist in the series.) If you were to ask me what the remainder of them were, I would only be able to say Creepy Priest, Russian Lady, and "I literally don't remember a thing about them, they were an archer, I think?"

As for my second option, there's thankfully not as much to go through. The story has trouble deciding what it wants to be in places, an issue no more apparent in it's world. You have some historically accurate stuff, and then right next to it, magic and *giant mechs that were reverse-engineered from the Mongols*. The story can't decide if it wants to be a fictionalized period piece on late 16th century Japan and a historical figure who just dropped off the map after being captured or fantasy that just so happens to use anime versions of real-life historical figures, a la Fate. The story also creates a lot of deus ex machinas towards the end.

Art: 8/10

As expected from MAPPA, the art is very good. Not their best work by any means, but it is still very good.

Sound: 7/10

Speaking on the music, it's not what I expected them to go for, but that's not to say the music is bad. They decided to opt for a more electronic sound, which as previously stated, was not what I expected, I expected a more traditional Japanese sound to complement the setting. Everything else sounds good, and I don't have many gripes.

Character: 3/10

My main issue with the characters, aside from the previously mentioned issue that it tries to introduce too many characters for 6 episodes, is Saki. She suffers from a lot of the same issues as Rey in Star Wars, an issue I don't feel I need to elaborate on. The worldbuilding just warps around her, she's always in the right, she's able to control her magic powers right off the bat without any prior training to the point of *actual resurrection when we didn't even know this was a thing that was possible prior to." As previously stated, it also suffers from a lot of the characters being very forgettable, a problem that gets worse especially towards the end. I couldn't tell you a single thing about the character of the Daimyo, the magic teacher we meet at the end of episode 4, or the majority of the previously mentioned minor antagonists, aside from what I just mentioned.

Enjoyment: 6/10

I tried liking it, and it certainly can be enjoyed, but there's a lot of issues that become more and more apparent the further you get in.

Overall: 5/10

As stated in my opening, Yasuke is a resounding "Meh." Speaking solely on the visual and auditory elements, it's great as you would expect from MAPPA, but the writing has several issues. Watch it if you want, it's not something I recommend, but not something I'd absolutely say "do not watch this, ever."