Kawaji justifies Kodoku, as do the members of the four conglomerates, by noting the way samurai were able to flout the law because they were the law. The bankers in particular seem to have been routinely ripped off by ex-samurai seeking loans they have no intention of repaying, because who’s gonna get the money out of them, some clerk? And one need look no further than Bukotsu, whose rampages against civilians are protected by the game guards, to see what happens when you give some lunatic a sword, extensive martial arts training, and the belief that he exists in a different class of people from the hoi polloi. Hell, you can look around the streets of Chicago or Los Angeles or Washington, D.C. to see that too. (Minus the extensive martial arts training, of course.)
But Kawaji’s new system, too, deals out death indiscriminately. In addition to overseeing the whole bloody game, Kawaji’s underling Ando also sees to it that Shinpei is strangled to death before his decoded telegrams definitively tying Kawaji to the game can make their way to the Home Minister. Moreover, all the guards are capable of seeing that Futaba and Shinnosuke have no business playing a game designed to pit samurai against samurai, but at no point have these noncombatants been given the chance to bow out. It all feels very Fall of the Galactic Republic, doesn’t it? (Or rather, the Star Wars stuff feels very samurai.) The Jedi made some terrible mistakes, especially toward the end, but do you prefer stormtroopers?
I reviewed the fifth episode of Last Samurai Standing for Decider.
Tags: decider, last samurai standing, TV, TV reviews