“This should be exciting,” I said to my wife as I sat down to watch the sixth and final episode of Last Samurai Standing’s first season. “There should be some cool fights.”

My wife laughed. “I think that’s a safe bet,” she said.

“Well, sure,” I granted. “Then again, I thought the same thing about Shōgun.” The point is, being the final episode of a combat-centric show is no guarantee of combat. Unless, of course, the episode in question is titled “Mortal Combat,” as this one is. In that case you can pretty much rest assured that you are, in fact, gonna see some cool freakin’ fights.

Man oh man, does this season finale deliver on that front.

I reviewed the gangbusters season finale of Last Samurai Standing for Decider.

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.

As engaging as the little twists and turns of the game are, this show is as entertaining as it is because of the filmmaking and the fighting. The you-are-there camerawork of director Kento Yamaguchi weaves all around the restaurant during the rumble scene, much of which is shot in one continuous take to make it feel as though you your self are dodging punches and ducking for cover. The silver glow of Sakura and Shujiro’s crossed swords pops brightly after 45 minutes of the show’s usual thoughtfully muted color palate. All this gives the aquamarine of the puppet-masters’ secret base an even more opulent feeling. Last Samurai Standing is its own cohesive visual world, occasionally sliced open by a giant sword.

I reviewed the fourth episode of Last Samurai Standing for Decider.

Samurai schools are failing our children. There, I said it. Kyohachi-ryu School, “the origin of swordsmanship” if its brochure is to be believed, has one teacher and eight students — okay, so they’ve got class size under control at least — but they all have to kill each other to graduate. That’s a pedagogical method that would have even Donald Trump’s weird, pedophile-enabling Education Department destroyer Linda McMahon going “hey, slow down.” 

I reviewed the third episode of Last Samurai Standing for Decider.

Star Junichi Okada’s action choreography in both scenes is fist-pumpingly good, but in two totally different ways. Bukotsu and Ukyo fight in quick bursts, lashing out and then regrouping, before things break down as Bukotsu gets the upper hand. Their whole battle, which is intercut with Fubata and Shujiro’s storyline as well as Ukyo’s origin story throughout the episode, is filmed as it happens, with minimal camera trickery.

Shujiro’s killcrazy rampage through the game’s enforcers, by contrast, is a balletic, bullet-timed thing of beauty. Against a blue-gray sky tinted purple-pink by the spray of blood in the air, Shujiro moves in and out of regular speed, with the action slowing down to show us individual sword strikes and spectacular deaths and dismemberments. As Sakura, the top lieutenant with the gnarly scar, says from a safe distance, “Kokushu the Manslayer has awakened.”

I reviewed the second episode of Last Samurai Standing for Decider.

After watching the first episode of Last Samurai Standing, one thing becomes apparent very quickly: This show rules. I mean it is mint. I mean I walked around my apartment after it was over, saying “Holy shit, that was fuckin’ great” to myself, confusing my cat. Gorgeously shot, emotionally written, with serious things to say about the destruction of a way of life and breathless action choreography by producer and star Junichi Okada, it reminded me favorably of modern classics like 13 Assassins, or, strangely, Godzilla Minus One. There’s really no sense in beating around the bush here: I enjoyed the hell out of this episode, and my only hope is that the remaining six are exactly the same.

I’m covering a cool show with a goofy title, Last Samurai Standing, for Decider, starting with my review of the series premiere.