Comedy
Dead Boy Detectives
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
At one point in his life, Yasuke was known as Eusebio Ibrahimo Baloi. He was a merchant’s slave and came to Japan with his master to sell goods.
While there, he stopped a man from attacking a child in the marketplace, stating that it is every villager’s duty to protect children, not harm them. Though unarmed himself, he managed to defeat the swordsman and spared the man’s life.
His prowess (not to mention his dark skin) caught the attention of the district’s feudal lord, Nobunaga Oda. Nobunaga bought Eusebio from the merchant, renamed him “Yasuke” and seemingly overnight, he was transformed from servant into Samurai.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of Yasuke’s servitude.
Dark forces brought war to Japan and Nobunaga. He was forced to commit suicide when his forces were overrun. And Yasuke, still loyal to the lord who treated him like a soldier instead of a slave (despite the horrors he watched Nobunaga inflict upon others), watched it all happen, even helping Nobunaga to finish the task.
After that, he gave up his life as a warrior, though the war went on.
Now, 20 years later, Yasuke is simply known as Yassan or the “Black Boatsman.” He ferries people up and down the river, drinks when he isn’t working and is still haunted by the memories of his past. And though many villagers suspect there’s more to his story, they allow him to go about his business in peace.
That is until Saki, a local girl, gets sick and needs to be taken north to a special doctor. And it’s up to the Black Boatsman to ferry her.
Though Yasuke initially refuses to make the dangerous journey, he remembers his upbringing, which taught him about the importance of caring for children. And he agrees to take Saki and her mother upriver.
But after several assailants try to take the girl, Yasuke realizes that Saki’s illness isn’t what makes her special: It’s her powers.
While he’s not sure what this girl and her powers will mean for the war and the people of Japan, Yasuke is sure of one thing: Saki is still a child who needs protection.
Yasuke is based on a real man who came to Japan from Africa in the 16th century with a group of missionaries. As the show and history tell us, he became a samurai serving under the feudal lord Nobunaga Oda, and he was present for Nobunaga’s suicide.
However, that’s where the similarities stop. Historical records don’t say what happened to the real Yasuke after that. So everything happening in the show is fiction. Though its magical aspects probably gave that away already.
That magic can be used for good or evil. And it seems there are plenty of magic-users on both sides of the fray. (We even see a Catholic priest using dark magic and learn that he wants to use Saki’s powers to fulfill a prophecy, all seemingly for the “glory of God;” though, it becomes pretty clear that the “god” he’s “serving” isn’t the one Christians worship.)
The show is rated TV-MA—and for good reason. Though animated, Yasuke features plenty of blood and gore, depicting a man’s suicide right at the beginning of the first episode.
Bad language is mild, though not absent. There are a few references to racism and sexism. And there are allusions to sexual content (though that’s kept offscreen).
Yasuke seems to be targeting a teenage and young adult audience—piggybacking off the popularity of other anime series. But with the show’s graphic violence and Netflix’s own TV-MA rating, the streaming service is sending some seriously mixed messages. Most Christians will wind up turning the TV off once the blasphemous priest comes into play. But even putting that aside, for younger viewers, it’s a serious no-go, and that might be enough for many families to direct even their older teens to more wholesome entertainment.
Yasuke begins a journey to take a sick girl to a doctor with many dangers along the way.
A “dark army” uses magic to control its soldiers and wreak havoc among the enemy. Magic users conjure weapons and shields. A young girl blasts several assailants away using her powers. (She also breaks a bokken—a wooden sword—into pieces by just holding it.) A woman transforms into a werewolf. Someone uses magic to freeze a river.
Soldiers use swords, knives and arrows to kill each other (we see the resulting gore). To avoid capture, a man stabs himself with a sword and asks his friend to finish the job (which he does, offscreen). Thugs attack a traveler, breaking his wrist before stabbing him (offscreen). Yasuke stops a swordsman from striking down a child and disarms him, though he stops short of killing the man. Several bullies throw rocks at another kid.
People drink and get drunk. Someone says that two men often urinate on themselves when drunk. Someone vomits from drinking too much. We see a naked man from behind as someone bathes him. A woman’s outfit displays cleavage. Another woman propositions a drunk man and leads him off.
A child steals fruit but gives it to a beggar. Several people assume a Black man must be dirty or tattooed before they realize it’s the color of his skin. We hear uses of “h—” and “d–mit.”
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
Dead Boy Detectives targets teens in style and story. But it comes with very adult, problematic content.
An elf mage contemplates on connection and regret as she watches her human friends grow old and pass away.
