is a Japanese historical manga series written and illustrated by

Yusei Matsui is a Japanese manga artist. He was an assistant of Yoshio Sawai, the manga artist of ''Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo''. Three of his manga '' Neuro: Supernatural Detective'', '' Assassination Classroom'', and '' The Elusive Samurai'' were serialized in '' ...

. It has been serialized in

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

's ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. The chapters of the series that run ...

'' since January 2021, with its chapters collected in eight ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes as of November 2022.

Premise

Set between the Kamakura and

Muromachi The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

periods, during the

Kenmu Restoration The was a three-year period of Imperial rule in Japanese history between the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period from 1333 to 1336. The Kenmu Restoration was an effort made by Emperor Go-Daigo to overthrow the ruling Kamakura Shogunate ...

, the story follows the tale of Hojo Tokiyuki, a boy on the run after his family is overthrown by

Ashikaga Takauji was the founder and first '' shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate."Ashikaga Takauji" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 625. His rule began in 1338, beginning the Murom ...

. With his only allies being a shady priest and his followers, the young lord must seek revenge and regain his glory, with his only weapon: a superhuman ability to flee and hide.

Publication

Written and illustrated by

, ''The Elusive Samurai'' started in

's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''

'' on January 25, 2021. Shueisha has collected its chapters into individual ''

'' volumes. The first volume was released on July 2, 2021. As of November 4, 2022, eight volumes have been released. In North America, the manga is licensed for English release by

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

, who simultaneously publishes the chapters digitally as they are released in Japan on its ''Shonen Jump'' website. In October 2021, Viz Media announced that they would publish its volumes starting in Q2 of 2022. Shueisha also simulpublishes the series in English and Spanish for free on the ''

Manga Plus ''Manga Plus'' (stylized as ''MANGA Plus'') is an online manga platform and smartphone app owned by Shueisha that was launched on January 28, 2019. It is available worldwide except in Japan, China, and South Korea which already have their own se ...

'' app and website.

Volume list

Chapters not yet in ''tankōbon'' format

These chapters have yet to be published in a ''tankōbon'' volume.

Reception

In June 2021, ''The Elusive Samurai'' was nominated for the seventh

Next Manga Award The is an annual award for manga series presented by Kadokawa Corporation's ''Da Vinci'' magazine and Niconico streaming website. It is divided into two categories: one for print manga, and one for web manga. Overview The award was originally e ...

in the Best Printed Manga category and placed 6th out of 50 nominees. The series ranked 8th on the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2022. Anthony Gramuglia of

Comic Book Resources ''Comic Book Resources'', also known by the initialism CBR, is a website dedicated to the coverage of comic book–related news and discussion. History Comic Book Resources was founded by Jonah Weiland in 1995 as a development of the Kingdom Co ...

wrote that the series has become one of the "highlights of 'Weekly''''Shōnen Jump''s newer titles", adding that " tis not only surprisingly emotional but also surprisingly intense, starting with all cylinders at full-throttle and never letting up".

References

External links

* *
''The Elusive Samurai'' on ''Manga Plus''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Elusive Samurai, The 2021 manga Historical anime and manga Samurai in anime and manga Shōnen manga Shueisha manga Viz Media manga