Last Samurai Standing’s ending resolved the conflict between Shugiro Saga, also known as Kokushu the Manslayer, and Bukotsu Kanjiya; furthered the rivalry between the successors of the Kyohachi-ryu and Gentosai Okabe; and hinted at the real reason why Toshiyoshi Kawaji had organized this whole Battle Royale-esque tournament, called Kodoku. Saga was a war veteran of the Boshin War that was fought in the 1860s. He lived with his wife, Shino, and two children, Rin and Toya, in Fuchu, Kanagawa. When the village fell into the clutches of cholera, and he lost Rin, Saga decided to partake in a death tournament in the hopes of winning the 100,000 yen prize money and alleviating his family’s problems. In that tournament, the participants had to hike all the way from Kyoto to Tokyo.
There were a total of seven checkpoints: the main gates of Tenryuji Temple, Seki, Chiryu, Hamamatsu, Shimada, Hakone, and Shinagawa. And to get past them, the contestants had to collect points. The only way to collect points was by killing the other players and acquiring the dog tags around their necks. That’s where he met old friends and foes (Iroha Kinugasa and Bukotsu Kanjiya) and made some new ones (Futaba Katsuki, Kyojin Tsuge, and Shinnosuke Sayama) as well. And while, for the most part, the narrative focused on the altercations between all the participants, on the side, the Home Minister, Lord Toshimichi Okubo, and his team investigated the orchestrators of the tournament. Of course, these plot threads haven’t been resolved and will be explored in a potential Season 2 of Last Samurai Standing. So, allow me to talk about the subtext of the journeys of these characters and speculate where we can expect them to go in the future.
Spoiler Alert
Saga killed Kanjiya
The rivalry between Saga and Kanjiya was pretty straightforward. During the Boshin War, after Saga and his team were betrayed even though they had won fair and square, Saga was taking a moment to truly take in the brutality that had transpired. Amongst the survivors, there was Kanjiya, and his reaction to the carnage was the exact opposite of that of Saga’s; he wanted to kill until he was killed. Since he saw Saga standing in front of him, he invited him to a fight to the death. Saga rejected the proposal, but since Kanjiya couldn’t take “no” for an answer, he engaged him in a duel. Saga took him down, and Kanjiya told him to kill him because if he let him live, he would find Saga again and put him in the ground. Kanjiya was imprisoned after the “age of the samurai” came to an end, thereby hindering his search. But since the Kodoku had been organized to make what remained of the samurai cannibalize each other, Kanjiya was freed again, and that gave him the chance to go after Saga.
When Saga, Iroha, and Futaba made a pit stop at a village between Chiryu, in the Mikawa Province, and Hamamatsu, in the Totoumi Province, Kanjiya took one last swing at Saga. That led to one of the most exhausting and fiery fights (there were flashes of John Wick 4 in there) I have seen in any TV show and, in the finale of Last Samurai Standing, Saga killed Kanjiya. And yeah, it was a pretty definitive death, with blood gushing out of Kanjiya’s gut like a goddamn fountain. For Kanjiya, that was a fitting conclusion, because he got the kind of death he wanted. The tournament didn’t exactly matter to him. In a way, he idolized Saga, and he wanted to die by his hands. The conflict in this situation was that Saga had become a pacifist because he was suffering from PTSD. Hence, you could see Saga playing on the backfoot, almost holding back, while Kanjiya was practically throwing himself at him.
It’s only after he saw Kanjiya threatening Futaba—somebody who had filled the hole in Saga’s life caused by Rin’s death—that he went on the offense. Both Saga and Kanjiya had lived through the same war, but it’s possible that once it was over, both of their reactions were different because Saga had a family while Kanjiya supposedly didn’t. Without somebody to love or a purpose to serve, getting killed by one of the greatest swordsmen alive became Kanjiya’s mission. Therefore, while Saga has to keep trudging towards Tokyo in the yet-to-be-announced Season 2 so that he can give his family the life that they deserve, Kanjiya has reached his desired destination. In a way, Saga’s chances of dying as a satisfied man are slim to none. Meanwhile, there’s Kanjiya, who died knowing that he had achieved everything that he could possibly achieve in this lifetime.
Shikura And Sansuke Rescued Iroha
Saga, Iroha, Shikura Adashino, and Sansuke Gion, along with four others, were pupils at the Kyohachi-ryu School. The institution specialized in swordsmanship and they had studied there for about a decade. Hence, the pupils saw each other as brothers and sisters. When their master’s tenure came to an end, he announced that the school’s ownership would be passed down to the person who would be able to kill the rest of their siblings. If they abandoned this task and made a run for it, the master’s enforcer, Gentosai, would relentlessly pursue and then kill them. Gentosai seemed like a myth that was used to scare the students, but the moment Saga ran away from the school, because he didn’t want to kill his siblings, that very myth became a reality. Since all the failed successors of Kyohachi-ryu School were at Kodoku, Gentosai arrived there and made Iroha his primary target. During her pit stop at the village between Chiryu and Hamamatsu, Gentosai caught up to her and tried to kill her in the woods. Iroha was grievously injured, and just when it seemed like it was “game over” for her, Shikura and Sansuke rescued her.
While Sansuke took Iroha to safety, Shikura hung back and took on Gentosai. Although Shikura was no match for Gentosai, who was almost as invincible as Michael Myers from Halloween and as scary as Death from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, he managed to strike him hard enough to distract him for a while. That gave Shikura the opportunity to run away from Gentosai and reunite with his siblings. The following day, Iroha came up with the plan of gathering all of their siblings and taking on Gentosai, because as long as he was around, they wouldn’t be able to progress in this tournament. Speaking of Gentosai, he was seen colluding with Tsuge. Why? Well, while passing through the Chiryu checkpoint, thanks to the gatekeeper, Tsurubami, he learned that the organizers were secretly ensuring that only nine contestants would reach Tokyo. After that, instead of working as a member of the team, he chose to split up–with Saga, Iroha, and Futaba taking one route to get to Hamamatsu, and Tsuge and Sayama taking another–because he wanted to increase his chances of reaching Tokyo untouched by having them eliminated.
Tsuge probably knew that he was no match for Saga and Iroha, and since they were protecting Futaba, he couldn’t harm her and get away with it. That’s why he sent Gentosai in the direction of the pupils of the Kyohachi-ryu school in the hopes that he’d finish them off, or die trying, thereby clearing his path to Tokyo. However, that gamble has clearly failed, and in the yet-to-be-announced Season 2 of the show, he’ll probably need to utilize Gentosai’s skills in some other way. That said, if Saga or the other pupils find out about Tsuge’s schemes, he is toast. Since Shinnosuke is indebted to Futaba because she helped him at the Chiryu gate, there’s a good chance that he’ll betray Tsuge and inform them about what he’s up to. In that case, Tsuge will need to prove his worth by fighting side-by-side with Gentosai, instead of just letting him do the heavy lifting.
Lord Okubo Died
Apart from Saga, Iroha, Futaba, Sayama, and Tsuge, the Home Ministry was looking into who was organizing Kodoku, and more importantly, what the tournament’s ultimate goal was. Prior to the finale, it was revealed that Kawaji was using the Police Bureau and eminent members of the zaibatsu, which is the Japanese term for a large business conglomerate, to finish off the samurai and pretty much anyone who refused to evolve with the changing times. He attempted to fulfill that self-appointed task during the Boshin War, but when he saw that it wasn’t a complete success, he shook hands with some corrupt businessmen and orchestrated this event, which’d surely lead to the eradication of the samurai. Throughout the show, he tried to convince Okubo that the samurai were partaking in a rebellion against the government and they were marching towards Tokyo because they sought power. However, on the one hand, Nagase, Okubo’s assistant, poked holes into that narrative, and on the other hand, Saga and Tsuge’s investigation into the Bureau and Mitsui Bank completely blew the lid off the police’s involvement in this whole affair.
Saga even managed to convey his findings to Maejima, a member of the Home Ministry who was suspicious of Kawaji, and they were supposed to meet in Okazaki to discuss it. When Maejima conveyed the details of his Morse code conversation with Saga to Okubo, as well as the fact that Kawaji was secretly mobilizing police officers without informing the Home Ministry, Okubo came to the realization that Kawaji was disrupting the status quo. Why? Because Kawaji wanted to make the police a fascist force of nature armed with guns instead of swords. And as long as Okubo was alive, that wouldn’t happen because he believed that rebellion could be quelled without bloodshed and violence. So, in the ending of Last Samurai Standing, Okubo called Kawaji to discuss his part in Kodoku, but before Okubo could reach Kawaji’s house, Hanjiro Nakamura, one of Kawaji’s enforcers and former comrade of Saga, stopped Okubo in his tracks and killed him. It was evident that Kawaji orchestrated Kodoku to dethrone Okubo, but he couldn’t look him in the eye and kill him? After presenting himself as a mastermind, he had to send his henchman to do the job? That’s just cowardly as hell.
Anyway, going back to the plot, Saga and Futaba reached Okazaki to meet Maejima, but due to Okubo’s untimely death, he had to cancel the meeting and go to Tokyo. Which meant that Saga had no option but to continue participating in Kodoku and hope that he’d reach Tokyo in one piece and expose the conspiracy that Kawaji was cooking up with the zaibatsu. As Saga was about to resume his journey, along with Futaba, he actually got a glimpse of Kawaji going in the opposite direction in a carriage, which meant this show won’t end until these two come face to face with each other. Their rivalry had begun on that battlefield. I mean, Kawaji probably didn’t know he was unloading his artillery on Saga, and Saga didn’t see Kawaji’s face either. However, they are destined to have a death match in the yet-to-be-announced Season 2 or maybe in one of the upcoming seasons (if they get greenlit). Before historians come to chastise me, yes, I know that Okubo, Maejima, Kawaji, and Hanjiro were real-life figures, and these characters are nothing like them. As for those who have read the novel and the manga that the show is based on, feel free to let me know your thoughts on the ending of Season 1 and what we can expect from Season 2.
