Like Crabs in a Pot

Browsing NetflixOriginally started as a disc-by-mail service, Netflix has grown to be one of the largest media companies in the world (and one of the most valued internet companies as well). With a constant slate of new internet streaming-based programming that updates all the time, Netflix has redefined what it means to watch TV and films (as well as how to do it). can be a weird, interesting experience. Netflix’s release strategy for practically all its shows and movies feels odd. It’s like the streamer has a shotgun, or a t-shirt cannon, and is just blasting crap out at people to see what sticks. If a show or movie is good then Netflix will give it a second season or a sequel and will hype the hell out of it. A really successful show will see its later seasons broken up into chunks so Netflix can try to get the benefit of installment-based watercooler discussion while still encouraging binge watching. But if a series or movie fails then it vanishes, lost in the ether of the Netflix database, possibly never to be seen again unless you actively search for it.

Already I’m seeing that in action for one show that Netflix recently hyped at me: Last Samurai Standing. The show, created by Kento Yamaguchi and Michihito Fujii and based on the book of the same name by Shogo Imamura, debuted November 12, 2025, on Netflix and was all over its front screen for a solid week. But then, once the buzz died down and viewership dipped, the show vanished. Now I don’t see it at all, not even when I go browsing around in categories that would naturally show it. Binge-worthy action television? Nope. Stunning foreign productions? Not there either. Shows featuring a disgraced former samurai just trying to help their wife and kids? Okay, so that’s not an actual category but, for a second, you wondered if it was, didn’t you?

At this point the show is still waiting for a second season renewal, with Netflix acting cagey about if it will give the series a second chance to continue its story or not. Knowing Netflix that already feels like a “not”. If the show had done well it would still be featured prominently and, within hours of its debut Netflix would already have an order in for a second season, if not a third. But then, watching the series, I can’t help but think Netflix is right to be cagey. This is a show with lush production values and a few solid ideas, all of which get mired in a six episode season that really starts to lose the thread before it’s even half way done. It’s a show with potential that very clearly isn’t carried out by its full first season.

Shujiro Saga (Junichi Okada) was once a samurai, a proud warrior fighting for his country. However, with the coming of European influence, Japan turned away from the samurai, feeling that it was time to be more “modern”. Samurai were stripped of their titles, wealth, and privileges, and Saga was forced to scrape by, trying to support his family on what little he could make. This all comes crumbling down, though, when cholera spreads through their village, killing his daughter and sickening his son and wife. If Saga doesn’t do something he could see his whole family die of the disease.

Hope comes, though, in the form of a contest. A newspaper advertises a one hundred thousand yen grand prize for a mysterious martial arts contest. Knowing that the money would help not only his family but the whole village, Saga picks up his sword (which he hadn’t used since the last war the samurai fought in) and heads to the gathering point, the Tenryū-ji Temple in Kyoto, to see what the challenge is. Everyone that arrives is automatically enlisted in the challenge and the rules are clear: battle to the death. Warriors have to travel from Kyoto to Tokyo, fighting each other and stealing their points (and their lives) until the few lucky survivors make it to the end. The last warrior standing wins the pot of money. But can Saga really kill for money? Has he lost his honor and sunk that low? He’d do so much for his family, but Saga will soon learn if there are lines he will not cross.

Last Samurai Standing is another in a line of “everyone must die for one to win” style stories that seem to come pretty frequently now. The originator of the genre likely was Battle Royale, and then we’ve had others like Squid Game and now Last Samurai Standing (with the rare non-Asian outlier like The Hunger Games coming along as well). The concept is ripe for exploration, seeing how characters react when it’s clear that only one person can survive and everyone else must die for it to happen. But it doesn’t really feel like Last Samurai Standing has too much to say in that regard.

Part of what made Battle Royale and Squid Game feel so interesting for viewers was their modern setting. In each case the productions were commenting on modern matters, speaking to their audience about how the world is currently working and commenting on the socio-political matters of the day. Hell, even The Hunger Games got that, with its original author, Suzanne Collins, speaking about its strong, anti-corporate message. But Last Samurai Standing doesn’t have that kind of hook. It’s set in the past, during Japan’s late Meiji era of the 19th Century, which means it can only comment on Japan that was, not on Japan that is.

I understand that this is how the original book was as well, but that does make it feel like it misses the point of this kind of story. To really feel for the characters you have to have a way into their shoes. When it’s people fighting for survival against a corrupt government or rich oligarchs toying with them, that feels like a reflection of where our world is right now. Those elements are present in Last Samurai Standing, but because of its 19th century setting, we don’t feel the same connection to the protagonists. We can’t as easily get into their heads, so when we’re introduced to an oligarch conspiracy to make the samurai fight, and kill, each other, it doesn’t ring with the same power as this setup in other stories.

Of course, there’s also the fact that these are trained warriors. In Battle Royale, The Hunger Games, and similar shows and movies, the characters are all normal people. Katniss might be great with a bow, which is how she manages to survive the games, but she’s still just a teenage girl thrust into a situation she wasn’t trained for and hoped never to see. The students in Battle Royale were just students, not soldiers, and the idea of them being dumped in a killer or be killed situation is completely foreign to them. But that doesn’t hold true for the samurai and other warriors here. Even though the game kept its “last man standing” rule secret until the entrants were already enrolled, they were still warriors. They knew how to fight, and kill, so while the game is still rigged against them it doesn’t have the same emotional impact for us.

The show tries all the same. Saga is a noble warrior who struggles with PTSD after the last, gory battle that ended the era of the samurai. He doesn’t want to fight, and he even takes a young girl under his wing when he sees her at the opening of the tournament and realizes she’s not a trained warrior. That girl, Iroha Kinugasa (Kaya Kiyohara), is a girl trying to get the money so she can support the orphanage her mother ran (before her mother died of cholera); without that money those kids (who are also struggling with cholera) will die. And she’s got a strong moral code, making her someone we can respect and honor. It helps us care about these main characters even if we can’t identify with their situation.

But then the series also somehow manages to mess this up. As the series goes on it starts to pile on more characters, more history, more conspiracies. The oligarchs can’t just be rich people wanting to toy with the samurai; they have to be working to overthrow the Japanese government. Saga can’t just be a retired samurai, he also has to be one of the last of a special martial arts school, a runaway from that school, and there has to be some legendary warrior looking to hunt him down and kill him just because he left the school. There are more allies dumped on, more enemies, and just so many pieces dumped onto the board by the time the first season comes to an end that it doesn’t feel intentional. It’s just a big mess.

I really liked the first couple of episodes of Last Samurai Standing because I liked Saga and I thought the setup, combined with the lush production design, made for a compelling story. But as the series wore on, and everything was dumped onto the story, it all got so tangled, so overdone, that I stopped caring about any of it, Saga included. The potential of the series was wasted on a messy story that couldn’t figure out when to stop adding on twists and whorls over and over again.

There’s a solid core to Last Samurai Standing, but the series never finds the focus it needs to tell its true story. Whatever form it’s supposed to take, the series still hasn’t found it yet. If the show gets a second season I have to hope that the creators streamline and focus the series down to its reliable core. If not, it’s only going to get more tangled and incomprehensible, and I have no doubt any viewers that stuck around that long would tune out.