The quality of original Netflix shows may have been declining in the past five to 10 years, but it can’t be denied that the financially booming streaming service can still deliver some absolute bangers from time to time. Lately, that means more foreign-language shows that often go under the radar and become overlooked by the majority of the streamer’s viewership. A great example of that is last 2025’s high-octane period action piece, “Last Samurai Standing” — a spiritual companion piece to this near-perfect 2023 samurai series – straight from Japan.
The six-episode action-drama follows in the footsteps of hits like FX’s “Shogun” (the second season of which will be set 10 years later), and Netflix’s very own “Squid Game” (which fizzled out last summer), mixing the former’s historical drama with the latter’s suspense-ridden game formula, while forging its own identity in the process. Based on Shogo Imamura’s manga of the same name, “Last Samurai Standing” takes place in 1878 Japan (during the Meiji era), where samurai have been stripped of their status and pushed into extreme poverty. They’ve been rendered obsolete, unable to make a living with the expert sword-wielding and martial art skills they dedicated their lives to. They’re slowly dying as the sprawling cholera in the country is rapidly taking its victims.
A flicker of hope to those still surviving comes in the form of a flyer that promotes a fighting tournament called Kodoku. In it, the participants have to kill one another for their numbered tags and pass seven checkpoints (with each having a requirement of a certain number of tags to pass) from Kyoto to Tokyo within one month to win the ¥100,000 prize, which could potentially save them and their families.
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Last Samurai Standing is filled with epic action, evoking some of the best fighting movies in the genre
Shujiro and Bukotsu clashing with their swords – Netflix
Although I don’t think “Last Samurai Standing” can hold a candle to such martial art masterpieces as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “The Raid” films, or even Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill,” just to mention a few, its professionalism, passion, and dedication do evoke some of the best (on the small screen no less) in the genre is undeniable. With an emphasis on painstaking fight choreographies between legendary (and even mythical) samurai, the series confidently delivers plenty of fast-paced, vicious, and adrenaline-fueled sword battles while effectively using the narrative and the characters’ backstories to inject emotion into every lethal encounter between the main players.
What’s equally impressive is that the series truly channels the fundamentals and tone of some classic anime, whether we’re talking gore, tragic heroes, or over-the-top villains who feel just as cool (if not cooler) as the main protagonist, Shujiro Saga (Junichi Okada). Thus, it’s hardly a surprise that the Netflix show received glorious reviews from critics (currently having a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes) as well as praise aplenty from viewers who have found this overlooked gem and fallen in love with it instantly.
Despite all the accolades, though, “Last Samurai Standing” remains criminally underseen in Netflix’s roster of foreign shows, but perhaps that will change in the long run since the action-drama has already been renewed for a follow-up last December. And as star, producer, and action choreographer, Okada promises, “We hope to make the next season even more energetic and action-packed,” per Netflix.
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