WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Yasuke, now streaming on Netflix.
Netflix's Yasuke creates a very disturbing picture early on when the Black samurai is tasked with saving young Saki from a group of bounty hunters. His main job is to get her and her mom, Ichika, to a shaman known as Morisuke, but they're quickly attacked by the villains, resulting in Ichika going missing and being presumed dead.
Unfortunately, this deters Yasuke, who decides to return to the village to hide, along with Saki, only to end up being taken prisoner by the mercenaries' boss. And while that person seems to be a religious zealot at first, he unveils himself as a monstrous priest with far more sinister intentions.
This is none other than Father Abraham, who decides to torture Yasuke brutally to get to Saki after the hunters beat the samurai down. But Yasuke's mind is quite strong and he won't break, so Abraham, unable to gather the relevant info, reveals his true form: a mutated being with tendrils that sink into Yasuke's skin, electrocuting the hero to get Saki's whereabouts.
The hunters are shocked, though, as they didn't realize Abraham was using blood sacrifices to enhance himself in the name of some dark deity. They thought he served God, but he's apparently an acolyte of the devil, which is where his sadistic powers came from. While the robot Haruto and werebear Nikita are out hunting Saki, Abraham continues to hurt Yasuke in front of the Benin shaman Achoja and the sickle-wielding Ishikawa, but even they think he's going overboard.
The more Abraham's monster form emerges, the less inclined they are to work with him as they believe he could also turn on them. After all, he's ready to kill Yasuke out of pure frustration. The breaking point comes when Abraham reveals he's going to use Christianity to spread his poison and decimate Europe in the name of his "lord." At this point, the mercenaries turn on him since they know the apocalypse is bad for business, but it's really Saki who swings the tide.
Saki uses her telekinesis in the forest, rounds up her attackers and heads to the priest's fortress -- a derelict church -- where she begins to use the powers of the light against Abraham. She's harnessing her godlike aura, scaring the hunters, but also showing Yasuke that she is indeed the Chosen One.
Abraham turns into his full kaiju-esque form, but Saki impales him with a cross to end his dark reign. She eventually takes back Ichika's necklace from him as the hunters agree to a truce. They realize there are more vile creatures out there and head off, wondering about the true landscape of Asia. As for Yasuke, this brings him closer to Saki and encourages him to take her to Morisuke to finish her training.
Created by LeSean Thomas, Yasuke stars LaKeith Stanfield as Yasuke, Takehiro Hira as Nobunaga, Maya Tanida as Saki, Ming-Na Wen as Natsumaru, Paul Nakauchi as Morisuke, Darren Criss as Haruto, Julie Marcus as Nikita and William Christopher Stephens as Achoja. The series is out now on Netflix.
