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Netflix's Last Samurai Standing Live-Action Series Gets 2nd Season

Netflix confirmed on Thursday it has greenlit a second season of Last Samurai Standing, the live-action series adaptation of Shōgo Imamura's Ikusagami novels. The below video features star Junichi Okada announcing the new season (English subtitles are available for Okada's interview portion).

The first season premiered on November 13. The series topped on Netflix's Global Top 10 (Non-English) ranking, and ranked in the top 10 in 88 countries.

Netflix describes the series:

In the late 19th century during the Meiji period, 292 warriors, including Shujiro Saga (Junichi Okada), gather at Tenryu-ji Temple in Kyoto at nightfall, lured by the promise of a huge cash prize. Each given a wooden tag, they join a vicious game in which they must steal the tags of their fellow participants and reach Tokyo to win the prize money. Under the veil of night, the temple grounds are filled with unease and the presence of bloodthirsty warriors. When the signal is given to begin the game, the combatants launch into their relentless battle for survival.

"You fools who live without meaning: kill each other, until just one remains."

Junichi Okada stars as protagonist Shujiro Saga (image above). Okada is also the series' producer and action choreographer.

The series also stars:

• Riho Yoshioka as Shino Saga
• Yumia Fujisaki as Futaba Katsuki
• Kaya Kiyohara as Iroha Kinugasa
• Taichi Saotome as Shikura Adashino
• Yuya Endo as Sansuke Gion
• Masahiro Higashide as Kyojin Tsuge
• Shōta Sometani as Kocha Kamuy
• Hiroshi Tamaki as Ukyo Kikuomi
• Takayuki Yamada as Jinbe Ando
• Jyo Kairi as Shinjirō Sayama
• Wataru Ichinose as Raizo Tachibana
• Hideaki Ito as Bukotsu Kanjiya
• Yasushi Fuchikami as Sakura
• Kazunari Ninomiya as Enju

Michihito Fujii, Kento Yamaguchi, and Toru Yamamoto directed the series, and Kōsuke Oshida was the producer.

Imamura launched the Ikusagami novels with its first volume in 2022. Kodansha published the novels' final volume on August 8. Katsumi Tatsuzawa (a.k.a TATSUZ) launched the novels' manga adaptation in Kodansha's Morning magazine in 2022. Kodansha USA Publishing licensed the manga and will publish the fourth compiled book volume in English on January 13.

Hikuidori, the first volume from Imamura's Ushūboro Tobigumi historical novel series, is inspiring a television anime adaptation titled Oedo Fire Slayer -The Legend of Phoenix-, which will debut on January 11.

Shinobu Seguchi's manga adaptation of the Hikuidori novel, also titled Oedo Fire Slayer -The Legend of Phoenix-, launched in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion on April 24. emaqi started releasing the manga digitally in English in North America in July.

Sources: Variety (Naman Ramachandran), Netflix Japan's YouTube channel