Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
When you’ve nothing to live for, revenge becomes a great motivator, all you need to do is focus your hatred on something and then work towards annihilating it. And that’s what Mizu does in the animated series “Blue Eye Samurai”. She is an orphan forced to live in the guise of a man, who becomes a blind swordmaster’s protege, learning both the craft of making and wielding swords, with the goal of seeking vengeance against those who doomed her to a life of rejection, rage, and emptiness.
Set in the 1600s, “Blue Eye Samurai” is bloody epic, until episode six rolls along, like a wrecking ball, disrupting the pace, grit and fantasy-like charm of the series. Perhaps the flaws feel exaggerated because episode five titled “The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride” is excellence personified, and once episode 5 ended, I was in full mind to rate this show a 5 on 5! But then six happens. But okay, we’ll get back to that later…
Created by Michael Green and Amber Noizumi, “Blue Eye Samurai” has been animated by a French studio called Blue Spirit. The animation quality ranges from standard fantasy-game like VFX to stunning water-painting landscapes which are captivating to watch due to their vivid colors. Across its eight episodes, this fictional action-drama follows Mizu, a young warrior who faces societal rejection due to being of mixed heritage during a time when Japan has isolated itself from the rest of the world, harboring fierce hatred for those not deemed ‘pure’ Japanese. Voiced by Maya Erskine, Mizu is a larger-than-life protagonist, who wants nothing more than to eliminate the only four white men known to live in Japan, because one them led to her ‘impure’ blood and a life of shame. The episodes follow her quest to seek out and slay a white man called Fowler (Kenneth Branagh), whose whereabouts—a heavily guarded remote fortified fortress—are highly secretive, as he has direct illicit dealings with the Shogunate and is supposed to be a persona non grata for the regime.
Titled “Hammerscale”, episode one of the show starts with the sound of fire crackling, then a forge is revealed, and the crackle is overpowered by the hammering of a sword. Soon, the scene shifts to a stunning snowy terrain, and Mizu the protagonist walks into a noodle shop looking for food and some information on Fowler. But a bloodbath ensues. It’s a violently heroic entry scene & sets a good pace for the rest of the series. Mizu wins an instant admirer in Ringo (voiced by Masi Oka), the shop assistant who trails her and wants to train under her, but the lone wolf tries her best to shake the simpleton off. Huge, stealthy, with both his hands missing, Ringo is the quintessential comic side-kick with a big heart, who stubbornly follow ‘Master’ Mizu everywhere, assuring he can be ‘useful’ and not a hindrance to her revenge mission. Over the course of next few episodes, Ringo is bound to become a fan-favorite due to his steadfast devotion and awe of Mizu’s skills with the sword. Despite her protests, he becomes her apprentice, friend, confidante and shadow.
The other protagonist of “Blue Eye Samurai” is Princess Akemi (voiced by Brenda Song), a young intelligent royal who wants to rule her own destiny and not be married off to the first man her domineering father deems fit for her and the other is the arrogant Samurai. Akemi is determined to bend her father’s will to let her marry the dashing Taigen (voiced by Darren Barnet), considered the greatest Samurai in the region; however, her plan is jeopardized when Mizu defeats Taigen, among a string of other haughty Samurais when they refuse to let her meet their Dojo’s master. Taigen decides to restore his lost honor by challenging Mizu to an official duel and follows her trail. Meanwhile, Akemi runs away from her palace to find Taigen because her father arranges a new match for her—with the Shogun’s son, no less. How the paths of these three – Mizu, Akemi and Taigen – keep colliding, despite Mizu’s razor sharp focus to extract her revenge, forms the crux of the story. Mizu however keeps encountering bounty-hunters and killers on her way and the path to retribution is completely broken and blood-soaked.
The animation is a blend of 2D animation and more modern computer generated 3D models, and the artwork gorgeously recreates historical Japan, featuring ornate folding screens, golden kimonos, grand palaces, snow-laden forests, and wild outdoor terrains. It’s the musical score which makes everything fall into place, making the proceedings theatrically dramatic and always as the crucial element which elevates a particular scene from being an ordinary animated sequence. In a scene from episode 2 (“An Unexpected Element”), Mizu engages in a battle with a formidable assassin along the seashore and the animated sequence is breathtaking. The rough waters crash in the background, reflecting the orange hues of sunlight, creating a visual poetry where it seems like a wave of blood lashes against the ground where the fight takes place. “Blue Eye Samurai” transforms violence into poetic scenes of beauty and it does it best in episode 5, where a puppet show depicts a tragic story of a Ronin (a feudal lord) and his bride, and it’s set to the tune of traditional Japanese stringed instruments. As the puppet show progresses, viewers also get a flashback to a surprising phase in Mizu’s life, and the simultaneous narration is brilliant. In the present, she fights an army of armed men to protect a brothel which is run by Madame Kaji, a shrewd businesswoman whose establishment caters to kinks and also provides women for Fowler. So Mizu needs Kaji’s help to finding her way into Fowler’s fort. “Revenge is luxury for men. Women must be practical,” Madame Kaji tells Mizu in a memorable line, her cynicism is delicious irony, because she thinks Mizu is a man with the privilege to pursue revenge, unaware of the real truth.
The series engagingly weaves historical and cultural elements of Japan’s Tokugawa/Edo era, a time when military leadership practiced national seclusion, forbidding foreigners from entering its islands, and also restricted locals from traveling abroad or returning from outside. Only limited trade was allowed through one major port, and all other contact with foreign elements was forbidden, fearing the dilution of their own culture by Christian missionaries. Which is why the blue-eyed Mizu is a social pariah, considered a ‘monster’ by others, an aberration that mustn’t exist. So, she wears glasses to remain discreet and avoid attention. The acute racism she faces is one of the strongest theme throughout the tale. The unmasked spite, stones, and shower of abuses Mizu is exposed to as a mere child due to her divergent appearance fills her with an endless poison – representative of how hate creates hate.
While the Princess Akemi sub-plot did seem slightly unnecessary at first, eventually the juxtaposition of her life versus Mizu’s life offers a compelling picture of class divide. Mizu is beaten, bruised, battered and bloodied in every second turn she takes, while Akemi grows up in the lap of luxury, eating fine food, dressing in expensive silks, reading and reciting Haikus. George Takei voices Seki, a wise old man who serves as Akemi’s mentor, almost prophesies his ward’s future fate. In what would be called a “truth bomb” in modern terms, Seki harshly tells Akemi about the limited paths available to women in their time: “This is the world; it grants women a fixed number of paths—proper wife or improper whore.” Seconds later, to find Taigen, Akemi resorts to selling herself to a pimp, and then cleverly manipulates him into following Taigen’s trail by claiming she wants him to find a great price in a whorehouse for her. Akemi’s sub-plot soon becomes ‘too good to be true’, and one can only conclude that the princess has incredible fortune.
Episode six, titled “All Evil Dreams and Angry Words”, is the only chapter that felt overstretched, cliched and borderline boring. While in the first five episodes Mizu fights like a demi-God or demon, episode six annoyingly stretches the “lone undefeatable wolf” trope. It reminded of the 2023 animated series “Onimusha”, another Samurai themed tale which released on Netflix at the same time as “Blue Samurai”, where one man is constantly fighting gangs of assassins, but he has a magical gauntlet to power him up. Mizu has no such supernatural help, only the sweet Ringo to watch her back, yet she heals faster than wolverine. Fowler’s fort proves to be formidable and the antagonist himself is a worthy evil opponent, with an imposing personality that’s akin to Count Dracula. While episode six struggles to be a strong bridge between the next chapter, fortunately, the series pick its pace again in episode seven “Nothing Broken”.
Titled “The Great Fire of 1657”, episode eight is nail-biting and the story twist puts every crucial character’s neck on the line. The stakes get higher, and a major twist pushes “Blue Eye Samurai” to an ambitious scale in terms of story and scope. Politics, military might and war takes center-stage in the last leg of the series, and Mizu’s mission is almost sidelined in the larger scheme of things, but only briefly. After the constant battles, fatal wounds and barrage of blood and deaths, the last episode culminates with a staggering coup gone wrong. The show ends on a promise of a season two, and the climactic events albeit exciting, weren’t wholly satisfactory.
If there’s one thing that remains passionately consistent throughout the series, it’s Mizu’s unfaltering dedication to achieving her revenge. While she does demonstrate human emotions, she is super-human in her will, and even though her quest seems misguided, you cannot help but be in awe of her, like Ringo. Violent, unhinged, and graphic, this is an ambitious historical drama, that is meant for adult viewers with a penchant for animation.
Stream “Blue Eye Samurai” on Netflix.
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