Mikio also represents the ronin somewhat as well; his “vengeance” was reinstating his title. However, upon falling for the bride, he was ready to give it all up. But like how the ronin saw the bride as his enemy, Mikio also saw Mizu as a monster and went to pursue his “vengeance” again
@@davidkimpton6775 oh my gosh ur right! Mikio also works as the bride bc he draws her away from the life of vengeance and ends as the ronin when he betrays her. Theyre like an inverse of each other
The moment he said "favorite episode" I knew it was going to be this one. This episode... just... yeah... if you know, you know because I don't have the words for this one. That was on the level of Arcane Episode 3 for brutal, raw, and utterly heartbreaking.
I don’t think Ringo has a learning disability. He knows the sutras and calligraphy. He’s kind and eventually brave. He’s figured out how to make instruments for his missing hands. Ringo’s problem is he’s been mistreated.
Though his mindset/mentality is childlike. There’s people who are mistreated and can still behave in an adult form. Ringo’s behavior and mannerisms behaves like one with a disability.
I like ringo so much. I thought he will ba an annoying character at the beginning. But he is so well written. He learns to be brave and has so much potential.
i like it because i think it’s unlike usual samurai shows. Some parts like (SPOILER) the fire of 1657, actually happened. It adds in some parts from real Japan edo history while also keeping a slight fantasy. I like how it shows not only a woman being a samurai, but also her being half white. If you couldn’t tell, white people werent really yk in Japan at that period. Usual samurai animations are your regular male protagonist on some random adventure. This show is much different. She has story like (another spoiler) how she used to have a husband who she actually trusted, and once that trust was broken, it helps explain her entire background. Compared to the last netflix shows, this one is fantastic.
@@zelinquI agree the way they updated her backstory every time she was on the verge of being killed was awesome. And done very well tbh you know some shows leave you dazed and confused with the merging of flashbacks but this was done really nice.
There’s something about the fact Mizu switches between the samurai and the wife, ending as a vengeful spirit that’s so telling. The storytelling through scenery is amazing and so beautiful.
Another example is in Gwen's universe in Across the Spider Verse. It's literally a watercolour canvas and you can really tell all the emotions with just a look. It's gorgeous
One aspect I really liked in this show was the analogies to sword forging. In metal forging / material science, there’s the idea that you need some impurities in your metal alloy to increase the metal’s strength. When Mizu first crafts her sword from the meteor, she makes it as pure as possible, paralleling her hatred of her own identity as a woman and as a mixed race individual. However, once the sword breaks, the Swordfather talks about how sword making is not about removing all impurities, but rather incorporating them into the sword. After this point, Mizu ditches her colored glasses for the final battle and admits she needs Ringo’s help. You may be born different from others, but life is about learning to accept these differences as your identity.
he says this several times during her training, but she completely ignores it as she's extremely focused and obsessed with being pure herself. if she can't be pure by their standards, then she'll make something that is
The accuracy of the historical events really strikes me as this is story is rooted in allot of real world truths of our past. Even Fowler’s background story in Ireland under O’Neil is true down to the point they ate nettles (Hugh O’Neil nine years war late 1590s-early 1600s). It makes me wonder if Mizu is going to meet Routely, and the political chaos of the late 1650’s London. Also I’m a big history nerd and animation nerd, and thissss show was a jackpot. It’s gorgeous and well thought-out.
I hear the shogunate actually had guns at that point although not rampant. Also apparently the timing of her travels to London time up with a second great fire which occurred in London
@@shaokhan4421 yes! It was also the start of the great plague! Who knows what we are really about to get into. England's history is brutal around that time.
@@TheHeadNinjainComics I thought the same thing but there was actually a lot of other plagues. Bubonic was really extreme part of history. This one was called the Great Plague.
As a woman, I loved this. We see two sides of femininity, at the very least. Women being seen as a disgusting being vs a beautiful wife. In following Mizu and Akemi, we see even more paths open up as they take up their own fate and call the shots. I'd argue Ringo doesn't have a learning disability alongside his physical disability just because of how happy-go-lucky he is. He's well read as we see later in the show and has street smarts. There's certain things Mizu struggles with in terms of just talking her way out of things, that Ringo succeeds easily in. If you also want another series to watch while we wait for more Blue Eye Samurai news, I recommend Mononoke.
he's called a "halfwit", so he's supposed to be developmentally disabled. that doesn't mean he can't be well-read, smart, etc. people just assume people with developmental disabilities are stupid
Not being negative or anything but who cares if shes a woman, all that matters is that the show is fire. Bringing up the fact that she's a woman just downplays the fact that she's a woman. We all see it, just let it be. When a good show has a male lead we don't harp on the fact that it's a male. I think female leads need that same level of respect.
@@fazormcghee7936 That doesnt make sense. The whole show is about how despite her identity as a woman and the hardships that being a woman in that era entails, she succeeds regardless. In her own way with the hand shes dealt with unlike akemi. Shes in no way a good person but saying it doesnt matter is just as disrespectful. The show actively shows her trying to hide that fact of herself, what do you mean let it be? Why cant it be mentioned and celebrated? Obviously we dont harp about the male lead being male as much, cuz its been the norm that most stories are about male characters since ancient times until recently. Did we watch the same show?
@@aminahamalek633 because highlighting it makes it seem like it's special that a good show show can have a female lead. It's like you're saying that's something that is unusual. It's disrespectful that every good show with a female lead has to hyper focus on the fact that the lead is a woman. We don't do that for male leads because we expect good shows to have male leads so it's not special enough to mention. Imagine an adult driving. Nothing special right, probably wouldn't even pay attention to it because that's normal. Now imagine a 10 year old driving. That's unusual and you would be very focused on the fact that a child is doing something that children are incapable of doing. That's what you're doing when you hyper focus on the fact that a good show has a female lead. As if that's something women are incapable of doing. When you do that it's like you're saying "oh my God, LOOK!!! a woman is doing something only men are capable of doing, LOOOK!!! Isnt that crazy?" When I tell people about the show I only mention she's a woman once, while explaining the plot. After that I only mention her gender through pronouns but I don't focus on her gender specifically. Instead I do what I would do if the lead was a male, I just talk about how amazing the show is because to me, that's less sexist.
@@fazormcghee7936 You're right that just solely basing on the merits of the show and good writing on her gender is bad but the fact is, good shows with female leads are rare compared to the plethora of good shows that have male leads. Yes we shouldnt just celebrate a show based on gender cuz that is sexist. but in this case the person above is just indentifying with it as a woman herself and that the show itself talks about the two different paths of two women. Mentioning that itself is not sexist. They WAY its brought up and mentioned can be. But theres nothing sexist in this instance of the OP comments to even harp about sexist hyperfocus of gender. If anything you getting upset over a woman mentioning something she personally identifies as a woman is coming off as sexist. We can mention it, the way its mentioned is important because that can be disrespectful or respectful. You're getting upset at a real legitimate thing but in this case, thats not whats happening. and that doesnt have to equal to "Dont ever mention it we dont need to" Becuase you're just disregarding the context of everything here just in favour to harp about something you're upset about that doesnt even apply to the situation. Be it the show or the above comment
This exceptional show appears to be underrated, with fewer reviews and reactors engaging compared to lower-quality content. The discovery of Blue Eye Samurai was a surprise for me, catching the full first episode on UA-cam courtesy of Netflix. Praise for the show comes from those who invested the time to watch it. I hope Netflix sees this through to its conclusion instead of prematurely canceling it, a trend they are unfortunately known for.
@@kalicacaoOh I get it, you’re shtick is to be against things people are hyped about! I have no other explanation as there’s no cringe involved in this series and no likeness to the mess that is the Witcher series. I would guess you didn’t like a certain revelation … yeah I try not to spoil anything for those that haven’t seen the series yet, even if it was rather obvious very early on. For me that wasn’t a problem at all as this is series for adults and not kids.
@@kalicacao I respect your opinion, but I would clarify that your assumption is misguided because you were burned out on woke-feminist propaganda. Woke, not so much, but feminist, yes. Women still fight for their rights. Even in America, the reversal of Roe vs. Wade, forcing a woman to keep a child when it’s not her doing, is just wrong, period. No show or film is without a suspension of disbelief. John Wick would have died from falling off the building down to the street, but he’s alive and continues the saga. Ethan Hunt should have died a thousand times, or James Bond. They are all fake, infantile, and not very funny, and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning is not even interesting. It put me to sleep. These are not animated, so believability is even more evident.
@@kalicacao It seems highly probable that the latter part of your comment is what truly drives your bias against the series and honestly I don't blame you. Had someone told me what the show was about instead of me accidentally finding it, I would not have given it a chance. Personally, I'm glad I did because they did a really good job on making the main character EARN the status of being a strong individual thus making it more believable. As for the characters being unfunny, humor is usually not a focus in drama series. I really liked the accuracy of the societal infrastructure during that particular time in history, how the characters evolved within it's parameters, and I personally love the strong overtones of stoicism. That's my opinion anyways and I always find it so cool how everyone can view the same media and draw vastly different conclusions from it.
My favorite part of this show is that Mizu is the protagonist AND antagonist. A force of hate and vengeance that exists outside of morality and redemption.
As someone who worked in animation I am soooooo soooo happy to see this kind of work being made, the medium of animation does add a totally new way to tell a story and is so powerfull. Spreading the word of The Blue Eye Samurai so it get renewed for other seasons 🤞
This is definitely an example alongside Vi from Arcane for how to portray a female protagonist in an action series correctly. Mizu goes through hell and back in this season alone but that just endeared me to her because she gets hurt and has self doubt but never truly gives up.
Her marriage really added depth to her character and made it so much better seeing her feminine nature …adding that vulnerability ..this story is actually better simply because mizu is a woman..very rare for the genre…
@@luechmillionz Usually it detracts from it but this series knew that they had to abide by how women were treated at that point in Japan. It shows how far they've come now.
The only thing putting off is that while the story is great, the script doesn't match the smartness of the story.. It feels stupid to see mizu not being smart...and constantly getting hurt and getting up...and fighting with endless endurance. Most of the time when mizu gets hurt it feels like they put that in there abruptly to garner emotions. Mizu kills 10 guys and then gets stabbed by an ordinary dude with an ordinary feint. Kills a bunch of tough dudes while gets manhandled by one dude who lived his whole life doing business and living in a room. The script was sometimes just plot moving. They can improve so much in s2.. But the Ronin and the bride and the last episode were great..
@@bu11ymaguire I agree they made her a lil too op …like when she took that blade threw the foot in reality she woulda never walked the same again let alone finished the mission and the part where her and Taigen fell off the side of the keep and she carried his unconscious body with ONE HAND on a sword while scaling the wall ..completely unrealistic..but the white man wasn’t just any ordinary white man he was a war veteran and spent many years mastering dif arts in his time in Japan ..and by the time mizu got to him she was tired weak and severely injured which is why he easily neutralized her …
@@luechmillionz she was tired, weak even when she started the mission..she almost couldn't walk when she fought the big dude.. yet somehow did all those acrobatics.. hell she was barely able to walk she was throwing dudes into the traps on the second floor. And I don't think that abijah dude was doing much training for the last 15 years..yet he's somehow extremely good at guns, swords and hand to hand combat.. Climbing with taigen was much more believable than all of that.. Ofcourse it's fiction and nothing is believable if you compare it to real life.. But the first rule in filmmaking for fight progression is to insinuate something inhuman about the fighter before he starts doing something inhuman.. Like showing her toppling big stones.. to prove she has crazy strength. Insinuating that she has crazy endurance. Insinuating she's a genetic anomaly.. like I wouldn't say anything when thor destroys a planet.. because his powers have been insinuated. Hes a god.. or iron man stops a plane, or Achilles fights an army. They should have gone smart through the fight scenes. It looks like the fight script has been written by a 10 year old. I was immersed in the story but plot advance sometimes threw me off. And why would she act all lovey dovey with taigen after everything? She saved him. Good. But why lovey dovey?
Westerns starring Clint Eastwood were also a big reference used for how mizu is presented, look at the stance and silhouette and how she is framed in each shot.
It's beyond anime, it's a piece of art. I don't like the genre normally, however, I got stuck into the piece immediately! I learned more history from this series than I did in college. This is a MUST SEE! Simple as that!
@@BrotakuDonhow is it not historically accurate? The style, the clothes, the cultural problems, the opium, the flesh trading. It's what happened in history. They even hired historians and anthropologist to ensure the show was historically accurate all the way down to how Japanese people walk.
@valissatate8496 Well, there weren't any Irishman in Japan yet. The sword she carries is also restricted to only be carried by the samurai caste, and then they carried the daisho style swords...so she should have a shorter blade as well. There's certainly errors that I've seen so far and I've not finished it.
@@BrotakuDon I mean honestly speaking, I don’t even care. If it doesnt disrupt the story telling, or come down as cultural insenstive, tiny mistakes like these aren’t really that important in my opinion. Like this is literally fiction, you’re telling me there was actually a wasian women who pretended to be a man in feudal Japan who was on a mission to kill their biological fathed? Like I don’t think anyone is asking those questions.
yes! i think Ringo is really intelligent, it shown when he one step ahead and poisioned the "giant", kick him off the cliff. Ringo is just not exposed to the outside enough to know more than what he's already know
This series was a delightful surprise. I was bored and put the first episode on only to binge the entire series in a day. The complex characters complemented the beautiful visuals to take a relatively standard story and elevated it to something special. I found myself smiling when the characters felt happy and sorrow when characters had their hearts broken which is something I haven't felt in a long time. I look forward to a season 2 with the hopes that it can maintain if not surpass the quality of season 1.
The dual purpose of the training weights she ties to her limbs was a nice twist. As bad ass as Mizu was, she is given lots of growth as she has flaws and learns from mistakes or simply has to learn to endure in spite of how cruel the world is to her. It shows her learning and growing in skill. She gets absolutely brutalized in several fights in spite of her skill. She only hides her gender so as to avoid the sexual discrimination of the period, not because she's delusional about being a man. She embraced her feminine qualities for a time until she was betrayed and fell back into hatred and bloodlust. She is NOT a "Mary Sue". She's a strong character who happens to be female, not a strong character because she's female. That something a lot of writers can't seem to wrap their heads around these days, particularly at Disney it seems. You could keep the script from the Disney Star Wars movies exactly the same and replace the actress who played Rey with a male actor and you would not tell any difference with the character IMO. Rey has virtually no feminine qualities and little to no growth as a character as she's made to be great at, well, everything. Men love strong female characters done right. Sara from Terminator or Ripley from the Alien movies. The female characters in shows like Firefly or The Expanse are also great examples of female characters done right. I also liked how grey her moral compass was at times. Mizu doesn't always do the noble thing. She's no saint and doesn't pretend otherwise. If anything, she fully embraces her quest for vengeance knowing full well how immoral and unethical it is.
Agreed, mizu is not at all a Mary sue. She’s not invincible or untouchable, she’s gotten beaten and stabbed and lost a lot of battles before. And shes not some sort of hero either, she’s murdered a lot of people, some of whom deserve it and some of whom just got in her way. She’s just a really morally grey character
Must disagree that Mizu actually grew as a character...she discarded things as quickly as she started feeling them peeling under her skin, which is to some extent is relatable, but depicted very clumsily and over the top
Japan's animators and writers have already been given strong female protagonist examples...they just prefer NOT to use them... Ghost in The Shell: Standalone Complex(strong female boss) Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit(strong new mother) Neon Genesis Evangelion(strong grieving orphaned female) Gunbuster(strong female cadet) Wings of Honneamise(devout female Christian/starving prostitute) FLCL(strong female antagonists/antiheroines) Also: check Hideaki Anno's FEMALE-centric LiveAction filmography! Nausicaa And The Valley of The Wind(female chieftain) Kiki's Delivery Service(female apprentice) Patlabor 2(strong female skilled coworkers) By the same Directors, no less!
the show has been like and unexpected goldmine - a pure triumph of animation,story ,setting , characters, writing - truly a masterclass of how it should be done and is very underrated. Ronin and the bride is actually amazing
I can only hope no one takes this masterclass, the writing is godawful, 90% of the characters are 2-dimensional props and everything is over-the-top to make sure simple minds don't miss a beat.
The show isn't historically, or culturally, accurate. This is made by a Western company and this is more accurately cultural appropriation than the things they always complain are cultural appropriation. @@epochhp8899
they need more characters to expand the universe. it could easily be the next “GOT” . so far im loving how Mizu Taigen Ringo and Akemi are l having their own arcs. i wish the second born prince will be a pov character too. i havent been got hooked to a series since GOT. this is kinda reminiscent of GOT but with their own flavor. Mizu is Arya like. Akemi is like Dany. Taigen got a little jaime going on. and Ringo reminds me of Samwell. i want to know what those creatures under the castle are. are the zombies??? im not a big fan of the possibility that next season will be set in London though 😂. so far im loving the japanese cultural aspects
The creatures under the castle were zombies born of Mizu's drug trip due to the flowers. After the fight, when she limps out of the dungeon with Taigen, you can see that they were just regular people. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd been given drugs too, to make them attack her... or they were just trying to flee, Mizu in their drug-addled mind thought they were attacking, and cut them all down. This show takes no prisoners^^°
I love this show. Foolishly made the mistake to look for reviews. The reviews are all positive, but the comment sections always have those weirdos. w0men beating MEN NOT REALIIISTIIKKK. My brothers in christ, no action flick is realistic. Mizu being a woman just lets people tell a different kind of story. and a beautiful one at that.
The problem is women Characters dont get hurt Or lose in fights, its annoying Because male characters Suffer beatdowns but come Up on top & it feels genuienely Earned.
@@elongatedmanforever1252 Mizu gets hurt many times during this series.. even in her fight with Taigen she gets smashed at first. I think she can be a tad overpowered at times but saying she doesn't get hurt or lose fights is a lie.
@@pppppppp4024 that was hilarious many of her strategy she saw end up in dead then still keep weights intact it would be better if she act like Zatoichi vs Genosuke or use her weights as a shield to beat him lol
Another parallel to champloo that I thought of was how mizu’s design looks somewhat like jigen’s ( blue robes, tinted glasses, even the hat) I don’t know if that is a parallel, but I thought it was interesting.
Actually, when i first saw this series without finishing it, I thought she's a man. Kenji oja of battle realms and kabuto yakushi of naruto came to my mind😂. But seriously, she's beautiful.
Japan's animators and writers have already been given strong female protagonist examples...they just prefer NOT to use them... Ghost in The Shell: Standalone Complex(strong female boss) Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit(strong new mother) Neon Genesis Evangelion(strong grieving orphaned female) Gunbuster(strong female cadet) Wings of Honneamise(devout female Christian/starving prostitute) FLCL(strong female antagonists/antiheroines) Also: check Hideaki Anno's FEMALE-centric LiveAction filmography! Nausicaa And The Valley of The Wind(female chieftain) Kiki's Delivery Service(female apprentice) Patlabor 2(strong female skilled coworkers) By the same Directors, no less!
This show is on a league of its own. I found it to be a combination of 80s hyper violent anime like Ninja Scroll, captivating story and characters from Samurai Champloo and political intrigue from Shogun coupled with ground breaking animation. This is a rare gift indeed! I love it so much..!!!
I wish you would’ve talked about the ending of this episode two, where the play turns out to be in the future and we learn Akari’s fate. Was not expecting such a bleak reveal, but man was it powerful.
Binged this as soon as it came out. I saw its brilliance right from the get go. It needs more hype. I'm re-watching it. Love all the characters, especially Ringo.
I appreciate your breakdown of Episode 5, as I feel that was the best storytelling in a single episode I've seen in a long time and could have been it's own movie, tbh. I loved how the banraku puppet story SEAMLESSLY and SUBTLY transitioned from Mizu being portrayed as the vengeful samurai in the story, to being the wife-turned-onryo. It was super easy to miss but that level of storytelling to have that juxtaposition flip to her playing both roles in her story based on the contrast with the present Mizu and Flashback Mizu was so well done. Though, there's another small thing that I want to add that reinforces your point earlier in the video about the studio's care to historical accuracy. In her flashback of that episode, she spars with her husband and he uses the Naginata, which she comments on. Then, at the end of the flashback when she fully attempts to embrace her role in society as a woman and wife, she puts away her sword. When attacked shortly after and betrayed by her husband, she fights not with the sword, but with the Naginata. This is a very subtle but well done historical reference, because the Naginata was seen as the "wife's weapon" used to protect the house whenever the husband was away; just as she did in that flashback, dressed as the wife she was trying to be. She then kept that memory and lesson she learned as a driving factor in her revenge by cutting back to the present, Mizu transforming her sword and weights into a, you guessed it, Naginata. As she is "protecting the house" (brothel) from a group of attackers, as paralleled in her flashback. This small detail was so well done and I was stunned at how so much respect and storytelling was put into just the weapon's significance, but **not thrown in the audience's face**. True subtlety that exudes "art". The show is a masterpiece, particularly episode 5. Season 2 NEEDS to be greenlit.
did you spot the eyebrows's actions. the male puppet does it when he's attracted to the beauty of the bride.. and they did it in the flashbacks too like the puppets. there's many hidden meanings in the episode, like the puppet child, the phoenix, the horse... watching it again and you realise there's more things you didn't saw last time..... Best episode. Oh! And the facts the entire theater show was just akemi watching one.
Ronin - Onrio - Mizu story is one of the very best scenes in history of film making. The story telling, animation was spot on, but the highlight is the background music in these scenes.. Amazing!!!! A great show indeed.
Just finished this last night. It's so beautiful and compelling and tragic. I love the strong female characters especially Madame Kaji. My favorite was the puppet show interwoven with the story line. Just gorgeous
I suspected it, but wasn't sure since women have voiced male characters before. (looking at you, Goku and Kenshin). It was interesting to find that my suspicions proved to be correct.
In absolute honesty, I thought the flashback scene from the ronin episode was a crazy dream/hallucination that Mizu was having during her battle. Like her flashing back and fourth between it. Did not even register it was an actual scene of the past because it all felt like a dream sequence to me.
I absolute loved the show. The first chapter popped on my feed on TouTube, one day before the release and I was beyond excited. Of course I love Mizu, But Akemi really got me, specially during the brothel part. Her end really shows character development. I've been recommending it to everyone I know, but some of them don't watch animated series. 😐😐
i really loved the small details sprinkled out throughout the show. i loved how they got the process of sword making right where other media often gets grossly wrong. the only thing they missed was showing during the tempering process how the blade first curves forward and then curves back, which when you see it for the first time almost looks like black magic. that would have been a very small detail that would look very cool in the show, almost mystical. another detail that most people would miss was when that samurai comes under false pretenses to have a sword made and it breaks. mizu is about to tell on herself for being a woman here as she believed this be her fault, but the sword-father interrupts. women were not allowed anywhere near a forge during the entire process. this was believed because one of the patron goddesses of swordsmiths (inari okami, i believe) was a jealous deity and would abandon the forge and the bladesmith if she ever saw another woman nearby, causing the swords to fail. also i think the sword-father knew all along mizu was a woman but never showed it. he's blind, not stupid.
I tend to be sceptical when Netflix put up anime series. However, I fell in love immediately when I saw Blue eye Samurai feed. Pretty good and brutal indeed
Its the type of show that ruins TV shows for a long time because of the standard it sets in all departments. The office ruined comedy for me, The Wire ruined crime dramas for me, GoT ruined action and adventure for me. Etc
I truly thought that the blue-eyed Samurai video series was amazing. The best part for me was that it was made in english. It allowed me to get immersed in the moment. It allowed me to understand their emotions at that particular time. I truly wish I could let Netflix know how much I thought this video series was amazing. Can't wait till next season. That other video series that you talked about. That you stated that it was to you the best. I would totally agree!
The show has set a new standard for an animated series. While there are and have been more detailed animation, it's how the animation tells the story by expressing emotion which is so different. That, and the action sequences, very original, and don't hold back. The show pulls you in by creating characters you actually care about, even the bad guys.
You absolutely miss the point of ep. 5. She is the bride ofc, but she is also the ronin, and that's why she is unique, and that's why she is NOT an onryo.
We don’t know the whereabouts of mizus biological mother. In the last episode abijah told mizu that the mother we see in the show is actually a maid who took mizu in as an infant. When the money ran low, the maid snitched on mizu and the bounty hunters came to kill mizu The only hallucination / dream scene is the one where mizu is on the bridge asking for help and her mother (the maid) turns around
@@gelatoo0394 your welcome, and I made a mistake actually - Fowler did confirm that her biological mother was killed by either scaffington or routely (the two men she’s trying to kill alongside abijah/her potential fathers)
THANK YOU! Mizu doesnt even know who to take revenge on yet...she knows nothing about her real story (that is probably very different than what she expects it to be).
I did love this show :) But I think the fight scenes were better in Arcane. Saying this show is BETTER, I think is just personal preference. Arcane is hard to beat when you add up the perfect music, character arcs, foreshadowing, backgrounds, animation style and more. I think B.E.S. is awesome, but the music didn't strike as much of a chord with me, the animation was a little stiff at times because of the 3D models (Arcane and spider-verse drew smears to overcome this), and some of the pacing was slow and a little jerky. It's objectively good, really good but I think the story meanders a bit to make it's points and isn't as distilled to it's essentials as Arcane is. My guess is that it wasn't nearly as expensive, though ;) I'm certainly looking forward to another season if it gets picked up and I do find it a compelling story that gives the women especially, 3-dimensional personalities and motives.
Mizu is so amazing, i love her!! I think of her as she/her, because as I watched the show, I felt like she doesn't /want/ to be a man, but the world only accepts her as such, so she is misgendered by everyone except Ringo.
I honestly think the trailers for this show did it a disservice. They portrayed her like she was going to be better than men because she was a women. She was better, because she was better. She didn't have to capitalize on some stereotypical masculinity trope.
I dislike that show a lot. It copies a lot from Kill Bill...and its more style over substance. Its black and white characters are terribly written. What a waste of my time. Just my 2 cents. I hope other enjoy this show. I did not.
Comparing it to Champloo? I thought so, too. Mugen and Mizu are both highly skilled, self-taught outcasts. He grew up on Okinawa (a penal colony at the time) and her dad was one of four European dudes back when the country was mostly closed off. However, where Mugen is brash, reckless, and driven by a strong desire for his own freedom, Mizu is cold, calculating, with nothing but revenge in her heart and mind. I just got a new idea for Death Battle
Much deeper than that lol Watch it yourself, it's great And they had been used as singular pronoun for centuries lol. We have evidence of ancient cultures using it Imagine being so outdated even ancient civilizations are more advanced socially lol
@@calistafalcontail YOU don't, most people use singular they And you should use singular they when those are someone's preferred pronouns, since that's just basic human decency
Blue Eye Samurai is the best show of the decade! Finally, being heard and represented as a woman with mixed heritage. Paid Netflix deluxe package just for Mizu, everyone in this house is watching this show now and for the first time, without any fast forward when watching TV. True genius team behind Blue Eye Samurai!
Arcane has nothing on this show? You gotta be out of your mind. Yes this show rules but to put it above Arcane, the Pinnacle of all shows, is nuts. Arcane has much more depth and complexity, is executed with more beauty and nuance, and just covers more narrative ground than blue Eye does. But, blue Eye is still incredible, and does deserve hearty praise.
I like this show, its kill bill meets Akira kurosawa, but i never buy the women pretending to be a man thing. its almost never convincing, IRL and its always weird in media. maybe if they had her voiced by a man it would have felt better. but as soon as i saw her i was like oh its a chick. I will also add, id like to see her stuggle more, make the hits she take impact her more.
The problem with those media has always been they give the pretender too much screen time. IRL during those time, they did that often enough to avoid drawing danger while travelling, esp if they couldn't afford protections. The key here is, of course, to avoid human contacts as much as possible. Which Mizu did stick to. If you meet an androgynous looking guy who barely speak in passing, you will forget him the next day. But if you follow them for a while, you will start noticing something off. Most characters are the former, but the audience is the later. There is also the psychology of the time at play here. She posed as an armed traveling ronin, really few in that period would believe one such person to be a woman. Still, the series was keenly aware and revealed her gender in the first ep anyway.
You recognised her as a woman because the crestors wanted you to. They carefully adopted cultural peculiarities like how people walk. You think they missed that they were giving hints at that shes female, especially with that backstory?
@@cb8060I think you misunderstand, I dont think the woman prenteiding to be a man has ever worked in storytelling, they just look and sound to much like women.
@@mdd4296 It's the protagonist, why woldn't you give your protagonist screen time? And isn't it the point of this series, to have a main character who sits between every chair? Everything about Mizu is 100% intentional.
@@rhokesh4391 My point isnt that the series should hide her real gender better. My point is those media often act like it was a surprise for the audience while giving them a lot of screentime. However, this series smartly avoided it by reveal her in the first episode. And how the world acted oblivious to her real gender was VERY WELL done: she avoided extended human contacts, pose in a job nobody would believe a woman to be in, had experience pretending all her childhood. We could also refer to the diet and manual labor of the region during the time period, which make most working people pretty skinny.
Great breakdown of this absolutely fantastic show. However, what gave you the impression that Ringo is mentally disabled? While he is socially awkward, I believe that aspect of his character was supposed to be due to his outcast status from his physical disability. Otherwise I totally agree with your spot on review. 👍
Hey man this is the first video of yours I’ve watched. Love the deep dive, the fact that you referenced the pre Edo- Sengoku period. One of the most interesting and chaotic civil wars times I’ve studied. Ya got a new subscriber keep up the good work. ^_^
Oh this show is so so good. For all of the reasons you talked about here and what i expect to see from the other video. The cast, the design just everything is amazingly put together
i’ve been bingeing all the blue eye samurai related videos i could get my hands on, but i especially liked this one. your other videos look interesting as well! looking forward to more of your content.
Who wouldn’t lose trust & be afraid if you were play fighting with your partner and they (whether knowingly or unknowingly) put you in a dangerous position with a weapon. Especially when it seems like your partner secretly has or is capable of something that you’re not told of before. I’m sure Mizu didn’t mean to make her husband fear her, because life didn’t teach Mizu compassion as much as it taught her to fend for herself. But in the end, I believe she had the right to leave him behind. He’s a complex character like any real human. His demoted status humbles him, he doesn’t view her as an object, and he’s hard working. But a relationship takes two to make it work, and what the sustainability of their relationship required was what he lacked : (1) patience - patience for Mizu to keep healing & learn what love is. After their first duel incident, her husband was too quick to assume and dismiss her as “monster” when he should have directly told her how her move made him feel & how she shouldn’t do that again to him. Give her a chance to understand boundaries and then see for himself how much she truly cares about the relationship when she stops making him uncomfortable again. It’s about the need of more patience for Mizu understand his perspective & limits as well as for her husband to understand her perspective & limits. (2) sacrifice - Mizu is very driven by people who hold a lot meaning to her life. She’s capable of mental resilience & flexibility : she’ll sacrifice any convenience & go the extra mile for anyone she loves. But with her husband choosing not to save her during the bounty attack then later crawling back to beg for forgiveness after her survival is strong sign that he’s not willing to stay strong & fight for her through the challenges that life brings. He’s not as willing to sacrifice for her, as how she’s willing sacrifice for him. Even if Mizu took him back, their unmatched commitment will hurt her again, as her husband can give up on the slightest inconvenience & flaws.
personally this show is amazing but mizu can be a bit of a mary sue at times (more so plot amour then Mary sue) but makes sense within the narrative constructed. especially in ep 6 where she faces down fowler but along the way faces obstacles in her way where in certain moments i am taken out of the story and asking myself "how tf is she still alive?'. however the way the story constructs themes of revenge and her mythic status as the white devil (from memory) within the world tells me that mizu vow for revenge is so great that her will to live is connected to her revenge, and i am willing to look past the plot amour and say "understandable have a nice day"
Yeah at some points I was curious how she wasn’t awfully injured to the point of verge of death; especially when she got her bones cracked by Fowler at the end and just walked off like it was nothing. Still am absolutely in love with this show though and Mizu.
If by plot armor you mean RIngo. Had he not been there to pull her out of tight spots, she'd be dead. Why does everyone sleep on him? Give that man the MVP award!
This show was absolutely gorgeous. I loved every minute and even got my Dad in on it even though he hates animated projects that are not Pixar or Avatar
The not so settle to Rock Lee from Naruto when she took off her metal weights was a pretty nice omage haha. This show was awesome, not a huge fan of CGI Anime but the story telling made up for it by leaps and bounds.
Every opportunity the writers had to lie about Japanese history and culture, they lied. It's as if they replaced every Japanese character with some feminist stereotype of a man or child. The result is a mess that doesn't appear anything like pre-industrial Japan.
The character development of Akemi has to be by far the greatest arcs ever written in history of storyboarding..... Good lord... From a spoilt brat to one of the most powerful people in the shogunate.... And that too very convincingly...
Visually stunning show with great animation, but with extremely flawed characters, writing and story...I would say that hopes for season 2 to give more proper depictions and explanations, but it's the modern world we live in, so that's a doubt from me
something about Mizu being both the Ronin and the Bride is so amazing. The best episode of any show ive seen
Mikio also represents the ronin somewhat as well; his “vengeance” was reinstating his title. However, upon falling for the bride, he was ready to give it all up. But like how the ronin saw the bride as his enemy, Mikio also saw Mizu as a monster and went to pursue his “vengeance” again
@@davidkimpton6775 oh my gosh ur right! Mikio also works as the bride bc he draws her away from the life of vengeance and ends as the ronin when he betrays her. Theyre like an inverse of each other
I loved it even more because the metaphor was so clear, even when Mizu shifts from the ronin to the bride
The moment he said "favorite episode" I knew it was going to be this one. This episode... just... yeah... if you know, you know because I don't have the words for this one. That was on the level of Arcane Episode 3 for brutal, raw, and utterly heartbreaking.
This episode BROKE me! My heart was shattering throughout cuz I knew she will not get the happiness she deserves 💔 one of the best episodes.
I don’t think Ringo has a learning disability. He knows the sutras and calligraphy. He’s kind and eventually brave. He’s figured out how to make instruments for his missing hands. Ringo’s problem is he’s been mistreated.
luuuuv that
Though his mindset/mentality is childlike. There’s people who are mistreated and can still behave in an adult form. Ringo’s behavior and mannerisms behaves like one with a disability.
He’s not dumb but unsophisticated, and very straightforward and honest.
This. It wasn't said or implied in the show (to my recollection), so I don't believe that he has a learning disability
I like ringo so much. I thought he will ba an annoying character at the beginning. But he is so well written. He learns to be brave and has so much potential.
I do NOT understand why more people aren’t screaming about this show, thanks for giving it more exposure!
Because its style over substance it
Has cool elements sure but a lot
Of the story has been done
Before.
I know I'm Genx and this series is the best works of the martial arts Genre I've seen in the last 10 years.
Maybe i missed something but for me the show was ok instead of mindblown.
i like it because i think it’s unlike usual samurai shows. Some parts like (SPOILER) the fire of 1657, actually happened. It adds in some parts from real Japan edo history while also keeping a slight fantasy. I like how it shows not only a woman being a samurai, but also her being half white. If you couldn’t tell, white people werent really yk in Japan at that period. Usual samurai animations are your regular male protagonist on some random adventure. This show is much different. She has story like (another spoiler) how she used to have a husband who she actually trusted, and once that trust was broken, it helps explain her entire background. Compared to the last netflix shows, this one is fantastic.
@@zelinquI agree the way they updated her backstory every time she was on the verge of being killed was awesome. And done very well tbh you know some shows leave you dazed and confused with the merging of flashbacks but this was done really nice.
There’s something about the fact Mizu switches between the samurai and the wife, ending as a vengeful spirit that’s so telling. The storytelling through scenery is amazing and so beautiful.
And the West is confused as to why Africa desires China and the Eastern countries when the West is the one promoting it
Masterpiece of an episode! Some of the best storytelling and cinematopgraphy I have ever seen!
This show is a prime example on how to express emotion and story through composition, lighting and color. A must watch if you are studying the art.
Another example is in Gwen's universe in Across the Spider Verse. It's literally a watercolour canvas and you can really tell all the emotions with just a look. It's gorgeous
Absolutely goated series and if it doesn’t get a season 2 I will forge a star metal katana to commit hara-kiri with.
So how does one use an acronymed slang as a combination of adjective AND adjective?? “Absolutely greatest of all timed series..” doesn’t sound right
There's probably going to be 4 seasons. Each season targeting each of the white men
@@xaotikoLet's hope Netflix doesn't do what usually do with these shows...
@@braynap8283 I don’t think they can. They can’t pull a Witcher here ;) The original creators are involved here
@@Seabasstard22 words change based on usage, so every way to speak is correct lol
One aspect I really liked in this show was the analogies to sword forging. In metal forging / material science, there’s the idea that you need some impurities in your metal alloy to increase the metal’s strength.
When Mizu first crafts her sword from the meteor, she makes it as pure as possible, paralleling her hatred of her own identity as a woman and as a mixed race individual. However, once the sword breaks, the Swordfather talks about how sword making is not about removing all impurities, but rather incorporating them into the sword. After this point, Mizu ditches her colored glasses for the final battle and admits she needs Ringo’s help. You may be born different from others, but life is about learning to accept these differences as your identity.
he says this several times during her training, but she completely ignores it as she's extremely focused and obsessed with being pure herself. if she can't be pure by their standards, then she'll make something that is
And then she ooyebala far away on her own to London with just Fowler on a leash
Build up for catharsis screwed up, again
The accuracy of the historical events really strikes me as this is story is rooted in allot of real world truths of our past. Even Fowler’s background story in Ireland under O’Neil is true down to the point they ate nettles (Hugh O’Neil nine years war late 1590s-early 1600s). It makes me wonder if Mizu is going to meet Routely, and the political chaos of the late 1650’s London.
Also I’m a big history nerd and animation nerd, and thissss show was a jackpot. It’s gorgeous and well thought-out.
I hear the shogunate actually had guns at that point although not rampant. Also apparently the timing of her travels to London time up with a second great fire which occurred in London
@@shaokhan4421 yes! It was also the start of the great plague! Who knows what we are really about to get into. England's history is brutal around that time.
@@Collectingillusions I thought the Plague happened earlier than that or am I thinking about another plague?
@@TheHeadNinjainComics I thought the same thing but there was actually a lot of other plagues. Bubonic was really extreme part of history. This one was called the Great Plague.
I’m historian of Irish history and I absolutely loved this detail.
With practically a little to no marketing at all this show shouldn’t have any business to be THIS GOOD🔥🔥
Props to all those whose involved in this
goes to show when something is amazing, it doesn't need much marketing. people will just go towards it
As a woman, I loved this. We see two sides of femininity, at the very least. Women being seen as a disgusting being vs a beautiful wife. In following Mizu and Akemi, we see even more paths open up as they take up their own fate and call the shots.
I'd argue Ringo doesn't have a learning disability alongside his physical disability just because of how happy-go-lucky he is. He's well read as we see later in the show and has street smarts. There's certain things Mizu struggles with in terms of just talking her way out of things, that Ringo succeeds easily in.
If you also want another series to watch while we wait for more Blue Eye Samurai news, I recommend Mononoke.
he's called a "halfwit", so he's supposed to be developmentally disabled. that doesn't mean he can't be well-read, smart, etc. people just assume people with developmental disabilities are stupid
Not being negative or anything but who cares if shes a woman, all that matters is that the show is fire. Bringing up the fact that she's a woman just downplays the fact that she's a woman. We all see it, just let it be. When a good show has a male lead we don't harp on the fact that it's a male. I think female leads need that same level of respect.
@@fazormcghee7936 That doesnt make sense. The whole show is about how despite her identity as a woman and the hardships that being a woman in that era entails, she succeeds regardless. In her own way with the hand shes dealt with unlike akemi. Shes in no way a good person but saying it doesnt matter is just as disrespectful. The show actively shows her trying to hide that fact of herself, what do you mean let it be? Why cant it be mentioned and celebrated? Obviously we dont harp about the male lead being male as much, cuz its been the norm that most stories are about male characters since ancient times until recently. Did we watch the same show?
@@aminahamalek633 because highlighting it makes it seem like it's special that a good show show can have a female lead. It's like you're saying that's something that is unusual. It's disrespectful that every good show with a female lead has to hyper focus on the fact that the lead is a woman. We don't do that for male leads because we expect good shows to have male leads so it's not special enough to mention. Imagine an adult driving. Nothing special right, probably wouldn't even pay attention to it because that's normal. Now imagine a 10 year old driving. That's unusual and you would be very focused on the fact that a child is doing something that children are incapable of doing. That's what you're doing when you hyper focus on the fact that a good show has a female lead. As if that's something women are incapable of doing. When you do that it's like you're saying "oh my God, LOOK!!! a woman is doing something only men are capable of doing, LOOOK!!! Isnt that crazy?"
When I tell people about the show I only mention she's a woman once, while explaining the plot. After that I only mention her gender through pronouns but I don't focus on her gender specifically. Instead I do what I would do if the lead was a male, I just talk about how amazing the show is because to me, that's less sexist.
@@fazormcghee7936 You're right that just solely basing on the merits of the show and good writing on her gender is bad but the fact is, good shows with female leads are rare compared to the plethora of good shows that have male leads. Yes we shouldnt just celebrate a show based on gender cuz that is sexist. but in this case the person above is just indentifying with it as a woman herself and that the show itself talks about the two different paths of two women. Mentioning that itself is not sexist. They WAY its brought up and mentioned can be. But theres nothing sexist in this instance of the OP comments to even harp about sexist hyperfocus of gender.
If anything you getting upset over a woman mentioning something she personally identifies as a woman is coming off as sexist. We can mention it, the way its mentioned is important because that can be disrespectful or respectful.
You're getting upset at a real legitimate thing but in this case, thats not whats happening. and that doesnt have to equal to "Dont ever mention it we dont need to"
Becuase you're just disregarding the context of everything here just in favour to harp about something you're upset about that doesnt even apply to the situation. Be it the show or the above comment
This exceptional show appears to be underrated, with fewer reviews and reactors engaging compared to lower-quality content. The discovery of Blue Eye Samurai was a surprise for me, catching the full first episode on UA-cam courtesy of Netflix. Praise for the show comes from those who invested the time to watch it. I hope Netflix sees this through to its conclusion instead of prematurely canceling it, a trend they are unfortunately known for.
I'm seriously hoping I was just early to the party on this one and that we'll see more people talking about it in the next couple of weeks.
@@kalicacao What makes it cringe?
@@kalicacaoOh I get it, you’re shtick is to be against things people are hyped about! I have no other explanation as there’s no cringe involved in this series and no likeness to the mess that is the Witcher series. I would guess you didn’t like a certain revelation … yeah I try not to spoil anything for those that haven’t seen the series yet, even if it was rather obvious very early on.
For me that wasn’t a problem at all as this is series for adults and not kids.
@@kalicacao I respect your opinion, but I would clarify that your assumption is misguided because you were burned out on woke-feminist propaganda. Woke, not so much, but feminist, yes. Women still fight for their rights. Even in America, the reversal of Roe vs. Wade, forcing a woman to keep a child when it’s not her doing, is just wrong, period. No show or film is without a suspension of disbelief. John Wick would have died from falling off the building down to the street, but he’s alive and continues the saga. Ethan Hunt should have died a thousand times, or James Bond. They are all fake, infantile, and not very funny, and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning is not even interesting. It put me to sleep. These are not animated, so believability is even more evident.
@@kalicacao It seems highly probable that the latter part of your comment is what truly drives your bias against the series and honestly I don't blame you. Had someone told me what the show was about instead of me accidentally finding it, I would not have given it a chance. Personally, I'm glad I did because they did a really good job on making the main character EARN the status of being a strong individual thus making it more believable. As for the characters being unfunny, humor is usually not a focus in drama series. I really liked the accuracy of the societal infrastructure during that particular time in history, how the characters evolved within it's parameters, and I personally love the strong overtones of stoicism. That's my opinion anyways and I always find it so cool how everyone can view the same media and draw vastly different conclusions from it.
I 100% agree about the accuracy. I’m a blacksmith and the smithing scenes are as close to spot on as I’ve seen in a fiction story…
Ive already rewatched it 3 times this week. Im in love.
I’m on my second stop gettin ahead 😂
dude its like my 4th time its getting autistic in here
My favorite part of this show is that Mizu is the protagonist AND antagonist. A force of hate and vengeance that exists outside of morality and redemption.
As someone who worked in animation I am soooooo soooo happy to see this kind of work being made, the medium of animation does add a totally new way to tell a story and is so powerfull. Spreading the word of The Blue Eye Samurai so it get renewed for other seasons 🤞
I liked the villain Fowler too, he’s like an adult version of a classic Disney villain.
This is definitely an example alongside Vi from Arcane for how to portray a female protagonist in an action series correctly. Mizu goes through hell and back in this season alone but that just endeared me to her because she gets hurt and has self doubt but never truly gives up.
Her marriage really added depth to her character and made it so much better seeing her feminine nature …adding that vulnerability ..this story is actually better simply because mizu is a woman..very rare for the genre…
@@luechmillionz Usually it detracts from it but this series knew that they had to abide by how women were treated at that point in Japan. It shows how far they've come now.
The only thing putting off is that while the story is great, the script doesn't match the smartness of the story..
It feels stupid to see mizu not being smart...and constantly getting hurt and getting up...and fighting with endless endurance.
Most of the time when mizu gets hurt it feels like they put that in there abruptly to garner emotions.
Mizu kills 10 guys and then gets stabbed by an ordinary dude with an ordinary feint.
Kills a bunch of tough dudes while gets manhandled by one dude who lived his whole life doing business and living in a room.
The script was sometimes just plot moving.
They can improve so much in s2..
But the Ronin and the bride and the last episode were great..
@@bu11ymaguire I agree they made her a lil too op …like when she took that blade threw the foot in reality she woulda never walked the same again let alone finished the mission and the part where her and Taigen fell off the side of the keep and she carried his unconscious body with ONE HAND on a sword while scaling the wall ..completely unrealistic..but the white man wasn’t just any ordinary white man he was a war veteran and spent many years mastering dif arts in his time in Japan ..and by the time mizu got to him she was tired weak and severely injured which is why he easily neutralized her …
@@luechmillionz she was tired, weak even when she started the mission..she almost couldn't walk when she fought the big dude.. yet somehow did all those acrobatics.. hell she was barely able to walk she was throwing dudes into the traps on the second floor.
And I don't think that abijah dude was doing much training for the last 15 years..yet he's somehow extremely good at guns, swords and hand to hand combat..
Climbing with taigen was much more believable than all of that..
Ofcourse it's fiction and nothing is believable if you compare it to real life..
But the first rule in filmmaking for fight progression is to insinuate something inhuman about the fighter before he starts doing something inhuman..
Like showing her toppling big stones.. to prove she has crazy strength.
Insinuating that she has crazy endurance. Insinuating she's a genetic anomaly.. like I wouldn't say anything when thor destroys a planet.. because his powers have been insinuated. Hes a god.. or iron man stops a plane, or Achilles fights an army.
They should have gone smart through the fight scenes. It looks like the fight script has been written by a 10 year old.
I was immersed in the story but plot advance sometimes threw me off.
And why would she act all lovey dovey with taigen after everything? She saved him. Good.
But why lovey dovey?
Just finished this 1st season, love everything about this show! Hope they bring it back for multiple seasons, Mizu had unfinished business
They need to have at least 2 more seasons for the other two men
Westerns starring Clint Eastwood were also a big reference used for how mizu is presented, look at the stance and silhouette and how she is framed in each shot.
When the artists were creating her design they asked the producers what they were looking for and they simply said “think Clint Eastwood” lol
It's beyond anime, it's a piece of art. I don't like the genre normally, however, I got stuck into the piece immediately! I learned more history from this series than I did in college. This is a MUST SEE! Simple as that!
tf u mean it was horrible
It's not historically or culturally accurate.
@@BrotakuDonhow is it not historically accurate? The style, the clothes, the cultural problems, the opium, the flesh trading. It's what happened in history. They even hired historians and anthropologist to ensure the show was historically accurate all the way down to how Japanese people walk.
@valissatate8496 Well, there weren't any Irishman in Japan yet. The sword she carries is also restricted to only be carried by the samurai caste, and then they carried the daisho style swords...so she should have a shorter blade as well. There's certainly errors that I've seen so far and I've not finished it.
@@BrotakuDon I mean honestly speaking, I don’t even care. If it doesnt disrupt the story telling, or come down as cultural insenstive, tiny mistakes like these aren’t really that important in my opinion. Like this is literally fiction, you’re telling me there was actually a wasian women who pretended to be a man in feudal Japan who was on a mission to kill their biological fathed? Like I don’t think anyone is asking those questions.
I hear ya man. It's an absolute classic. I couldn't believe how damn good this was… I was smiling during every episode. They nailed it.
Absolutely goated series and if it doesn’t get a season 2 I will forge a star metal katana to commit hara-kiri with.
Mizu is a woman in hiding. Not a they. I believe by the end of the show she will accept her femininity more.
emmm... Ringo doesn't have a learning disability? apart from that i totally agree with your video. Amazing show.
yes! i think Ringo is really intelligent, it shown when he one step ahead and poisioned the "giant", kick him off the cliff. Ringo is just not exposed to the outside enough to know more than what he's already know
Blue eye samurai is interesting. It has a serious tone that DOES NOT HOLD PUNCHES. I loved it! I can't wait for season 2.
This series was a delightful surprise. I was bored and put the first episode on only to binge the entire series in a day. The complex characters complemented the beautiful visuals to take a relatively standard story and elevated it to something special. I found myself smiling when the characters felt happy and sorrow when characters had their hearts broken which is something I haven't felt in a long time. I look forward to a season 2 with the hopes that it can maintain if not surpass the quality of season 1.
The dual purpose of the training weights she ties to her limbs was a nice twist.
As bad ass as Mizu was, she is given lots of growth as she has flaws and learns from mistakes or simply has to learn to endure in spite of how cruel the world is to her. It shows her learning and growing in skill. She gets absolutely brutalized in several fights in spite of her skill. She only hides her gender so as to avoid the sexual discrimination of the period, not because she's delusional about being a man. She embraced her feminine qualities for a time until she was betrayed and fell back into hatred and bloodlust. She is NOT a "Mary Sue". She's a strong character who happens to be female, not a strong character because she's female. That something a lot of writers can't seem to wrap their heads around these days, particularly at Disney it seems. You could keep the script from the Disney Star Wars movies exactly the same and replace the actress who played Rey with a male actor and you would not tell any difference with the character IMO. Rey has virtually no feminine qualities and little to no growth as a character as she's made to be great at, well, everything. Men love strong female characters done right. Sara from Terminator or Ripley from the Alien movies. The female characters in shows like Firefly or The Expanse are also great examples of female characters done right.
I also liked how grey her moral compass was at times. Mizu doesn't always do the noble thing. She's no saint and doesn't pretend otherwise. If anything, she fully embraces her quest for vengeance knowing full well how immoral and unethical it is.
Agreed, mizu is not at all a Mary sue. She’s not invincible or untouchable, she’s gotten beaten and stabbed and lost a lot of battles before. And shes not some sort of hero either, she’s murdered a lot of people, some of whom deserve it and some of whom just got in her way. She’s just a really morally grey character
Must disagree that Mizu actually grew as a character...she discarded things as quickly as she started feeling them peeling under her skin, which is to some extent is relatable, but depicted very clumsily and over the top
Japan's animators and writers have already been given strong female protagonist examples...they just prefer NOT to use them...
Ghost in The Shell: Standalone Complex(strong female boss)
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit(strong new mother)
Neon Genesis Evangelion(strong grieving orphaned female)
Gunbuster(strong female cadet)
Wings of Honneamise(devout female Christian/starving prostitute)
FLCL(strong female antagonists/antiheroines)
Also: check Hideaki Anno's FEMALE-centric LiveAction filmography!
Nausicaa And The Valley of The Wind(female chieftain)
Kiki's Delivery Service(female apprentice)
Patlabor 2(strong female skilled coworkers)
By the same Directors, no less!
@@ynraider interesting. Thanks for the suggestions.
the show has been like and unexpected goldmine - a pure triumph of animation,story ,setting , characters, writing - truly a masterclass of how it should be done and is very underrated. Ronin and the bride is actually amazing
I can only hope no one takes this masterclass, the writing is godawful, 90% of the characters are 2-dimensional props and everything is over-the-top to make sure simple minds don't miss a beat.
@@AeusDeif mate have you actually seen the show cause if you have you clearly dont understand it
The show isn't historically, or culturally, accurate. This is made by a Western company and this is more accurately cultural appropriation than the things they always complain are cultural appropriation. @@epochhp8899
they need more characters to expand the universe. it could easily be the next “GOT” . so far im loving how Mizu Taigen Ringo and Akemi are l having their own arcs. i wish the second born prince will be a pov character too. i havent been got hooked to a series since GOT. this is kinda reminiscent of GOT but with their own flavor. Mizu is Arya like. Akemi is like Dany. Taigen got a little jaime going on. and Ringo reminds me of Samwell.
i want to know what those creatures under the castle are. are the zombies???
im not a big fan of the possibility that next season will be set in London though 😂. so far im loving the japanese cultural aspects
The creatures under the castle were zombies born of Mizu's drug trip due to the flowers. After the fight, when she limps out of the dungeon with Taigen, you can see that they were just regular people. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd been given drugs too, to make them attack her... or they were just trying to flee, Mizu in their drug-addled mind thought they were attacking, and cut them all down. This show takes no prisoners^^°
The first episode moved me to tears in the first 15 minutes, just beacause of the famtastic sounds design and scenery
Sounds like you should be on medication.
Episode 6 is also a brutally exciting dungeon crawl!
It's literally dark souls. There's even a segment where she stops at a "bonfire" and is brought back to said bonfire
Brutally awful. Worst episode of the show, bad music, bad writing, plot holes, so many WTF? moments.
I love this show. Foolishly made the mistake to look for reviews. The reviews are all positive, but the comment sections always have those weirdos. w0men beating MEN NOT REALIIISTIIKKK. My brothers in christ, no action flick is realistic. Mizu being a woman just lets people tell a different kind of story. and a beautiful one at that.
The problem is women
Characters dont get hurt
Or lose in fights, its annoying
Because male characters
Suffer beatdowns but come
Up on top & it feels genuienely
Earned.
@@elongatedmanforever1252 Mizu gets hurt many times during this series.. even in her fight with Taigen she gets smashed at first. I think she can be a tad overpowered at times but saying she doesn't get hurt or lose fights is a lie.
@@pppppppp4024 that was hilarious many of her strategy she saw end up in dead then still keep weights intact it would be better if she act like Zatoichi vs Genosuke or use her weights as a shield to beat him lol
@@pppppppp4024 And Ringo is there to pull her out of the fire and stitch her up each time. Mizu might be the main character, but Ringo is the MVP.
@@elongatedmanforever1252without punctuation it reads as if you’re saying something misogynistic
God, this was a modern classic. Seriously, I loved it from start to finish.
Another parallel to champloo that I thought of was how mizu’s design looks somewhat like jigen’s ( blue robes, tinted glasses, even the hat) I don’t know if that is a parallel, but I thought it was interesting.
That is my OnE beef with this show.. no hip hop like champloo or kill bill
Actually, when i first saw this series without finishing it, I thought she's a man. Kenji oja of battle realms and kabuto yakushi of naruto came to my mind😂. But seriously, she's beautiful.
THIS is how to do strong female protagonist right. I hope future productions take inspiration from this for badass women main characters
Japan's animators and writers have already been given strong female protagonist examples...they just prefer NOT to use them...
Ghost in The Shell: Standalone Complex(strong female boss)
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit(strong new mother)
Neon Genesis Evangelion(strong grieving orphaned female)
Gunbuster(strong female cadet)
Wings of Honneamise(devout female Christian/starving prostitute)
FLCL(strong female antagonists/antiheroines)
Also: check Hideaki Anno's FEMALE-centric LiveAction filmography!
Nausicaa And The Valley of The Wind(female chieftain)
Kiki's Delivery Service(female apprentice)
Patlabor 2(strong female skilled coworkers)
By the same Directors, no less!
This show is on a league of its own. I found it to be a combination of 80s hyper violent anime like Ninja Scroll, captivating story and characters from Samurai Champloo and political intrigue from Shogun coupled with ground breaking animation. This is a rare gift indeed! I love it so much..!!!
*Peaches*
I wish you would’ve talked about the ending of this episode two, where the play turns out to be in the future and we learn Akari’s fate.
Was not expecting such a bleak reveal, but man was it powerful.
Binged this as soon as it came out. I saw its brilliance right from the get go. It needs more hype. I'm re-watching it. Love all the characters, especially Ringo.
I appreciate your breakdown of Episode 5, as I feel that was the best storytelling in a single episode I've seen in a long time and could have been it's own movie, tbh.
I loved how the banraku puppet story SEAMLESSLY and SUBTLY transitioned from Mizu being portrayed as the vengeful samurai in the story, to being the wife-turned-onryo. It was super easy to miss but that level of storytelling to have that juxtaposition flip to her playing both roles in her story based on the contrast with the present Mizu and Flashback Mizu was so well done.
Though, there's another small thing that I want to add that reinforces your point earlier in the video about the studio's care to historical accuracy.
In her flashback of that episode, she spars with her husband and he uses the Naginata, which she comments on. Then, at the end of the flashback when she fully attempts to embrace her role in society as a woman and wife, she puts away her sword. When attacked shortly after and betrayed by her husband, she fights not with the sword, but with the Naginata.
This is a very subtle but well done historical reference, because the Naginata was seen as the "wife's weapon" used to protect the house whenever the husband was away; just as she did in that flashback, dressed as the wife she was trying to be.
She then kept that memory and lesson she learned as a driving factor in her revenge by cutting back to the present, Mizu transforming her sword and weights into a, you guessed it, Naginata. As she is "protecting the house" (brothel) from a group of attackers, as paralleled in her flashback.
This small detail was so well done and I was stunned at how so much respect and storytelling was put into just the weapon's significance, but **not thrown in the audience's face**. True subtlety that exudes "art".
The show is a masterpiece, particularly episode 5. Season 2 NEEDS to be greenlit.
did you spot the eyebrows's actions. the male puppet does it when he's attracted to the beauty of the bride.. and they did it in the flashbacks too like the puppets. there's many hidden meanings in the episode, like the puppet child, the phoenix, the horse... watching it again and you realise there's more things you didn't saw last time..... Best episode. Oh! And the facts the entire theater show was just akemi watching one.
Ronin - Onrio - Mizu story is one of the very best scenes in history of film making. The story telling, animation was spot on, but the highlight is the background music in these scenes.. Amazing!!!! A great show indeed.
Just finished this last night. It's so beautiful and compelling and tragic. I love the strong female characters especially Madame Kaji. My favorite was the puppet show interwoven with the story line. Just gorgeous
Dude, I love your take but, please, don't call the main character Miso😂😂. She's not soup
Also Blue EYE(No D) Samurai
Am I the only one that knew she was she in the first second she spoke?
I suspected it, but wasn't sure since women have voiced male characters before. (looking at you, Goku and Kenshin). It was interesting to find that my suspicions proved to be correct.
Same her
I knew the voice actor was a girl but I kind of just assumed Mizu was a boy with a female voice actor. Happens a lot in anime. Naruto's va is a girl.
@@TheHeadNinjainComics #goku. You to me original dragon ball was the best.
i knew the moment i saw her jawline...
Blue EYE samurai. Not blue EYED
In absolute honesty, I thought the flashback scene from the ronin episode was a crazy dream/hallucination that Mizu was having during her battle. Like her flashing back and fourth between it. Did not even register it was an actual scene of the past because it all felt like a dream sequence to me.
And that's one of the biggest if not the main problem of this show...that problematic episode 5 and whether it was a fever dream of not
I absolute loved the show. The first chapter popped on my feed on TouTube, one day before the release and I was beyond excited. Of course I love Mizu, But Akemi really got me, specially during the brothel part. Her end really shows character development.
I've been recommending it to everyone I know, but some of them don't watch animated series. 😐😐
i really loved the small details sprinkled out throughout the show. i loved how they got the process of sword making right where other media often gets grossly wrong. the only thing they missed was showing during the tempering process how the blade first curves forward and then curves back, which when you see it for the first time almost looks like black magic. that would have been a very small detail that would look very cool in the show, almost mystical. another detail that most people would miss was when that samurai comes under false pretenses to have a sword made and it breaks. mizu is about to tell on herself for being a woman here as she believed this be her fault, but the sword-father interrupts. women were not allowed anywhere near a forge during the entire process. this was believed because one of the patron goddesses of swordsmiths (inari okami, i believe) was a jealous deity and would abandon the forge and the bladesmith if she ever saw another woman nearby, causing the swords to fail. also i think the sword-father knew all along mizu was a woman but never showed it. he's blind, not stupid.
I tend to be sceptical when Netflix put up anime series. However, I fell in love immediately when I saw Blue eye Samurai feed. Pretty good and brutal indeed
Its the type of show that ruins TV shows for a long time because of the standard it sets in all departments. The office ruined comedy for me, The Wire ruined crime dramas for me, GoT ruined action and adventure for me. Etc
I truly thought that the blue-eyed Samurai video series was amazing. The best part for me was that it was made in english. It allowed me to get immersed in the moment. It allowed me to understand their emotions at that particular time. I truly wish I could let Netflix know how much I thought this video series was amazing. Can't wait till next season. That other video series that you talked about. That you stated that it was to you the best. I would totally agree!
The show has set a new standard for an animated series. While there are and have been more detailed animation, it's how the animation tells the story by expressing emotion which is so different. That, and the action sequences, very original, and don't hold back. The show pulls you in by creating characters you actually care about, even the bad guys.
best show this year
You absolutely miss the point of ep. 5. She is the bride ofc, but she is also the ronin, and that's why she is unique, and that's why she is NOT an onryo.
Fantastic video. Your synopsis and presentation is great.
I wanna know who mizu’s
REAL MOM is? I bet Mizu is royalty.
Fowler did mention a maid. Who said maid was working for is anyone’s guess.
I was hoping I'd clear my confusion on episode 5 and I'm glad I watched your video
We don’t know the whereabouts of mizus biological mother. In the last episode abijah told mizu that the mother we see in the show is actually a maid who took mizu in as an infant.
When the money ran low, the maid snitched on mizu and the bounty hunters came to kill mizu
The only hallucination / dream scene is the one where mizu is on the bridge asking for help and her mother (the maid) turns around
@@vi-ys1ul oooooh omg thank you this clears so much up, I forgot abijah said that
@@gelatoo0394 your welcome, and I made a mistake actually - Fowler did confirm that her biological mother was killed by either scaffington or routely (the two men she’s trying to kill alongside abijah/her potential fathers)
It is not a story of revenge, but a story of self-hate.
THANK YOU! Mizu doesnt even know who to take revenge on yet...she knows nothing about her real story (that is probably very different than what she expects it to be).
I did love this show :) But I think the fight scenes were better in Arcane. Saying this show is BETTER, I think is just personal preference.
Arcane is hard to beat when you add up the perfect music, character arcs, foreshadowing, backgrounds, animation style and more. I think B.E.S. is awesome, but the music didn't strike as much of a chord with me, the animation was a little stiff at times because of the 3D models (Arcane and spider-verse drew smears to overcome this), and some of the pacing was slow and a little jerky. It's objectively good, really good but I think the story meanders a bit to make it's points and isn't as distilled to it's essentials as Arcane is. My guess is that it wasn't nearly as expensive, though ;)
I'm certainly looking forward to another season if it gets picked up and I do find it a compelling story that gives the women especially, 3-dimensional personalities and motives.
I watched every episode last night.
My brother passed 1.5yrs ago. He would have loved this. I wish we could've seen it together.
Sorry for your lost
Bless you and you’re family! I’m so sorry for your loss 😢
"Arcane's got nothing on this show"
........let's not get too ahead of ourselves now....🤨
Mizu is so amazing, i love her!! I think of her as she/her, because as I watched the show, I felt like she doesn't /want/ to be a man, but the world only accepts her as such, so she is misgendered by everyone except Ringo.
I can't believe how few people are talking about this series
Mizu (mee-zoo) also means water, which is even more apt for how gender fluid the protagonist is.
Compared to arcane blue eye samurai feels like it was written by 5 years old kid
Nah, they're both great
I honestly think the trailers for this show did it a disservice. They portrayed her like she was going to be better than men because she was a women. She was better, because she was better. She didn't have to capitalize on some stereotypical masculinity trope.
the show was mediocre. grow up and stop fawning over crap
It started pretty good, but then put a stick into it's wheels countless times
Glad it wasn't just me who noticed it
Misu is a her. That's the point. Not a they or them bullshit.
"How dare you use pronouns that we have used for centuries specifically as to not spoil the reveal that she is a woman!?"
This show NEEDS more exposure.
Am I the only one who thinks Arcane is boring? This on the other hand is PERFECTLY made.
The characters are so cringe to me. I prefer this story
This is the best Netflix show I’ve ever watched. Please bring season 2
I dislike that show a lot. It copies a lot from Kill Bill...and its more style over substance. Its black and white characters are terribly written. What a waste of my time. Just my 2 cents. I hope other enjoy this show. I did not.
Sad for you.
Comparing it to Champloo? I thought so, too. Mugen and Mizu are both highly skilled, self-taught outcasts. He grew up on Okinawa (a penal colony at the time) and her dad was one of four European dudes back when the country was mostly closed off. However, where Mugen is brash, reckless, and driven by a strong desire for his own freedom, Mizu is cold, calculating, with nothing but revenge in her heart and mind. I just got a new idea for Death Battle
Mizu is closer to Jin
It's nothing like Champloo total different vibes the only thing they have in common is the samurai troupe
The Genius of Netflix hiring French animation studios! First Fortiche for Arcane and now Blue Spirit fir this new banger! 💪👏
Netflix had nothing to do with RIOT using Fortiche.
Blue Eye Samurai and Arcane are animated in Paris, France.
Great, so the usual "main character was bullied backstory" cliche.
"They" still sounds like a plural pronoun, sorry.
Much deeper than that lol
Watch it yourself, it's great
And they had been used as singular pronoun for centuries lol. We have evidence of ancient cultures using it
Imagine being so outdated even ancient civilizations are more advanced socially lol
You do know once he revealed mizu is a she he started using she right?
@@hairlessgrizzly559 We dont use it for ONE person though. When we know what sex a person is, its either she or he.
@@calistafalcontail YOU don't, most people use singular they
And you should use singular they when those are someone's preferred pronouns, since that's just basic human decency
Blue Eye Samurai is the best show of the decade! Finally, being heard and represented as a woman with mixed heritage. Paid Netflix deluxe package just for Mizu, everyone in this house is watching this show now and for the first time, without any fast forward when watching TV. True genius team behind Blue Eye Samurai!
Arcane has nothing on this show? You gotta be out of your mind. Yes this show rules but to put it above Arcane, the Pinnacle of all shows, is nuts. Arcane has much more depth and complexity, is executed with more beauty and nuance, and just covers more narrative ground than blue Eye does. But, blue Eye is still incredible, and does deserve hearty praise.
Okay buckaroo, Arcane is not the pinnacle of all shows
Been a while since we had a character who could hold a candle to Zuko.
I like this show, its kill bill meets Akira kurosawa, but i never buy the women pretending to be a man thing. its almost never convincing, IRL and its always weird in media. maybe if they had her voiced by a man it would have felt better. but as soon as i saw her i was like oh its a chick.
I will also add, id like to see her stuggle more, make the hits she take impact her more.
The problem with those media has always been they give the pretender too much screen time. IRL during those time, they did that often enough to avoid drawing danger while travelling, esp if they couldn't afford protections. The key here is, of course, to avoid human contacts as much as possible. Which Mizu did stick to. If you meet an androgynous looking guy who barely speak in passing, you will forget him the next day. But if you follow them for a while, you will start noticing something off. Most characters are the former, but the audience is the later. There is also the psychology of the time at play here. She posed as an armed traveling ronin, really few in that period would believe one such person to be a woman.
Still, the series was keenly aware and revealed her gender in the first ep anyway.
You recognised her as a woman because the crestors wanted you to. They carefully adopted cultural peculiarities like how people walk. You think they missed that they were giving hints at that shes female, especially with that backstory?
@@cb8060I think you misunderstand, I dont think the woman prenteiding to be a man has ever worked in storytelling, they just look and sound to much like women.
@@mdd4296 It's the protagonist, why woldn't you give your protagonist screen time? And isn't it the point of this series, to have a main character who sits between every chair? Everything about Mizu is 100% intentional.
@@rhokesh4391 My point isnt that the series should hide her real gender better. My point is those media often act like it was a surprise for the audience while giving them a lot of screentime. However, this series smartly avoided it by reveal her in the first episode. And how the world acted oblivious to her real gender was VERY WELL done: she avoided extended human contacts, pose in a job nobody would believe a woman to be in, had experience pretending all her childhood. We could also refer to the diet and manual labor of the region during the time period, which make most working people pretty skinny.
Great breakdown of this absolutely fantastic show. However, what gave you the impression that Ringo is mentally disabled? While he is socially awkward, I believe that aspect of his character was supposed to be due to his outcast status from his physical disability. Otherwise I totally agree with your spot on review. 👍
Hey man this is the first video of yours I’ve watched. Love the deep dive, the fact that you referenced the pre Edo- Sengoku period. One of the most interesting and chaotic civil wars times I’ve studied. Ya got a new subscriber keep up the good work. ^_^
you lost me on that arcane comment in the beginning
This show is literally tempting me to make my own channel because i just have to talk about this!
Oh this show is so so good. For all of the reasons you talked about here and what i expect to see from the other video. The cast, the design just everything is amazingly put together
i’ve been bingeing all the blue eye samurai related videos i could get my hands on, but i especially liked this one. your other videos look interesting as well! looking forward to more of your content.
Who wouldn’t lose trust & be afraid if you were play fighting with your partner and they (whether knowingly or unknowingly) put you in a dangerous position with a weapon. Especially when it seems like your partner secretly has or is capable of something that you’re not told of before. I’m sure Mizu didn’t mean to make her husband fear her, because life didn’t teach Mizu compassion as much as it taught her to fend for herself. But in the end, I believe she had the right to leave him behind. He’s a complex character like any real human. His demoted status humbles him, he doesn’t view her as an object, and he’s hard working. But a relationship takes two to make it work, and what the sustainability of their relationship required was what he lacked : (1) patience - patience for Mizu to keep healing & learn what love is. After their first duel incident, her husband was too quick to assume and dismiss her as “monster” when he should have directly told her how her move made him feel & how she shouldn’t do that again to him. Give her a chance to understand boundaries and then see for himself how much she truly cares about the relationship when she stops making him uncomfortable again. It’s about the need of more patience for Mizu understand his perspective & limits as well as for her husband to understand her perspective & limits.
(2) sacrifice - Mizu is very driven by people who hold a lot meaning to her life. She’s capable of mental resilience & flexibility : she’ll sacrifice any convenience & go the extra mile for anyone she loves. But with her husband choosing not to save her during the bounty attack then later crawling back to beg for forgiveness after her survival is strong sign that he’s not willing to stay strong & fight for her through the challenges that life brings. He’s not as willing to sacrifice for her, as how she’s willing sacrifice for him. Even if Mizu took him back, their unmatched commitment will hurt her again, as her husband can give up on the slightest inconvenience & flaws.
This is an excellent analysis.
personally this show is amazing but mizu can be a bit of a mary sue at times (more so plot amour then Mary sue) but makes sense within the narrative constructed. especially in ep 6 where she faces down fowler but along the way faces obstacles in her way where in certain moments i am taken out of the story and asking myself "how tf is she still alive?'. however the way the story constructs themes of revenge and her mythic status as the white devil (from memory) within the world tells me that mizu vow for revenge is so great that her will to live is connected to her revenge, and i am willing to look past the plot amour and say "understandable have a nice day"
Yeah at some points I was curious how she wasn’t awfully injured to the point of verge of death; especially when she got her bones cracked by Fowler at the end and just walked off like it was nothing. Still am absolutely in love with this show though and Mizu.
If by plot armor you mean RIngo. Had he not been there to pull her out of tight spots, she'd be dead. Why does everyone sleep on him? Give that man the MVP award!
@@TheHeadNinjainComics I concur, give that man the best support award
That's par for the course with revenge stories. Crazy injuries that the protag just seems to walk off. 🤷♀
I mean her goal is to become the greatest swordsman of all time and she seems pretty damn good already.
This show was absolutely gorgeous. I loved every minute and even got my Dad in on it even though he hates animated projects that are not Pixar or Avatar
Mizu is also a SHE
We know. He is using "they" as to not spoil the reveal that she is a woman
there were some scenes that seemed very inspired by kill bill
Check Shigurui death frenzy, the most violent samurai anime ever made
The not so settle to Rock Lee from Naruto when she took off her metal weights was a pretty nice omage haha. This show was awesome, not a huge fan of CGI Anime but the story telling made up for it by leaps and bounds.
Excellent series! So much great writing & character development!
Great examples of haw to write a strong female lead!😊
This show should be everywhere its masterpiece. I would love to eat 10 seasons of it
They outdid themselves with this one. The hook from the start is what gets it done!
i love that you mentioned samurai champloo. it's also my all-time favourite
Every opportunity the writers had to lie about Japanese history and culture, they lied. It's as if they replaced every Japanese character with some feminist stereotype of a man or child. The result is a mess that doesn't appear anything like pre-industrial Japan.
So like japanese anime
The character development of Akemi has to be by far the greatest arcs ever written in history of storyboarding.....
Good lord... From a spoilt brat to one of the most powerful people in the shogunate.... And that too very convincingly...
Visually stunning show with great animation, but with extremely flawed characters, writing and story...I would say that hopes for season 2 to give more proper depictions and explanations, but it's the modern world we live in, so that's a doubt from me