In this day and age of digitized content media and animation being placed under threat by callous studio executives and artificial intelligence, it's still a wonder that amazing stories like Blue Eye Samurai are being told. Released by Netflix in 2023, Blue Eye Samurai brought viewers into the brutal world of prejudice and political scheming that was Edo period Japan, where local lords whom envied the Shogun's throne sought power for themselves in an everchanging world. Whilst certainly taking some historical liberties to tell its story, Blue Eye Samurai remains an engaging trip into the cultured past of Japan whilst regaling a tale of vengeance, power, cultural norms, and beyond it all: how women navigate a world built for and dominated by men. Let's get right into the review!
BES follows Mizu, a young woman disguising herself as a traveling male samurai, well, more accurately a ronin, as she adheres to no honorable code and obeys no lord, but rather ventures for herself in a ruthless quest for revenge against four white men who've wreaked havoc on Japan as pirates and colonizers. Judging by the main antagonist Abijah Fowler's conduct, (we'll get into him later), one seeking revenge against this collective isn't unreasonable, but Mizu's motivation is special: she's half-white, and has been racially discriminated against all her life because of it, as the Japanese Shogunate seeks to prevent Western powers from imperializing the nation and therefore instills a cultural hatred against Caucasians. Her lifelong quest for revenge has denied her peace, albeit not for a lack of trying, and her murderous rampage carves through the lives of princes and paupers alike.
Whilst the show's other primary characters, namely Taigen, Ringo, and Akemi, immensely bolster the cast and add layers of depth onto the narrative, they don't detract from Mizu's tale whatsoever. Her backstory of being unsure of her ethnic makeup, feeling isolated from both White European and Japanese worlds and cultures and subsequently becoming a hollow machine for revenge encapsulates a very real struggle those of mixed race feel even today, though certainly not to the murderous lengths she undergoes throughout the story. Nevertheless, Mizu's adventure crosses her alongside the paths of cripples, honorable samurai, princesses, imperialist smugglers and beyond. Each episode of this eight-part series contains a new idea, concept, or scene that will absolutely captivate its audience and once more proves the beauty of animation as a storytelling medium. The menagerie of colors and subtle facial expressions demand an attention to artistic detail you simply don't find in many projects nowadays.
There's also the question of Mizu's gender identity and how it parallels Akemi's own story. Both are women attempting to navigate a patriarchal world, and their stories are brimming with symbolism and characterized nuance. Mizu doesn't disregard her femininity entirely, but realizes it's a weakness when embarking on her bloody campaign for vengeance and discards it, being known as a man by most around her. Meanwhile, Akemi uses her status as a feminine figure to manipulate and control men, becoming a strong female character in her own right.
Unfortunately though, I do indeed have a personal qualm with Blue Eye Samurai, though by no means does it indicate a poor quality of the show itself, but rather a private gripe I've been aching to share for a while now- that being the plot-thread established at the climax of episode five. Akemi, currently on the run from her Lord-Father Daichi Tokunobu, seeks to avoid a life of prim and proper slavery to who is supposedly a brutish and controlling husband figure. Fair enough. However, her means of avoiding this cruel fate is helping murder Mizu to restore Taigen's honor, (whom earlier in the season lost a duel against her). To avoid too many spoilers and shorten my explanation, several events subsequently occur from Akemi and Mizu's first meeting, leading towards them being aligned to stop a mob boss and his gangsters from victimizing a group of prostitutes. Afterwards, the shogun's troops show up, and instead of intervening, Mizu allows them to take Akemi away.
And she's apparently the bad guy for it!? The same woman attempted to assassinate her hours ago and she'd already been worn down by fighting constantly for hours and nearly bleeding out several times over, but she's now a spiteful villain, treated as such by Ringo, Taigen, and Akemi herself throughout the season's remainder. It genuinely confused and boggled my mind at how blatant this injustice was, and I'm wondering if it wasn't a conscious decision to have Mizu emotionally victimized this way to display that even her so-called 'allies' hold innate, unfeeling prejudices about her character owed to her mixed-race heritage.
Speaking of prejudice, Abijah Fowler, the main antagonist, absolutely steals the show with every scene he's in, overshadowing the secondary villain; Heiji Shindo, by a mile. A soft-spoken, Shakespearian, yet simultaneously bloodthirsty and sadistic maniac with a penchant for conquest, violence, and torture. His character combines the attributes of being a pure evil monster with a somewhat understandable backstory, having hailed from a time when Ireland starved under Tudor rule, growing up in absolute poverty and wartorn hell and becoming radicalized into the colonizing tyrant of present. Every scene featuring him invokes tension, fear, and intrigue, and I cannot wait to see more of him in Season Two.
Ultimately, Blue Eye Samurai is a nigh-flawless, beautiful eight-episode event that I believe everyone should experience. Give it a watch, God Bless, and expect more reviews shortly!
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