Blue Eye Samurai is an animated show for an adult audience made in 2023 by Amber Noizumi and Michael Green. It is set during the period of isolation Japan experienced for centuries under the Tokugawa Shogunate, and is about a female (who presents as a male) samurai named Mizu on a quest for “revenge.” The show’s first season has a rating of 8.7/10 on IMDb, and has a second season releasing sometime this year.
I honestly think the best part of this show is its animation. It’s stunning: the backgrounds are extremely beautiful to look at, the character designs are appealing, and in general the show seems to follow a style different from most other shows, which is really nice. One thing that’s important to note is that the show has a significant “hand-drawn” aesthetic while combining aspects of 2D and 3D animation. It’s hard to explain how unique and brilliant the animation of this show is without seeing it firsthand. The color palettes and set designs make it look like the characters are inside a painting any time the scene changes, and all in all I can confidently say that this show has the best animation out of any show I’ve watched by far. If you’re someone who has a distaste for the animation quality being put out by large studios like Disney or Pixar and want to see something new, this show is for you.
I do think the animation of the show is its strongest feature, but I don’t think it’s by much. The characters are also very high quality and I think their relationships and arcs are great. The main character, Mizu, is a really good protagonist because she isn’t really a hero or even an anti-hero, but something entirely different. Mizu’s quest is one of revenge, specifically to kill the last four white men with ties to Japan. This is because Mizu is mixed race, and she thinks one of the four are her father, the person who caused her so much pain growing up by making her mixed. (Keep in mind that at this point, Japan was a hyperisolationist country with a significant aversion to outsiders). Mizu’s motivations and goals are not noble. She is not some struggling hero trying to do something for the greater good, but instead is a vengeful person who simply wants to kill. Despite this, the writers still give her many likeable character traits, and make it clear that she doesn’t want to indiscriminately kill. This creates a protagonist that is entertaining, one that we root for, while still making it clear that she is not any kind of hero.
This is already an extremely refreshing protagonist, but the main antagonist may be just as good. Abijah Fowler is an Irish man who has significant economic ties with the emperor, and hatches a plot with some Japanese nobles to overthrow the shogun of Japan and to gain significant amounts of power, money, and influence. He is an extremely evil and cruel man, and the best part is the writers give him a tragic backstory without making him sympathetic in any way. I like that the characters are written in more unconventional ways, and it really does amplify the uniqueness of the show.
The dialogue of the show is another one of its strong points. A lot of the time it’s nothing special, just generally good dialogue that you’d see in most well made shows. Characters speak in a way where you could tell who is speaking just by reading lines, and dialogue isn’t used to explain every little detail of the story. Certain monologues are phenomenally written, revealing a lot about the characters while also sending chills down your spine. Abijah Fowler has some of the best villain monologues I’ve ever seen in a television show or movie.
Despite its strengths, like every show, this one is not without its issues. The main problem with the show is probably Mizu’s apparent “strength.” She has a lot of plot armor, and is able to take on ridiculous quantities of enemies and a lot of damage while still coming out alive. Now, Mizu’s plot armor doesn’t necessarily make every single fight she picks seem completely unrealistic. After all, Mizu is still capable of losing fights, and loses multiple times in the show. However, her ability to come out alive after every single one of these losses does get silly at times. I’d say the ending, while good, does suffer somewhat because of this plot armor, as certain events don’t make much sense if you do not assume that Mizu is being purposefully kept alive by the writers.
The only other small issue one could have with the show could be the heavy themes of violence and sexual intercourse, but given the time period the show is set in, along with the fact that it is an explicitly adult show, this is basically a non-issue.
Blue Eye Samurai is a show that I highly recommend to anyone comfortable with watching shows that deal with some uncomfortable themes. The beautiful animation, great dialogue, rich characters, and enjoyable soundtrack make this show a must-watch.
