[Things to Watch #1] Blue Eye Samurai · 12:59am January 18th

I meandered with the idea of doing a blog series reviewing things I watch, and the main thing that was stopping me from doing so is confidence. I've always been self-consious about my writing, and I feared I wouldn't have the intellectual capacity to review shows/movies in a competent manner. While I have written a few reviews on IMDB and Letterboxd, those were for shows/movies I had a lot to say about.

I'm trying to focus on my writing output more this year, and I think this series would be a great way to build upon my skills. These reviews won't be perfect starting out. There are things I wish I focused on more in this one, but the whole point of it is to write something. If there are certain ways you think I can improve the structures these reviews, please let me know!

Blue Eye Samurai

There are many planes this show elevated me to while I was watching it, but the only plane that this show can exist on is the ground. Why? Because I was floored. Floored by every single aspect of this show. If it was a candy store, it sampled me with every treat, and I’m prepared to return for seconds.

Sorry, I was channeling Critikal with that first paragraph.

If you were to start Blue Eye Samurai right now, the first thing that’d probably jump out to you is the animation. While I’m not too big a fan of the 3D cell-shaded style, I had a particular fondness for the art direction. Scene after scene is beautifully animated, making it feel less like a show and closer to a cinematic experience. It’s complimentary to the story in more ways than one, such as the fight scenes.

The fight scenes are some of the best action sequences I’ve seen in a long time, and it doesn’t stray from being too graphic, either. Characters are decapitated; cut in half; there’s even a scene where a guy is punched in the jaw and one of his teeth lodges into another person’s eye. It doesn’t shy away from being brutal, and while the argument exists that it’s brutal for the sake of looking cool, it never comes across that way. It services the story, and the lengths that the main character, Mizu, will go through to have her revenge and to further cement the idea that she’s not human, but a demon masquerading as one. This is, of course, meant to be metaphorical, although many of the characters who cross her path can only see her as such due to her blue eyes and unnatural fighting abilities.

The animation isn’t perfect, and those imperfections can be chalked up to “budgetary reasons.” There are times when the frame rate is smooth as butter and times when it noticeably drops. It’s most notable during long action shots. It’s not too distracting, but it is there, and I sincerely hope it gets improved upon by the next season.

Moving away from the animation, I want to talk about the story. It’s your simple tale of vengeance, but it makes up for that simplicity with character depth. Every character alongside Mizu has their own arc that services the main story in some way.

During her travels, Mizu comes across a noodle-maker named Ringo. Despite being born without hands, he is the exact opposite of our hardened main character, choosing to approach situations with optimism. Being trapped in his father’s noodle shop throughout most of his life, he can only see the world through a bubble. He leaves his village in Mizu’s stead in search of greatness, every episode his view of the world expanding. His dream is to become a samurai like Mizu so that he can become great, but along the way learns that true greatness comes from within one’s self. In a way, he feels like a yin-and-yang to the many other characters Mizu comes across in her journey, like Taigan.

After Mizu bests Taigan in battle, he seeks her out to reclaim his lost honor. In that process, he builds a complicated relationship with her. It feels something akin to friendship, and at times, even romantic. After, Taigan’s affinity for Mizu is conflicted with the love he has for his fiance, Akemi.

Akemi is another character that’s explored. She is the daughter of a shogun, about to be married to the son of a rich man. What I love about her arc is it perfectly fits within the timeframe. Akemi is treated as a “woman,” and as a woman, she’s seen as a lesser being compared to the men who rule Japan. Mizu’s and Akemi’s stories are clear representations of empowerment at a time when women were seen as simple-minded people to be used as objects. It is less a depiction of femininity and more an examination of gender roles at a time that seems fantastical to us today.

Akemi spends the majority of season one trying to find her future husband, Taigan so that she can escape her father who only sees her as a woman. Along the way she learns what it means to follow her own destiny, and that it’s up to her to carve her own path regardless of whoever is in control of her. Taigan’s attraction to Mizu is hinted at several times throughout the first season, although he only knows her as “a man.” I do believe there are gay implications through this relationship, however, it’s mostly hinted at, and I would have to wait for the second season to say more about it.

I could say more on the messages on gender as well, but this isn’t meant to be an analysis, just my basic thoughts. Although I’d like to analyze it some more, I’d have to wait for the second season, or at least wait until I’ve built a more solid understanding of the themes the show explores.

While I want to do nothing but praise this show, there are a few small problems I had. Small. As in, one bothered me for an entire episode, but I wasn’t annoyed. Another was a creative preference.

For some reason, the first episode tries hard to convince the viewer that Mizu is a man. Throughout the entire show, she is addressed as such, and it's very confusing in the first episode. I was never fully convinced that she was a man no matter how persistent it was. She has the appearance of a woman and the voice of one. It jumps back in time to when she was a kid, and even then she was addressed as a boy. I still wasn’t convinced. I was mostly left scratching my head as to why it was trying so hard to convince me otherwise.

Then, the first episode ends on a massive cliff-hanger. (Suprise!) She doesn’t have a dangly-thang.

While this attempt to subvert expectations was jarring, it didn’t bother me enough to change my view of the whole show. The detail that Mizu masquerades as a man is very important to her backstory, and while I understand where the writers were coming from, I just disagree with the execution of the reveal. Nothing too big, everything else about the writing is amazing, it’s not like they blundered it.

There was another issue I had, and it came down to a creative preference. The music. Most of the soundtrack is good. Not amazing, but good. Most of it adds to the cinematic experience, however, there are a few music choices that felt too modern for my taste. Most notably, two. Battle Without Honor or Humanity and From Whom the Bell Tolls by Metallica. While both of these songs felt very appropriate in their usage, they did not match up with the period and took me out a little. I was a lot less bothered by For Whom the Bell Tolls than Battle Without Honor or Humanity because it was paired up with an excellent fight scene, but the latter felt like the show was veering into territory that didn’t precisely match with the tone.

Whatever the case, I highly recommend this show. It has an incredible story, incredible art direction, and some of the best fight sequences I’ve seen in a long time. Netflix already confirmed it for a season 2, so I have high hopes that this show won’t be canceled. If it does, I’m unsubscribing from Netflix forever.

9/10
Highly Recommend, watch it or else

I was originally going to review both Blue Eye Samurai and Fargo (2014) in the same blog, but when I started the review for Fargo, not a lot came to mind. That may be my next review, who knows?

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