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Blue Eye Samurai - Season 1
8
Karzal gives Blue Eye Samurai - Season 1 a 8.

Blue Eye Samurai - Season 1

Blue Eye Samurai is a rock-solid animated series, created by Michael Green and Amber Noizumi, which can rightly call itself one of the best series on Netflix.
The story takes place in 17th century Japan. During the so-called Edo period, Japan closed itself off from the outside world and only had limited contact with a few countries for trading. Mizu (Maya Erskine), a young half-blood, wanders around the wilderness in search of revenge. What her reason is for this is the common thread in this story.

Blue Eye Samurai shines from the first minute. Visually it is a spectacle like you have probably not seen often. Details in the foreground and background will undoubtedly make you look open-mouthed in amazement from the start. The setting is also grandiose and beautiful. This combined with the matching music immerses you completely in the old inhospitable Japan of the 17th century.

At the beginning of her quest, Mizu meets her faithful companion Ringo (Masi Oka), a sturdy, friendly young man without hands, who wants to help her in her search at all costs. Together they must find a way through the most dangerous areas of Japan. At the same time, we meet Princess Akemi (Brenda Song), who has had enough of her life under the rule of her condescending and controlling father. She dreams of a life as an independent woman, but that will not be an easy struggle for her.

Not only the facial expressions of the characters, but also their motivations and growth throughout the story are all convincing and clear.

It is amazing how well all the characters are processed in this story. Not only the facial expressions of the characters, but also their motivations and growth throughout the story are very captivating and clearly depicted. The voice-overs are beautifully performed by numerous well-known names (Mark Dacascos, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Byron Mann and many others).

This series is reminiscent of an Eastern version of Kill Bill (Quentin Tarantino). Mizu is, like the Bride, a powerful woman who will do anything to achieve her goal. She regularly shows a solid example of martial arts and willpower. But what the series succeeds in most is that she gets at least as many blows back.

This way you don't get the feeling that the main character is just another invincible 'girl boss' but a real human being who has to learn from her mistakes through trial and error. The flashbacks also show us that Mizu has indeed had a bumpy road before she is where she is. This only generates more respect for our main character, doesn't it? Yes, it is definitely one of the better stories about women's emancipation. Princess Akemi, who dreams of a better life, certainly doesn't get everything handed to her and will have to fight seriously for her freedom.

As the story progresses, Mizu’s mission eventually leads her to a white man named Fowler (Kenneth Branagh), a ruthless villain with a mysterious plan to conquer Japan. So it’s not just about personal vendettas, but also builds to an epic conclusion where historical facts play a major role. There are actually very few downsides, and they’re not of a size that would seriously bring the series down.

A downside is perhaps that Mizu, despite regularly getting beaten, still takes on a real army on her own in certain scenes and miraculously survives. Of course it remains beautifully shot but at times it is a bit on the edge of believable, no matter how good she may be with the sword. One particular backstory of Mizu felt a bit redundant. It was nicely done, but in fact the first episodes were already enough to understand Mizu's revenge, so there was no need to show another reason to be able to go along with her.

All in all I can easily summarize this series: This was just great. If you want to watch a (animated) series of the highest order, you don't have to look any further. I will say that this series has a large portion of 'adult content' in terms of violence, blood and nudity.

Do you like action, adventure, Eastern martial arts and a bit of philosophy? Then look no further and just start watching.

This series gets a big fat 8.
Video on youtube

About the writer, Karzal

Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
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Comments (2)

Futsudo
Wednesday, 09:38
I completely agree with this review. Blue Eye Samurai is a visually stunning and mature animated series that makes an impression. It combines beautiful animation, strong characters, and themes of identity, exclusion, and honor. With tightly directed action and a powerful lead, it proves that animation can also be a powerful drama.
2Translated from Dutch.
DriesVG1984
Yesterday, 14:39
I couldn't have described it better ;)
2Translated from Dutch.
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