Blue Eye Samurai is a netflix animated show set in Japan in the 1600s. At that time Japan had closed itself off from the world and made it a harsh rule that they would focus on their own country and everyone else can deal with their own stuff.In the midst of that, they however did let 4 White men, specifically British, trade with them live in their areas, though in secret. This resulted in various people being born as half Japanese and half White. They were considered ugly, deformed and monstrous and they were hated by the society.
This show follows Mizu, a half white, half japanese woman, masking herself as a man who is on a quest to kill her father. She wants to kill all 4 white men that were in Japan when she was born. The drive for revenge is what makes her a brutal and efficient samurai. Her self hatred is what drives her forward.
The story shows both the history of Mizu and what she is currently up to. We see Mizu as a child being ostracized by the Japanese and we see her mother and her house get burned by men who are trying to kill the half breed. Mizu escapes and eventually she can lives with the blind swordsmith Egi. There she learns to make swords but also she learns how to be swordsman by watching the men who come to get their swords made. She learns by just watching and mimicing them, making her a genius.
Once she is older, she leaves the swordsmith and goes on her quest to kill the 4 white men. Her first target is Abijah Fowler and we watch as she gets closer and closer to Fowler. We see her fight off assasins, warriors and various criminals all in her goal to get to Abijah Fowler.
We also have a subplot of how Fowler is tired of living in hiding in Japan and he is planning to usurp the Shogunate.
The show has many characters, each with their own little stories and Japan the country also has it's own story going. The show is quite good and I enjoyed watching it immensely. The story, the history, and the characters are great and the violence is insane.
Mizu's story is that of revenge, to kill the men that are responsible for her birth and this is the core of the show. She is changing though as she meets more people who accept her for what she is. They think she is still a monster but it's not the only thing about her anymore. It is neat but this was only possible because she became truly strong. She would have been killed ten times over before she ever found anyone to accept if she wasn't.
The main plot is driven by her mom being killed but we find out that this was not the case. The mom faked her death because she didn't have any more money and so she bounced. When she ran into Mizu again, she married her off. That entire thing was strange. A very well done episode but they gave Mizu two revenge backstories now. It was more a diversion from the main revenge quest and for seemingly no reason.
The end has Mizu take Fowler captive and use him to get to the others. I think that was a bad choice as the show feels pointless now. She should have killed Fowler and found the others herself. I wish the show was more self contained but now there has to be a second season.
Ringo is a fun character that follows around Mizu wanting to be her apprentice. He is innocent and simple and seems to look on the good of things. He was born without hands and worked in a soba shop where he made the greatest soba. He later finds out his soba sucks. His dreamhas been to be great which I can admire and he follows Mizu to be great.
He follows her because he sees someone deformed just as him being an amazing samurai and so he believes that if she can do it, he can do it.
Taigen is Mizu's childhood bully who becomes a samurai and get's beaten by Mizu. This drives him to reclaim his lost honor and he chases after her to fight. He also protects her as the only person allowed to kill Mizu is him. He grows from the mean child he was and we see that his life wasn't great as well. He was getting beat by his father and so he turned his hate to another person. He grows and starts to accept Mizu and sees her as a real samurai rather than someone who is justthirsting after revenge.
He does the work himself to warn the Shogunate that Fowler is trying to take over.
Akemi is a princess and she has a great story and I'm a fan of her story. She is a princess and so she exists to be used as a tool to grow her father's power. He loves her but he also uses her. She is clever and manipulative throughout and tries to make the world a better place. She loves Taigen and so she chases after him when he chases Mizu for a rematch.
Fowler was a great villain and boy was he fucked up. He practiced and got good at so many things in 10 years and his respect for humans is basically 0. His own backstory is cool, he was irish and during the famine he protected his sister. Once she died, he ate her kidneys. After that moment he promised that no one would ever make him do anything. He was a force to be reckoned with and was stupid powerful.
The final episode ruined the show for me because it didn't do what it promised to do. Fowler stays alive and Mizu now has a captive which I did not enjoy.
Taigen gives up on being a samurai and wants to live in the woods with Akemi which felt like it came out of nowhere.
Akemi is still cool but I wish she chose some real freedom though I imagine after having tasted true power she now wants more.
Ringo placed being a great samurai over being a friend which annoyed me after he was the driving cause for Mizu to change. Mizu tells Ringo to wait by the well until Akemi comes and to save her. Taigen tells Ringo he should come with him to warn the Shogun and this will make him great. Ringo follows which doesn't seem like something he would do. He had waited with Akemi and defended the brothel previously.
Fowler's plan almost worked but Mizu throwing a candle was enough to burn everything down. That was a bit dumb but fine. Fowler and his guns were overpowered beyond belief against the Japanese. I wonder what the reprecussions will be in season 2 for this as the Japanese will now need to defend against guns or this could happen again.