Blue Eye Samurai is one of the best animes I've watched in ages.

It feels weird that January (being a long month) makes it so that today is not Insecure Writer's Support Group Day. But putting it off another week just means I'll have more time to think about my February 2024 post. Being the last day in January, it's time to talk about Netflix's Blue Eye Samurai. There are spoilers ahead for this show, so if you want to watch it, you might want to avoid my review.

I practically binge-watched this animated show with my roommate over the holidays while it was cold outside. The story is pretty strongly feminist, following Mizu who is masquerading as a man in feudal Japan for various (and obvious) reasons. Mizu is a woman that is hell bent on revenge, justice, and in many ways acting heroically to save her nation against the awful white people who have come to conquer it via subterfuge, manipulation, and use of firearms. It's an adult feature dipping into animated gore, sex, and the various ways the different women who are central to the story seize power for their own in a world where they are supposed to be seen and not so much heard.

Blue Eye Samurai was one of the best animes (manga is comic books) I've watched in ages. It's obviously inspired (in part) by Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, which in turn was inspired by anime (we're going full circle here). There's even a section that features music that I only associate with Kill Bill. So, it's definitely a "which came first the chicken or the egg" thing when analyzing what inspired what. There was some clever tropes used as well. For example, Mizu has her weapon disassembled in parts around her ankles (and other body parts) and she can reassemble it by taking these things off (it surprised me that she had this huge, bladed spear the entire time). In the meantime, they serve to add weight to her body to kind of explain the character's strength (even though it obviously portrays Mizu as being able to survive superhero levels of damage). This kind of thing is to be expected in a story the likes of Blue Eye Samurai especially true because it is animated. When I saw it in the show, it was like watching a "power up" that you'd see in something like Dragonball Z, and it was exciting as a result of that.

At first, I kinda cringed at Mizu's edgy grimdark attitude. However, she committed to it and doubled down repeatedly, and it made me go, "Damn...that's cold..." at certain points, and the character does do some horrible things in her journey. I became convinced that her psyche had just been turned into this cold killing machine with only one goal, but then came the heel turn which was executed beautifully.

Blue Eye Samurai was filled with remarkable scenes, and it is dripping with details in the animation itself to bring feudal-period Japan to life. The castles look real, as do the costumes, and the fight scenes. There's a scene where a strong woman who is practically a man's property slaps her violent husband (a son of the Shogun) on their first night only to seduce and absolutely control him moments later. Rarely do you ever get to see an anime with this level of complexity and intricate details in the plot and character development combined with great music and resemblance to history.

If there's one complaint that I have about the show, it's that the comic-book aspects of the character can be a bit disrupting. Mizu's ability and prowess seems to change according to what the writer's want. A cut to the abdomen takes her out a few days, but later she gets shanked and piled on by a horde, and she manages to take them all out. She makes it to the big boss in the end after beating many challenges while suffering many crippling injuries and then she gets smacked around. She gets shot, and yet can basically swim to safety towing another man. So, it leans heavily on the trope: "injuries only affect me when the story requires it" and "I can beat dozens of highly trained warriors easily, but as soon as I get to the main villain, suddenly I'm struggling and can barely do it."

And that's basically my review. Did anyone else watch it? If so, what did you think?

For Friday, I'm going to discuss the mini-series called Chernobyl which came out in 2019, and I finally got around to watching.