Blue Eye Samurai

Blue Eye Samurai
Promotional poster
Created by	Michael Green Amber Noizumi
Directed by	Jane Wu
Voices of	Maya Erskine George Takei Masi Oka Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Brenda Song Darren Barnet Randall Park Kenneth Branagh
Composer	Amie Doherty
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producers	Michael Green Amber Noizumi Erwin Stoff
Producers	Jane Wu Haven Alexander Kevin Hart
Editors	Yuka Shirasuna Brad Lee Zimmerman
Running time	35–62 minutes
Production companies	Netflix Animation Blue Spirit J.A. Green Construction Corp. 3 Arts Entertainment
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	November 3, 2023 (2023-11-03)

Blue Eye Samurai is an American adult animated action streaming television series created and written by husband and wife team Michael Green and Amber Noizumi, and animated by French company Blue Spirit.

Premise

During Japan's Edo period (17th century), half-white half-Japanese swordsmaster Mizu quests for vengeance against four white men who illegally remain in Japan during the closing of its borders by the Tokugawa shogunate.

Voice cast

Main

• Maya Erskine as Mizu, a mixed-race blue-eyed rōnin.
• Masi Oka as Ringo, an optimistic, handless cook who idolizes Mizu.
• Darren Barnet as Taigen, a promising but arrogant swordsman of humble origins.
• Brenda Song as Princess Akemi, the pampered but strong-willed daughter of a nouveau riche lord.
• George Takei as Seki, Princess Akemi's tutor.
• Randall Park as Heiji Shindo, Fowler's nominal jailor and accomplice.
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Master Eiji, a blind blacksmith who raised Mizu.
• Kenneth Branagh as Abijah Fowler, a smuggler and inventor who is allied with the Shogun, in secret defiance of Japan's Sakoku closed-door policies.

Recurring

• Stephanie Hsu as Ise, a prostitute
• Ming-Na Wen as Madame Kaji, a cunning and savvy madam.
• Harry Shum Jr. as Takayoshi, the Shogun's second son.
• Mark Dacascos as Chiaki, an assassin.
• Orli Mariko Green as Young Mizu
• Judah Green as Young Taigen
• Patrick Gallagher as Lord Daichi, Akemi’s father

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	"Hammerscale"	Jane Wu	Amber Noizumi & Michael Green	3 November 2023 (2023-11-03)
Mizu seeks to avenge herself against the four European men present in Japan at the time of her birth (in secret defiance of Sakoku), one of whom may have been her rapist father, and another whom Mizu has already killed. She travels disguised as a man and encounters a "flesh-trader" (a purveyor of women to brothels) with a Western pistol in a ramen shop, whom she coerces into giving up the name of the weapons dealer, Heiji Shindo. Ringo, the kitchen attendant of the ramen shop, implores her to make him her apprentice. Meanwhile, Princess Akemi, the only daughter of the Daimyo of Kyoto Lord Daiichi Tokunobu, tries to convince her father to approve of her marriage to Taigen, a young and accomplished Samurai of humble origins. Mizu arrives at the Shindo Dojo and requests a meeting with its master to procure the location of Heiji Shindo. When the request is denied she battles the better part of its students including their prized Samurai Taigen and wins before obtaining the information she requires and leaving Taigen dishonoured. The latter knew Mizu in their childhood as he and a group of children used to taunt and attack Mizu due to her mixed heritage appearance. In the past after one of these face-offs, Mizu comes across a blind but renowned swordsmith and becomes his apprentice where she learns and practices swordcraft. Heiji Shindo on behest of a foreigner, dispatches the Four Fangs to deal with Mizu.
2	"An Unexpected Element"	Ryan O'Loughlin	Michael Green & Amber Noizumi	3 November 2023 (2023-11-03)
Reluctantly allowing Ringo to join her, Mizu arrives at a coastal town, seeking to hire a boat to reach Shindo’s island fortress. Shindo and the foreigner plot a 'surprise' for the Shogun in Edo. Taigen, having lost to Mizu, pursues her in order to regain his honor. As a result of Taigen's defeat, Akemi's father Lord Daiichi plans to marry her off to the Shogun's widowed second son and will take her to Edo in five days, despite her objections. She decides to run away in search of Taigen, although her father's retainer Seki catches her and, unable to stop her, joins her instead. While Ringo participates in the town festivities, Mizu trains on the cliffs above. She remembers an assassin named Blood-soaked Chiaki, who tricked her and Sword-father into forging him a sword, which broke near the tip during the forging process due to Mizu's inexperience. The Four Fangs soon catch up to her, with their leader revealed to be Chiaki, still using the broken blade. Mizu battles the Fangs on the cliff face and kills all four, although she is heavily injured in the process. Taigen, having tracked Mizu down reveals himself and challenges her, to which she complies but suddenly collapses due to blood loss; leaving Taigen hesitant to strike.
3	"A Fixed Number of Paths"	Earl A. Hibbert Alan Wan	Michael Green & Amber Noizumi	3 November 2023 (2023-11-03)
Upon Taigen's request Ringo takes Mizu to a shrine where he attends to her. While she's regaining her strength Taigen draws up a contract for their next duel to which Mizu agrees. They are approached by a large man with a club, hired by Heiji. He delivers an invitation to a ‘Tea ceremony’. Though Taigen suspects this to be a trap, Mizu accepts and they both travel to meet Heiji in a secluded vale where Heiji gives Mizu three options: be paid off in return for her assurance that she'll renounce her vendetta, be smuggled into Heiji's castle in sake barrels to kill the white man, or refuse the first two options and be killed by archers supposedly hiding behind the cliffs. Mizu calls his bluff by refusing the offers, cuts off Heiji’s arm, and escapes the valley while being bombarded by scores of arrows. Afterwards Mizu knocks Taigen unconscious and leaves him with Chiaki's broken blade and a note promising to attend their duel at a later time. Taigen is subsequently kidnapped and taken to Heiji's castle. Seki and Akemi's search for Taigen is interrupted by a gang of brigands. After losing their money and transport, they hire a cart using the last of Akemi's jewelry. Arriving at their destination, Akemi discovers that they have been travelling in the wrong direction. Seki reveals he has enough money to hire a horse back to the palace, and implores Akemi to give up the search for Taigen and accept the marriage which he brought before her father. Akemi angrily rejects the offer and tricks a flesh trader into transporting her instead.
4	"Peculiarities"	Ryan O'Loughlin	Michael Green & Amber Noizumi	3 November 2023 (2023-11-03)
Mizu seeks out Madame Kaji’s brothel to follow up on what Heiji Shindo revealed about how prostitutes enter the castle of Abijah Fowler, the white man she's seeking. At the brothel, Kaji promises to give her further information on how to access the castle if she agrees to mercy kill a young deaf-mute girl named Kinuyo who was in Kaji's care before being forcibly taken and presumably violated by the local thousand-claws mob boss Hamata. Mizu carries out her task without detection and leaves the scene making Kinuyo's death look like an accident, however on her way out a boy catches sight of her, and informs boss Hamata who arrives at Kaiji's brothel with his fighters and orders them to attack. After realizing Akemi has run off, Lord Daiichi sends his men after her. Akemi’s search for Taigen eventually takes her to the same town as Mizu and upon seeing her admission to the brothel, Akemi persuades the purveyor to trade her there. To prove her competence when tasked by Madam Kaiji with pleasuring a veteran customer with erectile difficulties, she tactfully uses his interest in poetry and her proficiency in the subject to stimulate and bring him to climax. While she's being applauded for her talent she volunteers to serve Mizu in an attempt to drug her. At the castle fortress, Taigen is being tortured by Shindo for information about Mizu.
5	"The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride"	Michael Green	Amber Noizumi	3 November 2023 (2023-11-03)
Faced with the threat of Hamata's men, Mizu gathers the women of the brothel in the cellar and tasks Ringo with guarding them. Inside the brothel she starts taking out the thousand-claws individually, but one manages to wound Mizu, resulting in her slowly losing strength. In flashbacks, Mizu is seen receiving a similar wound from some gangsters, and is later saved by her presumed-dead mother, who goes on to arrange a marriage between Mizu and a disgraced Samurai, Mikio. Mizu gradually opens up to her new husband, but the relationship sours when Mikio hurts his pride when he looses a sparring match with Mizu, after which he calls her a “monster.” A group of soldiers show up at their doorstep to collect the bounty on Mizu's head. Feeling betrayed by Mikio, she battles the group and kills them. Afterwards Mikio and Mizu’s mother fight over who tipped them off on Mizu’s whereabouts, leading to Mikio stabbing Mizu's mother to death. Mizu then kills Mikio and leaves. In the present, Mizu is pinned down but manages to summon back her strength, turning her sword into a makeshift Naginata and killing Hamata’s men. The men sent by Lord Daiichi arrive to take Akemi back home and though she pleads with Mizu to help her, Mizu doesn't intervene. Ringo, angered over his master's callous decision, ends his apprenticeship. Panning out from the frame narrative, princess Akemi is shown at the Shogun’s palace.
6	"All Evil Dreams and Angry Words"	Earl A. Hibbert Sunny Sun	Amber Noizumi & Michael Green	3 November 2023 (2023-11-03)
Mizu follows the instructions relayed by Madam Kaji, finding the underground passageway to the castle littered with the skeletons of women and infants. While trying to unlock the door to exit the tunnel, she accidentally triggers a flood and just manages to escape drowning, though loses most of her gear in the process. Her covert entrance is blown when a soldier sounds the alarm, interrupting Heiji and Fowler's meeting at the upper level with two of the Shogun's advisers as they conspire to kill the Shogun and his family to take power by force using guns in Fowler's possession. Mizu proceeds upwards through the palace, sustaining injury from the numerous castle defenses such as spiked walls that are closing in, false floors over spiked pits, and a garden of psychedelic pollen with feral baboons, plus many castle guards in between. Eventually she makes it to a dungeon area where she's attacked by zombified prisoners before stumbling upon the cell holding a badly injured Taigen. She carries him with her till she comes across the giant carrying a club. Mizu defeats him with an explosive that also breaches the outer castle wall. She then climbs up the outer wall carrying Taigen and reaches the top where she confronts Fowler. He shoots at them, injuring Mizu and breaking her sword in two. While Fowler is trying to kill Taigen, Mizu grabs him and jumps into the freezing water below where a hand extends towards them as they're about to drown.
7	"Nothing Broken"	Alan Taylor	Yana Bille-Chung	3 November 2023 (2023-11-03)
Evidently Ringo saves Mizu and Taigen and brings their unconscious bodies to Sword Father’s hut. While recovering, Mizu's relationship with Taigen starts taking a non-combative and suggestive turn, but soon comes undone when she reveals Akemi's marriage to the shogun's family, and her withheld knowledge of Fowler's impending attack on the Shogunate. Taigen rejects Mizu's broken blade and leaves for Edo to save Akemi and warn the Shogun after vowing to kill her when he returns. After multiple failed attempts and an epiphany that results in mending ties with Ringo, Mizu manages to recreate the metallurgy of her sword's steel but refrain from reforging her sword until she has slain Fowler. Mizu and Ringo decide to travel to Edo to save Akemi and kill Fowler. Akemi's, chaffing against the restraints of her new position in the Shogunate, especially the machinations of her cruel mother-in-law. She confronts her husband, discovering despite his reputation him to be gentle, with a severe stammer and insecure — hence pliable — and strikes an understanding with him which leads to them consummating their marriage. She uses her newly gained wealth to hire the prostitutes of Madam Kaji’s brothel as her new attendants. Ise (one of the prostitutes) overflown with guilt, informs her of Fowler's plans which they relay to Akemi's father Lord Daiichi, who to Akemi's horror kills Ise, revealing him to be in cahoots with the conspirators and who ends up confining Akemi in a basement cell.
8	"The Great Fire of 1657"	Jane Wu	Michael Green & Amber Noizumi	3 November 2023 (2023-11-03)
Mizu asks Ringo to wait by the sewers while she saves Akemi and send her his way. Taigen finds Ringo and they decide to storm the front gate and warn the Shogun about the impending attack, which shortly ensues by Fowler’s army breaking through the castle defenses. Seki saves Akemi from the cell her father's holding her and locks him in her stead, but they are out-numbered by soldiers until Mizu saves them. Heiji opens the final gate from the inside, giving Fowler access to Shogun and family. Fowler kills the Shogun, but the rest of the group is saved when Mizu suddenly crashes in. Taigen kills Heiji Shindo. Mizu subdues Fowler without killing him but accidentally starts a fire when attempting to stop him from fleeing, which rapidly spreads throughout the castle and then to the city. Fowler tries to leverage information about Mizu's past to incentivize her to spare him and informs that they'll have to travel to London to find the remaining two white men. He also informs her the woman she thought to be her mother was really just her maid paid to raise her but abandoned because she ran out of money. Seki and Akemi shut the front gate of the castle, trapping Fowler’s men from escaping the roaring fire and as they're about flee Seki gets shot dead. Taigen finds Akemi outside the castle and offers to run away with her, but she declines, having embraced her new circumstances. Ringo waits for Mizu, but when she doesn’t show, goes back to Sword Father, convinced that she perished in the fire. It is revealed that apart from Shogun's family Lord Daiichi too survived the fire and Mizu is shown on a ship sailing, with Fowler confined within it.

Release

The series was released on November 3, 2023 on Netflix, consisting of 8 episodes. The first episode was released on November 1, two days earlier, on Netflix's YouTube channel.

A special version of episode 6 was released on November 15, 2023 on the Netflix YouTube channel. It features a largely black-and-white palette and an altered soundtrack.

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% critic rating with an average rating of 8.10 out of 10 based on 13 reviews. The website's critics consensus says: "Visually dazzling while paying deft attention to character, Blue Eye Samurai is a masterfully rendered animated adventure.". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 86 out of 100 based on 5 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

External links

• Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix
• Blue Eye Samurai at IMDb