ICYMI: Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai Is a Beautifully-Animated, Revenge-Driven Triumph

Editor’s Note: Welcome to ICYMI! The strikes may be over, but we’re still highlighting some of the best shows you may have missed in the deluge of content from throughout the year. Join the Paste writers as we celebrate our underrated faves, the blink-and-you-missed-it series, and the perfect binges you need to make sure you see.

With the plethora of never-ending premieres each month, it’s easy for television series to remain undiscovered. Even more so when they feature animation as opposed to on-screen actors. Blue Eye Samurai is a newer offering in Netflix’s adult animation line and is as dramatic and exciting as its live-action counterparts. With so many different streaming platforms, even the very best to hit Netflix sometimes fly under the radar. Thankfully, Season 2 has already been confirmed, so there’s no threat of this journey stopping too early. Now is the perfect time to pick up this mature, violent, and unique series. 

Set during Edo-period Japan, Blue Eye Samurai tells the tale of the mixed-race samurai Mizu (voiced by Maya Erskine). Her race is unique for this period in Japan, but it’s also a curse. It’s a signal of foreign influence, an influence that Japan isn’t ready to accept, and her startling blue eyes are seen as a visual defect of demonic origin. Thus, she’s ostracized by her peers and seen as a devil, and worse yet, she’s been born as a woman. As the series makes painfully clear, women have zero power or agency during this time in Japan. So not only is Mizu forced to reconcile with being mixed-race, but she also is challenged by her birth sex. She has made it her mission to find four powerful white men, one who is ultimately responsible for her birth, and put an end to them. It’s easy to compare this tale with that of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill—a bloody good time starring a woman facing insurmountable odds to get the revenge she so desperately desires—but with its weaving storyline through a collection of characters, an influence from Game of Thrones is prominent as well. 

Mizu isn’t the only character who faces insurmountable odds, as her compatriots have significant challenges of their own. Her sword father, Master Eiji (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), trained her to be a great sword maker, even though he lost his vision while creating those very swords. Mizu’s would-be apprentice Ringo (Masi Oka) knows about being cast aside. She wishes to spare him the pain of her journey—when revenge is the only destination, the hope for survival is slim. But Ringo has already faced great adversity, as his entire life has been a challenge without hands. He’s adapted and learned to thrive in his world, but he wishes to rise above his station, and the path of a samurai’s apprentice would provide him with an irremovable sheath of honor. Then there’s Taigen (Darren Barnet) and Akemi (Brenda Song) as the samurai and his privileged fiance. Both have made it to respectable levels in society, but even they can’t obtain their ultimate dream due to honor and/or their sex. Blue Eye Samurai follows a collection of individuals whose lives haven’t been entirely easy, and even if some have had it better than most, freedom and honor elude them.   

Despite being set in Edo-period Japan and featuring a Samurai in the title part, Blue Eye Samurai is not an anime. French animation studio Blue Spirit in collaboration with supervising director Jane Wu, worked vigorously on the look and choreography of the series. The art is a blend of 2D and 3D animation that makes Blue Eye Samurai stand out among its contemporaries. Often, it’s easy to pause the show to admire the work that has gone into recreating this era in Japan’s history, from the setting to the clothing. As for the action, Wu’s background as a storyboard artist for some of Marvel Studios’ biggest franchises showed that she has the skills to develop an action scene among the best. The violent world of Blue Eye Samurai gives Wu ample opportunity to show off her talents as Mizu slices and dices up her enemies effortlessly and dramatically. In one early sequence, Mizu has to fight students from a dojo. While it could’ve easily borrowed from classic Bruce Lee films and saw Mizu inelegantly take them down, Wu’s action sequence focuses on teeth and how fast they fly. This attention to detail goes a long way to make each and every fight sequence unique and engaging. 

Additionally, the adults-only animated series doesn’t shy away from sex. Sex in animation is particularly difficult because it can often feel like empty titillation—showing the characters in sexual acts only for shock value. While Blue Eye Samurai does indulge, especially when developing the brothel that becomes a pivotal location at the mid-point of the season, it is also used for character growth for the women of the series. It can be unnerving to see animated characters engage in sex, but within the confines of Blue Eye Samurai, it works. 

If one episode were to be considered the highlight of Blue Eye Samurai, it would have to be Episode 5, “The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride.” In the present, Mizu is fighting for her life, facing an army of assailants. In the past, Mizu explores life as a woman for the first time—finding love, a partner, and a place to call home. Not satisfied with showing these two perspectives, Blue Eye Samurai goes one step further by utilizing traditional Japanese storytelling. In this case, a Japanese Puppet performance to further explore the depths of these characters. As a bonus, these Bunraku puppets were also pivotal to the characters’ design, so not only does it lend itself to the mythology of these characters, but also how they were created in the first place. It’s a marvelous swerve from the directors as expectations are for a bloody and violent confrontation, but instead, the episode provides the most in-depth background of our protagonist yet. It goes a long way in explaining why Mizu is focused on her path of revenge. 

Netflix has been releasing adult-centered animation for years now with titles like Castlevania, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and Arcane. Each of those series has seen its success, but Blue Eye Samurai scratches an itch on another level. It’s a commitment to a cinematic style that makes Blue Eye Samurai such an exciting prospect. It certainly doesn’t hurt that it features a compelling collection of characters and animation that continues to impress through its eight-episode run. Yes, Blue Eye Samurai is animated, and, yes, it should be celebrated. It can stand toe-to-toe with the best series of 2023. 

Watch on Netflix

Max Covill is a freelance writer for Paste Magazine. For more anime, movie, and television news and reviews you can follow him, @mhcovill.

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