Suite to Bushi Blue Eyes: a review of Blue Eye Samurai

Blue Eye Samurai

Created by Amber Noizumi & Michael Green

Directed by Jane Wu

Voice cast

Main

Maya Erskine as Mizu, a mixed-race blue-eyed bushi.

Masi Oka as Ringo, an optimistic, handless male cook who idolizes Mizu.

Darren Barnet as Taigen, a promising but arrogant male 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 male tutor.

Randall Park as Heiji Shindo, Fowler’s nominal jailor and his accomplice.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Master Eiji, a blind swordsmith who raised Mizu.

Kenneth Branagh as Abijah Fowler, an Irish smuggler 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

Ann Harada as Mama, Mizu’s unnamed mother

Byron Mann as Mikio, a disgraced samurai in Mizu’s past

Music by Amie Doherty

Country of origin United States & France

Production

Executive producers Michael Green, Amber Noizumi, Erwin Stoff

Producers Jane Wu, Haven Alexander, Kevin Hart

Editors Yuka Shirasuna, Brad Lee Zimmerman

Production companies Blue Spirit, Netflix Animation, J.A. Green Construction Corp., 3 Arts Entertainment

Network Netflix

Blue Eye Samurai is unbelievably good. The writing is on the level of Neil Gaiman. The art would do Studio Ghibli proud. The animation is equal to Disney’s finest. And the story has all the elements needed for a great, rollicking action classic, much like Alfred Bester’s “The Stars My Destination”. It is a tale of revenge, intrigue, loyalty, betrayal, and vast societal change.

The titular character is Mizu (Maya Erskine), who we first encounter as a mixed race child in Japan during the Edo era, when westerners were banned and children of mixed race shunned, reviled, even murdered. Mizu’s features are passably Japanese, save for one thing: bright blue eyes.

Young Mizu (Orli Mariko Green), on the run from a vicious group of bullies who would love to torture Mizu to death, seeks shelter in the foundry of Master Eiji (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), a blind swordsmith. Eiji, reluctantly at first, shelters the abused and half-starved child. Sensing potential, Eiji begins training the child in the forming of swords, and eventually in using them. By the time Mizu is an adult, the training is near the level afforded a true samurai.

Mizu wears clouded lenses to conceal the blue eyes, and the viewer learns there are other unknowns about this most striking of characters. Mizu has learned that there are four westerners, in defiance of the shogunate’s order, who remain secreted in Japan. One of them is the man who raped Mizu’s mother and eventually lead to her death. Mizu resolves to track down and kill all four.

Mizu attracts supporters and foes on this journey, including Ringo (Masi Oka), a handless kitchen swab (and who I first assumed to be the butt-monkey sidekick that anime seems to love, but turns out to be anything but), and Taigen (Darren Barnet) a swordsman who believes himself the best in Japan—until he meets Mizu.

Mizu’s quest for revenge focuses on the secretive and well-hidden thuggish Irishman, Abijah Fowler (Kenneth Branagh) who is perhaps the deadliest and most vicious antagonist on television today.

The climactic scene ends with Mizu starting a blaze that goes on to become the Meireki no taika, or

Great Furisode Fire that destroyed most of Edo in 1657.

The final scene has Mizu on a ship off the coast of England. Headed for London. Season two has been announced, and it looks like Mizu will be there in 1666, just in time for the Great Fire of London.

Put this at the top of your must-watch list. It’s certainly the best animated series you’ll see this year, and may be the best series overall.