Posted in: Netflix, Opinion, Review, TV, TV | Tagged: animated series, Blue Eye Samurai, netflix

Blue Eye Samurai Raises the Bar on Animated Action & Storytelling

Amber Noizumi & Michael Green's Netflix series Blue Eye Samurai raises the bar on animated action, emotion, and intimate storytelling.

The beautiful Netflix animated series from Amber Noizumi & Michael Green, Blue Eye Samurai, was a powerful rollercoaster of emotions that ranged from laughter to tears in every way. My goal this year is to binge and catch up on quite a few anime that have caught my eye within the last year. I started off the year with Pokemon Concierge, and next on my list was this treasure. I was originally under the impression Blue Eye Samurai was an anime— the beautiful visuals immediately made me add this animated series to my list, and I watched it in just one sitting. Most episodes in the show are over 40 minutes long – honestly, they go by so much faster than I originally expected.

The writing and dialogue are deep and hard-hitting. The storytelling is on another level; the way the story develops continuously raises the stakes and makes everything just more heartbreaking as it adds more and more layers to the story we thought we were getting. The show constantly kept me yelling at my screen a mix of "oh no, no way" or "noooooo." The dialogue flows wonderfully between characters without ever feeling like exposition, and the use of flashbacks to give the viewers more pieces of the past was perfectly timed without overdoing it.

Then we move on to the visuals because every shot feels as if it is straight from the movie: so many details and so delicately beautiful. The aesthetics and colors used made it feel like taken out of a dream. Every scene was stunning, even during the darker, more painful moments as well as the heartbreaking and gorier ones. The gorgeous landscapes made me wish I could live there, too… Just not within that period, of course. As a brown woman, I do not think I would have thrived, no sir… But I digress. The character designs were all so beautiful and detailed as well.

Talking about the characters though, and it is the perfect mix of animation and writing: each of the characters was as detailed in their story as they were designed. Each character we meet has so many layers, and at times, I felt my liking of most characters bouncing into dislike and then back and forth as the story develops and we get to know more of the past and more of what is actually going on in the present. I love how we get a 360 look into Mizu's real past slowly through flashbacks. It just continuously gets worse and worse as we see how many times life has done her wrong.

I think the thing I liked the most was how gray every character was – the tipping point for me. They all were so human – never just one single thing (other than the bad guys, of course). I loved Master Eiji; I think he was my favorite, and how he was the constant for Mizu. I loved how similar and how different both Mizu and Akemi are. I love their strength and resilience, as well as their need to fight to get the freedom. I already cannot wait to get another season of this show. It was so raw and so relevant to the things we are living that it left my heart hurting at times. However, I cannot wait to really see Mizu's past, present, and future finally collide and reach a point where she can move on with ownership of her own life.

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