Everything About Blue Eye Samurai is GREAT!

The fact that they were able to improve on the Rock Lee moment by making the weights double up as a weapon change was just amazing.

I just loved that they avoided that thing where a katana blade cutting bullets in half. Instead, Mizu's sword shatters when she tried to block Abija's gunshot.

As an Irish man watching this series, I was impressed by the accurate historical background of Abijah Fowler. Specifically in episode 7 when he talks about the famine linked to the colonial war between Britain and Ireland. Its honesty so refreshing to watch a show with so much research and passion put in to it!

"he will kill you with a sword" is by far one of my favorite moments in this show...the fact that Taigen's holding Shindo up by his severed wrist as he kills him too is just 👌

This series deserves so much more popularity. Everything from the characters to the soundtrack was amazing

as far as gender coding goes, so far we dont know explicitly, but Mizu never actually rejects her womanhood. She hides it to protect herself. I wouldn’t be surprised if this wasn’t a more common thing for more extreme patriarcies. For example, in ‘The Breadwinner’ an animation about a family trying to survive the reign of the taliban, the female protagonist disguises herself as a boy so she can work. Even before she does this, she has to help her amputee father at the market, and they show how her being a girl puts her and her father in danger when he tries to defend her from a young, angry taliban boy who hyperfocuses on her for not “covering herself properly” in public. Mizu is in the same situation. There are people looking for a little girl to kill. There are people who would kidnap, sell, SA, etc a lone female without a second thought bc they have no rights against men. Mizu is comfortable with people calling her “he” bc it means her defense mechanism is working and her identity is still hidden. She can travel, she can be left alone. Without that external motivation of self defense, for example, when Mizu is bathing alone, or in the marriage flashback, Mizu never expresses any conflict with BEING a woman. She was ready to live a happy life as a wife bc her husband was kind and actually allowed her to be herself and respected her. Up until the point that she scared him withher swordsmanship and (i assume) both he and her ‘mother’ betrayed her by ratting her out to her hunters not only to be rid of a “demon” but to fuel an opioid addiction. So, i personally believe that Mizu isn’t at conflict with her womanhood at all. Her story isnt one of “Being a man despite everyone wanting me to be a girl” its a story of someone adapting to a hostile environment that makes her gender a motive and a target for hostile people. She’s afraid of being identified as a female, but she herself doesn’t feel like she’s not supposed to be one.

One detail to Mizu's character that I love and often goes overlooked is that the scarf itself (and to a lesser extent the binder she wears) can signify healing, as bandages. On the neck specifically that implies Mizu's head or mind is disconnected from the rest of her body. In accord with your points about her motivations for revenge, she already considers herself dead and that's baked into her character design. Only in the instances when her scarf is gone does she acknowledge her own life as something of value, like when she reforges her sword naked or the very end of the last episode.

Mizu’s quick recovery time is absolutely inaccurate BUT…I personally liked to think that her body becomes more than human because of her rage. That sheer force of screaming, seething anger that spikes into a shriek of adrenaline shooting super human strength beyond her already incredible talents. THAT is the demon inside of her, doing inhuman feats that most people only do in a flash of once in a lifetime death threats. The “mom trapped in a burning car” type super strength. But she has nurtured and lived on top of that rage, it has been her subsistence. The initial stabbing that left her crawling towards her mother on the bridge—that was before she tapped into this well of rage. It was after becoming the onryo that she would be able to tap into this simmering hate in her stomach.

This was already a 100% excellent show and then... episode 5... and Mikio... and the show completely levelled up in such satisfying and devastating and cathartic ways. So hard to express how brilliant and subversive and fully realised this show is. It could have been straight up revenge porn and instead we get this utterly beautiful and tragic and at time uplifting story about people railing against their restrictive social roles and their own flawed emotions. Incredible series.

A little theory I have: she is no daughter of white man, she is a daughter of a white woman: they paid some woman to take care of her, and the ginger man laughed at her and said 'You have come to kill me because I may be your father? there is so much you don't know' So it may be that Mizu finds out her mom has the blue eyes. Let me know if I'm missing something

Honestly, this series is like a second Arcane to me, just without the hype of it coming from a formerly established and beloved franchise. The unique sound design of the space metal was as intriguing and beautiful as the sound of the Hex core. Visually, Blue Eye Samurai is beyond stunning, the fight scenes are a pure joy to watch, again, very much like Arcane. I‘ve never been so excited for another season of a series as I am with both Arcane and now Blue Eye Samurai.

Taigen pulled a Zuko, he just needs to go around screaming HONOORRRR and he'll finish the transformation (he even got a "scar" out of losing his honor, aka his hair). Oh and he also pulled a blue spirit move, by saving Mizu to then challenge her (bc he's the only one that gets to kill her lmao)

I'm so glad this is getting a Season 2.

Something I thought about a lot during the first season was that I think that part of her mission is hurting herself, you yourself said she hates herself and I absolutely agree, I think she thinks she deserves the pain she experiences, which is part of the reason she has no qualms with dying for her mission, but also part of the reason she keeps going, she feels a sort of savage pleasure at the pain she experiences because she thinks she deserves it, and this would parallel her interestingly with Fowler, he feels pleasure at others pain, and Mizu from her own

What I especially loved about 06 is that it starts out with Mizu ninja-invading the fortress with stealth, and it almost immediately goes wrong and becomes a disaster. Also drug monkeys. The prisoner "zombies" and the "demon" boss are because Mizu is hallucinating hard after getting a facefull of Fowler's experimental pixie dust. I felt so bad for that kitchen staff.

something which I haven't seen mentioned, is how great a blacksmith Mizu is. she managed to forge a blade out of that meteorite, which her teacher wasn't able to do, and then, of course, are those perfectly interlocking metal segments which can be attached to her katana and make a naginata. there's some great craftsmanship in there.

i cannot express how genuinely happy it makes me to see more people talking about blue eye samurai. I was honestly really shocked with how much I ended up absolutely loving this show and how little people were talking about it. One of the best things to come out of 2023 in my opinion. I'm so excited for season 2

I did not expect the series to be as original as it was. I was expecting the violence, the twists, the tortured backstory, the message warning against revenge, but I was not expecting the packaging they all arrived in. So refreshing to see this portrayal of an antihero archetype.

one of my favorite parts of the show is the for me misdirect in the puppetshow. i first thought the the ronin was representing misu. made sense, revenge etc etc. but the further you got in the episode the clearer it became that misu was the bride. was happy with that. i felt so betrayed by her husband ... it is such an awesome show

This was a truly incredible series. This and Arcane really shows the shift in what western “adult” animation can be, not just raunchy comedies, but stories with complex and mature themes, and I hope it inspires way more.