(Background music “Los Angeles” by The Midnight can be purchased HERE.)
@thearmag3ddon here with yet another Netflix Original Animated Series Review you didn’t ask for:
Guys. GUYS.
I woke up Saturday thinking it was going to be just like any other day. I’d wake up, drink coffee, watch some TV while I stretched and got ready for the gym. I was looking for something new to watch that morning and popped onto Netflix and saw this show Blue Eyed Samurai that a few of my friends had mentioned liking. So I decided to take a peek and see what was up. I had a few hours to kill.
Guys.
There was my life before Blue Eye Samurai and now there is my life after having my mind completely blown.
As you may or may not know I am mostly dead inside and it takes quite the thing to actually make my heart move and stir with the genuine unapologetic thrill it did like when I was a child first watching Star Wars or Indiana Jones, or Aliens, or in my adult life, The Russel T Davies era of Doctor Who or the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. And this…this glorious, wonderful, artistic and beautiful masterpiece managed to do just that. My heart soared, it hoped, it was inspired, it was hurt, filled with pathos, and other times was thrilled, and had me often on the edge of my seat. Simply put, I am in love.
Set during the Edo period of Japan, likely the most fabled and storied historic period to be depicted in today’s media, our main character Mizu is on a quest in pursuit of an unseemingly unquenchable need for vengeance to find and kill the men who might be Mizu’s father. The hook here (which isn’t really a spoiler) is that Mizu is a half Japanese half white individual in a time during Japan’s history when the West and Western influences was banished and banned within the borders of the island kingdom. And Mizu, who has blue eyes, is viewed as an outcast, outsider, and a monster. I’ll stop there. That’s just off the top, but it goes much much deeper than that. And things get a bit…complicated.
In the last few years I have begun to quietly contemplate the state of the computer animation genre as a whole with Pixar/Disney and Dreamworks styles dominating the scene. I’d started to actually long for 2D animation as I felt it was still a better way to be more interpretive than the computer animation we’ve been getting. Think The Original Lion King, vs The recent computer animated remake. But with Sony’s Into the Spiderverse style we’ve finally got something that felt new and different in that genre. And now we are starting to routinely get less stiff and technical styles and more interpretive renderings of realities to invoke a certain feel specific to that story. I say that because, Blue Eyed Samurai at times is quite like an animated rendition of traditional Japanese line art, with a solid foot rooted in anime while certainly would not be defined as anime itself. You can see the influence but it is something completely different. At times it evokes a feeling of those super old school rotoscoped The Hobbit or Filmation cartoons with a style that is deep and rich and engaging throughout. It is not a story for children, so probably decouple that notion that because it is animated it is for kids. However outside of a few choice very adult themes and some nudity, it actually is something most teenagers have probably seen already albeit without permission from their parents. But they’ll turn out fine anyway. Like it did. I think I did anyway? Well maybe not. Anyway…
Blue Eye Samurai draws from a number of sources so in a great many ways it’s not entirely something you haven’t seen before, except, that’s what is so amazing about it. It feels like something new and unique even at the same time as it is familiar. It gives you enough of what you’re expecting and adds a ton of other elements to at least keep you second guessing which direction it will turn, even if you were right in your initial assumption. But truly the strength of the story is in the characters. And not just the main character but in the numerous supporting characters who without them the framework of the entire tapestry of the story could not exist and not resonate the way it did. They don’t appear as window dressing. They add a firm and solid foundation that allows the entire story from start to finish to feel alive. I cared about the fate of nearly every single person, good and bad. I rooted for and against, but was never indifferent. This along with being invested with our main character who isn’t always clean or likable themself (but always understandable), made me absolutely in love with this story.
I’m going to bring up Ahsoka just for a second because obviously Star Wars, and in particular, the Jedi has its roots in samurai customs, lore and culture. And for me Blue Eyed Samurai was far more engaging that Ahsoka was. It dawned on me that with Star Wars and Marvel we are often compelled to like a thing because of the brand, regardless of the quality of the thing itself. (Which as my last review covered, sometimes we decide to not like a thing for that very same reason.) But I found that Blue Eyed Samurai was able to pull me in completely because it was giving me a new playground to explore along with the creators. The discoveries that the main character makes aren’t rooted in anything other than the thing I’m watching. It felt…refreshing, especially in a world where today so much of what we watch are sequels and spin-offs. I’m so glad that this could stand up and alone by itself. And in the end, I was far more entertained.
Just as another side note if you want to see some other stories with elements similar to this with just as many thrills, checkout Samurai Champloo (by Shinichirō Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop fame) or if you’re into video games an equally lush exploration of the Edo period in The Ghost of Tsuinma.
Back to our main course, I rarely actually binge anything and like to take my time with the series, but in this case I was invested and hooked from the very first episode, and could not wait to see how it turned out. So what began as a routine Saturday for me, turned into a weekend where in an instant I found a brand new obsession. I absolutely cannot stop thinking about this show.
You’ll know if you love it by watching the first episode. If you don’t by then, then I’ve got nothing for ya. But I hope you love it as much as I do. Like I said, I am pretty dead inside, and at least for the time I was watching, I remembered what it is to truly not only love something but to experience that sense of discovery of something that truly resonates with your soul. You might not feel the same way as I do about it, but I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy the ride. It’s a doozy.
I give Blue Eye Samurai, 7 Peaches out of 5. That’s right, it broke my grading scale to smithereens.
Until the next review nobody asked for, @thearmageddon signing off.