"She was born a woman in Japan - which today is fine - but back then women were treated terribly." Yeah, I there are women in Japan who would have some notes.
I wish you had enabled captions. I cannot understand you because of the slurring and mumbling. So uh... please enable captions or enunciate even the slightest bit?
mizu failing makes the world feel more alive and the villains make smart choices, so they constantly feel like a threat. Like Mizu would be dead several times without her friends she constantly thinks she does not need. Showing the power of friendship ( the power of working together) vs the normal unrealistic take it heals your wounds and you can suddenly power through a much stronger opponent for no reason. Like taigen gave up on his honor revenge when he realized their were much much bigger threat showing an actaul human being would do.
The assassin actually introduces himself as a peasant needing a sword to take revenge, even though it will likely cost his own life as well. There are only hints of his true personality when he trains with Mizu. It's only when he takes off his mask that it's revealed that he is actually an assassin.
Another thing that makes this show slap is the realism behind the myth. When Mizu fights the 1k Claw Army, you see that they're not all fighting age men but some young boys as well. It contrasts the expectation of the event with realism. Additionally, she almost never takes a multitude of people head on but uses the terrain to her advantage.
I don't think there was a time in modern history when women were treated horribly because there's always a batch of men who think to save them is to sleep with them. Round and round we go since the beginning of time. There also hasn't been a time when women weren't complaining about how they're being treated.
2:03 *_Ugliness?_* She's not _ugly,_ she's mixed race in a racist society. Rosa Parks wasn't bothered for sitting in the front of the bus because she was ugly, she was harrassed because she black. It's the same thing here.
Honestly, I would have written her off as a Mary Sue, but anyone that trains every day of their life to be good at fighting with the intent of taking bloody vengeance, is gonna be real good at it. The show literally showed her working out with weights (I use the same style, it’s very useful and effective, especially if you’re beginner) and training in sword practice and blacksmithing every day. Man or woman, that’s a recipe for a strong badass. She takes damage and keeps going forward. She acts masculine, cos she literally has to or die. I for one, like her.
Bro she’s a Mary Sue Her training doesn’t make sense, although some parts sort of do. She’s physically capable, as she trains with weights and has had to survive against attackers since a young age, and she knows sword techniques from watching samurai train, but it still doesn’t make sense how she’s so good at sword fighting. She trained against invisible targets, which will help her with the technique, but doesn’t prepare her for actual fighting. In reality, she’d get shredded by most of the people she fights in the show, excluding a few such as some the thousand claw soldiers (because her weapon was a lot better and had superior range) She’d lose against a lot of foes, like Taigen, who actually trained against opponents, and to the four fangs (they outnumbered her, and were in reality better fighters). It also doesn’t make sense how she so easily overwhelms the Thousand claw soldiers, and Fowlers soldiers, especially considering she was injured. Her strength is inconsistent, as when she was being strangled by a thousand claw soldier, she couldn’t break free, but when several thousand claw soldiers were on top of a big heavy door that was on top of her, she was able to push them off. She was also able to throw many of Fowlers soldiers quite easily, which shouldn’t be possible, even if she were jacked Her injuries are also inconsistent, as she’s shown to struggle with injuries during one scene, and then a minute later is able to jump around like an ape as if nothing happened (such as against Thousand claw soldiers and Fowlers soldiers) She’d have open wounds in her chest, and her foot would literally be stabbed completely through, yet she’s still able to run around and throw 3 guys at once. It’s quite annoying honestly. Lots of people say she’s not a Mary sue, because she gets hurt after a fight, but that doesn’t mean anything bcuz in the next episode or fight scene, she’s completely fine. She’s a Mary Sue bro, don’t try to justify it because she is
Gotta say, I've been watching Anime for a real long time, but this one felt pretty mid to me. It's not bad, by any stretch, and it's fight choreography is well executed for the most part, but it's story beats can feel pretty discordant with what the writers seem to be trying to achieve. I think the first episode is pretty bad for this, with the MC getting defeated pretty completely, but then inexplicably being left alive only for them to pull out the classic weighted plates 5% of my power cliché. Now don't get me wrong, that cliché can be used pretty brilliantly. Naruto probably has one of the more famous versions of this with Rock Lee taking off his leg plates. However, for this to be pulled off convincingly, the battle has to be either close, or the character with the plates has to be on more of the losing side, but not a complete defeat. Even then, taking off the plates still wasn't enough in this case and while Rock Lee surprised everyone with his hidden strength, he was still up against an opponent who was shaken but ultimately victorious. This is all grounded in the universes mechanics of how ki abilities and ninja skills have been portrayed, so it feels in place and adds to the story. Another famous example is Dragon Ball Z, but in that universe all the characters have insane power ups that come out of nowhere, it's par for the course with the established story beats of the show. The show is aimed at kids, is incredibly over the top with everything it does so doesn't push on our suspension of disbelief when characters pull some dumb power up ability out of nowhere. The issue in Blue Eye Samurai, is our main character is defeated to the point where they are effectively killed. To take off weighted plates and then absolutely destroy the opponent who just moments ago ruined them takes away something from our Main Character. Rather than feeling grounded in our MCs skills and determination, it instead feels like they got a cheap power up which feels discordant with the more gritty, realistic universe of the setting. I've seen a few people liken the MC to John Wick, which isn't a bad comparison, but the difference is while John Wick absolutely gets wrecked during fights, it's his skills and ridiculous determination for revenge that power him through, not a sudden power up gimmick. In Blue Eye, this scene only works to undermine the MCs abilities and journey and paints the plot armour on too obviously thick. As I say, the show can be fun and it has some good moments, but they're undermined by discordant story beats that feel like writers trying to throw in anime tropes without necessarily understanding why they work in the first place. This undermines what could otherwise be a fun story for me.
episode 5 was on the only one worth writing home about and only because it destroys the character as anything but being forced into being trans by necessity. Missed opportunity not having her have a kid with her husband and, like the play, the kid is killed while the father watches (obviously would have to be a daughter). It would fit to reason he saw her as a monster so her spawn would also be one and a potential threat to him and his masculinity. Honestly, she just needed to let him win the spar which was easy to see if she wasn't such a sociopath. Protip, don't emasculate your husband who married you as a favor to your drug addicted nanny. Btw, blue eye is 100% the shogun's daughter with a white woman and we need to spread the word on that so they might actually change it back to what it should be (that's she's the scottsman's daughter).
@@williamchamberlain2263 While I wasn't actually making a comment on how "realistic" the anime is, as I don't think that matters, what I was pointing out was that the trope being used here felt both out of place and diminished the character in the moment, thus lessening the impact of the scene. However, if you want to talk about weight training; I have indeed tried it. I use weighted clothing on my legs and arms, as well as chest weights, to increase the weight for calisthenics based work outs and increase my strength to practice for one armed pull ups. Mostly to help with climbing strength training. Weighted clothing can be more balanced, by applying the weight equally across your body, thus increasing the weight of typical bodyweight exercises to promote further strength gains. It FEELS lighter if you've worn them awhile and take them off, but if you actually do some tests (and there's stuff done online you can find) you'll actually find that in general you'll actually either be slower, because your muscles are fatigued from carrying heavy weights for so long, or you're the same speed if you've not worn them long enough to tire your muscles. Wearing them long term isn't recommended, as it drastically increases the risk of injury by over taxing the muscles, leading to muscle fatigue based injuries. Think about it, if this actually worked, we'd see it all the time in combat sports like MMA. We don't though, because it doesn't work that way. Carrying weights giving people a power up is a trope majorly popularised in anime, which is not known primarily for it's realism. I love anime, it's bombastic, over the top and hyper stylised in a way live action simply can't be. But let's not be weebs and pretend doing Naruto runs or taking off weights gives you REAL power ups xD TLDR; Weighted clothing/body weights are excellent for increasing the difficulty and strength gains of traditionally body weight style exercises. They don't give you anime power ups in RL, LOL!
It's good. I just hope it won't stumble with what seems to already becoming an animation trope, that is "strong female protagonist is also gay." Korra, Arcane, She-Ra... And many side characters. It's quite tiresome and alludes to insecurity on strong femininity being unable to live with masculinity.
Or on strong femininity being effectively masculinity, in that the female characters could effectively be swapped for a male character and not much changes from a classic masculine perspective (they'd be a straight, strong, lover of fighting). There's nothing wrong with female characters showing masculine traits, but it shouldn't come at the expense of excluding feminine traits as well, or it just reinforces the idea that feminine traits are weak and aren't worthy of being connected to an action protag.
The show is good, but definitely not the best. Mizu is super inconsistent with how strong and skillful they are and the overall story is about a white girl who hates white people for being white. Still fun and well animated though. P.S. Mizu is 100% invincible. She eats deeps cuts and shrugs them off two seconds later with no future consequence.
Hearing you briefly mention K from Bladerunner 2049 and how you described The Riddler in The Batman tells me you might have some blindspots when it comes to historical, political and philosophical knowledge, which can hinder media literacy and the ability to critically analyze media in general. I've nothing against Blue Eye Samurai at all, but some of this video I would regard as fairly shallow analysis (not all of it, obviously). Kudo's for the putting the time and effort into video, but while fancy editing (and the editing is good!) can mask issues with the substance of an essay for some people, but it shouldn't be a crutch. I know you have a small channel and will likely see this, so please don't feel disheartened when it comes to making more videos. I'm just saying to be cautious about off-hand comments related to other pieces of media where you give horribly reductive comments about them, as it can bring into question the value of your perspective as a whole.
It’s still a political series. The message for Westerners is that all men are either evil or incompetent. Mizu’s husband seemed honorable, but then they broke him too. For Japanese (and other nin-Westerners) it’s: western people are all evil and it’s okay to kill them. Mizu is still a Mary Sue little girls fantasy. “Your bones break like a woman’s.” seconds later, the woman with broken bones kicks his face in. She inexplicably shrugs off fatal injuries.
Okay Snowflake, we get it; you didn't think about the words that were said or the reasons that were given but now you feel sad because the people who look like you aren't being treated well by the people who don't look like you. So sad. Tiny little violin plays.
Even in historical context you're talking out of your hat - the Onna-musha were only sidelined once misogynistic neo-Confucianist traditions took hold in the Edo period.
I personally think master Eiji knew what she was, he must've heard about her, he knew Mizu was a blue eyed woman but pretended not to because he didn't judge her, for him there was only value in his craft. He's a real one!
He may have known an the eyes but I’d argue that he still doesn’t know she’s a woman. Everybody in the village assumed she was a boy. Only her “mother” knew. Edit: also women were not allowed to be craftsmen.
@@CZTachyonsVN Remember the scene where Mizu left? She was trying to confess that she was a woman and he didn't want to hear it and told her that if she leaves she would do it as a lost "boy" which was in quotation in the subtitles I believe. So ultimately he pretended that she was a boy and turned a blind eye. Master Eiji was perceptive and he would've noticed how weak Mizu was since she was a woman, even clients commented on that. So I think he knew but allowed it because he knew Mizu had nowhere to go bc of the blue eyes.
@@CZTachyonsVN He's blind not stupid, he could tell RIngo didn't have hands withing a day of meeting him, you think he couldn't tell Mizu was a girl after she spend years living with him. He even explicitly tells her to stop just as shes about to confess to being a woman to him, saying she brought shame into his workshop, because he already knew and never cared that she is a woman and that he's not ashamed of her.
@@The8merp Never said he's stupid. Even the smartest people can be oblivious to certain things. Ringo being physically disabled is much more obvious compared Mizu hiding her sex. Your reasoning for why he cut off Mizu is also just a conjecture and you could find multiple reasons for that decision. There is no definite proof for neither him knowing nor not knowing so I'm not willing to die in this hill
Episode 5 is a masterpiece of storytelling & may alone be reason enough to watch this series initial run, but this is just another glossy ESG compliant woke abomination; that happens to have some top-flight voice acting & some striking visuals. The dummies that drooled over the shallow 9 episode video game cut-scene: Arcane, have crawled forth in droves to laud praise over BES. That alone should tell you everything you'd need to know about it. Considering the place in history where & when this fantasy takes place, it COULD have been very interesting, but when you go back & look for greater depth & more historical resonance you may have missed, all you find is woke pathology in place of substance.
You might enjoy Pantheon and Last Man. For me, Blue Eye and Arcane were meh. It's always important to let women be women and let men make meaningful sacrifices while trying to do the right thing. Pantheon does it well. Heck, Joey, the PoC woman astronaut character and her family are easily the worst characters in the series moralistically and the show makes no excuses for it. It's the first time I've seen that outside of video games (Cere from Fallen Order was close to it, but is redeemed where Joey just shows up at the end and does jack all). Last man's only problem was they turned a female character into a man, but it's fantasy and there's a pretty good reason for it. It also destroyed the character mentally, which I like. I like consequences. Blue eye doesn't have enough even with episode 5. It really need her to lose a child, but the author's suck.
Being a woman in 17th Japan was as good as it could be. Women were not as strong as men. So they needed to be protected and reverred. As for Mizu she was tall for a woman therefore passed as a man easy . And yes Japanese people were warned about Europeans because of strange tastes sexual and otherwise plus Christianity. Made them devilish in the eyes of the Japanese. They had no real problem with yatsuke because he spoke Japanese followed their customs and gained huge favour with the Oda clan. So much so he was a retainer. It was Europeans with guns indicating no honour on the field of battle therefore demons
revered? XD strange sexual taste? I dont think the people of those island needed any help from europeans to be "devilish" no honor on the field of battle? guns are better than swords, even a bonehead samurai understood that
@@marcoboscarol2420 your display of ignorance of Japanese culture is irritating. Feudal cultures preferred death than dishonor. Hence why poisoning your enemies was seen as evil. I assume you are American from your attitude. Don't hate the Japanese because they actually have a culture and long history. Literally any idiot can fire a gun. And America is a prime example.
I find it so strange how this generation interprets writing in terms of what moralistic message is being imparted. These writers weren't saying, "stop judging people by their looks", they're simply saying the blacksmith could not. They're not telling you, "don't kick people when they're down", they're saying Teigen wouldn't do so in that particular instance. It's just good character writing-- not preachy, moral instruction. It's really odd that we now have a whole generation that's so primed to receive sanctimonious moralizing, they see it as a sort of normal and expected element of literature.
Don't believe the haters, this is actually WMAF kino. Yes it's about a halfie chick on a mission to kill white men but you only see her kill japs and she spares her first white target when she finally meets him (it's also heavily implied they will hook up by the second season). Also despite there being only one white male this season, he's by far the smartest and most interesting character in the show. Since the season ends with the MC going to London, we can expect to see more and that's when the story will probably really take off. The creators are also a white male/asian female power couple so you know the writing is in good hands. They could've made her a Mary Sue lesbian but instead they made her a delicious straight tomboy who is ENHANCED by her white blood.
In the show it STATES that its a LEGEND so dont expect full realism. Obviously its gonna have supernatural elements, and its also animation which is perfect for supernatural stuff
It feels like vinland saga or ghost of tsushima, where it's loosely based on historical events, but is basically a myth where characters do superhuman shit all the time and it's fine, because it's a myth. Yeah, she is stabbed constantly and becomes swiss cheese by the end, no one should survive that, but she does, because she is an Onrio, she keeps on living out of revenge alone, and that's cool af.
The fact that none of you seem to have eyes bothers me. They made mistake after mistake after ridiculous error and ridiculous error and lazy decisions to boot. This is a rushed hack of a show.
I also do not understand the praise at all. It’s not original, it directly and obviously rips off so many other works that came before, and it doesn’t feel authentic and japanese at all. It’s like an European/american interpretation of this period in Japan, without any nuance at all.
I honestly over-analyze everything, so I may be wrong- In character designs, I noticed that most of the “evil” or morally questionable characters (Abijah, Heiji, Mizu’s mother) have unhealthy teeth. They all had that dark hue to their teeth, while the “good ones” (Mizu, ringo, kinuyo) all had seemingly perfect teeth. Even master Eiji, despite having crooked teeth, had pearly whites. It even has differences in moral, because taigen and Mizu’s teeth are slightly darker than akemi and ringo’s. I just thought it was a cool unnoticable detail 😅
Spoilers below, but . . . . . What does this say about Akemi's decision to blacken her teeth? Accepting a less-than-ideal compromise to have more power and options later? A critical loss of her moral compass? Or just realizing that what she had with Taigen was puppy love, and not much else?
@@jadegecko I mean…maybe? Blackening of the teeth was a tradition amongst married noble women, so she didn’t have much of a choice there, but maybe it was her choosing to marry the prince instead of taigen?
@@jadegecko well by the end of the first season the show pretty much tells us that shes choosing to go down the path that she has refused until that moment, so, apart from being a tradition and seen as a beauty standard, it could also mean that she went down to that level and decided to give in her darker side in order to get revenge/survive
@jadegecko she did not voluntarily darken her teeth; her father darkened them. In one of the last episodes (can't remember which one) her father says "when have you ever not gotten what you've wanted?", and she responds with "when you blackened my teeth." Maybe it's to show how her father dragged her through hell for his own ambitions.
Admittedly Mizu is relatively overpowered, but she's not as overpowered as many other action movie/show protagonists. Mizu survives a lot but also nearly dies and gets out fought in a lot of her fights compared to John Wick who just walks off gunshots, stab wounds and even getting ran over by a CAR! Or Robert McCall from The Equalizer who is just smarter than everyone, you can't corner him but he can corner you. Compared to them, Mizu has more reasons to be slightly broken, due to her shown training and whatnot but she's held to a lower standard because she isn't a man.
I strongly disagree on this, Mizu has plot armour. What I mean is, with Boss Hamata's gang for example, she was literally being crushed with the door, and those claws look long enough to just stab through, I'm wondering why they didn't just kill her, instead they continued crushing her, giving her time to grab her sword and slash around, they could've literally just flung the sword away and saved their legs.
@@Cecilia-ky3uw Again, compare that to John Wick or The Equalizer or many othwrs like them are allowed to get away with. John survived being shot off a building. Usually in action shows and movies, the main character is supposed to be a little overpowered but those guys are a bit much.
@@gimmeyourrights8292 I think surviving a gunshot is still more realistic than no one managing to wound you while you are down. Ie plot armour at different places.
@@gimmeyourrights8292 less realistic, but again, the plot armour is in the detail, how did the gang not simply kill her in that time, it's too cartoonish for little reason, they decided to squeeze a personal character moment with flashbacks there.
With mizu they took the john wick approach. An absolute badass, but one that will get her shit absolutely kicked in, sustain several injuries, but keeps moving forward. It feels more tense.
Thats what a lot of people kinda forget, this is a fictional story about someone so dead set on revenge they will burn every bridge and kill anyone who gets in their way. Their entire purpose is revenge. She gets the John Wick pass of “Nearly Invulnerable” in my book. Adds to the mystique and danger that she poses
It feels ridiculous just like in John Wick. Entertaining, but that kind of over the top feat shile critically injured does pulls me out of it. Loved the overall show though.
I feel like it would have upped her badass even more if her injuries had more of a permanent impact on her abilities and she STILL overcame the enemy. In her raid on the castle, she gets her foot impaled clean through. She limps up some stairs for a bit and then we never see it impact her again. Either show us her cauterizing her foot and nearly passing out from the pain in order to complete her quest or lean into the limp to lure her enemy into a false sense of security showcasing her intelligence and willingness to use any trick to reach her goal or something. Don't just waste it.
They went so far back to what japan thought of white ppl that they brought back some anciant racism, the main makes no sense her entire life the japanese made her life miserable but she wants to kill whites, why?
I like that she's not invincible, but I think they go too far, since she gets stabbed like, 5 times, and is almost always better by the next episode. Like, I get that she has the warrior's spirit, but you also need kidneys to live.
This has been standard fare in any sort of action movie or TV show for a while now, especially in anime. Characters are like "half my internal organs were obliterated" but they're still walking around just fine except for coughing up blood occasionally.
I think it's implied there's an indeterminate amount of time between episodes that isn't explicitly stated that allows for the healing process to go through.
There's also a fair bit of evidence on the story having enough fantasy elements to remain grounded but for fighting spirit, turning characters supernatural. True onmyoji. Taigen's spite also allows him to resist torture he otherwise wouldn't have; but in special Mizu's bloodlust is what keeps her alive, at the cost of her happiness. At the beginning of the series she's shown praying for this exact thing. Think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon :3
