In her quest for revenge, rogue samuraiMizu (Maya Erskine), the protagonist of Netflix’s stunning adult animated seriesBlue Eye Samurai, finds herself taking on a devastating side quest for Madame Kaji (Ming-Na Wen).Blue Eye Samuraifollows Mizu, a half-white, half-Japanese woman and self-trained samurai, on her mission to track down the four white men who were in Japan at the time of her birth. Having been treated as a monster her entire life because of her mixed ethnicity, Mizu plans to kill all of them in revenge.
This brings her to Madame Kaji, whose brothel caters to the fortress where Abijah Fowler (Kenneth Branagh) has taken refuge. In exchange for explaining how to reach Fowler, Kaji asks Mizu to undertake another job first. Kaji previously housed Kinuyo, a mute girl Kaji saved from an abusive father until the town’s cruel overlord took Kinuyo by force and began to abuse her daily. Kaji knows that making a move against him would bring his followers' wrath down upon everyone in her care; seeing no other option,she asks that Mizu kill Kinuyo instead to end her suffering.
Kinuyo’s Response To Mizu’s Gesture Explained
Kinuyo Understands Why Mizu Is There & Doesn’t Want To Die
Kaji instructs Mizu to make a certain gesture to Kinuyo, which is meant to indicate love and safety. Mizu successfully infiltrates the overlord’s residence and gets to Kinuyo while she is alone.When she makes the gesture at Kinuyo, the girl only shakes her head, leaving Mizu confusedand having to come up with a new plan. Mizu simply tells Kinuyo that she will protect her and offers her hand, which the girl takes. Madame Kaji had been fairly certain that if Mizu delivered this message, Kinuyo would understand this was her only way out and be at peace.
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However, despite what she has suffered at the hands of her father and her current captor, Kinuyo still holds out hope and wants to live. What she attempts to convey by returning the gesture to Mizu and then shaking her head is that she can guess what it means, and even that Kaji thinks this is an act of mercy, but she doesn’t agree. It is something Mizu can relate to, as she has spent her whole life refusing to give up despite everyone beating her down, which only makes what happens next more heartbreaking.
Mizu Is Not One To Save Bystanders In Blue Eye Samurai
Mizu Is A Harshly Realistic Character, Who Bypasses The Conventions Of Other Fictional Heroes
Kinuyo accepts Mizu’s offer of protection;while Mizu seemingly figures out what to do next, Kinuyo curls up against her, appearing to be experiencing a genuine sense of security and affectionfor her rescuer. Mizu then takes advantage of this, starting to return the embrace and then using her position to break Kinuyo’s neck. She sets it up to look like an accident resulting from one of the guards attacking Kinuyo and leaves. As characteristic as it is for her, Mizu is shaken by this like nothing else that has happened in the series so far.
As characteristic as it is for her, Mizu is shaken by this like nothing else that has happened in the series so far.
Blue Eye Samuraicarries the weight of a true storyand establishes that Mizu is not one to save bystanders. The series passes through multiple plot beats where a different rogue protagonist might have gotten into a fight specifically to save a helpless citizen. However, Mizu is a complex figure and not such a clichéd heroine. She knows that saving one girl would not fix the overall society that causes the suffering of many like her and has such a jaded worldview that even that one would not be worth it to her.
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Mizu also prioritizes revenge above all, and when she needs Kaji’s help to achieve this, Kaji’s orders take precedence. Even with Kaji, someone who similarly understands the cruelties of the world, Mizu lies. When Kaji asks about Kinuyo’s response, Mizu only says that she understood. However,the side quest to save/kill Kinuyo delicately underlinesBue Eye Samurai’s central themes,while also setting up a further illustration of this kind of tragedy in the next episode.
Mizu’s Job For Madame Kaji Underscores The Harsh Setting & Revenge Story
Blue Eye Samurai Is A Historical Fiction Tragedy, Showing Many People’s Difficult Life Experiences
Blue Eye Samuraimakes it brutally clear that being a woman often leads to some kind of suffering in Edo period Japan. Mizu has already suffered because she is mixed race and presents herself as a man to avoid additional obstacles. The story also follows Akemi (Brenda Song), a young noblewoman about to be married off against her will. But the man she ends up married to is relatively kind, and she still has some agency as a character. On the other hand,Kinuyo perhaps has the resilience to be Mizu or Akemi in a different life.
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If Kinuyo’s fate weren’t enough, right before Mizu finds her, she kills a bird that is flying around in the rafters of the building she is sneaking into, so it won’t alert the guards of her presence. She places the dead avion in its next full of eggs. She irregularly tries to avoid it, but Mizu leaves death in her wake. In a matter of minutes, she kills a bird to keep it quiet to killing a human who still wants to live.
With the path she has chosen, calamity always ensues, most often for people like Kinuyo, who is a distortion of Mizu.
The following episode is widely regarded as the standout chapter of season 1, “The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride,” showing a flashback whereMizu briefly fell in love and believed she could live a peaceful life until her intended grew to fear her.It tragically ends in heartbreak and bloodshed.Blue Eye Samuraiis a multilayered tale about how Mizu has become stuck in a cyclone of violence, both because of the world she lives in and herself. With the path she has chosen, calamity always ensues, most often for people like Kinuyo, who is a distortion of Mizu.
Blue Eye Samurai
Cast
Blue Eye Samurai is a 2023 animated action-adventure series created by Michael Green and Amber Noizumi. Set In 17th-century Japan, Blue Eye Samurai follows a mixed-race Samurai named Mizu who seeks revenge for the man who abandoned her and took her mother. To do so, Mizu will have to disguise herself and assume the guise of a man as she sets forth across a war-torn nation.
