REVIEWS: Blue Eye Samurai

I’m enjoying a lot of great series and films right now, but one that’s totally captured my attention and admiration at the moment is Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix.

Yes, it’s got an impressive voice cast, including Randall Park, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Masa Oka, George Takei, Ming-Na Wen, Maya Erskine, Brenda Song, and Kenneth Branagh. But the writing, animation (by a French company), storytelling, production design, staging, fight choreography, and more, are all also topnotch across the board—the series is stylish, emotionally complex and engaging, full of twists and surprises, and conveys a strong sense of place and environment. The fairly graphic sexual content and explicit fight scenes—still done with taste and style (mostly lol)—also puts it into solid adult/R-rated territory. Japanese art and culture—both traditional and more recent pop culture ranging from Kurosawa to Lone Wolf and Cub—are all clearly part of its DNA.

Though it focuses on a warrior—who is mixed race and, as such, seen as a demon and outcast—seeking personal revenge in Edo era Japan, a time when the country had closed itself from the outside world (approximately the early 1600s to late 1860s), the series is also set against the larger canvas of the political rivalries of the time involving rival clans and a bit of European/Western incursion. It also touches on other issues, such as gender identity and inequity. One of the pleasures of the show is watching changing alliances and finding friends in unexpected places. There also are moments of comedy to lighten the mood. The warrior, of course, has a comic sidekick—an other abled character voiced by Oka. I’ve even been struck by the music—from traditional score, to traditional Japanese gagaku music, to Metallica, and a bloody fight scene that used what sounded like a rollicking Japanese rockabilly song as the underscore. One entire episode presented the story in real time, intercut with it being told in retrospect as a stylized kabuki play(!).

I don’t want to give away much more of the story since the way it unfolds and reveals back stories is part of the fun, but I’m two episodes from the end, and so blown away by its brilliance and art. (It’s already been renewed for a second season).