Netflix’s animated action-adventure drama ‘Blue Eye Samurai,’ steeped in an all-consuming revenge tale, is distinguished by its raw and exhilarating narrative of self-actualization represented in engaging characters. Mizu, a female samurai disguised as a man on a deadly path of vengeance, is the show’s titular protagonist. Mizu stays a mixed-race individual with piercing blue eyes throughout Japan’s Edo period, when the closed-off nation has forbidden foreigners within its borders. As a result, she has been socially isolated her entire life. As retaliation for her struggles and their crimes against her country, Mizu hunts out the four remaining white men in Japan and executes them.
While the anime revolves around skilled swordsman Mizu and her often self-destructive desire for vengeance, it also includes Ringo, Taigen, and Akemi, all of whom have their own goals. With energising character arcs and interesting narratives, each character goes through their own transformational journey, leaving viewers wanting to know more about their destiny.
Blue Eye Samurai Recap
Half-white infants were subjected to dehumanisation after Japan closed its borders in 1633. During this period, one warrior, Mizu, appears with blue eyes hidden behind tinted spectacles and a sword made from heaven’s rock. While passing through a town, the warrior appears to be interested in locating the source of European weaponry that few people have and learns of its link to Heiji Shindo. As a result, Heiji becomes Mizu’s target.
However, as Mizu moves to the next village, Ringo, the born-amputee son of a soba shop owner, pursues the warrior in search of an apprenticeship. Nonetheless, Mizu, who has secrets to maintain, including her gender identity, and darkness to confront, turns him away. Nonetheless, when she arrives at the Shindo Dojo, where Heiji’s brother is the Master, Ringo is hot on her tail. Mizu attempts to approach the teacher in the Dojo, but she is met with several trained samurais along the road. Nonetheless, she slashes through them all, matching them attack for attack.
Despite never having had formal instruction, Mizu was raised by Master Eiji, a renowned blind swordmaker. As a result, she had schooled herself by impersonating Eiji’s high-profile clients. As a result, even when the best Shindo Dojo samurai, Taigen, who has never lost a duel, challenges her, she defeats him. Taigen and Mizu had known each other since childhood, when Taigen used to harass Mizu mercilessly because of her race.
Mizu’s struggle with Taigen not only draws The Shindo Master out and earns Mizu Heiji’s location, but it also places a new target on her back. Taigen, who is engaged to Princess Akemi, loses his honour following his defeat over Mizu. As a result, Akemi’s father calls off their engagement, much to his daughter’s chagrin, given that she orchestrated the whole thing in the first place. As a result, Taigen resolves to pursue Mizu in order to reclaim his honour, leaving Akemi alone and vulnerable to future marriage prospects.
However, Akemi refuses to allow her father to sell her to an older thug for his own gain and flees the palace. Meanwhile, Mizu reluctantly accepts Ringo as her apprentice when the young guy proves himself useful and continuously maintains Mizu’s gender hidden as per her demands. Mizu is looking for Heiji since he is rumoured to have one of Japan’s last four white males, Abijah Fowler, secreted under his protection.
Mizu has adopted a vow to destroy all four men who could be her father, each distinguished by their corrupt ways, because she has spent her entire life being viewed as a monster because of her father and has lost her mother as a result. Mizu encounters numerous challenges along the road, including a run-in with Taigen, who demands a rematch once she regains full strength. When they square off against Heiji and discover about the secret Palace where Fowler resides, the two form an alliance for a brief while, each recognising the other’s prowess.
Mizu then continues on her quest, until she meets Akemi, who recognises Taigen’s scarf around the warrior’s neck. Mizu comes at a brothel known for its unusual tastes to inquire about a secret entrance into Fowler’s fortress. Although the journey is a success since Mizu obtains the information she seeks, it also includes a harsh encounter with Boss Hamata.
Furthermore, Ringo abandons Mizu after losing respect for her after Mizu silently enables Akemi’s father’s guards to bring her back to the Palace despite the other woman’s pleas for assistance. Nonetheless, Mizu continues on her retribution mission. Even after sneaking into Fowler’s palace and making her way through the numerous stories, each filled with unique deadly defence systems, she loses to Fowler in her shattered and bruised state.
Mizu must eventually accept her failure and flee the Palace with Taigen, who was taken hostage by Heiji a long time ago, saving their lives by allowing herself to falter. Despite his fury at Mizu, Ringo saves the duo from drowning in frigid water and transports them to Eiji for recovery.
Blue Eye Samurai Ending: Does Mizu Get Her Revenge?
Mizu is troubled while she rests at Eiji’s, allowing her wounds to heal after her near-death experience. People tried to kill Mizu when she was a newborn because of society’s prejudice against half-white children. Despite this, no one could bring themselves to take her life. Instead, her mother abducted her and kept her concealed from the outside world in a small, remote wooden cottage, dressed as a male.
Men burned down Mizu’s house when she was a child, leaving Mizu an orphan mourning the death of the one person who had ever cared for her. As a result, Mizu resolved to revenge her mother’s death by annihilating her father and the other three white men. These men had only sneaked into Japan because they offered opium, firearms, and sex trafficking.
Mizu’s desire for vengeance, however, sprang from her personal contempt for her unknown father. Mizu has faced a series of difficulties as a result of her identification over the years. As a result, she has abandoned a happy existence in favour of the satisfaction she may derive from exacting revenge on the guy responsible for her unhappiness.
As a result, Mizu’s self-esteem suffers when she abandons a fight against Fowler in order to save her and Taigen’s skin. While it is true that Mizu cannot exact her wrath, she does not live for self-preservation. As a result, quitting the fight feels like a betrayal of her cause, to which she has given her life.
As a result, Mizu spends her time at Heiji’s attempting to repair her damaged blade and, with it, her sense of self. Her mentor teaches her that, while having a one-track mind is useful in following one’s life’s work, whether it’s swordmaking or a life-long devotion to vengeance, it’s also important to know when to let others into her life.
Mizu decides at the end to travel to Edo Castle, where Akemi is set to marry the Shogun’s son. Mizu learnt of Fowler’s intention to invade the castle and overthrow the Shogun when visiting his hideaway. As a result, she intends to carry out her life’s objective of assassinating Fowler while simultaneously saving Akemi. Ringo returns to her side for the same purpose.
Several politics are being played out at the Edo Castle, with Fowler already having a few alliances inside the royal court. The man quickly slashes through swaths of soldiers who fall prey to his army’s superior guns. Edo’s soldiers, on the other hand, only have swords and arrows. Eventually, Fowler approaches the Shogun in the town centre, who is surrounded by his close associates, including Taigen. Fowler simply shoots the Shogun in the head.
However, before Fowler can kill the princes, Mizu tracks him down and the two fight. Their fight is vicious and cathartic, with each receiving and giving lethal blows. Soon after, the former realises Mizu is a woman as his larger body gives him an advantage over her while attempting to choke her violently. Nonetheless, Mizu defeats him and holds a knife to his throat, spurred by her rage.
Although Mizu might easily have killed Fowler right then and there, the clever guy makes her an offer she can’t refuse: the location of the other two white males who could be her father. Mizu’s revenge scheme will not finish with the killing of Fowler; she will not rest until she has slain his other two buddies. As a result, she spares Fowler’s life and holds him captive in order to guide her to the other men. Regardless, Mizu is prolonging Fowler’s life until he can give her what she desires. Mizu will most certainly collect his blood after that, just as she did with one of the other four white men who possibly be her biological father.
Who Is Mizu’s Father?
Throughout the programme, the unknown identity of Mizu’s father shadows over her character and, as a result, the story’s narrative. Mizu, on the other hand, is uninterested in learning the man’s identity. Mizu understands that one of the four white men in Japan at the time of her birth has to be her father. As a result, the warrior only needs to murder all four of these individuals to complete her business with her father.
Mizu has a solely adversarial connection with her father. She has only ever craved revenge in her life and has bent her morals to the ground to get it. Mizu has long since abandoned any feelings about her life’s purpose, having given herself entirely to her need for vengeance.
As a result, when Fowler offers his information about the other two men who could be her father, Mizu is only interested in finding them. Mizu’s father could be either Violet, the first of the white males Mizu murders on her journey, or Fowler. Similarly, the other two men, Skeffinton, who shares Mizu’s towering build, and Routley, who has blue eyes, could be her father. Given these men’s habits and large number of illegitimate children, it’s likely that no one remembers who fathered Mizu in the first place.
Nonetheless, after learning of Skeffinton and Routley’s location from Fowler, Mizu sets off on her mission to eliminate them. Since the men have left Japan and gone to London, Mizu brings Fowler with her, who was imprisoned in a ship following the attack on Edo Castle, to enlist his assistance in navigating the new city and tracking down the other men. Mizu’s lineage is still unknown, with Mizu realising that the woman she thought was her mother was just a maid hired to keep her safe. Furthermore, while one of the four men—Violet, Fowler, Skeffinton, and Routley—is most likely Mizu’s father, there is always the possibility of an unexpected, alternative truth for potential future seasons to learn.
Do Taigen And Akemi End Up Together?
Taigen and Akemi were the show’s major romantic couple, in love and engaged due to the latter’s manipulative meddling. Akemi’s father wishes to marry his daughter to a wealthy and powerful man in order to fortify his rule’s alliances. As a result, he cares little about how Akemi’s future husband treats her and is willing to hand her over to brutes whose wives have perished as a result of their violent urges.
Akemi, on the other hand, refuses to accept such a fate. As a result, once Taigen abandons her to reclaim his honour, she pursues him in order for him to take her hand in marriage. In her search, she disguises herself as a courtesan because a marriage or a prostitute are the only options available to women at the period. As a result, she encounters Madam Kaji, the proprietor of a brothel who looks after a large number of women.
Kaji recognises that her line of work is horrible, and her kids suffer as a result, but she also recognises that, given their circumstances, it is the only way they can earn their place in the world. Furthermore, she urges Akemi to use her rank and sexuality on her own terms to exploit the games of powerful men.
This transforming voyage teaches Akemi that she has spent her entire life chasing the wrong thing. Akemi was reared as a princess without a mother by her father’s personal advisor, Seki, who taught her everything she knew. Despite her obstacles, he always wanted Akemi to make her place in the world. He did, however, frequently try to make decisions for her.
Seki realises at the end, during the attack on the Shogun, that he should never have made decisions for Akemi and should have let her chose her own path. As a result, he assists her in fleeing the palace as Fowler’s troops attack it. Seki eventually dies outside the palace gates after being shot by one of Fowler’s men, whom he and Akemi had imprisoned inside the burning castle.
In his final moments, Seki pushes Akemi to live life in her terms and pursue what she truly desires, sharing his ambition for her to rule the nation one day. As a result, Akemi realises she has always desired a magnificent life rather than a happy one. Although Taigen approaches her and invites her to flee with him as the royal court flames behind them, Akemi declines. Whereas Taigen’s low rank as a skillful samurai but nothing else had previously appealed to Akemi, she now realises she can achieve much more as Takayoshi’s bride.
Akemi has already married him and learned he is a shy man with insecurities owing to his stammer who lives under his mother’s rule. Furthermore, her father is injured, with Akemi as his sole heir. As a result, Akemi currently has enormous power if she manipulates the situation right.
Even if there had been a spark between Akemi and Taigen, it had always been for the sake of convenience for both of them. Taigen saw an ideal dream of a princess who helped him feel better about himself, and Akemi needed a nice man to fall in love with in order to avoid the bad ones. As a result, it is preferable for them to find happiness elsewhere. Ultimately, the two do not end up together, and Akemi returns to the Shogun’s family, whose sons and wife had escaped.
