Blue Eye Samurai Animated Movie Home Run. I’m not an avid anime fan. Which, is weird, because – I’m a geek’s geek. I adore 80’s video games. I know Han Solo shot Greedo first. I’ve memorized the entirety of the poem on the wall of the staircase in the Annihilation books: “Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the seeds of the dead to share with the worms that gather in the darkness….etc.” I know the difference between an AT-AT, and an AT-ST. I had a pong system, and original Atari. I can talk to the real technical differences between a Beta-max, and VHS… and if you want a real good time, even Laserdisc. I own original versions of the graphic novels Akira, Appleseed, and Ghost in the Shell. However, I’m not an anime fan. But Blue Eye Samurai is some next level anime is all I know.
Blue Eye Samurai Warning:
First things first. This show is for adults. 100%. Just because it’s drawings, and CG, doesn’t mean the storyline, the characters, the action, should be about Disney princesses, and all cotton candy and sweet tarts. First off Blue Eye Samurai is extremely violent. Severed limbs, impalement’s… there are deaths of many kinds throughout this show’s run. Also, nudity… there’s plenty of nudity. Oh, and sex. So, if you are coming to this show assuming you are going to sit your kids down to watch something mindless while you clean the kitchen? hahah. You are soon going to be answering a ton of questions you probably didn’t expect to be answering today. You really have to think of this show like it’s a normal rated R film, even in spite of its medium. This has been a pretty normal thing for anime for years and years, but for unfamiliar American audiences this is probably coming as a bit of a surprise.
Blue Eye Samurai – the Art
Little known fact about me, while in high school, I seriously considered going to art school to become an animator. All the way back to middle school even I began animating in art class through stop motion on a super8 camera. Then sketches. In high school I crafted an art portfolio, applied to Rochester Institute of Technology, the Maryland Institute of Art, etc., etc. Probably should have applied anyway despite some of the loudest voices in my life telling me that I’d be a pauper. Meh. What is money really good for anyway. Sorry, we got derailed here. Oh, yes… THE ART HERE IS UNBELIEVABLE. It is 2D? Has the look of traditional line drawn art, but it is decidedly 3D. Here… watch this, and you’ll see what I mean.
This is normally where I’d go through, episode by episode, and discuss the thoughts and intentions of the story inside and out. But it’s New Year’s eve, and I’d rather imbibe, and blow some firecrackers, and the like. But the general gist of the story for Blue Eyed Samurai is basic, and yet under the surface hides many intriguing surprises. Mizu, a mixed raced Japanese/Caucasian, decides she will get revenge on the man that knocked her mother up and ruined her (Mizu’s – but also her mother’s) life. Turns out there were 4 Caucasians in the country at the time of her birth… so Mizu will kill them all.
There are a lot of the standard tropes here to be had – the Rocky chase the chicken – training segments, the build the sword segments, etc., etc. But inside all of that was a really amazing storyline. Like, I wish live action movies had HALF the story that Blue Eyed Samurai had. Like, serious Emmy nomination worth story-lines here. Couple that with the amazing – just jaw dropping – artistic cinematography… and you have yourself a FANTASTIC show on your hands. Oh, and by the way, did I mention already that there is a heck of a lot of questionable material here too? I mean, not for a standard film-fare, but for an animated movie! hahah Yeah. We’re all adults here, I think.
Edited by: CY
