4.3 out of 5: Ten days after release, this new Netflix series is already a must-see

Ten days after launching on Netflix, this new series is already a hit for the platform. With an average viewership rating of 4.3 out of 5, Blue Eye Samurai is also among the top-rated animated series of all time on AlloCiné. A success that may increase in the coming days due to extremely positive word of mouth!

What does the blue-eyed samurai say? The series is set in Japan during the Edo period (17th century), when the country closed its borders to foreigners. A blue-eyed mixed race, Mizu takes up the life of a traveling samurai to seek revenge against four men linked to her mother’s death.

A tale of revenge against the backdrop of a historical mural, Blue Eyed Samurai is a chanbara made according to the rules of art. This genre, typical of Japanese cinema, contains stories of samurai battles. We can associate Japanese chanbara with French swashbuckling films and to a lesser extent with American westerns.

This first season consists of eight one-hour episodes, a format that is becoming increasingly popular in adult animated productions. Directed by Jane Wu (story artist most notably employed on Game of Thrones and Spider-Man: New Generation), the series was animated by French studio Blue Spirit (Ma vie de Courgette).

Inspired by the personal story of its screenwriter

Based on an original story, the series is written by Michael Green, the screenwriter of Logan and Blade Runner 2049, with his wife Amber Noizum. The latter was inspired by her family history and her own experiences as a mixed-race Japanese-American to portray the character of Mizu.

“Our story is an action-adventure story set 400 years ago, but the themes of Blue Eyed Samurai are relevant and the inspiration is deeply personal.”explained Michael Green during the Drop 01 promotional event. We’re grateful for Netflix’s passion for this story, as well as their bold vision for a sophisticated animated drama.

The series is not intended for children, which is confirmed by the 16+ rating on the platform. In addition to numerous fight scenes and gore à la Kill Bill (aka a tribute to the Quentin Tarantino film in the training scene), the series also features explicit scenes of nudity.

For director Jane Woo, these sequences avoid the gratuitous trap, instead serving the story perfectly. polygon):

The writers did a fantastic job of writing mature scenes, these sensitive scenes, and my job was to translate that into pictures with the same degree of sensitivity. We wanted to make sure that these sex scenes follow the same point of view every time. If each of these scenes follows a point of view, then they are not gratuitous. And in most cases, the point of view we follow is the female point of view.

Inspired by Quentin Tarantino, Blue Eyed Samurai pays homage to many classics of Japanese cinema, such as Lady Snowblood, but also to director Akira Kurosawa’s films The Bodyguard and Sanjuro. Knowledge of these works is clearly not necessary to understand and appreciate the plot of the series.

The animated series Blue Eye Samurai is now available exclusively on Netflix.

Discover the list of series currently available on the platform!