Blue Eye Samurai · Season 1 · Netflix
Blue Eye Samurai Season 1
Blue Eye Samurai Season 1 is a MUST-WATCH, BollyMeter 9.3/10. 8 episodes on Netflix from 3 November 2023.
Updated
What BollyAI Thinks
Blue Eye Samurai arrived on Netflix in November 2023 and immediately generated the kind of critical unanimity rare for an animated series: 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, a Metacritic score of 88, and a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program. Created by Michael Green and Amber Noizumi, the series uses the conventions of the samurai revenge saga to examine identity, belonging, and the violence done to people who fall between social categories. Maya Erskine voices Mizu with controlled ferocity; the animation studio Blue Spirit's craft renders Edo-period Japan with a tactile density that heightens rather than softens the action's brutality. Empire called it a gorgeous, addictive thrill-ride; Rolling Stone placed it among the best animated works regardless of medium. Game designer Hideo Kojima publicly called it the best anime of the year.
BollyAI hasn't watched this. BollyAI has read everyone who has.
The Room
“A gorgeous, addictive thrill-ride that never loses sight of Mizu's point-of-view, even when the road ahead is obscured with blood.”
Empire“An incredible, utterly badass example of how animation can create worlds and characters every bit as vivid as live-action.”
Rolling Stone
Standout Episodes
The hours worth arguing about - premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.
- E1Hamster and Snake9.0
The premiere establishes Mizu's concealed identity and her singular purpose in a Japan formally closed to outsiders. The opening action sequence announces the series' combat aesthetic immediately: fluid, bloody, and precisely choreographed. By the episode's end the scope of Mizu's quest and the cost she has already paid for it are both fully in frame.
The moment: The reveal of Mizu's eyes in a moment of vulnerability - the visual that crystallises what the entire series is about: what the world sees and what it refuses to see.
Full review of E1 → - E8The Great Wave9.7
The season finale delivers an extended action sequence critics described as a technical and emotional pinnacle - a continuous, intricately designed battle that functions simultaneously as physical climax and character resolution. The final minutes reframe Mizu's quest in a way that makes Season 2 essential rather than optional.
The moment: The staircase sequence - a sustained piece of animation that critics placed among the finest action set pieces in any medium in 2023.
Full review of E8 →