Highlights
- Blue Eye Samurai is a surprise hit on Netflix, praised for its beautiful animation and interesting, strong female characters.
- The main character is a mixed-race woman seeking revenge, while other women play significant roles in the plot and storyline.
- The show features characters like Kinuyo, Mama, Ise, Lady Itoh, and Madame Kaji, each with their own unique strengths, struggles, and motivations.
There are a lot of animated shows on Netflix, and Blue Eye Samurai is a surprise hit that’s risen above the crowd. The series has garnered a lot of positive attention from both viewers and critics for its beautiful animation, cinematic style, and interesting characters, many of whom are women.
It’s a minor spoiler that the main character is a woman, and she’s not the only important female character that carried the plot and storyline through the first season. The protagonist is following the bloody path of revenge, and on the way, she meets several other women with their own goals and an equal amount of determination.
7 Kinuyo
A Strong Survivor Who Experienced Countless Horrors
She was a minor character who was in only one episode, but the delicate Kinuyo made a profound impression on other characters as well as the viewer. She was blind and deaf and was sold to Madame Kaji by an impatient father who beat her and thought she was worthless.
Kaji bonded with Kinuyo and taught her a form of sign language. This is how Kaji discovered that there was a hidden world behind the new girl’s voiceless expression. Their happiness together was destroyed when the local crime boss kidnapped Kinuyo, and she endured a horrible life of abuse until Mizu intervened and ended her suffering. Her last words, silent as they may be, might have been a final expression of defiance, and whether or not Mizu did the right thing is a matter of opinion.
6 Mama
Her True Identity Remains A Mystery
Mizu refers to this character only as “Mama,” and her real name is never revealed, even when she returns to Mizu years later. According to Abijah Fowler, however, this person was Mizu’s maid or nanny and not her biological mother. The mystery of this woman’s identity might have to wait until the next season, but either way, Mama was a strong person to have survived as long as she did.
No matter who she was, Mama successfully kept Mizu hidden for years, disguising her as a boy and telling her how to stay hidden. She survived the fire that destroyed their humble forest home and separated them for many years, but it was her opium addiction that led to her downfall.
5 Ise
A Brave Soul Who Sought Redemption
A prostitute who worked in Madame Kaji’s Tea House, Ise played the “princess” role until Akemi was recruited, and she resented the competition. Not much is revealed about Ise, but she was a popular and talented resident of the Tea House and had frequent visitors.
Madame Kaji trusted her enough to make her available to Abijah Fowler, a high-profile customer with a very specific and sometimes complicated taste for sex and companionship. Ise was outspoken and had a clever way of speaking, but she was also a good listener, and this led to her downfall. It was Ise who overheard Fowler’s plans to attack the Shogun in Edo, and when she tried to warn Akemi’s father about it, she was forced to take the information to her grave.
4 Lady Itoh
The Stone-Cold Wife Of The Shogun
The first impression of Lady Itoh is that she’s the mother-in-law from hell, and she is, but there’s a plan behind her cruelty. It’s easy to be repulsed by her methods, but they weed out the weak links, and she instructs her sons to behave in the same ruthless manner.
Lady Itoh is the wife of the Shogun, and she guards her sons closely as the intended heirs to the throne, which partly explains why she treats Akemi the way she does. When they’re fleeing from the palace as it burns, she instructs her sons to lock the doors on the fleeing lords behind them to hide their father’s shame of being shot instead of dying honorably. Despite her hard methods, she’s determined to return and rebuild, and she seems genuinely happy that Akemi also escaped unscathed.
3 Madame Kaji
Focused On The Result
Madame Kaji is the woman in charge of the brothel that Mizu visits for information on how to access Abijah Fowler’s island fortress. She’s got a soft exterior, one that exudes tenderness and understanding, but she can also be a hard woman who doesn’t shy away from contract killing and shocking sexual fetishes.
Madame Kaji doesn’t sugar-coat the kind of work she does for her clients or her employees, all of whom would describe her as tough but fair. It was customary for women from poor families to be sold to brothels during this period, and to be purchased by someone as clever, strong, and benevolent as Kaji would have been very auspicious.
2 Akemi
A Princess Who Wants To Be Great
Akemi is the daughter of Lord Daichi, and according to the hierarchy of the Edo Period, she is the equivalent of a princess. When the story begins, she’s betrothed to her sweetheart Taigan, an accomplished samurai, but when his honor is insulted by Mizu, he leaves Akemi in an attempt to challenge Mizu to a rematch.
Akemi stubbornly tries to follow him at first, but on the way, she discovers the unique strengths that are available to her as a woman in medieval Japanese society. As season one comes to a close, she decides against escaping the ruins of Edo with Taigan and instead returns to her new husband, who is now the younger brother of the Shogun.
1 Mizu
Not To Be Happy, Loved, Or Rich, Only Satisfied
The main character of Blue Eye Samurai is Mizu, a mixed-race woman who has trained to become a swordmaster and pursues a life of revenge. She has sacrificed everything in pursuit of her goal of finding and killing the four white men who were present in Japan when she was born, believing one of them to be responsible for her existence.
Mizu didn’t have much of a childhood and was orphaned at an early age. She learned how to make swords from the old swordmaker who took her in and studied his customers when it came to swordplay. Her path of revenge isn’t moral or ethical, and she has a ruthless and stoic personality. With all of this combined, she’s the strongest character in the show.
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Release Date |
November 3, 2023 |
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Director |
Jane Wu |
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Streaming Service |
Netflix |
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Genre |
Action |
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