Blue Eye Samurai

Our Review

Mizu (Maya Erskine), a woman of mixed heritage in Edo-period Japan passing as a man, hunts the four white men who could be her father — and the show is a revenge epic staged with extraordinary craft: painterly Edo-period design, the best-choreographed swordplay in any medium in years, and violence with weight — every wound costs, every kill scars the killer.

The show’s Japan (brothels, foundries, palaces) is rendered with anthropological care, the supporting cast (Ringo the heart-of-gold assistant, Princess Akemi’s parallel escape from gilded cages) deepens the world, and the themes — vengeance as self-erasure, identity as armor and prison — give the blood real meaning. Patient, gorgeous, and absolutely merciless.

Verdict: Watch it. The best animated action series in years.