Television Update (Blue Eye Samurai | One Piece Live Action)

[jaggedwolf]

Samurai and pirates, what else is new.

Blue Eye Samurai

An eight-episode animated series set in 17th century Japan. It stars Mizu, who is half-white and half-japanese, and very skilled with a sword, hence the title of the show. Mizu's on a mission to kill four white men who remained in Japan even after the closure of its borders to foreigners, because one of the men must be Mizu's father.

If any of that sounds interesting to you, it's well worth the watch - the fight scenes are excellent, the animation is pretty, the side characters entertaining, and most importantly, I love the way the show has you constantly question your perceptions of Mizu, taking its time with peeling back the layers of backstory. It is NSFW though, there were more sex scenes and animated floppy dicks than I necessarily expected.

Also, was very surprised by the number of names I recognized on the voice actor cast. (Something about Paxton Hall-Yoshida voicing Taigen and Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior voicing Akemi makes so much sense.)

Episode 5 was my favorite, in the way it weaves together three different story strands - Mizu defending the brothel in the present, Mizu's marriage in the past, and the theatre performance that serves as metaphor (while also being a flash-forward to Akemi's fate). Mizu really is everything...

I enjoy the ambiguity of Mizu's gender in the show, and hope it maintains that in the second season. Mizu has bigger priorities, bro. And it's fun - I watched episode 4, where peeping in on two men about to have sex makes Mizu flashback to wrangling with Taigen in the snow, and went oh, I guess he sees himself as a man then, and then episode 5 immediately presents you with a Mizu who is fine as a woman in that context, until her husband and her mother blow everything up.

Taigen is the real comedy relief of the show while going through his arc. He's so funny. I can't believe he gets laid and immediately decides to go fight Mizu, no time for cuddling! I had no idea that Akemi's ending was going to be what it was, but it makes perfect sense.

My only real qualm with the show is Mizu's ending - not killing Fowlers feels uninteresting to me, and even less interesting is the shift to London, away from all our other characters. But who knows, maybe S2 will surprise me. Oh, and my minor qualm is that I wanted more Mizu/Akemi fodder, I don't really ship them, but I'd like to.

One Piece Live Action

This was fun? I've never read the manga and maybe saw the anime episode introducing Zoro a very long time ago as a kid.

I like the colorfulness of it, Luffy falling in crew-love with everyone, the depiction of powers. Unsurprisingly, Nami is my favorite, because I cannot resist cynics with transparently soft underbellies or secret betrayals to protect people. Especially that it was baby Nami that decided to make the deal right after she saw her mom die, god. (Okay, it is a little surprising, because when I watch shonen anime it is very rare that my favorite character is The One Girl, this almost makes me wary of an impending S2). Oh, and I liked her little conversation with Kaya.

Whenever Luffy does his switch from goofy fella to legitimately terrifying pirate is fantastic - there's such a scene in an early episode where he steps out of the shadow and the scar on his face stands out, and it is very cool. I mostly enjoy Zoro and his three swords shtick, with the only exception being his childhood friend dying in an offscreen accident like this was Bridge to Terabithia. Him and Nami looking at each other silently whenever Luffy is being Luffy and yet they're still choosing to stick by him is great. Not quite attached to Usopp or Sanji yet.

I didn't know we'd be following Koby or Garp as much as we did, but it worked, as did Garp's final reveal. The "Be a good pirate" / "Be a good marine" exchange between Koby and Luffy was quite cute.

Some of the fights felt anticlimactic after the first one - I didn't get why Khaladore was suddenly punchable, for instance. All these enemies being kept alive has me concerned for the Straw Hat crew in S2.