Haven't been watching it. It's done by a French animation studio, a kind of modern manifestation of Japonisme maybe. Scene blocking, cutting, camera angles, pacing etc seem to owe much to Japanese anime (which is probably inevitable, given the enormous global influence of Japanese anime), but if I were seeing it without any info I would guess that it's not the work of Japanese animators. As for historical accuracy, who's to say? Not long ago I was watching on tv a group of top-notch Japanese scholars arguing about whether the various scenes depicted on a recently restored very large Edo Period recreation of an older byobu screen painting of the siege of Osaka Castle (1614) were historically accurate or not, and they couldn't agree on a number of points.

My "Intro to Asian Studies" instructor in college would have loved this video! For most of us, we learn about cultures through stereotypical imagery that is oftentimes intentionally created or embraced by the cultures in question for various reasons. For example, "The Last Samurai" which you mentioned in the video is surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly) popular in Japan despite not being historically accurate at all when it came to Bushido culture of the period, but it creates an idealized mythology that many Japanese people seem to enjoy and even believe (outside of history professors shaking their heads). Or take the "5000 years of history" when it comes to describing "China", and how it's used to further modern-day political narratives. For works like Blue-eyed Samurai, its easier to be conscious of the fact that this is a modern work that borrows the setting of an earlier time to tell its story, but ultimately it's written in our contemporary period, and intended to address audiences within our time period. Yet it's easy to overlook the fact that much of "popular history" is actually exactly the same, because there is such a strong incentive to cherrypick history for your own benefit. For example, the popular understanding of the Qing Empire being haughty and arrogant and thus easily defeated by the British Empire was in large part created by cherrypicking Chinese Nationalist historians that selectively chose certain documents from the Qing archives, while ignoring the others that clearly recognized the British as a military threat. The Nationalist historians had an incentive to do so because this helped bolster their legitimacy as the successor state to the Qing Empire. At the end of the day, when it comes to fiction, it is as you say. Does it (accuracy) matter very much? Not necessarily, but it's always something to be very careful with, because people will unconsciously or consciously take storytelling as fact!

I love this gorgeous, complex show. I especially enjoy the exploration of gender. I wonder what Mizu will choose going forward? Does the character feel female, or in their mind do they truly feel they're male? Is Mizu a trans man, or a woman wearing a costume out of necessity?

This is actually an interesting lecture without knowing the show. Having said that, you'll probably drive me into Netflix's arms so I can watch the things you are reviewing. Having all the fight scenes done beforehand by stuntfighters is an quite elaborate way to create animated scenes, but it does pay off in this case. On the effects of vengence: I was reminded of True Grit. Maddie achieves her goal of seeing her father's killer dead, but pays with the loss of her right arm (at the age of 13), never marries ("I had no time for that." Really?) and 25 years later is even denied a reunion with Marshall Cockburn, who dies two days before their agreed meeting. It is also one of the few instances of a good original (with John Wayne as Cockburn) equalled, if not bested be its remake (with Hailey Steinfeld as Maddie).