Being half Asian and half Caucasian, this is a real thing where neither group will claim you as being one of them. It was very strange growing up not feeling accepted by either side of your ancestry. My Hungarian grandfather refused to go to the hospital when I was born, saying "I'm not going to see some yellow baby". I am sure other mixed-race kids of other cultures have had similar experiences.

This show definitely needs more exposure.

Well, it was beautifully animated, and the style of the film is abundantly visible, i just hope the lack of mainstream interest in animation doesn't hold back this stylistic masterpiece.

Episode 5 is a masterclass of storytelling and action. Mizu's backstory is painfully tragic.

So glad to see people giving this show the attention it deserves. hope we get a second season

I sat down to watch it and was completely blown away by episode 1. I binged the rest in two days (I've got kids so not easily done) and I have put off watching the finale. I don't want the show to be over.

On the topic of the villain, Abijah Fowler, guns and Western influence (some spoilers): I believe that the second season will focus on what had been occurring in Europe in the century before 1657 (when BES takes place). The Thirty Years War had ended in 1648, which was a conflict (tied to some smaller ones happening simultaneously mainly called the Wars of Religion) that devastated most of Central Europe. The results of the wars due to the Europe entering its 'Modern" period with introduction of modern professional armies and firearms, much of that is due to the introduction of gunpowder from... Asia, in the High Middle Ages, but the technology rapidly advanced when various Catholic and Protestant nations fought each other or the Ottoman Empire, a Muslim state. After the conflicts began to simmer down, many of the European kingdoms began to look to the Americas, Africa and Asia for resources in order to rebuild their ruined lands, to the lament of indigenous populations. The beginnings of what we know as 'colonialism' in earnest, rather than exploration and territory grabbing that occurred in the 1500s. As for Fowler, in the show, he mentioned surviving war and famine in Ireland. This was during the Nine Years' War (1593-1603) in which the Tudor Royal Army crushed a rebellion by the Irish against their rule, for religious and ethnic reasons; the war caused a large-scale famine to sweep the island. Fowler was shaped into a monster by the death of his sister and the cannibalization he had to partake in to survive, on top of the ethnic disdain the English had for the Irish at this time and centuries before. This likely created a dark hole in his soul that could not be filled no matter the horrors he could commit to other humans, especially to races or ethnicities he might view as lesser than he is. By the time the show occurs, Great Britain is a republic under the domination of the ailing Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. He conducted a brutal suppression of Irish Loyalists after the English Civil Wars from 1649 to 1653. The sheer destruction has often attributed Europe's first modern genocide to Cromwell. Fowler, by this time living in Japan, would have heard of what had been happening and that would have probably made his bitterness worse, hence his need to depose the Shogun and then take his tactics and scheme back home to depose the English as he alluded to in the show. Fowler is by no means a shallow villain. He is a product of personal tragedy and national atrocity, so he aims to inflict his pain unto others, even at the point of doing it to nations. He is essentially a walking microcosm of Europe itself in the 1600s. So... in a way... he and Mizu are two sides of the same coin; created from horrid experiences in their youths which has led them on a path to destruction, though Mizu wants to redeem herself for the pain she knows she has caused, while Fowler is lost to his madness.

It'll be very interesting to see how Season 2 plays out because Mizu will be seen as too Asian for London. She's seen as too White for Japan which marks her impurity but in London, she'll be seen as too Asian which marks her impurity there too. Imagine when she gets off the boat and hears ENGLISH for the first time, that'll reveal to the audience that the whole time she's been speaking Japanese and now has to learn a new language and learn a new culture.

As someone who was born in Japan, but grew up in the UK, I really enjoyed the series. I think Darren has got it right - It's not a 'Japanese' viewpoint, a Western one , but specifically a Mixed one. As a child I desperately wanted to connect to japanese culture but in the 70s and 80s and beyond Western popular media was simplistic, romanticised and more than a little racist, but I grabbed onto it as the only thing I had - whether that was Karate Kid, or James Clavell's Shogun etc ... which in retrospect look pretty dodgy but I still can't not feel affection towards them, and I get that sense from the series. Yes it's cheesy and No its not a portrayal what Japan is or was. And yes Racism exists in both the west and Japan, and for mixed race people you get a double whammy. So anyway, I connected with Mizu and the writers of this one. I loved it.

It is a beautifully animated story, loved every second of it... I really got invested in Mizu story and her path... hopefully there will be a Season 2.

*SPOILER* Wait, hold on. Fouler doesn't burn down Edo. Mizu starts the fire, and intentionaly, to corner him. The city becomes another victim of her single-minded pursuit of revenge. Great essay! Keep it up!

Silly thing to bring up, there was a metal gear solid parody I saw floating around that compared the katana to the revolver in that both had been similarly romanticized by media and pop culture. Hearing just how much cross-pollination occurred between the samurai and western genres, it seems that observation was more true than the parodies creator intended.

Watched this, less than two hours later the advertisement for season two popped into my KZfaq feed. Someone somewhere is paying attention. 😅

Great show, great vid. You mention the last 4 letters of Noizumi's name is Mizu. The first 3 letters are also an anagram of Oni, or demon. Oni Mizu - she's seen as (and sees herself as) a demon frequently, so I wonder if this was intentional too

It’s a fantastic show! Really enjoying it so far.

Great video! Just one critique. It wasn't Fowler that burned down the city, it was Mizu. It was a pretty significant moment for her so I think it's worth mentioning the error.

Jesse Cox recommended this on the Geekenders and my wife and I immediately binged the whole thing. So so good, I can't wait for season 2!

Can´t believe you actually made me regret not having Netflix anymore...

You guys are rock stars!!! I hope everyone is settling in at Second Wind and I look forward to more and more of these deep takes on games and cinema.

I have one last episode to watch tonight, but I just wanted to chime in that the layered storytelling in episode 5 - between Mizu's current situation, past experience, and the puppetry play/narration - is in my opinion one of the best pieces of video I've seen in a while. Maybe not groundbreaking, but exceptionally well produced. Glad to have Darren's commentary back so soon and almost uninterrupted. Wishing Second Wind all the best, I'll be here to watch it all.

Yes Mr Mooney! We need The Recap back please 😍

this show was amazing, thoughtful and entertaining.

I paused, now I need a series 2

So glad I became a patron. I did it for your work on games but you may be becoming the best voice in media criticism. Thanks 🥰

I was bored one day browsing netflix and saw this, I was like ‘eh ill give it a try’. It completely blew away my expectations, its a very well made show.

Been following Mr Mooney's work since discovering his blog several years ago, and just want to say again how glad I am that he made the jump with the rest of the Second Wind team. I'll definitely miss his written columns, but having a visual component to essays written about film and television is undoubtedly a wonderful fit.

Finally finished it! Thanks for recommending it! Came right back here when I was done :)

I'm happy to hear you point out the beauty in the crossing of cultures and races. I personally finds people of mixed heritage to be more beautiful than those of who aren't. The show not only tells us that Mizu is beautiful and desirable to the people that let themselves get close to her, it also demonstrates that she's smarter and more capable than anyone else despite her being considered as a lesser being.

Thanks for bringing this series to my attention! Glad to see this one get a second season.

On the theme of someone being alienated due to their foreign heritage, "Sword of the Stranger/ストレンヂア無皇刃譚" had done it best for me so far. Even today, the animation holds up incredibly well and has one of the best, if not the best, sword duels I have ever seen in animation. The plot is rather simple and straightforward despite the animation's elaborate animation; however, that simplicity is perfectly sufficient for the emotional narrative the movie wishes to convey. A plot that honed in more on the political dynamics of the time would have taken away from the themes of alienation and the philosophy of antimilitarism at the movie's core. As for the edo period (ended by the Meiji Restoration) and the narrative of a more advanced western world encroaching upon Japan (oh the arrival of the black ships, complicated tales of misguided good intentions, revolution and the tragedy of revolution, anything to do with the Shinsengumi or the romantic ideas they represented etc etc), the setting lends itself so naturally to so many interesting ideas. One of my favorite fictional work (Full Metal Daemon Muramasa) takes place in said setting.... or well, a setting loosely based on said time period (instead of the samurai class and guns, you have human sacrifice mechas with superpowers and the invention of super laser guns transforming warfare.) So a show that touches upon the two points above is automatically going to pique my interest. However, I also worry that Blue Eyes Samurai will go for a safer route and take a more western perspective that focuses solely on the positives of culture blending. (This approach might portray the Meiji Restoration as some wholly positive symbolic affair where it's a blend of rapid westernization and a return to traditional japanese values with power being restored to the imperial family.) Or that it would turn out to be a watered down "colonialism bad" take like the Last Samurai where the traditional values of Japan become romanticized as this fragile beauty that must fade with time (something something wabisabi, but the western watered down version of it.). In reality, the Restoration and the whole mess surrounding it is a complicated affair where there are no simple answers. Many obvious good things came of it from Japan's rise in power and the rapid technological improvements; however, it also gave way to many evils which had been more than sufficiently explore in far too many other japanese literary works of the last century (especially with the easy parallels to the japanese leftist movements of the 60s and 70s) I suppose the only way to know is to watch the show and find out myself. Time to check the show out!

Love seeing this, it's great to see visual to your article on the same subject. Thank you Darren Mooney and Second wind team.

This was the best show I've seen this year, period

Glad to see Darren’s videos going stronger than ever. Honestly not enough people talking about one of the best shows of the year. Hopefully we can get more of his coverage of less mainstream film and television. You can tell that the corporate types on the other channel never gave him the freedom he deserved.

Wondering how the dynamic will be in the 2nd season. Will Mizu have some sort of exotic clout in a foreign culture or be doubly disadvantaged by everything being so alien? Also, here's hoping Gerard Butler is somehow one of the white devils she's hunting.

"Hey, look at that, it says, 'Made in Japan.'" "Of course, Doc, all the best things are made in Japan." "Fascinating!"

After this review i watched the whole show, it was incredible, thanks Second Wind team!!

Didn’t finish the video, I’ll be back once I’m done with the series!

I had no idea this existed before coming across this video. I would've missed out on one of the best shows of the year.

I paused this video at the time it released, and I've just come back to watch it having finished the show.

i was glued to my screen from start to finish! great stuff!

In a lot of modern fiction, cowboys are American samurai, and samurai are Japanese cowboys

Top notch presentation... keep it up Second Wind

This was a beautiful analysis, really loved it ❤❤❤

Thank you very much for the recommendation Darren! Just started watching and the first episode was magical!

I still appreciate that all of your discussions remain as far away as "this thing good, thing thing bad" and focus in on what makes them interesting. Not good, not bad, but interesting.

Fantastic video essay! Definitely going to follow you alongside Cinemastix, Nerdstalgic, and others for this kind of awesome analysis

What's really interesting to consider is that the ideological viewpoint fueling american isolationism this time around is partially rooted in the an idealized version of the old west depicted in the westerns that took influence from the samurai films. Films that have had time for three generations to grow up watching them and internalizing them.

This by far is the best analysis I've come across of BES.

Genuinely the best show I’ve ever seen, and man did it suprise me

Blue-eye samurai and Arcane are my personal examples of perfection.

Thanks for this vid! Checked the show out as a result and was delighted and impressed. It hits a tone and approach to storytelling that worked for me really well, with compelling characters and gorgeous animation. Wouldn't have watched it if not for you.

2:07 huh, I never would have guessed! and yeah that was the exact scene I was thinking of... but man the wife and I watched this series and enjoyed every minute of it. Hoping it gets a second season I'd love to see how that story plays out.

Great video! I havent watched blue eye yet but ignored your warning at the start.. Wanna watch it more now after seeing this!

I love Back Drop

Beautiful design.

Loved the article you did on this, which made me want to watch it, and I'm glad I did. The video was even better

Great look at this wondaful show. Big fan of your new intro too.

I award this video with my biggest compliment (i watched it while having lunching). This is a nice series so far, glad I'm giving the other content a chance this time, keep up the good work

Love this show

Love this channel

Loved this show!

The show is so beautiful!

The plotting gets a bit messy towards the end of the season, but I'm here for the ride.

Best show of the freaking year. So good. It's getting rewatched.

Spectacular script Darren Amazing edition Omar As always It has always being astonishing to me the Love/hate relationship that Japan/USA have always had. This profound respect but envy at the same time of the other ways that you can clearly see in the representation of one in the other, whatever is movies, games or anything else. and that has impacted their culture, their "ways"

Took your advice and binged it. Holy god that was an awesome show. Now that I have seen it listening to your review did make a few areas make more sense.

Kazuo Ishiguro's novel When We Were Orphans deals explicitly some of the same themes, and has a similar moment to Mizu's conversation about impurity and strength, in which an elderly man advises a young child of two cultures: "Perhaps one day, all these conflicts will end, and it won't be because of great statesmen or churches or organisations like this one. It'll be because people have changed. They'll be like you, Puffin. More a mixture. So why not become a mongrel? It's healthy."

One small twerk: Fowler didn't start the fire, Mizu did when they threw the candle.

I've missed Darren's deep dives!

Great video! Minor note in the close caption at 2:50, the character is saying "onryō" (a type of yokai that comes up repeatedly in the show), not "un-real"

how come the title cards from second wind are so much better than the old ones on the escapist

This was pretty dam good.

I really enjoyed this series. Off topic: I recently enjoyed Lockwood and Co - somehow it went under my radar and has apparently not been renewed for a second season

Fantastic show. As a side note to your explanation of American and Japanese cultures, if I want a Japanese product, it better be made in Japan and for good reason. Fantastic quality.

Haven't seen it yet, thanks for the recommendation and breakdown 🤘

Loved the video, great analysis! 💙

Nice review, thanks for sharing. Love this show, so glad to hear of its renewal!

Sounds almost like a more philosophical mature expanded version of Mulan. I'll definitely check this out.

But it was Mizu who started the fire in the city not Fowler.

Thanks for the video!

Well guess I will come back to this episode next week!

Loved this show, and was very excited to see this video come up in the schedule! And I finally know who Darren Mooney (no relation) is. That was a joke without a punchline for the longest time.

I was so impressed with this series and I loved it!

I was surpired by the end, since I felt there was more to explopre, but what an amazing piece... I was flabbergasted by the insights in this review. Was hoping for more, but maybe that is asking for more then you can ask for.

I was going to pass this show off as another Netflix weird show but you have convinced me to give it a shot

Blue eye samurai was probably my favourite show of 2023

I just finished this show and I agree. Absolutely stunning show

Wonderful show. Some of the historical inaccuracies are pretty frustrating if you care about that. I very much hope for a season 2.

Amazing show! PEACHES!

Yes. If you can, go watch this.

Next season is gonna be culture shock for the protagonist

Good essay!

I don't know. Watching the show as a European, it's definitely nicely animated and has lots of pop culture references to show for. But it is also a lot more American than Asian. The whole hyphenated-American identity is one-sided. Mizu being a woman but passing for a man seems awfully modern American too. The show does put its other female characters into a pile of misery when their pursuit of freedom meets reality, but Mizu mostly gets away with it by being a blockhead and having zero personal growth. She starts on a bitter revenge plot and ends exactly there. Combat is also weirdly inconsistent, with Mizu being able to 1on4 professional assassins and soloing an entire fortress but then getting dunked on by Fowler. Make up your mind show. At least have it be close. And no, getting wounded at the beginning of each fight isn't a good trope either. In the end it's a nice inversion of the "sorry-for-colonialism" genre of Pocahontas, Avatar and Last Samurai, but season 2 has a lot of plot holes to fill before this becomes actually good.

Please talk about Captain Laserhawk a blood dragon remix.

Fine, I’ll be back after 8 episodes

i am of two mind on this show. Because animation and the premise are very good, the story is interesting but every once in a while there is a scene or a piece that seems out of place, "edgy" or forced that was always preventing to consider it awesome. I'd still recommend it though.

great reccomendation it was amazing i now like more than just ghibli anime, i never would have thought

Thanks again

Thanks for your great analysis

Peaches, peaches, peaches peaches peaches!