History WesternAnimation / BlueEyeSamurai

** [[spoiler: Apparently learning nothing from the prior mistake, Heiji later tries to bribe Taigen into sparing him when the coup attempt ultimately fails. That's after both trying to overthrow the shogunate ''and'' personally enjoying the sight of Taigen tortures. He gets a slow and painful death for all of this]].

* YourCostumeNeedsWork: When Akemi enters [[spoiler: madame Kaji's brothel, Kaji isn't impressed, pointing out they already got the "princess act" covered by Ise.]].

* TooImportantToWalk: Akemi's first presence on screen is as she's loudly announced by her servants, who carry her in an elaborate norimono. Even when she [[spoilers: decides to run away and search for Taigen]], she does so with the use of the litter, loaded with a whole lot of luggage in tow.

* LeaveYourQuestTest: A really brutal one, as if Mizu didn't suffer enough already. [[spoiler: In the past, she ''did'' abandon her revenge, then ''married'', settled down, and was actually happy with her life, even going as far as embracing the socially-mandated role of a quiet housewife to keep her relationship going. It wasn't until she was betrayed by her husband, whom she ultimately killed herself, that she became fully dedicated to her revenge]].

* LeaveYourQuestTest: A really brutal one, as if Mizu didn't suffer enough already. [[spoiler: In the past, she married, settled down, and was actually happy with her life, even going as far as embracing the socially-mandated role of a quiet housewife to keep her relationship going. It wasn't until she was betrayed by her husband, whom she ultimately killed herself, that she became fully dedicated to her revenge]].

** Meteorite fall saves Mizu's skin and gets her under master Eiji's wing within a single afternoon. Years later, she uses that very ThunderboltIron to forge a sword for herself.

* ImprovisedTraining: Combined with in-universe UnconventionalLearningExperience and AwesomenessByAnalysis. Mizu is a self-taught swordswoman, but she spent ''years'' repeating various moves of samurai that had to present their techniques to master Eiji to get a proper sword for their needs, and from time to time, she had an actual tutor to help her around. This does significantly colour her fighting style - since she's not following any particular school, while knowing so many of them and their signature moves, she cuts through routine-trained mooks like a hot knife through butter, while ''always'' going for the lowest, most effective, and least tiring blows in the process.

** Mizu managed to forge a sword out of the meteorite master Eiji had been struggling to smelt for so many years.

* ThugDojo: Despite their renown, the Shindo-Ryu Dojo is full of overconfident jerks, trained by dismissive teachers and the place clearly lacks any discipline - not to mention actual quality training. It seems this was an OpenSecret even when Mizu was a child, since when their alumni visited master Eiji's forge, the old swordmaker dismissed his "secret technique" as showy, but useless.

** Saki, Akemi's OldRetainer. [[spoiler: When she calls him out for betraying her trust and setting up an ArrangedMarriage for her, he simply asks ''why'' she is free-spirited, well-read and so fiercely independent - or if she really thinks it was her own actions or that he didn't know about her sneaking around as a child. His goal was to prepare her as best as possible for court life, rather than being a TrophyWife]].

* UnwantedAssistance: Ringo tags along with Mizu, much to her annoyance. She doesn't want his help and repeatedly tells him to just leave her alone, but he always comes back. She eventually grudgingly accepts that he's indeed "[[ExactWords Useful]]". [[spoiler: When the main characters end up back in master Eiji's forge, Ringo becomes unwanted assistance to the old swordmaker]].

** Kinuyo is implied to be underage. That doesn't stop boss Hamata from abusing her to the point where she regularly needs a doctor to recover from the bruises he leaves her with.

* LeaveYourQuestTest: A really brutal one, as if Mizu didn't suffer enough already. [[spoiler: In the past, she found out she didn't have the guts to go through with her revenge vow. She married, settled down, and was actually happy with her life, even going as far as embracing the socially-mandated role of a quiet housewife to keep her relationship going. It wasn't until she was betrayed by her husband, whom she ultimately killed herself, that she became fully dedicated to her revenge]].
* LethalChef: [[spoiler: Part of the expectations of a good wife is [[FeminineWomenCanCook the ability to cook]]]]. Mizu not only lacks any kind of practice beyond the bare basics, but never accounted for the taste of her dishes prior, having only to serve herself and master Eiji. [[spoiler: After a single bite of her food, Mikio simply excuses himself with work and leaves the rest of the bowl untouched]].

** Between onryo's mask from Mizu's story to master Eiji and her own (younger) face.

** Between Mizu MeditatingUnderAWaterfall and a flashback, where she's kneeling in front of master Eiji to tell him she's leaving.

* NaginatasAreFeminine: Ironically it was Mikio, [[spoiler: Mizu's husband]], who first demonstrated to her the usefulness of the naginata, saying it's old-fashioned but [[ChekhovsLecture useful when you're outnumbered]]. In that same episode, we discover the [[ImposedHandicapTraining metal plates present-day Mizu wears wrapped around her legs and arms]] [[spoiler: can be curled up and connected together to form the shaft of an improvised naginata]]. Mizu also plays with this trope in that while she is a woman, she isn't particularly feminine and is also [[SweetPollyOliver successfully passing as a man to everyone around]]. The only time this trope is played straight is the flashback, where [[spoiler: Mizu in her bridal kimono and gentle, if [[YourMakeupIsRunning running]], make-up, defeats a group of bounty hunters, fighting with Mikio's naginata]].

** Lord Daichi's father was a pig farmer. He's a daymio of the Yodo domain (or its [[RubberBandHistory in-universe equivalent]]), getting there despite his lowly origins. He climbed to his station before Akemi was even born, meaning he did it at the tail end of the Sengoku period and might or might not achieve it all due to a string of {{Field Promotion}}s and later manoeuvring.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Mizu is an OutsideContextProblem to the [[spoiler: political coup planned by Fowler and Heiji Shindo]], but her constant meddling and personally targetting Fowler (not to mention [[spoiler: nearly killing Heiji for getting in her way) puts the whole plan in jeopardy. Up to the point where she's the only reason why the coup fails, even if she couldn't care less about all the high politics and has no respect towards the shogun or the shogunate]].

** After [[spoiler: killing master Chiba and exposing his plot against himself]], Fowler [[DesecratingTheDead spits on his dead body]].

* SpitefulSpit: When Mizu has [[spoiler: defeated Fowler and holds him at the tip of his own dagger, all he does is laugh and spit in her face with his own blood]].
* StayInTheKitchen: This being early Edo period, YamatoNadeshiko-like ideal of womanhood is being ''enforced by law'', against the will of women and often also simple logic. And it covers ''all'' social classes:

* InstantlyProvenWrong: [[spoiler: One of the two shogunate emmisaries points out that [[WhoDares nobody would dare]] to [[DiplomaticImpunity attack dignitaries like them]], as it would bring wrath the entire shogunate against such a person. His partner agrees... and is instantly pierced by Mizu's sword, InTheBack to boot]].

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:Madame Kaiji's request for Mizu to MercyKill Kinuyo and MakeItLookLikeAnAccident in order to avoid Boss Hamata slaughtering everybody in the brothel in retaliation proves to be this on two fronts. Firstly, whilst Mizu does initially succeed in the kill and posing the body of Hamata's personal bodyguard to make it look like a MutualKill, she is seen by a young boy on leaving the building. Unable to bring herself to kill the witness, she instead tries to get him to alert the guards to the scene and keep quiet about her, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished only for the boy to reveal the truth to Hamata]], prompting his Thousand Claws gang to assault the prostitues as Kaiji feared. Secondly, despite the odds, Mizu proves skilled and determined enough in the subsequent melee to [[OneManArmy slaughter all the gang members]] save Hamata himself, depriving him of any power or leverage he had in the town and meaning that Kinuyo's death was ultimately avoidable if Mizu had simply fought the gang directly from the start]].

* SkilledAndStrong: Fowler has mastered the use of a Japanese katana well enough that Mizu comments on the cleanness of a chrysanthemum stem he cut, stating that it shows a master's skill. Despite that, he prefers using brute force in a fight whenever he can't use a gun, using speed and strength and whatever is in the environment to give himself every advantage he can, putting Mizu on the ropes several times despite her sword skills being among the best demonstrated in the series.

* TheCoatsAreOff: When Mizu starts to fight against the students of the Shindo dojo, she takes off her winter cape.

* SparingTheFinalMook: At one point while [[StormingTheCastle attacking Fowler's castle]], Mizu faces off against a detachment of samurai mooks. One of them freezes mid-combat and can only watch in horror as Mizu [[MookHorrorShow brutally fights her way through the rest of the group]]. Eventually he's the only one left, and he and Mizu appear to either silently or off-screen come to an agreement, and he retrieves her sword from a trap where she was forced to leave it. After he does so she leaves him alive and goes on her way, leading to him collapsing in relief in the background.

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Meireki The fire of 1657]] which dominates a large portion of the first season's finale (to the point of being the episode's name) really did happen, with most of Edo burning to the ground just like in the show. In real life, [[spoiler: the fire started in a temple, and the main keep of the shogun's palace survived; but in the show, the main keep is where the fire starts, and it goes up like a match.]]

** Later on, the same trend continues - [[spoiler: Akemi notices Mizu is wearing Taigen's scarf. She jumps to the conclusion that Taigen was defeated in a rematch and plans to avenge him by poisoning and butchering Mizu. In reality, Mizu simply took it after knocking Taigen out to ditch him once more]].

* RubberBandHistory: Despite [[AlternateHistory various smaller and bigger changes to historical events]], Sengoku period still concludes with the establishment of the shogunate of the victorious clan, sakoku policies are still implemented and very limited trade with foreigners is going on, all in roughly the same timeframe as it did in real-life history.

**  Mizu was planning to bribe her way through it, and when noticing [[BribeBackfire how the guard reacted to a bribe attempt by another person]], she simply backs off to find another route, not wanting to cause extra trouble or get into a pointless fight. [[spoiler: The only reason she passes through is because Ringo helped her with his own permit]].

* SacredHospitality: Invoked and exploited. When she's about to be thrown out of the Shindo dojo, Mizu invokes the hospitality for travellers, asking if the school has fallen low enough to not even feed her first. She doesn't really care for the food or the custom, but just needs to stall for time.

* SoMuchForStealth: In a SerialEscalation style, no less. [[spoiler: As Mizu infiltrates Fowler's fortress, she successfully sneaks on one of the guards and kills him without any noise... until he drops his spear, which clatters on the flagstones, alerting a second guard. Mizu kills him in the last moment before he can raise the alarm, only for his blood to leak under the door, alerting a ''third'' guard Mizu was unaware of, who pulls the bell rope to sound the alarm before Mizu can pick the lock on the door and kill him as well]]. From that moment on, she has to face an ever-growing number of guards on her path.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Mizu is an OutsideContextProblem to the [[spoiler: plan of a political coup planned by Fowler and Heiji Shindo]], but her constant meddling and personally targetting Fowler (not to mention [[spoiler: nearly killing Heiji for getting in her way) puts the whole plan in jeopardy. Up to the point where she's the only reason why the coup fails, even if she couldn't care less about all the high politics and has no respect towards the shogun or the shogunate]].

* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: [[spoiler: Mizu is effectively a man, but she still displays interest in pretty trinkets and [[AllGirlsLikePonies horses]] whenever she has spare time to waste]].

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The first episode concludes with a ''five-minute-long'' montage of events from the rest of the season, spoiling just about anything that's gonna happen waaay ahead of time before those events are even ''implied'' in the series. It completely deflates any sort of tension or shock.

** [[spoiler: Heiji Shindo tries to simply buy off Mizu to prevent her from further complicating the planned for years coup]]. Not only [[MoneyIsNotPower he achieves nothing]], but after being too pushy, he also [[AnArmAndALeg loses his right arm]] for his trouble.
** [[spoiler: Apparently learning nothing from the prior mistake, Heiji later tries to bribe Taigen into sparing him when the coup attempt ultimately fails. That's after both trying to overthrow the shogunate ''and'' personally enjoying the sight of Taigen tortures. He gets a slow and painful death for all of this]].* BrickJoke: At the festival in Mihonoseki, an old woman says that she is planning to wish for a new husband if she wins the contest. Two episodes later, when Akemi travels to Mihonoseki, the old woman reappears with her new husband in tow; though she didn't win, her wish still came true.

[[folder:T-Y]]

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Somewhat justified. Mizu only does it either as emergency, or when someone is running away or when facing her final opponent. She proven time and again she doesn't ''need'' a weapon to remain lethally dangerous.

** Mizu ultimately becomes the owner of [[Chiaki's broken sword]]. For added irony, she forged it herself as a teen, and he never paid for it, so it was technically always hers.

* DeathCourse: Abijah Fowler lives in an island fortress with all levels of his castle protected by guards and traps. [[spoiler: Even though Mizu is informed of a SecretUndergroundPassage (which is also booby-trapped) the guards are quickly alerted to her presence, and she has to fight her way through, while ''also'' having to deal with the traps. By the time she gets to Fowler, [[YouCanBarelyStand she's so exhausted and debilitated from her injuries]] she can't defeat him - and Fowler opens their confrontation by shooting her]]]].