When Tecmo made Ninja Gaiden 3, they had in mind to appeal to the western market, with Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi commenting “It seems like we made a Japanese hamburger for the West”.
Seeing this series kept reminding me of this lil comment of a rather failed project, but on the opposite.
On its visuals, Blue Eye Samurai has everything going superbly. The photography is really good, the character designs are interesting, the combat choreography and the visuals are downright stunning. Lots of shots are so well done and artistic, they could be turned into wallpapers. Soundtrack isn't shabby either, with a mix of more modern tunes like 'Battle Without Honor or Humanity' (nice reference to Kill Bill ) and more fitting tunes.
The problem, and what ultimately made me quit this series in the fourth episode, is that by the end of the day this feels like dressing to a wreck of a plot made with the barest of research and care in its making, and mostly because its a japanese tale of revenge made with North American style, design and mindset.
First and foremost, nearly every single person in this tale is an unrepentant jackass, North-American Style. Normally, its ok! There are several animes where the leads are jackasses (Konosuba is one of my favorites) except here it reaches the point of being literally suicidal: People need to respond with snide remarks as if its as vital for them as breathing, even if they are badmouthing armed and dangerous people right in front of them, literally, seriously. To prevent Mizu, the protagonist, from being completely unlikeable, the writers brought the Morality Pet of Ringo, and he reaches such levels of annoyance that I was reminded of Slimer from The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. It fails, because regardless of giving money to the poor or monks from time to time, Mizu acts constantly demanding the world a straightforward clear path towards revenge, and if not they can suck that metaphorical dick to the point of also being suicidally stupid. Not that being polite would help, because again, everyone here breathes jackassery to cartoonish levels. So I couldn't care about anything or anyone. Any good opportunities for fleshing out characters are wasted because they NEED to behave like selfish jerks every single second.
The second problem is that... the writers don't seem to know what sort of story this is, because its scope and tone keeps changing. If it was a straightforward revenge plot akin to Afro Samurai with a morally gray character, sure, no problem. Yet here, since Mizu needs to act like a jackass, the writers try to make the protagonist sympathetic by adding filler flashbacks which are ultimately moot because we all know the protagonist had a really, really shitty life. Why not, you know, show Mizu's miserable upbringing through dialogue (and thus fleshing out relationships) or experiences and such?
It feels as if they couldn't keep the plot simple either, because suddenly, its not just a revenge plot, but one that will involve the Whole Japan! Saving the world syndrome? Still, it gets worse when you stop to think about it, plotholes appearing left and right, from minor to gigantic. Why the hell should Mizu care about a princess that tried to poison and kill her? How the heck did the Dojo Master travelled to see his brother and warn him about Mizu while she was bathing and healing her wounds? Dude teleports? Why isn't that dojo hunting Mizu left and right? I'm not a specialist in Japanese History, at best I have the volumes of "Musashi" (the books, not the manga), and even I went 'did these guys even research history?'. So the characters aren't interesting and the plot is full of holes, there is only the art to keep it going. Lastly, english voice directing was meh to bad, I counted at least three different ways people said "Ryu".
So if this was an attempt of imitating japanese storytelling, making sushi, it ended with fried salmon with spicy rice. It will find someone who likes it, if you know how disjointed it is, you may try it, but don't come here looking for good sushi, or good burger.
WesternAnimation The American Sushi.
When Tecmo made Ninja Gaiden 3, they had in mind to appeal to the western market, with Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi commenting “It seems like we made a Japanese hamburger for the West”.
Seeing this series kept reminding me of this lil comment of a rather failed project, but on the opposite.
On its visuals, Blue Eye Samurai has everything going superbly. The photography is really good, the character designs are interesting, the combat choreography and the visuals are downright stunning. Lots of shots are so well done and artistic, they could be turned into wallpapers. Soundtrack isn't shabby either, with a mix of more modern tunes like 'Battle Without Honor or Humanity' (nice reference to Kill Bill ) and more fitting tunes.
The problem, and what ultimately made me quit this series in the fourth episode, is that by the end of the day this feels like dressing to a wreck of a plot made with the barest of research and care in its making, and mostly because its a japanese tale of revenge made with North American style, design and mindset.
First and foremost, nearly every single person in this tale is an unrepentant jackass, North-American Style. Normally, its ok! There are several animes where the leads are jackasses (Konosuba is one of my favorites) except here it reaches the point of being literally suicidal: People need to respond with snide remarks as if its as vital for them as breathing, even if they are badmouthing armed and dangerous people right in front of them, literally, seriously. To prevent Mizu, the protagonist, from being completely unlikeable, the writers brought the Morality Pet of Ringo, and he reaches such levels of annoyance that I was reminded of Slimer from The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. It fails, because regardless of giving money to the poor or monks from time to time, Mizu acts constantly demanding the world a straightforward clear path towards revenge, and if not they can suck that metaphorical dick to the point of also being suicidally stupid. Not that being polite would help, because again, everyone here breathes jackassery to cartoonish levels. So I couldn't care about anything or anyone. Any good opportunities for fleshing out characters are wasted because they NEED to behave like selfish jerks every single second.
The second problem is that... the writers don't seem to know what sort of story this is, because its scope and tone keeps changing. If it was a straightforward revenge plot akin to Afro Samurai with a morally gray character, sure, no problem. Yet here, since Mizu needs to act like a jackass, the writers try to make the protagonist sympathetic by adding filler flashbacks which are ultimately moot because we all know the protagonist had a really, really shitty life. Why not, you know, show Mizu's miserable upbringing through dialogue (and thus fleshing out relationships) or experiences and such?
It feels as if they couldn't keep the plot simple either, because suddenly, its not just a revenge plot, but one that will involve the Whole Japan! Saving the world syndrome? Still, it gets worse when you stop to think about it, plotholes appearing left and right, from minor to gigantic. Why the hell should Mizu care about a princess that tried to poison and kill her? How the heck did the Dojo Master travelled to see his brother and warn him about Mizu while she was bathing and healing her wounds? Dude teleports? Why isn't that dojo hunting Mizu left and right? I'm not a specialist in Japanese History, at best I have the volumes of "Musashi" (the books, not the manga), and even I went 'did these guys even research history?'. So the characters aren't interesting and the plot is full of holes, there is only the art to keep it going. Lastly, english voice directing was meh to bad, I counted at least three different ways people said "Ryu".
So if this was an attempt of imitating japanese storytelling, making sushi, it ended with fried salmon with spicy rice. It will find someone who likes it, if you know how disjointed it is, you may try it, but don't come here looking for good sushi, or good burger.