General
- Throughout the series, Ringo never fails to hide that Mizu is a woman, despite being a bit of a chatterbox. Even in moments of stress and tension, he never lets it slip.
- In general the animation is absolutely beautiful and the choreography of the fights are stunning to watch.
- Given what an asshole he is, Mizu slicing off Hachiman's fingers, first when he points a gun at her and then when he insults her for being mixed race, is this if only for the Catharsis Factor.
- During her first fight with Taigen, Mizu holds her own well against him even after fighting several students in the Shindo Dojo. Just as it seems that he has overpowered her, she removes the weights she carried on her forearms and shins and defeats him effortlessly.
- Taigen deserves props for being the first character we see onscreen to give Mizu a real challenge.
An Unexpected Element
- Mizu's fight with the Four Fangs. Realizing that she can't beat all four of them when they gang up on her, she jumps down onto a cliff ledge, forcing them to split up and allowing her to dispatch them one at a time.
A Fixed Number of Paths
- Mizu figuring out from Shindo's attempts at negotiation that there is a way into Fowler's castle and the prostitutes smuggled in know it. Then she and Taigen surviving a Rain of Arrows until Ringo can arrive.
- Ringo taking the precaution of poisoning Shindo's Giant Mook before he can turn on them, and then using him as a Bulletproof Human Shield to ride through the arrows and rescue Mizu and Taigen. It finally gets Mizu (and Taigen) to respect him.
Peculiarities
- Akemi making Watari orgasm without ever touching him or taking off her clothes. Even the experienced prostitutes are impressed with her.
The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride
- Mizu fighting off the Thousand Claws bandit clan almost entirely on her own.
- Despite being a diminutive Sheltered Aristocrat having nothing resembling training or experience with violence, Akemi grabs a knife and insists on helping Ringo guard the basement the prostitutes retreated to, even lethally getting the drop on a couple of the killers.
- In the flashback, Mizu easily disarms and beats her husband in duel, despite the fact that he used to be a respected samurai in his own right. While initially he wasn't really putting up much of a fight because he underestimated her, it was also very apparent that she outclassed him in every way when he started getting a bit more serious.
- Despite his previous great admiration for Mizu, Ringo recognizes her flaws when she gives up Akemi to her pursuers, stands up to her and walks away.
All Evil Dreams and Angry Words
- The entirety of the episode, in which Mizu breaches Fowler's castle and practically single-handedly fights through all of his forces, breaks through every line of defense and would probably have killed him then and there if she hadn't been so badly injured.
Nothing Broken
- Fowler was able to smuggle 2000 guns and bypass the people who wanted to intercept him by designing the guns' parts to look like recreational goods that have to be taken apart and reconstructed.
- Akemi refusing to sit back and simply be the pretty wife of the shogun's second son. She calmly took whatever her mother-in-law threw at her, managed to gain favor with her husband, and fire her old attendants to make way for new ones.
The Great Fire of 1657
- Fowler leading his Million Mook March right to Edo palace's doorsteps, and crushing its defense lines in less than an hour, showing just how game-changing guns are for the period.
- Taigen finally catches up to Heiji Shindo, the man who had him tortured while narrating the brutality ("He will hit you with a fist. He will hit you with a club. He will hit you with a hammer.").Heiji: "Name your price. You want gold? You want to be a lord? It can all be yours."
Taigen: (Utterly cold and calm) "He will kill you... with a sword." - With Mizu more healed, she was able to go toe to toe with an armed Fowler. The only reason she doesn't kill him is because she needs him to take her to London to kill her other potential fathers.
- The way Fowler reacts to Mizu is not to say that she keeps turning up, but that she keeps happening, like a force of nature that can't be suppressed.
- Akemi has both the presence of mind and the ruthlessness to stop and shut the gates during her and Seki's flight, destroying Fowler's rifleman brigade by trapping them in the inferno.
