Blue Eye Samurai tells the story of Mizu, a biracial warrior in medieval Japan who is out to kill the four men who could be her biological father and the orchestrators of the assassination attempts against her and her mother, something that has forced her to live her life as a man. She trains under a blind sword maker called Master Eiji and becomes an expert warrior. She tracks down and kills someone called Violet, which is something that happens off-screen. Then she goes for Abijah Fowler and every Japanese person, namely the flesh trader Heiji Shindo, who has helped him gain power and wealth. This quest brings her to Ringo, a cook at a soba shop with congenital hand anomalies, who tags along with her to be her apprentice. To get to Shindo, she attacks a dojo and makes an enemy in the form of Taigen. Taigen was supposed to marry Akemi, the daughter of Lord Daichi Tokunobu, but his defeat at the hands of Mizu forces him to seek out a rematch with her. Meanwhile, in an attempt to avoid the royal marriage that her father is planning, Akemi ends up in Madame Kaji’s “tea shop,” which is where she comes across Mizu, who sends her back to her father for her own protection. Mizu conducts her first failed attempt at killing Fowler, but rescues Taigen, who was being tortured by Fowler and Shindo’s men to make him talk about Mizu. Mizu conducts a second attempt at killing Fowler when she learns that he is going to finish Shogun Itoh and his family, which is the family that Lord Daichi wants Akemi to marry into. FYI, at the time of writing this article, we have no information on whether Blue Eye Samurai has been renewed or canceled. So, I will be speculating about what can happen in a hypothetical second season of the show based on the open story threads of Season 1.
Spoiler Alert
What Does Akemi Want To Do By Marrying into the Itoh Family?
Akemi is in love with Taigen. So, she obviously wants to marry him against her father’s will. But when her long-winded attempt to get to Taigen fails, she has no other option but to listen to her father and get married to Takayoshi Itoh, the son of Shogun Itoh. In addition to being against the concept of arranged marriage, Akemi shows aversion towards Takayoshi because of his reputation as an abusive man. However, when she learns that that is a facade that’s maintained to cover up his stammer and immaturity, Akemi sees an opportunity. An opportunity to do what? As explained by Madame Kaji, who is one of her employees after Akemi becomes Takayoshi’s betrothed, Akemi has never been the architect of her life. If she manages to puppeteer the docile Takayoshi, then she can always be in control.
Now, Akemi’s plan is obviously taken off-course by Fowler’s attack. But, with the unfortunate death of her assistant, Seki, she becomes determined to ignore her diminishing love for Taigen and focus on Takayoshi. The destruction of Edo, which destabilizes the Itoh family due to the death of the shogun, comes as a boon because it gives her fresh (maybe a little charred) ground to work on. Without the shogun, Lady Itoh and her sons will need all the support, and if Akemi presents herself as the spine of the newly formed shogunate, then she can be way more powerful than her father ever imagined he would be. She is definitely going to have an anti-white agenda because that’s one business policy of the previous shogunate that decimated Edo. Her relationship with Taigen has become complicated. There’s a good chance she’s going to keep him around in the shogun’s army because Taigen, along with Mizu, protected the Itoh household during such stressful times. Whether or not that kind of proximity will rekindle Taigen and Akemi’s love is something that remains to be seen.
What is Taigen going to do?
Talking about the rekindling of the affection between Taigen and Akemi, there’s an issue. Even though Taigen still thinks that Mizu is a man, he is attracted to her. During a sparring session, he makes it very obvious. When Mizu realizes that, she sends him in Akemi’s general direction and generates hatred in him against herself so that Taigen’s mind is clear about who he hates and who he loves. But when Akemi rejects Taigen’s proposal to come away with her, and she decides to stay with the Itoh family, his expressions say that he is experiencing severe heartbreak. We don’t see what happens to Taigen when Akemi tells him that their relationship is over, but it’s safe to assume that after all the fighting and the sadness, he is going to go and have a drink. After that, it’s up to him if he wants to go down a path of self-destruction or aid in the reconstruction of Edo.
As mentioned before, Taigen has proven his worth in front of the Itoh family. He is one of the most skilled samurai in Japan. So, if he wants and if Akemi allows it, he can continue working as the protector of the Itoh clan. Of course, that’ll lead to some complications between him, Akemi, and Takayoshi. If Taigen’s intentions are clear, though, that won’t be a big issue. Apart from that, I think the writers of Blue Eye Samurai are going to push for a romance between Mizu and Taigen, which feels so unnecessary. Mizu can become the perfect queer icon, and limiting her to a heterosexual relationship seems so stupid. Therefore, I hope that the whole arc is abandoned. Taigen can get his duel with Mizu, but that’s about it. In the year 2023, we don’t need yet another straight enemies-to-lovers romance. We can do better.
Is Eiji going to teach Ringo how to be a Good cook or a Good warrior?
Ringo has been on quite the journey. He would’ve lived an abusive life as the cook at his father’s shop. But his choice to tag along with Mizu during her revenge quest changed him fundamentally. He realized his purpose, which is to be someone who is great. During a cultural ceremony in one of the coastal towns where Ringo and Mizu make a pit stop, Ringo even prays to the gods to make him someone who is great. It’s a very vague goal, but sooner rather than later, Ringo realizes that he is meant to help great people achieve their greatness. If that helps him become someone notable, then that’s great. If it doesn’t work out, Ringo is seemingly okay with being a nice person who always does the right thing.
The only other person who has done something similar is Master Eiji. So, it’s fitting that Ringo goes back to Eiji because he vibes with his calm demeanor, and he thinks that if Eiji could’ve helped Mizu become the person she is currently, he can help him too in some way. Ringo is clearly under the assumption that Mizu is dead. There’s no way to tell when he is going to learn what Mizu is doing. Maybe after his training with Eiji is over, he is going to go and look for Mizu. Whether or not that’ll lead him to London is a big question mark. But we can fully expect to see Ringo make a surprise appearance in Blue Eye Samurai, especially during a moment when Mizu is backed into a corner. I mean, we’ve seen him do that in Season 1 quite a few times, and it’ll be a whistle-worthy moment if the makers do it again in the second season.
Will Fowler help Mizu fulfill her revenge?
Throughout Blue Eye Samurai, Mizu has been on this rather straightforward journey to kill Abijah Fowler because he is one of the four men who could be her biological father and the man who wanted to kill her and her mother. But since it’s 1657 and DNA tests do not exist, Fowler manages to find a loophole and casts doubt on Mizu’s urge to kill him. He says that he knows about the two other white men that Mizu is looking for: Skeffington and Routely. He knows that they are in London. And he also knows the whereabouts of Mizu’s biological mother. This information dump overwhelms Mizu, and she lets Fowler live so that he can guide her to those two men and her mother. Fowler knows that as soon as Mizu is done killing those two men, his time is up because Mizu isn’t looking for her father. The woman just wants to kill all the white men who were present in Japan at the time she was conceived.
It’s highly likely that Mizu has already killed her biological father. It’s possible that Mizu’s biological father is already dead due to some other reason. And it’s possible that Skeffington and Routely aren’t Mizu’s potential fathers, and they are just two heavy-hitters who can actually kill Mizu, thereby freeing Fowler. Fowler is doing everything in his power to extend his lifetime. He knows that he has lost everything. That’s why he is trying to take the home ground advantage and ambush Mizu. That said, Mizu isn’t an idiot. She has probably weighed all the possibilities. She knows that Fowler can fool her. She knows that there aren’t any more white men to kill in Japan, while London is teeming with them. And she knows that if the West isn’t stopped, they are going to invade Japan. So, in Season 2 of Blue Eye Samurai, there’s a good chance that Mizu is going to paint the streets of London red, not only to finish her revenge quest but also to protect Japan. That said, since there are two men that Mizu needs to go after, it’s possible that Season 2 will focus on getting to just one of them while setting the stage for the other one. As a fan of the show, I am here to watch 10 more seasons of Mizu hacking and slashing through the most seasoned warriors in the whole world, if that’s what the makers want to do. However, if they decide to end it with three, I won’t be complaining.
