Blue-Eyed Samurai is an absolute gem of a show. Since its debut in November, this animated Netflix hit has become a huge cult favorite, with many claiming it’s one of the best shows of its kind… well… ever? In it, Mizu, a blue-eyed, mixed-race samurai (voice: Maya Erskine), seeks revenge on the four men (one of whom is her father) who wronged her. Featuring an all-star voice cast that includes George Takei, Kenneth Branagh, Masi Oka, and many others, it’s quickly become a favorite of our own Taylor James Johnson, who you may know as the host of one of our most long-running series, WTF Happened to this Celebrity, as well as the recent reboot of C’Mon Hollywood.
Taylor recently met with the creators of Blue-Eyed Samuraime, Amber Noizumi and Michael Green (the author of Logan) to talk about his new favorite show.
Taylor James Johnson: First of all, I want to thank you for creating such an amazing show. I had no idea what I was getting into when I first saw it with my son.
Amber seems concerned about Taylor’s parenting skills.
My teenage son. Don’t worry.
Amber Noizumi: Yes… hopefully, the age is okay.
Then my father-in-law came into the living room, probably just to take a nap on the couch first. Then he went back and watched the whole show again, just to know what was going on.
Michael Green: I love that!
Three generations there.
Amber Noizumi: Multiple generations!
Michael Green: That’s great! Is he an animation guy?
Taylor James Johnson: No, not at all. That’s the amazing thing about it.
Michael Green: Even better. We accept that. That is the highest praise.
It was an opportunity to watch something together that everyone enjoyed and wasn’t a kids’ movie. That brings us to my first question. How did you deal with the violence in the series? How far did you want to go with the gore?
Amber Noizumi: I mean, I think we always intended for there to be violence. It’s a revenge story and we wanted to feel that kind of visceral anger and also make it artful. The blood has its own personality in the way it splatters across the screen.
Michael Green: We were intentional about making it part of the story. In the first three minutes, Mizu cuts off a guy’s fingers and I think the script actually had the line “Insert slow motion, a ballet slipper made of blood scurries across the screen.”
Nice.
Michael Green: Everyone got it. Everyone on our team had such a sophisticated approach to making everything beautiful. Even shocking things should be beautiful.
Amber Noizumi: But also with a bit of humor. We tried to find the right balance.
Michael Green: The fingers that get cut off and end up in a little bowl, just like that…
Taylor gestures for a kiss from the chef.
Michael Green: Exactly, a kiss from the chef.
Yes, there’s a little bit of everything. That’s what I like about the show. One second you’re scared. The next you’re laughing, the next you’re heartbroken. You really can relate to all the characters. Every character has a story arc, that was really something I enjoyed watching.
Like I said, I watched this show with my son. We ordered a burger and watched it every Wednesday. We usually watch Star Wars or Marvel shows and don’t mind, but we wanted to try something new. And then we clicked on this. What is this? I like samurai! You like cartoons! Sure!
Michael Green: Thank you for that. We wanted a show that would stand alongside Game of Thrones, The Witcher, Marvel, Star Wars… for the audience that likes big, sweeping, David Lean-inspired, grounded epics. Also, I love that you watched a show every week.
Yes, like a real TV show! That’s how TV used to be!
Michael Green: We always had discussions about how we would release the episodes. We found out that people were binge eating and we said, “Hey, we’re not going to tell you how to eat your food!”
I appreciate both options. But sometimes you want to process it first and make an event out of it. Sometimes something special gets lost in binge eating.
Amber and Michael pretend to understand what Taylor is saying.
You mentioned the influence of David Lean. I’d love to hear about other influences. I’m sure there’s a bit of Kurosawa and a bit of Tarantino and more in Samurai Cinema. You could just feel it.
Michael Green: Mishaguji.
Amber Noizumi: Lady Snowblood was a big theme for us. Of course, Lady Snowblood is in Kill Bill and we made our appreciation for Kill Bill very clear. We used the training montage song.
Michael Green: Our sound designer was also the sound designer on Kill Bill. Lone Wolf and Cub are featured a couple of times. I don’t know if we got anything out of it, but I just love Samurai Jack so much. I think you could pick up an episode of it anytime, 200 years from now someone could watch it and enjoy it just as much as they did when it came out.
Absolutely. It feels like you all are following or continuing this line of influences that started with Kurosawa, evolved into spaghetti westerns and then Star Wars and Tarantino. You all practice the art of homage in the best way possible and take it to a new level. That’s what I mainly took away from the show. It’s like they’re doing something that maybe shouldn’t work on paper, especially with the Metallica song!
Michael Green: It comes down to bringing everything down to earth. Strangely enough…
Suddenly, Michael Green pulls out a comic book within reach and freaks out for a moment.
Michael Green: I have a reprint of the cover of Lone Wolf and Cub by the American author Frank Miller. It’s when the little boy is holding the sword in the horse stance and everyone says, “Where did he learn that stance? He must be a devil’s child!” Frank Miller did the cover!
Beautiful, beautiful.
Michael Green: Sorry, influences… One thing we learned from Game of Thrones – and our director Jane Wu was a storyboard artist on Game of Thrones – is that one of the things that works so well about that show is the heightened fantasy, where so many crazy things happen. The shooting style, though, was very classic David Lean’s intentions in terms of lensing and camera movement, which reflected the grounded reality of the show. The supernatural became much more believable because it was in a vocabulary that the audience could pick up on. We tried to use the vocabulary of live-action as much as possible in the animation. Through the lenses, we tried to honor our sets as if they were real brick-and-mortar sets; we moved the camera the way you would. We wanted to gain the audience’s trust that they were watching something that felt more like a drama than they might have expected. Whatever that might be.
Yes, I see this show as a sort of stepping stone or introduction for someone who doesn’t see animation the same way they see live-action. That’s not the case anymore, almost everyone I know appreciates animation as the art form that it is, but there are still those few who say “cartoons are for little kids,” even the gory ones. Did that influence your approach to this show?
Amber Noizumi: When we had the idea, we wanted the people who watch Game of Thrones. We hoped they would tune in and like it. We hoped our own parents would like the show and not just watch it because we made it. We hoped it would capture the interest of an audience that doesn’t normally see animation as something special, and we did that. I hope we continue to do that, and I hope more shows like ours will try to show the world that animation is just another form of storytelling.
Exactly. You mentioned something about the future. What does the future look like for Blue Eye Samurai?
Michael Green: There’s episode 2 on the table right in front of us. I’m going to open it and start reading. Would that be okay?
Amber Noizumi: A reading sample! Yes!
Yes! Yes, please immediately!
We don’t have a table reading….
We’re all very excited and looking forward to whatever you guys come up with. Whenever I see a great show, I text my friends, “You have to see this!” But with Blue Eye Samurai, I texted them again to make sure they saw it.
Amber Noizumi: We appreciate that!
Michael Green: Thank you very much and for including your father-in-law.
He has a hard time staying awake during anything and has rewatched every episode!
Michael Green: That’s the audience we were hoping for, the people who didn’t know this was the show for them. The best thing people told us was this is the show they love and I didn’t even know they wanted it.
Ah yes, and finally a show for us naive people!
Michael Green: Finally!
Amber Noizumi: Yes, all the blue-eyed monsters are finally out there, folks!
Michael Green: …who feel terrible!
We all laugh at the silly sarcasm.
Thank you so much. It was great talking to you both. We can’t wait to see what’s next. Good luck at the Emmys and everything! You deserve all the awards! Even the ones you weren’t nominated for!
Amber Noizumi: Thank you.
Michael Green: And thanks for waiting between seasons. Season 2 is set to come out in November 2026. Things like this take time. Yes.
Take your time. We want the best product possible. Don’t worry, it’s worth the wait. Thank you all.
Do you see Blue-Eyed Samurai? Let us know in the comments!
