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 Blue Eye Samurai is an animated action adventure show produced by Netflix and animation studio Blue Spirit. Created by the husband and wife team of Michael Green and Amber Noizumi, the show follows the mixed race swordswoman Mizu on a quest to hunt down and kill the only four white men remaining in Japan at the height of the Sakoku or "locked country" era of the Tokugawa Shogunate, one of whom she believes to be her father. CHARACTERS  Mizu (Maya Erskine, PEN15, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) A wandering swordswoman traveling Japan posing as a man on a quest for revenge. A victim of intense societal prejudice against outsiders, her blue eyes stigmatize her to others as a "demon", a half-breed monster child of the "white devils". Driven by her self-hatred, she seeks the men who may have sired her and will not rest until all four of her possible fathers are dead.  Ringo (Masi Oka, Heroes, Hawaii Five-0) A cheerful simpleton born without hands, much like Mizu, he is an outcast who has found a way to live a life in a cruel land that cares little for him. After a chance meeting with Mizu, he sets out to become her apprentice and companion on her quest, whether she wants him to be or not.  Taigen (Darren Barnet, Never Have I Ever, Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles) An up-and-coming samurai in the service of the Lord of Kyoto. He is proud, stubborn, and bound by honor. Undefeated in battle, Mizu's quest puts him on a collision course with her, and to their mutual surprise, they share a curious common history.  Akemi (Brenda Song, Amphibia, Dollface) Daughter of the Daimyo of Kyoto. Akemi has lived her whole life in a gilded cage, waiting for her father to marry her off to a worthy suitor, whether she wants it or not. She has her heart set on marrying Taigen, but her father sees an alliance with the Shogun in Edo in their future. When Taigen sets out after Mizu, Akemi sets out after him, heedless of the dangers that might await her beyond the castle walls.  Master Eiji (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Mortal Kombat, The Man in the High Castle) Mizu's swordfather, a blind swordsmith whose blades are sought after all across Japan. He took Mizu in as a child and raised her a son, a daughter, and an apprentice. Eiji is perhaps the one person in the world that Mizu truly cares for unconditionally.  Madam Kaji (Ming-Na Wen, Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D., The Book of Boba Fett) The madam of a brothel in Mihonoseki who crosses paths with our heroes several times. She tasks Mizu with saving one of her girls who has been taken hostage by the local crime lord in exchange for information on one of her targets.  Seki (George Takei, Star Trek, The Terror) Akemi's tutor and one of her father's most trusted retainers. He only wants what's best for Akemi, even if it might not be what will make her happy in the moment. A wise and experienced man, he is full of many surprises.  Heiji Shindo (Randal Park, Fresh Off The Boat, The Interview) A scheming nobleman in the Shogun's court. He seeks to overthrow the Shogun and claim control of Japan for himself, and to do so he has aligned himself with the foreigner Abijah Fowler, who has promised him a vast cache of weapons and men to complete his goal.  Abijah Fowler (Kenneth Branagh, Murder on the Orient Express, Hamlet) An Irish arms dealer living in secret inside Heiji Shindo's fortress at sea. Permitted to set foot on Japanese soil only once a year, Fowler has been biding his time, preparing to bring Shindo's plot against the Shogun to fruition. As one of the only four white men in Japan at the time of Mizu's birth, he is the primary target of her assassination quest, and could very well be her father. WHY SHOULD I WATCH THIS SHOW? Well for starters, it's beautifully animated, incredibly well written, and choreographed like a classic samurai film on steroids by way of a traditional Kabuki play with a splash of Bunraku puppetry for good measure. It also has an incredible soundtrack and absolutely stacked cast including George Takei, Ming-Na Wen, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, and Kenneth loving Branagh among many others. Blue Eye Samurai is just one of those "holy poo poo, just watch this show" type of shows, and there is a reason--a whole bunch of reasons, honestly--why it's on a lot of people's Top 10 lists for best show of 2023. Watch these trailers and see for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ1yQn17lbEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ciOn_4XFfEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsaBrbE1Yrc Honestly, the real reason you should watch it is to see the scene this rendition of For Whom The Bell Tolls plays over: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUaU5d9xERE You sold on it yet? WHERE TO WATCH Season 1 of Blue Eye Samurai is currently available on Netflix. Season 2 has been recently greenlit and is coming... eventually. We don't really know. The first episode is also on YouTube in its entirety for free on Netflix's channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm73ma6Ibcs As is a special edition of Episode 6, "All Evil Deeds and Angry Words" (massive spoilers, obviously): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za2Z_JRxCuk nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Feb 26, 2024 |
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Dec 12, 2023 07:01
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 I really liked this show and I am not an anime-liker; I have been humming For Whom The Bell Tolls to myself for a few weeks now. Very excited for season 2 of Mizu and her burning down London 
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Dec 12, 2023 08:59
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One important thing is that Fowler's been in Japan for long enough that he missed out on one of the darkest periods in Anglo-Irish history. Even considering his traumatic childhood in the Nine Years' War, he's got a horrible surprise waiting for him when he gets back home, which may end up giving him an actual reason to work with our resident onryo.
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Dec 12, 2023 12:39
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https://twitter.com/NetflixAnime/status/1734422828521541999?t=E_EOtM0OLJSNev9vRtBFzQ&s=19 Sup.
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Dec 12, 2023 16:07
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https://twitter.com/HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN/status/1727666450767462487 Only review you really need
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Dec 12, 2023 16:18
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Oh hell yes! Season 2 confirmed! Thanks for the info. This show is phenomenal and I made like 5 posts about in other threads. About time someone made a thread. Thanks Crow this looks really good. Darth Walrus posted:One important thing is that Fowler's been in Japan for long enough that he missed out on one of the darkest periods in Anglo-Irish history. Even considering his traumatic childhood in the Nine Years' War, he's got a horrible surprise waiting for him when he gets back home, which may end up giving him an actual reason to work with our resident onryo. They really chose a tumultuous time in history to set this show. Also, gently caress the British of that era. cant cook creole bream fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Dec 12, 2023 |
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Dec 12, 2023 16:29
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cant cook creole bream posted:Also, gently caress the British Interested to see if the writers can resist the temptation to have the second season also end in a city-engulfing fire. Lord knows I would have a hard time doing so.
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Dec 12, 2023 20:28
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I hope they go full alt-history. They already did in episode 8 so let's have fun with it.
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Dec 12, 2023 20:34
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1stGear posted:Interested to see if the writers can resist the temptation to have the second season also end in a city-engulfing fire. Lord knows I would have a hard time doing so. Quite honestly, that's still a few years off. But they might just fudge the dates a bit. Alternatively they get to visit Constantinople in the meantime. cant cook creole bream fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Dec 12, 2023 |
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Dec 12, 2023 20:34
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Mizu and Abijah's Trans-Continental Maybe-Daddy-Daughter Arson Spree
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Dec 12, 2023 20:45
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cant cook creole bream posted:But they might just fudge the dates a bit. Thinking about this a bit more, I'd actually doubt this. They went out of their way and specifically established the current date in the title of the last episode. And the London Fire famously happened specifically in 1666. Like, that's actually a relevant date and it would have made a different impact a few years earlier.
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Dec 12, 2023 20:57
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It's fine, if we spend a year or two there we can haggle with the bubonic plague in the interim.
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Dec 12, 2023 21:30
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Apart from the first couple, I think my favourite episode was probably the one with the marriage backstory. I didn't see it coming and I think the betrayal was quite affecting, and typically disappointing. That her husband liked her being a fighter, but the second he realised she was better than him, he turned her in. Related, I also like how the story has Mizu be attracted to men. Like, she falls in love. I think I was expecting her to be very aloof with all that. She makes a comment about how men go to brothels to be weak, etc, and that attitude feels typical of this kind of character to me, but they didn't go that way and I think her having these romantic weaknesses makes her a lot more sympathetic. As for Abijah, I think they might've made him too evil if they want to keep him around for entertainment value, which he does have. But it's like, he has the bones of dead children under his castle and makes a comment how Mizu's bones 'break like a woman's', implying he's broken enough bones of men and women to know the difference. I don't really buy that she wouldn't have just killed him after getting the names and location, which he gave up pretty quickly. Although, I saw someone make the point that she won't speak a word of English and Abijah might be useful for that, but it's a high price to pay for a translator. There would be at least a few others. Plus the logistics...she can't let him free cos he'll just attack her and run off. So she'll still need to wander around London alone and bring everyone she wants to talk to back to where ever she's holding him, somehow. I'll be back for S2 cos this was mostly well written, and whatever complaints I have about the plot lose out to strong scene level writing which this has. I just feel like it could've easily been wrapped up completely in the eight episodes, and the additional 2 white men don't add much to the story except length.
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Dec 12, 2023 22:43
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also, is there any real historical context for the fire of 1657 in edo? I see that it's real so I was wondered if Abijah was real (doesn't seem so) or at least based on any real historical figures? What about the shogun and lords in the show, were they real names?
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Dec 12, 2023 22:48
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roomtone posted:also, is there any real historical context for the fire of 1657 in edo? I see that it's real so I was wondered if Abijah was real (doesn't seem so) or at least based on any real historical figures? What about the shogun and lords in the show, were they real names? We know that this is an alternate history on a certain level because the clan name of the real-world shogunate was Tokugawa for all four hundred years, even before we get into a Western-backed coup attempt getting most of them killed in this show.
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Dec 12, 2023 22:51
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roomtone posted:Apart from the first couple, I think my favourite episode was probably the one with the marriage backstory. I didn't see it coming and I think the betrayal was quite affecting, and typically disappointing. That her husband liked her being a fighter, but the second he realised she was better than him, he turned her in. Within the context of the story there probably are not many others. Dude was basically the only foreign person in Japan for a significant period of time, it is entirely possible that there is nobody else on Earth as fluent as him in both English and Japanese.
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Dec 12, 2023 22:56
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I hope that for at least the first episode any character speaking English just sounds like Prisencolinensinainciusol.
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Dec 12, 2023 23:59
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Remember that while Mizu is on a quest for revenge, she's also on a quest for knowledge. She's desperate to understand who and what she is and what that means, and that's the main reason Fowler's still alive. As soon as he dropped that line about her real mother, he had her.
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Dec 13, 2023 00:47
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Darth Walrus posted:Remember that while Mizu is on a quest for revenge, she's also on a quest for knowledge. She's desperate to understand who and what she is and what that means, and that's the main reason Fowler's still alive. As soon as he dropped that line about her real mother, he had her. Kudos to whoever in the previous thread predicted that Mizu's mother wasn't actually her mother.
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Dec 13, 2023 01:09
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Finally watched the first episode, it's quite pretty animation. There's a lot in the writing I didn't really like though. I will watch a few more.
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Dec 13, 2023 10:59
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Same. First episode is clunky in terms of dialogue, enough that I still felt I was "giving it a little more time" as I went into the second. I can't tell you when during the second episode it is, but it seems to find its footing there. Then there are lines where you notice how good they are. Never has much issue in the pacing, though. It appreciates the clap as much as the space between.
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Dec 13, 2023 15:36
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The first episode has a certain itchy quality to it where Mizu being a woman hasn’t been revealed yet, and it feels like the story/acting is tiptoeing around potential tells a lot. There are good intentional bits like the encounter at the brothel, but (and I don’t want to step in it here) either you as a viewer suspect and are expecting the reveal, or you as a viewer suspect and are getting taken out of it by her voice. I showed it to someone who might not have been real on board with that twist and I was silently willing him not to make some snide comment until “peaches” I very much like how both the madam and Eiji’s dialogue knowingly danced around it though. I thought that was skillful without giving the game away to a less-alert viewer.
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Dec 13, 2023 15:49
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nine-gear crow posted:
Randal Park did a phenomenal job with the voice for Shindo. You could hate that man purely for the sound of his voice, alone.
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Dec 13, 2023 15:55
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Data Graham posted:The first episode has a certain itchy quality to it where Mizu being a woman hasn’t been revealed yet A secret up there with Tripitaka being a woman on the old Monkey Magic TV series.
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Dec 13, 2023 16:00
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Data Graham posted:The first episode has a certain itchy quality to it where Mizu being a woman hasn’t been revealed yet, and it feels like the story/acting is tiptoeing around potential tells a lot. There are good intentional bits like the encounter at the brothel, but (and I don’t want to step in it here) either you as a viewer suspect and are expecting the reveal, or you as a viewer suspect and are getting taken out of it by her voice. I showed it to someone who might not have been real on board with that twist and I was silently willing him not to make some snide comment until “peaches” I fully hope for an entire episode of season 2 which is just titled "Kaigen Finds Out."
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Dec 13, 2023 19:14
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the bit where taigen gets a hard on while sparring with mizu and then going 'uhhhh hurr hurr must be missing my gf lol right bro? right?!'
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Dec 13, 2023 19:15
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https://twitter.com/qurbaqaart/status/1724202651158544668?t=GsKo6kk8YC1nmZO-qv_nYQ&s=19
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Dec 13, 2023 20:46
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oh god oh gently caress posted:https://twitter.com/qurbaqaart/status/1724202651158544668?t=GsKo6kk8YC1nmZO-qv_nYQ&s=19 Made this dumb thing because I thought the same exact thing after that sequence. 
Jimbot fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Dec 13, 2023 |
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Dec 13, 2023 21:02
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Madurai posted:I fully hope for an entire episode of season 2 which is just titled "Kaigen Finds Out." "Wait Mizu is a woman?" *Steals a nearby fishing boat and loving rows to Britain.*
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Dec 13, 2023 21:18
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the first episode going so hard on hiding mizu's gender til the end was very funny to me because her voice doesn't even come close to sounding like a dude. her cover is dogshit lol e: this is not to say i think her voice acting is bad, far from it.
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Dec 13, 2023 21:20
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I think I figured it out around the brothel scene. They don't hide it very well and I like that they got that reveal out of the way early instead of dragging it out until episode 5 or whatever. Edit: I can absolutely see Ringo having made oars that can fit on his nubs. I love all the tools he made in the show to help him function. I can also see Ringo going to London and being able to fulfill his dream to be the best ramen cook. I wpuld be sad to see him stay in London at the end but would love if it was because he opened his own Ramen place that becomes super popular. limp_cheese fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Dec 13, 2023 |
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Dec 13, 2023 21:59
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cant cook creole bream posted:"Wait Mizu is a woman?" *Steals a nearby fishing boat and loving rows to Britain.* "Get in the loving boat, Ringo, we're going to London!"
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Dec 13, 2023 22:04
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kidcoelacanth posted:the first episode going so hard on hiding mizu's gender til the end was very funny to me because her voice doesn't even come close to sounding like a dude. her cover is dogshit lol I went in blind and her first line made me double take while looking at the screen, lol. My in-universe excuse is that a woman being a skilled swordsman is so outside the realm of possibility that everyone's just like, "Of course that's a dude."
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Dec 13, 2023 22:27
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I mean, it's a really rich storytelling vein no matter what the cultural context, but it's just so difficult to pull off convincingly that the audience has to sort of be on board with a bit of indulgence. Like, you watch Victor/Victoria, where the entire conceit is "a woman passing as a man passing as a woman", but it's a) being played by Julie Andrews (not someone known for her deep voice) and b) in-universe supposed to be convincing in her role "as" the Count (who, in-universe, is a male drag queen). It's way hard mode from a casting and acting standpoint, but the audience sort of has to consciously buy into it at some level right from the start because it isn't going to come as a surprise to anybody watching (which is why they're in on it from the very beginning).
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Dec 13, 2023 22:35
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Das Boo posted:I went in blind and her first line made me double take while looking at the screen, lol. Even though female samurai, or samurai-equivilant warriors were a thing in Japan all throughout its history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onna-musha
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Dec 13, 2023 22:35
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kidcoelacanth posted:the first episode going so hard on hiding mizu's gender til the end was very funny to me because her voice doesn't even come close to sounding like a dude. her cover is dogshit lol I really didn't think that was intended to be a reveal to the viewers. We have functioning eyes and ears and have been exposed to many stories about people acting outside of their assigned gender roles. It was a big reveal (or a big secret) to the characters in the story. I totally buy that Mizu passes as male, even though it's obvious to the viewer that she isn't. Plenty of guys have feminine voices and slight builds, and she hides the biggest giveaways well. The main thing, I thought, was that she is a clearly a samurai (ronin, swordsman, whatever) and exceptionally fierce with a sword. Therefore, she is a man. It is as plain as the nose on your face. She cannot be a woman, because women cannot be samurai, even when your eyes are telling you otherwise. Edit: Lol, love 2 post just as someone posts a response to this point. Fair enough! Blue Eye Samurai is amazing and the best thing I've watched this year. I think I'm in the minority in hoping that none of the characters except Mizu and Fowler appear in season 2, and we get a new cast of reprobates to get caught up in Mizu's wake. I know, I know -- with a voice cast as good as this they won't throw those characters out. I feel like every character's story reached an end. Each of them ended the season having found a new path to walk, even if Taigen's is a bit of a downer. I haven't watched too many samurai films, but I've watched enough that this feels like the right place for their stories to end.
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Dec 13, 2023 22:43
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In my own experience you'd also be surprised at what people might gloss over as long as your chosen gender presentation is strong enough for people to slot you in that category. I would think I was super obvious and didn't pass at all because of this or that feature but a lot of people just fail to notice those things, especially if you're in an area where trans people aren't that common
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Dec 13, 2023 22:52
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Mumblyfish posted:I really didn't think that was intended to be a reveal to the viewers. We have functioning eyes and ears and have been exposed to many stories about people acting outside of their assigned gender roles. It was a big reveal (or a big secret) to the characters in the story. i fully buy that the other characters in the story believe she's a man, i also believe the show thinks the end of episode one is supposed to be a big surprise reveal because there's no way the would have framed it they way they did otherwise. i don't think it makes the show any worse or anything, it was just extremely obvious to me and it came across as very funny
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Dec 13, 2023 22:54
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nine-gear crow posted:Even though female samurai, or samurai-equivilant warriors were a thing in Japan all throughout its history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onna-musha Sure, but the likelihood was way, way down in the Edo period. The women warriors of the previous generations were socially accepted, the women of Edo were barely considered human. To say nothing of them being elevated to the prestige of warrior.
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Dec 13, 2023 22:54
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This is a era where woman were literally forbidden from travelling alone, like that basket maker in Kyoto who's husband died. Nobody even considers the possibility. They think her being an actual Onyo is more likely than that and don't even entertain the idea. I feel like Fowler should have figured out sooner, but they didn't actually spent much quality time up to that point.
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Dec 13, 2023 23:02
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