Blue Eye Samurai is an absolute gem of a show. Since its debut in November, this animated Netflix hit has become a major cult favorite, with many claiming it’s one of the best shows of its kind…well…ever? In it, Mizu, a female mixed-race blue-eyed samurai (voiced by Maya Erskine) seeks revenge against the four men (one of whom is her father) who did her wrong. With 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 enduringly popular series, WTF Happened to this Celebrity, as well as the recent reboot of C’Mon Hollywood.
Taylor recently sat down with the creators of Blue Eye Samurai (which is nominated for two Emmys including Outstanding Animated Program), Amber Noizumi & Michael Green (the writer of Logan) to discuss his new favorite show.
Taylor James Johnson: First off, I just want to say thank you for creating such an amazing show. I had no idea what I was getting into when I first watched it with my son-
Amber seems concerned about Taylor’s parenting skills.
My teenage son. Don’t worry.
Amber Noizumi: Yeah…hopefully, age okay.
Then my father-in-law joined us in the living room, probably just to take a nap on the couch at first, then he went back and re-watched the whole show just so he knew what was going on.
Michael Green: I love that!
Three generations there.
Amber Noizumi: Multigenerational!
Michael Green: That’s great! Is he an animation guy?
Taylor James Johnson: No, not at all. That’s what’s so amazing about it.
Michael Green: Even better. We’ll take that. That is the highest praise.
It was a chance to watch something together that everybody could enjoy, that was not a little kid movie. That brings us to my first question. How did yall approach the violence in the show? How far did you think you were you going go with the gore?
Amber Noizumi: I mean, I think we always intended there to be violence. It’s a revenge tale and we wanted to be able to feel this sort of visceral rage and make it artful too. The blood has its own personality in the way it flips across the screen.
Michael Green: We deliberately made sure that it was part of the story. In the opening three minutes, Mizu cuts off a guy’s fingers and on the script, I think we actually had the line of “insert slow-mo, a ballet slipper of blood arcs across the screen.”
Beautiful.
Michael Green: Everyone got it. Everyone on our team was so sophisticated in their approach on how to make everything beautiful. Even shocking things should be beautiful.
Amber Noizumi: But then undercut with a little humor too. We tried to strike the right balance.
Michael Green: The fingers that are cut off and land in a little bowl just so…
Taylor gestures a chef’s kiss.
Michael Green: Exactly, chef’s kiss.
Yes, a little bit of everything in there. That’s what I like about the show. One second, you’re terrified. One second, you’re laughing, One second, your heart is broken. You can really connect with all the characters. Every character has an arc, it was really something I enjoyed seeing.
Like I said, I watched this show with my son. We’d order a burger and watch it every Wednesday. We usually watch Star Wars or Marvel shows and nothing against them, but we wanted 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 sit alongside Game of Thrones, The Witcher, Marvel, Star Wars… for the audience who like big sweeping, David lean inspired, grounded epics. Also, I love that you watched one a week.
Yeah, like a real television show! How TV used to be!
Michael Green: We always debated how we were going to release the episodes. We found out people are bingeing and we’re like, “Hey, we won’t tell you how to eat your food!”
I appreciate both ways. But sometimes you want to digest and kind of make an event of it. Sometimes with bingeing you lose something special.
Amber and Michael pretend to understand what Taylor is saying.
You mentioned influence from David Lean. I’d like to hear about other influences. I’m sure there’s some Kurosawa in there and some Tarantino and more all throughout Samurai Cinema. You could just feel it in there.
Michael Green: Mishaguji.
Amber Noizumi: Lady Snowblood was a big one for us. Of course, you see Lady Snowblood in Kill Bill and we were very overt in our appreciation of Kill Bill. We used the training montage song.
Michael Green: Our sound designer was the sound designer on Kill Bill as well. Lone Wolf and Cub make some nods of appearance. I don’t know if we have anything from it, but I just love Samurai Jack so much. I think you can pick up any episode of that anytime, 200 years from now someone could watch that and enjoy it just as much as they did when it came out.
Most definitely. It feels like y’all are kind of following or continuing on this train of influence that started with Kurosawa turned into Spaghetti Westerns then turned into Star Wars and Tarantino. Y’all are practicing the art of the homage in the best way possible and bringing it to a new level. That’s what I mostly took away from the show. It’s like they are doing something that maybe shouldn’t work on paper, especially with the Metallica song!
Michael Green: It just comes down to taking everything grounded. Funny enough….
Suddenly, within arm’s reach, Michael Green pulls out a comic book and geeks out for a moment.
Michael Green: I have a reprint American Frank Miller cover of Lone Wolf and Cub. It’s when the little boy is holding the sword in the horse stance and everyone goes, “Where did that learn that stance? He must be a devil 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 had been a storyboard artist in Game of Thrones, is one of the things that works so well about that show is it was heightened fantasy with so many crazy things happening. Yet the shooting style was very classic David Lean intentions in lensing and camera movement that the grounded reality the show existed in. Making the supernatural much more believable because it was in a vocabulary that the audience could glom onto. We tried to use the vocabulary of live action in animation as much as possible. Through lenses, we tried to honor our sets as if they were real brick and mortar sets; moving the camera the way you would. We wanted the trust of the audience that they were watching something that felt more like a drama than what they might have expected. Whatever that might be.
Yes, I see this show kind of as a stepping stone or an introduction to someone who doesn’t really look at animation the way they look at live action narrative filmmaking. Not so much anymore, most everyone I know appreciates animation as the art form it is, but you still got those few that say, “cartoons are for little kids”, even the bloody ones. Has that affected how y’all approached this show at all?
Amber Noizumi: When we conceived the idea, we wanted the people who watched Game of Thrones. We were hoping they would tune in and like this. We were hoping that our own parents would like the show and not just watch it because we made it. We hope that it would generate some interest from an audience who wouldn’t normally see animation as their cup of tea 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 kind of spoke of the future there. What’s the future like for Blue Eye Samurai?
Michael Green: On the table right in front of us, we have episode 2. I’m going to open it up and start reading. Would that be ok?
Amber Noizumi: A table read! Yeah!
Yeah! yeah, please right now!
We don’t have a table read….
We’re all really excited and looking forward to everything y’all are gonna come out with. Whenever I watch a great show, I always text my friends, “You gotta watch this!” But with Blue Eye Samurai, I texted them again to made sure they watched it.
Amber Noizumi: We appreciate that!
Michael Green: Thank you so much and for getting your father-in-law in on it.
He has a hard time staying awake during anything and he went back and watched every episode!
Michael Green: That’s the audience we were hoping for, the people who didn’t know this was the show for them. Some of the best things people told us was that this is the show they love and I didn’t even know they wanted it.
Ah yes, and finally a show for us blue-eyed people!
Michael Green: Finally!
Amber Noizumi: Yes, finally all the blue eyed monsters out there people!
Michael Green: …who feel terrible about themselves!
We all laugh at the silly sarcasm.
Thank you so much. It’s been great talking with both of you. We can’t wait for what’s next. Best of luck at the Emmys and everything! You deserve all the awards! Even ones you weren’t nominated for!
Amber Noizumi: Thank you.
Michael Green: And thank you for waiting between seasons. We’re looking at November 2026 for when season 2 comes out. These things take time. Yeah.
Take your time. We want the best product possible. Don’t worry, it’s worth the wait. Thanks y’all.
Are you watching Blue Eye Samurai? Let us know in the comments!