Netflix just released a great new animated series called ‘Blue Eye Samurai’There is evidence of a true story surrounding the Blue Eye Samurai in JapanThe film was actually made inspired by real-life experiences
Netflix’s animation library just expanded with the streamer’s latest blockbuster: Blue Eye Samurai, which tells the story of a hybrid warrior from Japan’s Edo period. With stunning visuals and deeply inspiring characters, Blue Eye Samurai is sure to be a huge success story this weekend.
Blue Eye Samurai/Netflix Media Center
A real ‘Blue Eye Samurai’ roamed around Edo period Japan
Although Netflix’s new animated series is not directly based on a true story, a real ‘Blue Eye Samurai’ roamed Japan in the 1600s – an English navigator named William Adams.
In 1598, Adams joined an expedition to the Far East with a company that later became the Dutch East India Company. However, a series of fierce storms left many of the crew dead and many accompanying ships decided to return to the Netherlands after losing sight of each other in the chaos.
In 1600, after more than 19 months at sea, blue-eyed Adams arrived in Japan with only a handful of people and was initially mistaken for a pirate. Local authorities refused to allow Adams or his second mate Jan Joosten to leave the country, while Japan was ‘closed’ to outsiders and both were forced to settle as permanent residents. .
Soon after, Adams proved himself extremely useful to shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, helping to build Japan’s first Western-style ship school and even establishing trade connections with the Dutch. .
Photo by: Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
He is then presented with two swords that represent the power of the Samurai, with the shogun himself decreeing that William Adams is now dead – but the Miura Anjin, i.e. the Pilot of the Miura, is born.
In accordance with his Samurai status, Adams (now known nationally as Miura Anjin) was given a large tract of land of impressive value and over 80 peasants as servants. He was held in high regard by the Japanese people, his fellow Samurai, and the ruling class until his death in 1620 at the age of 55.
So while Blue Eye Samurai may not be based on a true story from Japanese history, there are “timely themes and deeply personal inspirations” – so the idea for the show Where does the program come from?
Blue Eye Samurai/Netflix Media Center
The Netflix show is inspired by a ‘bizarre’ reversal of beauty standards
The TV series Blue Eye Samurai is not an adaptation of William Adam’s life, but the show is inspired by the real-life experiences of its creators, Amber Noizumi and her husband Michael Green, who later gave birth to her. blue-eyed girl.
Noizumi is half Japanese and was told by Vanity Fair that “I just assumed I would never have a child with blue eyes.” “That didn’t seem to be in the cards for me” – until it was, they added.
“One day, her eyes caught the light and they were this clear blue, and I was like, ‘Oh, I thought she had blue eyes. That was 15 years ago. And it suddenly occurred to me: Why do I care so much that she has blue eyes? What is so valuable about the pigment in her eyeballs?”
Noizumi explains how she realized “it was the Western ideal of beauty and if we reversed it, if we were in Japan, it would be something like that.” strange.”
“Thinking further back in history, she would have been considered ugly. I had to do a lot of soul-searching and only think about my own problems to solve.”
Green shared with Netflix Tudum that they then nicknamed their child ‘Blue-Eyed Samurai’ and “wrote it down knowing it was a good title”.
Blue Eye Samurai/Netflix Media Center
Helming the Blue Eye Samurai series as executive producer and supervising director is Jane Wu, an industry veteran who has worked on films like Mulan, Spider-Man: Into the Spider -Verse and Game of Thrones.
“Describing Mizu is almost like describing myself in In the way that her journey of self-acceptance is one that I must continue,” Wu explains, adding that in her early years, she realized found that her portfolio would be ignored if her full name was included:
“Often enough, my portfolio doesn’t get reviewed because I’m female, so then I just start using my initials so you can’t tell if I’m male or female and you’ll have to bet I appreciate the work. That’s what Mizu went through to complete her revenge and I guess that’s what I’m doing too-complete my revenge.”
Wu also admitted that she could imagine the rejection Mizu in Blue Eye Samurai would feel.
She said: “There is a feeling of not knowing where she belongs which I completely identify with because in the West I am a Chinese girl, but when I come back to Taiwan, I am an American girl.”
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Blue Eye Samurai is currently streaming on Netflix.