Blue Eye Samurai has been a huge hit for Netflix. And now, show creators Amber Noizumi and Michael Green are getting at least another season to continue their adults-only animated adventure.
In a statement announced on December 11, Netflix confirmed that Blue Eye Samurai will be getting a second season. The show has been a pleasant surprise for Netflix both critically and in terms of audience engagement. The show has maintained a 100% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes after 19 reviews and a 96% rating from audiences. It also spent two weeks in the global top 10 upon its launch back in November.
Details are sparse on the newly announced second season. In fact, beyond the announcement, we can only speculate, as no release date was given nor plot details revealed. But in an interview with Collider, the husband-and-wife duo of Noizumi and Green said that they always envisioned this as a TV series and an ongoing story, requiring “four [seasons] at a minimum” to complete.
While a run of four seasons is currently far from guaranteed, at least we know that we will get another batch of episodes from what might be Netflix’s best new show of 2023.
Blue Eye Samurai: Everything you need to know
If you haven’t seen Blue Eye Samurai yet, here’s a crash course on everything you need to know before hitting play on Netflix.
Starring the voice of Maya Erskine as Mizu, Blue Eye Samurai is an animated TV series set in Edo period Japan. This period of history in Japan saw the island nation in a feudal society run by the Tokugawa shogunate, who were military dictators that ruled Japan from Edo (Tokyo) while the Emperor in Kyoto served as a figurehead.
Aside from being a strict society where class structure took on increasing importance, the Edo period is also notable for its policy of isolationism. Outsiders were largely banned from Japan during the Tokugawa shogunate to prevent colonization by European powers and maintain domestic control, a strategy that arguably worked given the shogunate lasted 250 years.
So that makes Mizu an incredibly compelling protagonist in Blue Eye Samurai. Not only is she a woman, which presents its own hurdles to overcome, but she’s half-white and half-Japanese, which means she is viewed as sub-human by society. The first season follows her quest for revenge against the white men who took advantage of her mother and still remain in Japan illegally.
While the story is rich and compelling, the show also excels thanks to some incredible action sequences. I immediately compared it to Quentin Tarantino’s epic Kill Bill, something that it appears the creators of the show had in mind from the beginning after reading their Collider interview.
So if you haven’t yet watched this incredible animated historical fiction, you have two options. If you have a Netflix subscription, just log in and start watching — you won’t be able to stop. But if you don’t have a Netflix subscription, the streaming service has made episode 1 free to watch on YouTube for a limited time. Start watching now so you’re ready for when season 2 comes.
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