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Would you believe the best anime on Netflix isn\u2019t actually an anime? The show I\u2019m talking about is Blue Eye Samurai<\/em>, and it\u2019s an anime-inspired adult animation guaranteed to blow your mind. If you\u2019re ready to finally see what the hype is about (and trust me, the hype ain\u2019t lying on this one), it\u2019s time to stream this Emmy-winning show on Netflix today.<\/p>\n The premise of Blue Eye Samurai<\/em> is that our titular character is a half-white, half-Japanese woman on a quest of vengeance through Edo-period Japan. Along the way, she recruits some unlikely allies, each of whom has the skills needed to help her dispatch the men she has sworn to kill. But some of her enemies command small armies of their own, which threatens to turn her righteous quest into a suicide mission.<\/p>\n The cast of Blue Eye Samurai<\/em> includes some major Hollywood veterans, including George Takei (best known for Star Trek<\/a>: The Original Series<\/em>) as the wise tutor to a pampered princess voiced by Brenda Song (best known for the Running Point<\/em> TV show). Kenneth Branagh (best known for Henry V<\/em>) plays the mustache-twirling Big Bad of the show, while Masi Oka (best known for the TV show Heroes<\/em>) plays the bumbling cook who dedicates himself to helping our main character on her quest.<\/p>\n That main character is played by Maya Erskine (best known for the PEN15<\/em> series, though I prefer her in Mr. and Mrs. Smith<\/em>), and she is pitch-perfect as an expert samurai who has been forced to hide both her gender and heritage from a world trying to tear her down. Erskine gives the character a stony resilience that masks a passionate anger, and her righteous rage is downright infectious to watch. As written, this samurai is a character that could have been wooden and one-dimensional, but Erskine breathes such vivid life into her samurai that I half-expected her to jump out of the TV to slice me up!<\/p>\n By the way, if you\u2019re worried about Blue Eye Samurai<\/em>\u2019s politics clouding its writing, don\u2019t be: while the idea of a gender-switching, mixed-race samurai might scream<\/a> \u201cwoke,\u201d the show never uses these aspects to wade into the culture war. Rather, these are important plot details that set up how our hero is an outsider twice over, someone who will never be able to achieve acceptance as a woman or<\/strong> a warrior. Instead, she lets her sword do the talking, and her legacy is written across Japan in a trail of bleeding, broken bodies.<\/p>\nA Perfect Cast For a Perfect Show<\/strong><\/h3>\n
An Emmy-Winning Critical Darling<\/strong><\/h3>\n