{"id":596834,"date":"2023-11-07T00:47:35","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T21:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-blue-eye-samurais-exploration-of-mixed-race-identity-helps-it-break-all-of-the-boxes-in-animated-storytelling\/"},"modified":"2023-11-07T00:47:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T21:47:35","slug":"how-blue-eye-samurais-exploration-of-mixed-race-identity-helps-it-break-all-of-the-boxes-in-animated-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-blue-eye-samurais-exploration-of-mixed-race-identity-helps-it-break-all-of-the-boxes-in-animated-storytelling\/","title":{"rendered":"#How \u2018Blue Eye Samurai\u2019s\u2019 Exploration of Mixed Race Identity Helps It \u201cBreak All of the Boxes\u201d in Animated Storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Ahead of the Blue Eye Samurai<\/em>\u2018s debut last Friday, co-creator, executive producer and co-writer Amber Noizumi revealed the deeply personal inspiration for the adult animated tale of revenge set in a 17th century Japan and starring a mixed-race master of the sword. <\/p>\n

\n The concept was conceived 15 years ago after the birth of Noizumi and co-creaor Michael Green\u2018s daughter. She has born with blue eyes, prompting the half-Japanese Noizumi to wonder<\/a>, \u201cWhy am I so excited that my daughter has blue eyes? What\u2019s the big deal about that? And why am I so excited that I have a baby who looks more white?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s the kind of question those who identify within the biracial, multiracial or mixed-race communities \u2014 particularly those with immedia<\/a>te white family or ancestry \u2014 find themselves asking at some point. The answer is complex and sometimes painful but can also be revelatory and freeing. And it\u2019s the kind of experience that has rarely been explored in Hollywood, especially in this way. <\/p>\n

\n In Blue Eye Samurai<\/em>, Mizu (voiced by Maya Erskine) was born from sexual violence, committed at the hands of one of four white men known to be in Japan at that time. Now an adult, she has disguised herself as a man in order to seek her revenge \u2014\u00a0an act women are not culturally permitted to engage in. Dubbing herself a \u201ccreature of shame,\u201d Mizu sets out to kill these men, including the one who is her father, all while keeping her blue eyes hidden. <\/p>\n

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\"Blue<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

Maya Erskine as Mizu in Blue Eye Samurai<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Netflix<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n The series<\/a> has already been celebrated for its handling of mature theme<\/a>s; its art styling\u2019s animation, bunraku and live-action influences; and a cinematic look and sound that bolster its fight sequences and environments. That\u2019s in addition to an A-list cast of Asian and Asian American voice actors, which includes George Takei, Ming-Na Wen, Stephanie Hsu, Masi Oka, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Brenda Song, Darren Barnet, Randall Park, Harry Shum Jr. and Mark Dacascos. <\/p>\n

\n Yet, it\u2019s the animated series\u2019 complex narrative about identity \u2014\u00a0and the feelings of love, betrayal and rage that can accompany that \u2014\u00a0that elevate the narrative beyond other adult animated titles. <\/p>\n

\n The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> spoke to Noizumi and Green about crafting Mizu\u2019s identity, from her race to her gender, as well as how the show\u2019s setting, art styling, music and more help the series explore identity in a way that\u2019s, according to Noizumi, unlike \u201canything anybody\u2019s ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n With this being partly inspired by your own life, Amber, how did you want to take your experiences as a multiracial person and explore that in this series? What did you want to unpack?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n Noizumi:<\/strong> It\u2019s actually hard to talk about today because you always want to roll with it, with people around you \u2014 the little jokes that people make from childhood until now. Those paper cuts that just kind of tear at you over time. So I wanted to explore feeling in between two worlds,\u00a0but the only world I knew was the world in which I tried to assimilate with mostly white people. So what would it have been like to try to assimilate with mostly Japanese people? In a time when it was so homogeneous, especially \u2014\u00a0though it\u2019s still pretty homogeneous in Japan. What would it have been like ultimately to go on this fantasy journey of what it might have been and to find the catharsis in there? The show isn\u2019t so didactic. It\u2019s a fun experience, but it\u2019s also taking those feelings and expounding on them to insane limits. I never have those actual thoughts of cutting people down like Mizu, but it\u2019s taking those seedlings and letting them grow on the page and on the screen. <\/p>\n

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\"Blue<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

From left: Masi Oka as Ringo and Maya Erskine as Mizu in Blue Eye Samurai<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

COURTESY OF NETFLIX<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n You\u2019ve previously spoken about setting this in 17th century Japan, but how did that specific period lend itself to what you were just speaking to? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n Noizumi:<\/strong> What\u2019s interesting about that era is that it was in 1633 that Japan closed its borders completely, saying no outside influence. It\u2019s still heralded to this day as the \u201cgolden age of Japan.\u201d I found it very interesting that what they call their golden age was when it was the most homogeneous. It\u2019s kind of like people here maybe saying \u201cthe good old days,\u201d when it was more white in America. So that was just an interesting time, and obviously, there\u2019s a lot of beauty and historical elements that were captivating to write a story about. But I think the fact that it was the golden age \u2014 and that it wouldn\u2019t have been a golden age for somebody who looked different \u2014\u00a0was really the main element that we wanted to explore.<\/p>\n

\n Mizu\u2019s gender is initially obscured, leading to the idea that Mizu might be nonbinary. But you ultimately reveal she\u2019s a woman who is navigating a man\u2019s world, which is its own journey. Why did you want this story to center the experiences of a woman during this time, versus just even going with a male lead? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n Noizumi:<\/strong> I think mainly because I\u2019m a woman, and I was imagining what it would be like for me there. I guess it was also just giving her a second otherness, that it wasn\u2019t just her having to deal with her race. It was somebody who had to overcome two challenges. She had to be so driven and so focused, and we can really see that she didn\u2019t just take it lying down. She had to really rise up.<\/p>\n

\n Green:<\/strong> To have a character like that who lives in a time, who wouldn\u2019t necessarily have a vocabulary to consider her gender, it\u2019s been really heartening and interesting hearing people see the show now thinking about what Mizu might identify as. Referring to Mizu as she or they \u2014 that\u2019s amazing. We made sure in the first episode, when people were reading it, that it was a misleading read. We said her gender was Mizu. We threw in a they or two because we wanted the experience of the reader to be a surprise at the end that they never saw that coming. The reader would have to contend with their own presumption, that, \u201cWell, clearly anyone who\u2019s this badass must be a guy.\u201d While the view of the first episode doesn\u2019t really give that same experience, I think that was one of the reasons people found it a story worth reading. They had to contend with their own misperception, perhaps, in the read because they didn\u2019t know she was a woman until the last page.<\/p>\n

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\"Blue<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

Mizu in Blue Eye Samurai<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

COURTESY OF NETFLIX<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n This is neither anime<\/a> nor animation, but something with a live-action twinge and puppeteering elements that creates something new within the larger spectrum of Western and Eastern approaches. Why was this styling the way to go, and what did you want it to say with it about your characters and world? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n Noizumi:<\/strong> With Blue Eye Samurai<\/em>, we wanted it to just break all of the boxes. Mizu isn\u2019t Japanese or white, she\u2019s not female or a male, and this show is not like anything anybody\u2019s ever seen. It\u2019s not a cartoon, it\u2019s not anime and it\u2019s not live action.<\/p>\n

\n Green:<\/strong> We are here in California \u2014\u00a0we are in the West \u2014\u00a0and we\u2019re going to be doing something that had elements of East meets West. So the animation style had to do that, too. Anime, it\u2019s done so well by those who do it, but we really just came out of conversations with all of our partners \u2014\u00a0from Netflix being interested in doing something hopefully groundbreaking and Jane Wu, our supervising director who comes from an animation background \u2014\u00a0going, \u201cI think I know how we can do this in a way that will be different and surprising.\u201d Then it was just inviting the artists who were excited to do that. <\/p>\n

\n It just kept asserting itself. There were tuning fork images that we just said, \u201cLet\u2019s not move away from that. Make it look like the concept art,\u201d instead of that inevitable disappointment so many times when you look at concept art in the finished thing. Why would you want to let go of that? We wanted to maintain the brushstroke the artists take. The word bespoke came up a lot. And there\u2019s no element of this show that isn\u2019t. Ten days from launch and everyone [was] assiduously editing the subtitles on the screen to make sure that even that is bespoke. <\/p>\n

\n The music and sound work on this show are phenomenal \u2014 they speak both to the cultural and historical specificity of this story but also give it a real cinematic feel. Can you talk about navigating that with your composer and sound team? <\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Blue<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

From left: Darren Barnet as Taigen, Jenson Cheng as Okiyama and Maya Erskine as Mizu in Blue Eye Samurai<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

COURTESY OF NETFLIX<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n Noizumi:<\/strong> With the music, we had a lot of discussions about how we were going to accomplish it sounding somewhat period specific, but we knew we were never going to nail the historical accuracy of what music would have sounded like. Even if we did, it may not be pleasing to modern-day ears. So we sort of threw out some nouns with [composer] Amie Doherty, and she laughed and was like, \u201cBoom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Green: <\/strong>She came back with a suite of material.<\/p>\n

\n Noizumi:<\/strong> It was like, \u201cAlright, I guess we know what we\u2019re doing here.\u201d (Laughs.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

\n Green:<\/strong> The first time we hit play, it was a full suite that was the Mizu theme into the Akemi theme into battle themes. It was breathtaking because we could feel<\/em> the show. We\u2019d seen it by that point, but we hadn\u2019t felt it. One of the best kept secrets in television is that showrunners talk to each other, and I remember we were listening to the Undone<\/em> soundtrack that Amie had composed when we were writing this. We threw an email to the creators of Undone<\/em> \u2014 Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg \u2014 and just said, \u201cHey, Amie Doherty!\u201d One of the best emails back we ever got was, \u201cHire immediately. Call for details.\u201d She was wonderful to work with, and the show just became an emotional experience once Amie made it work. Her soundtrack is an hour and 24 minutes of her selects, and Emi Myer\u2019s voice work on \u201cFor Whom the Bell Tolls,\u201d the Metallica song, will be on there, too. If enough people listen to it, we can imagine adding to that so that Spotify grows into volumes.<\/p>\n

\n Then for sound, we worked with sound mixers who just were incredible, who really came into this experientially \u2014\u00a0[sound designer and re-recording mixer] Paul N.J. Ottosson and [sound supervisor and re-recording mixer] Myron Nettinga. Between them, there isn\u2019t a table big enough hold all the awards between them.\u00a0But they were just as excited as anyone else and came at animation as if it was a huge feature and with a level of sophistication that we really learned a lot from. We told them our goals and then they exceeded them.<\/p>\n

\n You\u2019ve got a really incredible cast for this. Can you talk about getting them on board, especially Maya Erskine as your lead? Did you have woo any of them considering so many work heavily in live-action?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n Noizumi:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think we had to woo any of them. Most people, we had them in mind for their characters. We were casting early in the pandemic, and I mean, we weren\u2019t lucky to be in the pandemic, but people weren\u2019t on set. People weren\u2019t working. People had more availability. I also think people were excited to be a part of something new and fresh with so much Asian representation. Maya Erskine is an amazing actor, and we always had her in mind for the role. She just had the right cadence and brought the right sensibility. I adore her in Pen15<\/em>. It\u2019s semi-autobiographical, I assume, and you see a lot of the complicated feelings she deals with as a mixed race person. <\/p>\n

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\"Blue<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

From left: Maya Erskine as Mizu and Ming-Na Wen as Madame Kaji in Blue Eye Samurai<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Courtesy of Netflix<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n Green:<\/strong> We had a pretty easy time. We offered roles, people said yes. It was really touching. Margery Simkin and Orly Sitowitz, our casting directors \u2014 we worked with them before and they\u2019re amazing \u2014 would bring ideas, we would put ideas forward. I remember when we get to episode four, we meet the character Madame Kaji, who is voiced by Ming-Na Wen. We thought, \u201cOh my God, let\u2019s offer her the role. We\u2019ll write her a letter,\u201d and [the casting directors] said, \u201cOh, she already said yes.\u201d (Laughs.<\/em>) We were so touched and surprised. And were like, \u201cBut, but \u2014 we were going to have to woo!\u201d And they\u2019re like, \u201cNo, she liked it.\u201d We were so honored. The level of geekery on our part when you\u2019re talking to Ming-Na Wen or talking George Takei \u2014\u00a0people really wanted to show up for the George Takei sessions. There are a lot of screen grabs. He loved it. He was great.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the Blue Eye Samurai\u2018s debut last Friday, co-creator, executive producer and co-writer Amber Noizumi revealed the deeply personal inspiration for the adult animated tale of revenge set in a 17th century Japan and starring a mixed-race master of the sword. The concept was conceived 15 years ago after the birth of Noizumi and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":596835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/BLUE_EYE_SAMURAI_u_S1_E2_00_37_26_13.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[146830,1416,146022,139268,146023,1377],"class_list":["post-596834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-amber-noizumi","tag-animation","tag-blue-eye-samurai","tag-culture-shift","tag-michael-green","tag-netflix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}