Over the past few weeks, I’ve worked my way through Blue Eye Samurai. It is an animated show set in late medieval Japan. I haven’t watched anime since I watched Pokémon as a child so this was not a show that the algorithms would have chosen for me. I never would have even found the show if not for YouTube. Via that platform, I’ve found two different movie review channels that I watch that are very different from each other. One is highbrow and analyzes the technical aspects and artistry of filmmaking and storytelling (Thomas Flight). The other is more widely known and most of its videos are takedowns of Hollywood blockbusters (The Critical Drinker). I heard about this show via the series “The Drinker Recommends,” a series I find more helpful since it is about what I should watch instead of what I shouldn’t (though the positive videos get fewer views and so the series is sporadic at best).

I have not yet watched the final episode. That said, I’ve enjoyed it thus far. All of the characters have depth. The hero is also part antihero, the villains have redeeming or at least ameliorating qualities. Even the minor characters contain multiple facets and competing emotions and goals. The animation is sharp and the shots well-constructed, but as I’m no connoisseur of anime I don’t have the most educated opinion on those technical items. It is on the graphic side so this is yet another item I’ve included in these missives that isn’t for the children.

I’ve always liked an outsider story too, and the premise undergirding the show is the main character’s blue eyes and what those blue eyes mean in a time when foreigners were banned from Japan. I’ve never dealt with anything like the ostracism the show portrays but have felt an outsider at many points in my life. Addressing those internal feelings has compelled and continues to compel me to try new things in search of belonging, here more than in any place I’ve lived since I left for college. Lest anyone be too concerned, though, I’m not at risk of going on the sort of quest for revenge that Mizu embarks on in the show.