Mizu - Blue Eye Samurai (B4E7YF)

In the year 1633, Japan is closed to all foreigners. Mixed-race children are treated as demons, monsters, less than human. Some years later, Mizu, a young samurai with blue eyes, enters a noodle shop. When Hachiman the Flesh-Trader threatens the shop owner's son Ringo at gunpoint, Mizu cuts off several of his fingers and demands to know where he got his gun. Having been told that it was from Heiji Shindo, the samurai sets off again into the winter cold. Ringo follows suit and begs to be made an apprentice but is soundly rebuffed.

In flashbacks, a young Mizu is chased to a cliff by a pack of boys, one of whom jeers, "Your whore mother killed herself because your father is a white devil!" Suddenly a blue comet arrives, scaring off the children. Mizu watches as a blind old man struggles to lift the meteorite and then helps him load it into the cart. The man turns out to be Master Eiji, a renowned swordsmith, and he takes Mizu on as his apprentice.

Once in Kyoto, Mizu locks eyes with a noblewoman in a litter: Akemi. She meets with her father, Lord Tokunobu, and convinces him to marry her to an undefeated swordsman with humble beginnings, Taigen, whom she has a secret relationship with.

At the Shindo Dojo, Mizu asks politely but insistently to deliver a message to the master of the dojo. Once rebuffed enough times, Mizu cuts through the students with ease, using only a wooden sword, until Taigen, the best swordsman in the dojo, challenges the interloper to a duel. They recognize each other from childhood: Taigen was one of Mizu's bullies. He wins but declines to administer the killing blow, opting to mock Mizu instead for being mixed-race. Enraged, Mizu takes off the wrist and ankle weights, defeats Taigen, and slices off his topknot, dishonoring him.

The master intervenes and reveals that Heiji Shindo is on Tanabe Island guarding the white man that Mizu has sworn to kill. Mizu leaves Kyoto and bathes in a waterfall, revealing that she is a woman.

Mizu is a self-taught swordswoman. She observes the men her master forged swords for practice and imitated their moves, giving her a distinctively eclectic blend of different sword styles to draw from. At one point Mizu is able to near single handedly kill a small army of gangsters.

Later that night, the blind sword-smith Eiji arrived to collect the metal ore within the meteorite. Noticing his struggles to retrieve it, Mizu helped him dig it out and cart it back to his forge, where he gave her a meal. When she claimed she had somewhere to go, he dismissed her; Mizu started to leave, but then snuck back into a corner of the forge, deciding to shelter from the rain and her tormentors a little longer. When she remained in the morning, Eiji began indirectly giving her a few preparational tasks around the forge, then suggested she hammer out the impurities in a piece of white-hot steel, keeping time with his tongs. Though rapping her (lightly) on the head with his tongs whenever she made a mistake, he gradually encouraged more of her involvement in sword-crafting, giving her life a sense of structure, shelter and skills she had lacked before. Mizu proved a quick, observant learner, and Eiji increasingly confided the subtleties of the art of swordmaking to her, telling her a sword was the soul of the samurai and that its' edge was the difference between life and death. Over the years, she became Eiji's trusted apprentice and he her foster parent, with her referring to him honorifically as "Swordfather." He emphasized to her the importance of not making steel too "pure" and hard, or it would become brittle; thus, some "impurity" would always be needed at the center. When Mizu began forging kitchen knives on her own but soon became discouraged, he teasingly told her to perfecting her skills by making 1,000 kitchen knives until she was ready to make a sword. He told her "a smith signs his name", but Mizu chose to engrave her blades with the same insignia as her master.

Mizu didn't reveal her mixed heritage or her real gender to Eiji, fearing he would reject her. She also noted that, despite his decades of experience, he was unable to work the meteorite ore into proper swordmaking metal, to his frustration.

Eiji wasn't the only one she observed, however. Whenever a client samurai came to him seeking a blade, Eiji would have them demonstrate all aspects of their particular combat style, so he could match the sword to the man; Mizu would watch them from the edge of the hut, fascinated by the weapons' precision and power. At night, she attempted to imitate their movements, teaching herself a vast range of swordfighting styles and blending them to her advantage.When she was reaching adolescence, Eiji caught her practicing, to which she responded that she must become the world's greatest swordsman. When he asked why, Mizu revealed her half-white heritage (describing herself shamefully as "made of mixed metal" and "a monster"). Having learned that there were only four white men in Japan at the time of her birth, she was determined to avenge her 'mother' by killing her unknown father. Eiji reminded her that "the strongest sword is a blend of steel" implying he had already guessed her status as a social outcast and did not care, and stated that even if she might be something shameful, she might also be strong. He told her she could continue to practice by night. One day a man named Chiaki arrived, asking Eiji to forge him a sword; he claimed his father was a bookbinder who'd been slain by a drunk ronin, and Chiaki wished to avenge him, claiming he would at least have a chance with one of Master Eiji's blades, even if it cost him his own life. Eiji agreed to forge a sword, but later stated to Mizu that Chiaki was hiding something.When he saw Mizu practicing with a bamboo rod behind Eiji's forgehouse, Chiaki gave her some basic instructions in sword handling, breathing and footwork- but then used his superior size and skill to undermine them and beat her, mocking her as a 'soft' half-breed. Demoralized, Mizu later noted how her body was changing due to puberty. She began binding her her breasts painfully flat with sarashi to further disguise herself as a man, recognizing that, even with her mixed heritage hidden, her social status as a woman would greatly limit her options. Frustrated over her slow progress with swords, she forged weights to tie around her forearms and calves, to strengthen her limbs and accustom herself to the weapon's heaviness.

Chiaki's sword was well-crafted but ultimately broke before it was presented to him. When Mizu blamed herself for the failure (having carried out most of the forging process while her emotions were in a turmoil) Chiaki struck her, only for Eiji to catch his wrist. Having felt Chiaki's hand, Eiji sternly stated that he was no book-binder but an assassin. Chiaki's angry mood suddenly became smug and amused as he confirmed the blind man's words. He took the broken blade, eager to be known as "Blood-soaked Chiaki who carries Master Eiji's broken blade". Eiji dismissed Mizu's rage over Chiaki's disrespect of her master, saying, "a soul like that is drowned in blood." A few years later, now reaching young adulthood, Mizu had perfected her swordfighting skills, and

Mizu, driven by a quest for vengeance, encountered hostility in her pursuit, leading to a reunion with her 'mother.' Reluctantly, she entered an arranged marriage with Mikio, gradually falling in love amid the challenges of rural life. Their relationship strained when Mizu defeated Mikio in a duel, causing his rejection. Betrayed by Mikio and her 'mother,' she unleashed her fury, killing attackers and tragically ending Mikio's life. Devastated, she walked away from the life she had built, haunted by loss and betrayal amidst an impending autumn thunderstorm.

From then on, Mizu focused everything she had on her vow of vengeance, against her unknown Western father. Returning to her male disguise and adding orange-tinted glasses to conceal her eyes, she trained herself in various arts of stealth and infiltration, including climbing and lock-picking. She pursued leads much more efficiently and ruthlessly than when she'd first set out. She always traveled alone, training constantly with her sword, and never let herself become close to anyone else, as the only person she still cared for was Swordfather Eiji, back in Kohama. And she was always quick to lash out, rather than retreat, if anyone mocked her features or compared her to an onryo (vengeful ghost).

After some time, she managed to track down and kill one of the four white foreigners (later confirmed by Abijah Fowler to be "Violet"). Mizu subsequently tattooed her left forearm with a dotted X, intending to mark each of the targets she had eliminated.

Mizu is a calculating and independent character who prioritizes her personal quest for revenge over emotions. Skilled in manipulation and stealth, she often takes reckless risks in combat, relying on her combat prowess to overcome obstacles. Indifferent to the larger world, she views powerful individuals as corrupt. Mizu struggles with self-loathing due to societal limitations on women and her 'foreign' appearance. Trauma makes her highly mistrustful, avoiding emotional attachments. While initially portrayed as heartless, Mizu shows kindness and remorse, saving lives and revealing a growing concern for the broader world. Despite her ruthless pursuit of revenge, she begins to exhibit strategic thinking and a willingness to learn and care about the world around her. Mizu is mostly concerned with her own quest for revenge and is mostly uncaring towards the feelings of others as she pursues this quest. She will, at the very least, avoid killing those who are not a threat and, despite admitting that she is no samurai, has a sense of honor. She’s not outwardly self-deprecating or despairing, but it’s evident that years and years of being called a monster and half-breed, of living in a society where no one looks like her at all, have taken a toll. She cuts herself off from any meaningful human connection and turns that internalized resentment into her only mission in life.

But the overarching themes of the show seem to be pointing Mizu away from her revenge and self-loathing, even if she staunchly denies it. There are the characters she meets who seem willing to hold out a hand to her even though she pushes it away. And the more metaphorical plot elements only further guide Mizu to acceptance: From the blind sword maker who takes her in, she learns that the strongest sword is a blend of metals. she talks formal.

Mizu is a tall, slender Hāfu (half European, half Japanese) woman with light skin, blue eyes, an oval shaped face with a pointed chin and long black hair which she ties up in a bun. Her regular attire, a male disguise consists of orange tinted spectacles with round frames, to mask her blue eyes, dark grey arm warmers, a dark blue haori tied with a lighter blue obi, baggy black trousers, with darker black stockings and sandals, a white scarf tied around her neck to disguise her lack of Adam's apple (which she later exchanges for Taigen's orange scarf) and a plain brown kasa (large hat) with a dark blue cape, when traveling outside in cold conditions. Mizu nearly always carries a blue-tinted katana made of meteorite ore, with a wave pattern along the edge, which she wields in battle. She stops carrying it after Episode 6 when it is broken, melting it down to re-forge a new sword when she is ready.

Mizu has a deep respect for Eiji, honorifically dubbing him "Swordfather". After he took her off the streets as a child and began training her as his apprentice, she saw him as a mentor and a father figure in her life. He raised her and taught her various skills from metalwork to various life lessons. At first she hid her mixed heritage from him, fearing he was only accepting of it due to his blindness and would reject her, but when he learned of it after catching her training herself in combat, he did not care (having probably guessed it already). Before she left on her quest, Mizu tried to reveal her real gender to him as a demonstration of her trust and loyalty, but Eiji cut her off (again, implying he may have already guessed).

Despite the trauma of her betrayal by Mikio and her mother and her resulting mistrust of people in general, Mizu still showed concern and affection for Eiji even after their years of absence, praying for his well-being at a Shinto shrine she stopped at. When they met again, she was initially angry that he refused to provide her steel for her quest of revenge (having nearly gotten herself killed, consumed by her anger and drive for vengeance) but when he met with her later, she lamented how the world saw her as a demon, and that she shared that opinion herself. Eiji reprimanded that he did not train her to become a demon but an artist, and that as an artist one always has the chance to begin with something new. When she was melting down her broken sword to a re-forgeable ore, Eiji offered her his preferred set of forging tongs to melt down, as a contribution. Though Mizu succeeded in melting her sword down shortly after, she recognized that she was not ready to re-forge her weapon until she'd dealt with her internal conflicts, and left the steel with Eiji, promising to come back for it.

Mikio is Mizu’s ex-husband. Mizu married him as requested by Mama, being told that they were perfect together because they were both outsiders. On their first night as a married couple, Mikio saw that Mizu was tense sleeping near him, so he moved his mat and sighed, “I am not a brute.” At first the two were awkward and Mikio spent all his time on his horses. Mizu started helping him tame a horse named Kai and the two started to open up. Eventually, they fell in love and Mikio gifted Mizu her a horse, Kai. However after Mizu told him her past and beat him in a duel, he said that she was a monster and stormed off, ultimately selling the horse he promised her to his Lord. After Mizu was attacked by samurai attempting to collect a bounty on her head, she witnessed Mikio riding away during the duel, betraying her. Though he returned once she had killed them, calling himself a coward and begging her forgiveness, Mizu had lost all trust in him. When he and her 'mother' each accused the other of turning her in to the samurai (which ended with Mikio stabbing her) Mizu killed him when he tried to approach her again. She grieved the loss of Mikio and her mother, but she never trusted or showed affection for anyone except Eiji afterwards.

Ringo is Mizu’s loyal self-proclaimed apprentice. Mizu at first is annoyed by Ringo’s ability to never shut up. She sees him as a liability. However he proves to be useful with cooking, medicine, and carrying heavy objects. Mizu ends up trusting Ringo after he promises to always be loyal to her and even promises to keep her gender a secret (he is the only living person apart from Abijah Fowler and possibly Eiji, to know she is a woman). Mizu cares for Ringo, whether it is giving him the ability to have fun at a brothel, at the capital, or just letting him come along for the ride.

Mizu hates Abijah Fowler. Since he is one of the four men that could possibly be her father, she has sworn to kill him. She does not care who she has to go to, she will get her revenge. She thinks of him as a brutal, barbaric white man who has made her into a monster. She only keeps him alive at the end to get information out of him about the other white men.