Mizu having a photographic memory to memorize techniques is actually really clever. Her primary source of shame is her eyes, yet it's those eyes that allowed her to become so strong.

I think what really sets Mizu apart from modern action heroines is the fact that, while insanely skilled, she repeatedly suffers serious injuries from almost every engagement. Try as she might, she isn’t untouchable.

The way I saw it, the 2nd Fowler fight is not actually "over." When Fowler "gives up" but tells her of finding the other westerners in London. It's a pause in their larger conflict. He's playing a delaying tactic. He's also gaining her as an "ally" to escape Japan after his plans of conquest go sideways.

I also like that Mizu also uses skills she as a woman has over men. We don’t see her being stronger than a healthy adult male (when she also had a life of neglect and lack of food etc). We see her use her speed that being lighter (especially when the weight it taken off) and seeing her use how limber she is. I’m all for men and women being equals but in different ways. I’ll never be as strong as a man by my nature, but fights can be won in different ways. I like they use that and being an all male society in fighting they are not used to what she can do.

I'm not sure how right this is, but I think the reason the final fight with Fowler is so uncreative is to highlight Fowler's personality. Like he says at some point in the show that the japanese have mastered the best ways to make swords, while his people (back in Britain) keep creating the best ways to kill people. In the same way that the appearance of fire arms in japan completely nullifies the mastery of all the swordsmen in the castle once the coup begins, how the bullet obliterates the art of swordsmanship in war, so does Fowler obliterate his final confrontation. So of course their duel isn't a masterpiece of swordsmanship and martial arts, Fowler isn't an artist. He even tells his business partner how sick he is of learning every beautiful art that japanese culture has to offer. Fowler obliterates art. Yes he mastered swordsmanship during his time in Japan, but he probably hates it and is as sick of it as he is of painting.

Despite being over powered, we still see her struggle and we are never sure how things will turn out. There are real stakes.

Mizu belives herself to be heartless but it's not true. She saves Taigen from Folwer. She didn't have to but she does it. She defends the brothel against at mafia guys because she got them into trouble and she wants to fix it. She could have ran. After all it's not like one samurai can win against an army or anything.

I began watching the series alone until I finished episode 5 and thought "Oh, my wife needs to watch this with me".

It's possible the goons want to avoid hitting each other so they try to assess an opening to attack. When I play the Sifu game, it's somewhat easy to get enemies to hit each other because I dodge an attack while someone else gets hurt. Alternatively enemies can be thrown at each other, taking 1 or people out of the fight temporarily because they tried to group up. Wolverine said it best that everyone else has to avoid hitting their teammates but he can hit anyone he wants when outnumbered.

I believe the Hollywood girl-boss trope is a symptom of a much larger problem; our culture is obsessed with power, and treats it as a solution to every problem. Economic power through capitalism, military power through imperialism, cultural power through cults. These writers either lack life experience to imagine a world not defined by power; or are spreading propaganda about the inevitability of power (especially with marvel, and their connection to the military). When these writers try to write female characters that are supposed to be looked up to; the only thing they can comprehend, is that they must be strong enough to nullify any preconceptions of weakness. That side of our culture will not accept weakness and vulnerability as a virtue.

The trust me, I'm a UKpostsr line killed me lol

I think what makes Mizu work is two factors. One is there's always a nice push and pull with her powers and capabilities. Like her initial fight with Taigen she's challenged only for the reveal to be that she is still holding back so it excalates and she practically shows off. It means that scenes aren't always the most predictible and allows her to showcase her skills, experience etc against other opponents. The other side is how it's used to characterise her. One key aspect constantly brought up is how Mizu's pursuit of power is a one-way path to destruction, how her quest for vengeance has transformed her into a monster who will inevitably get herself killed since she doesn't look after herself. It's a nice thematic element that almost acts like a 'cost' for her power. She's strong and skilled but what she's doing isn't necessarily good for herself or others, she only really stumbles into taking moral actions sometimes for convenience, because she wants something. And in the end she doesn't even really get what she wants. I think this latter thing is what these other protagonists tend to lack, a bit of character that comes from the power, ways they change or things they represent. It allows the power set to be more than spectacle, there's a purpose behind them being as good as they are be it good or bad. The inverse of this would be like Superman and how he's used to represent the very best of mankind.

I think the reason Fowler acts the way he does in the final fight is simple: fear. He's lost everything that has given him an advantage up until now, and without it, he's lost and afraid. Because of this, he starts making irrational decisions and just tries to run and survive. It shows just how much of a demon Mizu is, and how no one, not even Fowler, is immune to fear.

Not to 'um, akshully' ~ because I do rather agree that Mizu is presented as extra powerful in her abilities and there are times it feels like a stretch that she didn't die ~ One thing that I remember learning about specificually being trained as a fighter in this era of Japan is that a lot of the training is actually about learning to hold back and show restraint. Basically, to wait - because in this era simply getting a cut could be fatal, so going through the actual process of a sword fight was something that warriors would train UP to their entire lives for - it was supposed to be a big deal to finally do it 'for real'. Which isn't to say they didn't have fights, but the number of swordfights a single, average fighter that was say paid to protect a gambling house or den would be minimal in their average lifetime. Clearly that's not exactly the world that we're portrayed with in Mizu's case, swordfights are presented as somewhat more commonplace, but the idea that lesser trained fighters that haven't reached renouned samurai status with many battles under their belt might sort of hang back and 'wait their turn' because they're honestly hoping someone else takes her down first is actually somewhat reasonable and would fall in line with attitudes and teachings of the times (in that, it was just seen as wise to not engage in needless fights and put yourself at risk like that, which is true.)

“The worst thing you can be is predictable. If you’re predictable, you’re not nearly creative enough” I understand what you mean, but I also think this is an oversimplification and a bad general take away without exploring it more deeply. Yes being unpredictable can be a great show of creativity, however being predictable can also be an amazing display of narrative consistency and implementation of cause and effect. I think a better way of paraphrasing the point would be “the best subversions are finding unorthodox solutions within the established rules of the story”

I was confused on the ronin and bride episode, couldn't tell which one she was suppose to be, I never realised she was both

I think something a lot of people don't take into account is numbers plus weapons plus space doesn't equate to a good rush on one person. Yeah all the warriors guarding Fowler could have rushed in at once but there would be crowding a friendly fire. Prime example is the Fleet battle of Cape Ecnomus from the first Punic wars saw a numerical advantage to the Carthaginians, but were too crowded and couldn't move efficiently. So I understand the whole "oh everyone wait there turn to fight the one person is dumb", it doesn't always work practically

I. Love. This show. And I cannot stand the overpowered strong independent female trope of today. My summary for why she works as a character is “she earned it.” She earned her power and skills, she earned her talents and abilities. And when the show sorta drops the ball in maintaining all of the principles, I have less of a genuine problem with it because the show worked hard earlier to earn a little reprieve and unrealistic flair. Like when the guards kinda stand around, or when she is pinned underneath 100 guys and none of them get her… they are few and far between moments of being ridiculous, with dozens of amazing moments before and after. It’s a mere spot on a canvas you can overlook rather than a splash dumped all over the canvas, especially when compared to most modern shows and movies.

Would have loved to see Fowler bust out a fucking Zweihander and make some comment about white people knowing how to wield a blade too, would have been very in character for him Also definitely need a parallel video for Akemi, because I thought she was one of the bright spots of the last episode, as well as the invasion of the castle, it felt very heavy.

By the time you get to the later episodes the whole story has been so damn good that they were able to get away with a lot more... She reached super human levels but it didn't take away anything because you were already balls deep in the story

Such an interesting and largely well done show.

What in the show suggested that Fowler was anything more than a competent swordsman at best? So far as I can remember, he is never set up to be anything more than that; his power lies in wit, technology, moveny, and connections.

This was a really good video. I get the feeling I would disagree with a lot of your takes, however you're also really good at media analysis and I appreciated this video a lot.

I also think of All Might as an amazingly written Overpowered Character. An analysis from you would be amazing. You seem to be insanely knowledgeable. Wish you well on your videos.

I think it's important to understand that Mizu is also meant to represent two themes within the story: 1.) Difference 2.) Revenge And to also understand how these themes incorporate into her fights. I'll start with difference. Blue-eyed Samurai makes their audience aware of the fear and loathing it's society has against anything that doesn't conform with the established normality. Mizu's biracial appearance has most people immediately assume she is dangerous and evil demon - an onryō. This perception of society thematically adds to her abilities and skills; because those around her believe she is capable of supernatural power, then the story supports that. It's why I believe her first fight with Fowler is incredible - he does not have the same mindset as the Japanese society. To him, Mizu is just another man who can bleed and die. (I think there's also another cool point to add that those who don't see Mizu as all powerful tend to be her allies because they are aware of her limits and lack of mystical abilities but that's a whole other rant). The second theme is revenge. Revenge is rarely ever portrayed as a heroic and just theme - unlike vengeance -and again the story makes it very clear that revenge comes with a hefty cost. It is brutal and consuming and destructive, and because it is embedded so deeply into Mizu's character, she also adopts these descriptions. She is the theme itself within the story, and thus her power is emphasised within her fights. I agree that it is sometimes frustrating to see fights where clearly the character can be beaten in someway if the baddies just rub their two braincells together but I also think it's super cool when characters are op because they represent themes and narratives within the story.

Just a very strong analysis of a series I very much enjoyed while talking eloquently to the issues of storytelling I've had difficulty describing for a while now. Thank you, absolutely wonderful and informative watch!

Also, I love your videos, MS, keep it up!

Congrats on 100k!

Absolutely loved this show, can't wait for the next season!!!

I would say that the way the character gets power must be not just be unique or interesting, but also earned. That's the most important point. That can either be through training as in Blue Eye Samurai, or it can be at some great personal cost to the character. What it cannot be is just hand-waved or given for free. That, by definition makes the character non-relatable and/or boring. This one point is the biggest tripping point for most modern female leads. They are suddenly better than everyone else, and they did not earn it. They try to cover for that by making the sense of "responsibility" be the cost or "no one acknowledges how great I am", which are both completely stupid and unrelatable. Also I agree on your points about the final fight in the series. I greatly enjoyed the series, but I also found Mizu's sudden amplification in ability to be unrealistic and annoying, but it wasn't a fatal flaw. I wish they'd have found a more creative way for her to take on the IronClaws instead of just raw fighting strength. Same with the Samurais a the season finale, but I could at least somewhat justify that in the sense that she had a whole season to prepare and also didn't care to survive per-say. One last thing I think that really helped this show was that her power did not come at the expense of the side characters and we see lots of other powerful individuals and we see our protagonist saved by others pretty regularly (you briefly touch on this).

Really good video! 🤩

I love your videos... its how I've been seeing these shows

I binged the show just to be able to watch this vid. Worth

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I'm actually writing something (a book though, not a movie) that features a strong protagonist and Blue Eye Samurai may give me some thoughts for how better to flesh him out. I got most of the principles you were talking about down, 4 in particular, but it never hurts to have a better understanding of things. I struggle with principle 3 especially, since although I actually do practice HEMA I'm not very creative combatively; victory to me is a mixture of superior skill and good luck (which can and will turn against you at some point). I may have to break that mindset going forward.

Congrats on 100k

The theory behind not everyone attaching at the same time is you can hurt your own people more than person you’re trying to hurt. Friendly fire is not turned off lol sometimes you can get in the way more than being efficient. That’s why the 1v1 me bro lol😅

I didn't hear about this show! I have a kind of OP character I wanted to write, but I didn't feel I had the experience yet so I'm writing a different story right now. Thanks for making this!

This series has quite homages and similarities to ( 1973 ) Lady Snowblood movie snd Samurai Champloo anime which I think anyone who has watched these two can understand and see the similarities in Blue eye samurai and how these have big influence in the show and one thing I have also noticed is that Mizu have some similarities with a certain female character from Demon Slayer anime is Shinobu Kocho. Both female characters want revenge for what happened in their life, their portrayal of female rage is very well done and both are very well written characters but the difference is the Shinobu constantly smiles because of her sisters wishes but if Shinobu didn't do that her personality would have literally been like Mizu.

I never heard of this series before now. The only reason I got here was because I'm writing a personal project, and searching through UKposts for tips and ideas. However, these little pointers has been very helpful and insightful. Plus I have something to look for later to watch!

i love how you broke this down, well balanced, logical, yet fair and understanding to the genre themselves, when creativity meets logic and empathy

Always love Mizu so much indeed this series is just never lose amazing points whether old video or recent like this one

I'm willing to excuse Mizu effortlessly defeating goons because it plays into a power fantasy that is fun to watch. As you pointed out, when facing a serious opponent like the four fangs, the combat is more realistic in terms of power balance. This allows the audience to feel hyped when the character is a badass without making stakes too low. The final battle was just bad though.

Thanks bro hope you achieve all your dreams 🎉

Nice video Sam.

Another good example of overpowered characters is in the book series Arcane Ascension. In Sufficiently Advanced Magic, the character Keras Salerian is shown to be incredibly fast and powerful and fights basically a god in one of his first appearances, but the amount of restraint and character Andrew Rowe put into him is incredible. He even wrote a prequal to establish rule number 1 in your video. The full series isn't out yet and a lot of mature topics are in the books so I personally don't recommend for under 18

Damn early for this one here

Just a quick note about fighting multiple armed adversaries. When 2 or more people attack somebody they cannot really do so in the same time. One person is simply too small of a target. Long reached weapons - like swords - are especially bad. For a regular grown up person armed with a regular katana a 10 degree movement at the shoulder joint translates to about 20 cm / 8" movement at the tip of the blade. The more you move, the better the chances you'll strike at your team mates. Attacking one by one and looking to defeat a very skilled opponent by tiring and wounding them is the thing to do. For myself I would direct my hit squad to throw heavy objects all at once and when said very skilled opponent is blocked and hurt they can be captured. But this doesn't make for good stories, does it? 😁

I also like how her name which means water shows she is more than power as well. Water adapts to whatever container it is put in, she learns from every situation and knows what she can or cannot do. She reminds me very much of Balsa from Moribito.

I loved her, she's awesome

You pointed me to this show and I loved it. What are your top 10 shows?

I probably watched a different series. In the one I watched, I only felt some tension in the first episodes. Then I learned from experience and did not feel any tension anymore. Mizu "struggles" almost to exhaustion, get all kinds of injuries, but continues on that 1 last hitpoint quite successfully. There isn't really tension, it's simply waiting for another dazzling display of "creativity" against another horde of clueless goons. Still more fun to watch than some of the content you mentioned. But not really subverting those expectations (which are: main characters are op, they win, just go with it).

The most well written "OP" character of recent years is Frieren from anime Frieren: beyond journey's end, though there are a lot of videos on that topic already.

The title alone explained why I love Well written overpowered mcs. The point of the story isn’t how strong can the main character get, but how much internal growth can happen so that the mc knows what to do with that power

1. Reasonably interesting origin for the character's power 0:49 2. The character's power cannot be absolute 2:04 3. Displays of power by the character must be creative (includes design of fight + character's own ability to innovate) 4:13 4. Don't make the character's power the entire point of their character 9:08

"write a character, not a woman"

Signing down under every word. Pretty much, my impressions of the series exactly

Ringo sighs… “I’ll get my needles…”

There's a reason I grew up loving Mulan. She was a character I was able to relate with and look up to. And not becauee she was some perfect op charcater, it was becauee she never gave up, she was brave, she was at a disadvantage, but she worked extra hard to succeed. I was not naturally gifted in many ways, so always watching characters just being perfect at everything was t boring and in some ways disheartening. Jet Lee was a small guy and he didn't rely on his strength to fight, he relied on his speed, precision and skill; you have to.know your weaknesses and your disadvantages, and try to overcome them in other ways.

So, just a thing that I wanted to mention because I kind of love Japanese culture even though I never watched Blue Eye Samurai: the attacking one by one thing kind of was something real in Japanese samurai conduct. Notice that I say SAMURAI CONDUCT. In skirmishes outside of open battle of army against army, samurai were actually trained and instructed to attack onf by one, even when having overwhelming force because ganging on someone could and would be seen as dishonorable.

You really should do a video about Lt. Winters of 'Band of Brothers'.

9:28 I was cared that my overpowered characters weren't good, but this made me happy because I do the very opposite: I make my characters learn that, even if they're mighty warriors, powerful witches or outright gods, a part of them is still human, and they can't just fix every problem without losing that part of themselves that makes them actual people.

Percy Jackson is another great example. He is an absolutely over powered character. But that's not what makes him what he is. His loyalty, his battlewits, his humour, his flaws, his connection with people, his hatred for the gods are things that make him the character he is. And I absolutely love it.

Mizu is better than everyone because she isn’t a goon and she isn’t trying to get away when escaping is clearly impossible. She has fully accepted that she can and will die. Every time. It’s shown visually. It’s her greatest strength.

Can the next one be about anakin's fall to the dark side

I love a well-written OP character!! I think like you said, most people miss the mark when writing these characters because they confuse being “over powered” with “omnipotent”. OP characters not only can but should routinely get their ass handed to them. It should never feel like a given that they’re going to survive an encounter, or at least not survive it intact. Mizu works so well because after each encounter and battle nothing about her remains intact. Whether it’s her broken ass body riddled with injuries, broken self-worth, broken moral compass, or broken heart, every single encounter leaves Mizu scarred to some degree. As the titular character, the audience knows she’s gonna make it to the end of the show…. But at what cost?

They did my man Mikio dirty shown to be humble, gentlemanly, accepting of and around Mizu, only to fucking turn 180 at the end of the episode.

You mentioned if every episode was as good as episode 5, it would've broken into your all time favorite top ten. That's a video, maybe even a video series. I'm curious ti know your all time top ten favorite shows Mr. Samwise. Very curious.

"Trust me. I'm a UKpostsr." Loved it.

My take on the 2nd fight with Fowler, was that it was representing the half of her that is like him. You were looking for a samurai fight, but in putting down the sword and beating on him brutishly, her anger brought her down to his level, and the second season will probably only show more parallels between the two. It makes more sense for him to be the last one she kills and in that fight it is more likely that she will remember who she is and defeat him with the blade. I agree that they could have gotten through that last episode in a cleaner, less plot armor style, but I think that it would have been a disservice for her to kill him, when he will continuously be a representation of the poison within her, until the very end.

12:01 - while I do agree basically, that her agression is self-destructive, I think the key point is how her agression is framed as opposed to male aggression. This series goes out of its way to show that every single male character gets away with incredible violence of every possible colour, no one bats an eye. But take a woman with the same attributes and she it's perceived as problematic, public enemy number one so to speak. If you look at their fight between Mizu and Mikio closely, it is literally the ONLY fight in which Mizu is NOT ACTUALLY AGGRESSIVE, but playful. She's careful and only gradually showing off her skills. What she does, however, is hurt her husband's ego, and see how quick he is to condemn her. It's not that Mizu is not in control in this fight - it's the opposite! She feels comfortable enough around her husband to banter, to sparr. The smile in her eyes says "See? You never saw it coming from me, right?" And THAT'S why he condemns her. Just imagine the same scene with two men sparring. If you have difficulty picturing Mikio calling a fellow man a monster, you already get my point. And I think that is the point of this entire episode! An angry woman can never just be an angry woman. They reframe her as something dangerous, an actual monster, an Onryo. Because no matter which culture we look at, women are never allowed to be angry. In western culture they call it hysteria, and here we have the onryo. Bot serve to dehumanize the female experience. And yes, i hear you saying "But hardly anyone knows that Mizu is a woman" - true. But not in this particular scene. And beyond that, Mizu is perceived as the "other", which places her in almost the same category as women. Neither are allowed to make mistakes, neither are allowed their human nature.

I’ve been writing a fantasy book for a while and my main character is getting his ass kicked at the start adapting overtime to represent the journey almost dying in his first battle, gaining a concussion and having a tooth shattered by a sling. I enjoy a good struggle during the heroes journey they shouldn’t just be all powerful because they just are there has to be a build up to it

Being insanely skilled is a perfectly valid reason to enjoy a character, you just gotta make the journey towards it intriguing. Or make their journey focus on what they’ll do with this power or how to live with this power or how to let it go. So many different ways to do it. So for me, I disagree strongly with point 4. I can see where people come from when they constantly talk about how strong female lead’s need to be focused on stuff beyond power, but that’s mainly brought about cause there’s been many bad movies that try to focus on power and get it wrong. Culturally at the moment not many people get this, cause everyone’s focused on the fact that “Ooooo, it’s a woman!” Most of my favourite stories I’ve read are female leads who are overpowered and only focus on power. It’s amazing when done well.

I read Ep 5 a bit differently that I think ties in more to the overall theme. I think what happened was that she had hid her abilities to protect herself as she attempted a domestic life and when her husband seemed to fall in love with her she felt that she could maybe show him her true self. And there's even some lines where he tells her not to hold back. But when she does let loose she's obviously far superior, but I don't get the sense that she has unchecked aggression after all she's perfectly able to not actually harm him. But he liked her when he thought she was a simple domestic woman, but seeing that she's actually even far more capable than him he loses all interest and seems to be disgusted with her. Which tells her that she can't be loved because this is largely not a world that will have her so that's what pushes her over the edge to be onrio (however that's spelled).

another way to write overpowered characters is to give them all this strength, and then have the challenges they face effectively stop them from unleashing it on the world. for example, in legend of korra (surprisingly), yeah korra could use force to stop the equalist movement, but it would be a bad look for her and for all benders in republic city. aang could have just killed ozai, but it would mean justifying ozai's worldview that might makes right. in one punch man, saitama's struggles aren't in fighting villains (he's called one punch man for a reason) - his struggles are more personal

I agree with so much of this. I loved this show until the last episode, where so much just fell flat. Great video!

4:02 in the clips your showing it makes sense who wants to get friendly fired? And they do attack as soon as they can yes it could be done better but most of the time it isn't.

I loved the art, animation, and choreography of Blue Eye Samurai, but not enough for me to come back for a second season. It's an amazingly well made show that still does a lot of same crap but it gets by because the people making it are actual artists. There was nothing about the last episode that I liked, and it does have that obsession and shallow understanding of power that plagues so many modern stories.

I absolutely love this hypercompetent but hyper unlucky badass mf. Fantastic show and fantastic main character.

Personally I think they could’ve had Fowlder use his fists in some capacity since he hits like a small freight train and make him less proficient with katanas and give him a longsword or something like someone else said Also my one problem with Mizu’s sword not splitting the musket shit was that it was the one time it would’ve actually been kinda realistic for a katana to do You could even keep the subversion by having her succeed in splitting it, only for it to still hit her because it hasn’t spread far enough apart yet, and if you still want her sword to break, just have Fowler step on it or something Just some of my thoughts

10:19 what's your all time top 10 list?

For point 2, I would say, to clarify, that one doesn’t want to make their character’s power able to solve every problem IN THE PLOT. It’s not about the actual level of power, but whether or not the power is used to lazily solve every problem. One Punch Man, for instance, gives Saitama a ludicrous power that can let him win any fight, but he is still a compelling character, because the story isn’t about him just winning fights, and he can’t use his ludicrous power to solve every one of his problems in the story.

I always say that a good model for an overpowered character is Achilles! He's one of the og's

I think even in the fights where she is winning in a very over the top way because she is 'just better'. Even in those fights, for me personally the fights were creative enough and the action cool enough. It get's a rule of cool pass. Like at a certain point, that level of camp where the hero just destroys like 50 people on one epic sword fight is part of the fun. It fit's the tone and calls back to lots of older very well respected fighting and martial arts movies. Is the choreography 100 percent perfect - no. But it's a hell of a lot better than almost everything coming out of live action movies now days.

You mentioned "Your character can't just be a weapon" But it sounds like, if you asked her, she would tell you thats exactly what she is, since she has nothing else to live for.

When it comes to the traps to stop someone, it is not really realistic to use boulders or lava, after all, not just does it have to be build but also maybe maintained in a way. Building a huge path of just hidden blades is therefore also not really logical, because most people can't even jump the first path. Having the second drop after the first, feels also more like a sinister cruel pleasure Fowler has, the moment you think you got over it, before it opens up to death. But even if Mizu avoided lava and boulders, at that point the show truly earned that kind of flex.

The Wandering Inn handles powerful characters really well. There are two characters in particular (Relc and Saliss) who are extremely physically powerful, but they both have arcs where even though they could easily kill any one antagonist that shares a scene with them, it wouldn’t solve their problems. They’re challenged not by a single character, but society as a whole It’s very well done

Have you watched Schnee on yt? You kinda remind me of him

I think one of the most important factors that makes Mizu works is the fact that, regardless of how exceptionaly skilled she is, it does not detract from her opponents skills (the important ones at least). Every time she duels, her superiority gives her the win, but it does not make her opponents look like incompetent bums. A lot of times when OP characters are introduced they make others around them look like rookies, thus the threat of an powerful opponent becomes trivial. In her case, for all her ability and skill, if she makes a mistake she might not just lose, but die, making the stakes of the fight matter a lot more.

The genre isn't called "fantasy". It's called Chanbara, and is the Japanese genre of samurai films which depicts them as a mythical era. It's conventions are conventions of the genre itself which includes the hero battling multiple opponents where these often stand around allowing the hero to fight a series of duels. If you don't know about the ethos of the samurai class, you won't understand why this happens. The duel is more or less sacred in samurai myth. Adding more opponents ups the stakes as it communicates the hero is outmatched and stands alone - which another key element where the samurai hero being alone in standing for honour and truth in a society ruled by corruption and injustice. This captures the tension inside Japanese culture which is very group and obedience oriented while still lauding individuals or small groups willing to take a stand against authority even to the detriment of themselves. Thus, being surrounded by a sea of enemies represents this element of social solitude and exposure, while still showing that the struggle is an individual one, fought inside the heart and mind of each person. Having the enemies of the samurai hero act "realistically" would be to miss the entire point of one of the corner stones of this genre. The Rônin samurai represents social and political dissent or isolation and while it is lauded, it is also destructive and subversive. In this fashion, Chanbara heroes are not engaged in a good vs evil fight in the way Western fantasy heroes are, but rather involved in a complex negotiation woth the societal values and structures of Japanese culture at large. (Apart from this, great video!)

Just a quick comment to partially justify your point about some minions standing around while Mizu fights the rest: In sword fighting, it is super dangerous for *everyone* if you have too many people cramped together when blades are swinging around. If you see ten people fighting one guy, it’s perfectly reasonable to not jump in and become guy #11. You’d be just as much a danger to your allies as to your opponent. Actually, you’d be more of a danger to your allies, because there’s a 10/11 chance that you’d hit a teammate, while only a 1/11 chance you’d hit your opponent. Gradually, as your opponent thins out the numbers, you can jump in to replenish the allies you lost, but for everyone to rush in all at once is not typically what is recommended.

I kinda disagree at 5:30 , agree that the reality of the world the story takes place in must grant some exceptions for the sake of entertainment but it should never be used as an excuse and if it must be then change the scene

Peaches!

I dunno, I kinda thought those “character development” scenes were boring & dragging the show down. The whole humanizing her actually made it all less appealing to me as well, I enjoyed the killing machine aspect of Mizu far more than her feelings. I can feel, I don’t need to see that stuff, because I get it. You know what I can’t do? Be an insanely talented sword master that goes around killing for vengeance.

Peaches!!!!!😂

are you going to do a video on acolyte?

The final battle could’ve been perfect. Especially the part when Mizu had the gun and Fowler had the sword. Fowler we learn is very adept with a sword, and Mizu has never held a gun before. This power dynamic could’ve gone crazy, but they only use it for like a scene.

an OP character defeating their enemy simply by bashing them head on or shooting some laser out of their hand probably looks cool only the first time you see it. After that, it became stale, and that's why Blue Eye Samurai works, as you've mentioned they added layers to the fights to keep it interesting. And I think this is the problem with Mary Sue, not that it is intrinsically bad, but the way those characters handle conflict is just too stale

Mizu can be firgiven in her shennaniganry because she *EARNS* the rule of cool.

This show was so much better than i thought it would be, amazing protagonist and an incredible villain… that chapple scene where he literally negotiates with Jesus Christ was epic

Was Fowler supposed to be a master swordsman? I never got that from the show. The final fight did not feel disapointing for me