Has Netflix finally made an awesome anime?
Summary
- Is it really an anime with a good story from Netflix?
- The anime is completely made using 3D animation. Is it bad?
- Does Blue-eyed Samurai deserve its grades?
Blue-Eyed Samurai is a Netflix original anime from the director of the Blade Runner anime. Immediately after its release, it received a score of 100 on the Metacritic site. Such high scores surprised many users online. Why is the anime project from Netflix so highly rated? What does the streaming giant's new project look like?
Story
The story at its core is much like a darker and more violent version of the Disney Studios' iconic Mulan, but the details are, of course, very different. Perhaps the plot and characters are suddenly the strongest point of the work. This is rarely the case with anime projects from Netflix. But here everything works as it should, dramatically, with a social subtext: a story of revenge, the formation of the hero, the honor of the samurai and the difficult life in medieval Japan. This seemingly simple samurai story can surprise, play with clichés and evoke emotions, transform and interest both experienced fans of anime about Japanese knights and newcomers.
Visuals
Now, that's a tough question. When all the shorts on Youtube are bursting with unbelievably animated scenes from Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, where the creators mixed everything from 3D to sketch style to maximum detail, the visuals in Blue-Eyed Samurai look controversial. It's not terrible, as 3D in anime sometimes is, even the frame rate barely sags at all. In some moments you are even surprised at how competently they worked with light shading and perspective, some shots are just magical and stunning. But on average, the episodes look just normal, sometimes the quality of animation drops down a lot, sometimes bad 3D mimicry stands out.
Overall
Blue-Eyed Samurai is an example of a good anime from Netflix, an example of a good anime made entirely in 3D. Well-written and dynamic story here sometimes allows you to turn a blind eye to problems with the visuals, which in general often looks good. Animators here tried their best. We would also like to mention the soundtrack, which is not afraid to depart from the canons. So if 3D anime from Netflix appears in the future again, let it be at least as good as Samurai. It may not be a 100-point project, but it's definitely a solid 80.