Cinepals - BLUE EYE SAMURAI 1x1 "Hammerscale" Reaction & Review!

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

Jaby & Michael watch "Blue Eye Samurai" is an animated series set in Edo-period Japan, following a mixed-race swordswoman as she navigates a path of revenge and self-discovery in a society that shuns her.   Main cast: Maya Erskine (PEN15 & Insecure), George Takei (Star Trek & Heroes), Masi Oka (Heroes & Hawaii Five-0), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat & The Man in the High Castle), and Brenda Song (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody & Dollface).   SOCIAL MEDIA: ~CINEPALS~ YouTube: @CinePals Insta: https://instagram.com/TheCinePals Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCinePals   ~MICHAEL~ Insta: @booseisloose

Sina. Pals! We are watching Blue-Eyed Samurai, finally. I'm so excited to get into this. Michael literally just watched Arcane. Yeah, I'm very happy for him. Arcane is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. Hopefully this will be as well. Episode one, Hammer Scale.

Here we go. No, it's our boy from the Soba Shop. Oh, okay, gotcha. Oh, hey. Pitches. Pitches. Pitch. Putting his tutelage to work is what he's doing.

I very much enjoy this. It's a fun kickoff, a fun pilot to the show. There's an immediate comparison in my mind to my experience with Arcane, right? So it's totally different in terms of like the world and whatnot and the style even is different. The love I had for Arcane was just like at a out of 10, it was at an 11 immediately, right? I absolutely understand having just watched it. Yeah, absolutely. I'm really, really enjoying this.

I don't have the same initial like, whoa, that I did. for Arcane, but I am very much enjoying it and very much looking forward to the rest of the season. Like, I'm totally invested. Right. You know what I mean? But it's just like, if I'm comparing the two, I know what my feeling was with Arcane out of the gate, you know? And so it's just like, just keeping it real. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And like,

you know, as you said, they're two very different things, and they are different stylistically, and they're different worlds. Even how violent it can be. Even how violent it can be, absolutely. But I think there's a lot of really cool parallels as well. I think in the fighting animation, you know,

between the two, Arcane and Blue Eye Samurai seem to have a similar, I guess, love for the fighting animation that I'm really, really enjoying. And like, it's, what's the word? It's innovative, I think. We see a lot of cool moves, and they're trying things with different angles and different movements and different things stylistically that really paint a picture through the combat as well. And I think that's, I mean, you know, for a samurai show, you got to have good samurai fights. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

So putting the love and effort into those sword fights is, it has me very, very excited as to how it's going to evolve and what we're going to see more. Yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly. The action is definitely something to write home about. It's just really beautifully done. It's just the way they move the camera around and where they decide to kind of ramp, you know, slow it down and speed it up and, you know, bring it back to normal motion. And it's just so fluid and dynamic. It's, I feel like it's a lot of stuff that we haven't really seen. Like you said, it's creative.

And so something as like the teeth, right? Oh, my God, the teeth. Yeah. Yeah. Like, the way the teeth came out and then she knocked it. And then, like, it went into the person's, like, I haven't seen stuff like that. Yeah, I wasn't expecting teeth to become a focal point of a fight. Yeah.

Especially a sword fight. Yeah. Well, I feel like we should mention some of the cast real fast. So I don't know this person. Maya Eskrenet, I think is the main person. I don't know where we've. Seen Maya. Oh, she's from Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Oh, okay, got you, got you, got you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Brenda Song is also in the show. Masioka from Heroes, uh, George Takei from Star Trek, and, uh, many things. I thought I, I thought I recognized his voice. Right. But I was like, I don't want to say George Takee and then, like, be wrong. But I was right about Carrie Hiroyuki Tagawa. Yep, you called it.

He's definitely the swordmaker. I didn't realize Kenneth Braun was in the show. And so, I'm imagining he's, um, whatever Scott's been. Irishman was sitting in the shadows right when we got our bad guy reveal. So we got Clyde Kusatsu. I met him once because I got to have a whole conversation with the guy because he's in the movie with Carrie Tagawa. He's with him in the movie Rising Sun.

And I got to have a chat with him because he auditioned something I was running once. And I go, yo, like, you've been around a while and you've been prominent for a while. Like, how did you pull that off being an Asian actor? And he goes, it's really simple, to be honest with you. literally had to be the best in the room. Like, I had to be better than anyone else, irrespective of ethnicity. That was the only way forward.

Like, there was no room for the middle at all. Like, and, like, he made a name for himself and he became, like, he was in Dragon the Bruce Lee's story as well. Right, right, right. And so he's been in everything. Super nice guy. Awesome. Happy that he's in this show.

Randall Park as well. Oh, my God, yeah. Yeah, he's, uh, hiji Shindo. I haven't, like, a, like, he's the, he's the, um, the brother, the one that we were like, oh, I wasn't expecting that voice to come out of him. Oh, on the chair? Yeah, on the chair. Oh, got you. I believe Randall Park, yeah. Gotcha. Anyway, Mingna Wen

is Madame Kaji. Yeah, lots of, lots of... I'm imagining we got some characters that we're going to meet later on as well. Yeah, for sure, for sure, but I mean, stacked cast. Yeah, I mean, like, I assumed, I assumed, like, because of the times that we're living in, pretty much anybody

Asian in the show is being played by an Asian. That's not how it used to be. Right. Like, if you go back to the cast of Mulan, there's a lot of Caucasians playing, you characters. And I mean, to be totally honest, I didn't necessarily mind it then. I don't mind it now. I understand what they're doing. I like the cast that we have, so I'm happy with it. It's like, this is just what you do right now in this time. I don't know if we're going to stick to this, you know, in 20, 30 years, but it's cool that Asian actors are getting a chance to, you know, portray Asian characters in this, in this really dope show. Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's really, really beautiful. The one thing that I suppose, I have mixed feelings about it. Okay. Um, Arcane is like, the pacing of Arcane is perfect. It just, it just moves. Here, it actually moves at about the same pace.

And I wondered about that. And I'm like, do I want it to be slower? Because Japanese stuff is usually slower, you know? I get you. Yeah, I absolutely understand what you're saying, where there's that, like, you take a lot more time. There's a lot more, I guess, unspoken drama to it rather than that, like, fast pace, go, go, go, go. Like, everything's happening at a time. It's almost meditative in a way.

Yeah. You know, whereas this is constantly. like got you occupied with something it's not maybe it's not quite as fast as arcane but it's definitely still moving along it doesn't really take its time too much no definitely not I mean we'll see how the rest of the show progresses but I also I also think that

despite that pacing we still get a little bit of those meditative moments because we have a lot of you know quiet reflection especially that moment where she's like in the pool and she's like slowly stitching herself together that's true that things like that so stylistically I think we still get a little bit of that meditativeness but you're right

the pacing is a lot faster like compared to some... Like Shogun. Yeah, like Shogun. Yeah. Exactly. So I think they're finding a nice mix, at least here in this pilot episode, and we'll see how the rest of the show goes. It might just rip because we've only got, you know, however many episodes to get all of her revenge story.

I agree with you. I suppose it is finding a nice balance, especially for this generation where when you watch something like Dune Part 2, it's kind of surprising that it's... When you watch a film that's, like, actually taking its time, it's weird by today's standards. of being a post-Tick-Tock generation. And so I suppose it is finding a perfect balance of like, okay, we want to keep people engaged, but we do want to kind of find that slower, meditative Japanese style.

And, you know, you might be right. It's like that perfect, imperfect, imperfect sort of thing that they're talking about the sword. I mean, stylistically, when they're leading up to the actual duel between her and the, you know, I forget his name, but the other samurai who was undefeated, right? We just came out of like this slick,

back and forth, lots of action fight, and then they have this whole moment where they stand there and they just visualize quietly what the fight's going to be. And each move is like two, three moves in silhouette with that beautiful red across the white, right? And it's silent

and it's peaceful and so you get that same sort of meditative combat that I think is really integral to the samurai style where it's a lot like a chess game. It's not like rough brawl action all the time. You're thinking on your feet. It's like, okay, I've got three moves to defeat this person, and I got to think about it,

and then they're making small adjustments. And I think that was kind of that slow down meditative pace that we got. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely got that kind of Queen's Gambit thing going on, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of like, okay, bupah, okay, bupah, and then you see it unfold. And oddly, and maybe it's not that odd, but oddly it reminded me of, like, the man with no name, the Clint Eastwood stuff. It's like, you go back and watch those.

It's like, this is a person who's, like, badass and walking through town and doing damage, you know. And it's sort of the same thing, just like, you know, amped up on Coke. Uh-huh. And so, yeah, I really like what they're doing here. It's beautifully done. And I'm looking forward to episode two. You guys, thanks so much for hanging. And let us know your feeling's in the comments below.

I'm Jabby Kaua. This is Michael Boos. Peace out.