You don’t even need to wait forBlue Eye Samuraito premiere this November 3 to get a sense of how amazing the animated series looks — you just have tocheck out the trailer. After watching just a glimpse of this series, you might wonder how series creators and writersMichael GreenandAmber Noizumimanaged to reachthat level of artistry. The duo revealed to Collider that French-Canadian animation company Blue Spirit (the same one that did theOscar-nominatedMy Life as a Zucchini) was key to answering one fundamental question the team had during production: “What if we made it good?”
That’s ultimately what Noizumi, Green, and their team asked themselves whenever a decision was starting to get made. And, in order to take it even further to the next level, they’d sometimes confront each other with the follow-up question “What if we made it really good?” This meant that, when it came to the look and feel ofBlue Eye Samurai, they had to think about whichanimation studioscould answer those questions, as Green explained to Collider’sNate Richard:
“We knew we were going to be going to some familiar ones that would bring back a certain familiar level of work, but we said to Netflix, ‘Hey, who’s our reach? Who’s gonna be the one that we go, ‘Shit, we can’t afford it, but look how beautiful it is?’ And to their credit, they said, ‘Okay, let’s try working with Blue Spirit, as well,’ a French Canadian-based company. Their work, of course, came back gorgeous at a level that no one else had achieved, and of course, at a price point that was not exactly what everyone wanted and also was gonna take more time. We just said, ‘But remember our premise: what if we made it good?’ And we all held hands and jumped off that cliff and worked with Blue Spirit, and the work speaks for itself.”
‘Blue Eye Samurai’ Writers On How You Should Approach Any Project
The duo also added that a question like their “What if we made this good” mantra is “one of the most important things” you can do “whenever you’re laying the foundation for every show.” Indeed, when it comes to animation, if you want a series tostand out visuallyyou have to go that extra mile because this art form has been done a million timessince cinema and TV became synonyms for entertainment.
However, it looks likeBlue Eye Samuraiwill be able to make the list of recent animated series that manages to push the envelope of the genre, with visuals that rivalSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,Puss in Boots,andStar Wars: Visions. Now we’ll just have to wait and see if the story lives up to its visuals, but Richard already wrote in his review that the seriesfully lives up to its expectations.
Netflix premieresBlue Eye Samuraion November 3. You can add it to your watch list below.
Watch on Netflix
Check out the trailer below:
Blue Eye Samurai
Driven by a dream of revenge against those who made her an outcast in Edo-period Japan, a young warrior cuts a bloody path toward her destiny.
