#Akemi

[lillymakesart]

tell me im wrong im waiting

(shouting @skullzvstheworld for this idea lmfao im shaking)

#blue eye samurai #blue eye samurai meme #bes meme #mizu #akemi #ringo #taigen #blue eye samurai shitpost #lillydrawsmizu misc

[moroscrow]

#girlfailure #these two make me feral #mizu #akemi #blue eye samurai #bes #lesbians! #yuri #wlw post #mitski #mitski lyrics #bes mizu #bes akemi

[captainamateur-artistt]

𝐆𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐡𝐨𝐥e.

—

Direct reference to that one famous photo of Anne Hathaway, Audra McDonald & Raul Esparza in “Twelfth Night”.

#minxart #blue eye samurai #mizu blue eye samurai #akemi #mizu #taigen #this show has been occupying my mind for weeks

[proxysart]

Had to draw the trio

#blue eye samurai #blue eye samurai fanart #mizu #akemi #taigen

[ash-and-starlight]

humble contribution

#basic: interpreting mizu’s gender based on what u think fits best #based wired inspired: interpreting mizu’s gender based on the ship so that it’s always a gay relationship #also whoever drew taigen’s nose Like That.. #i am forever thankful i need to kiss them with tongue #ode to taigen’s nose: page 1 of 204737835737493 #did i spend too long on this instead of just simply grabbing screenshots? look away #blue eye samurai #mizu #akemi #taigen #taigen’s top knot before it met its early end teach the angels how to sing baby 😔🙏 #ringo #my art #yuri is when there’s blood and themes yaoi is two blokes who do fuck all

[sockich]

I WANT TO BE GREAT.

BLUE EYE SAMURAI (2023)

#i adore mizu with my whole heart #but akemi is a VERY close second #(that said i hope taigen gets his simple happiness too genuinely would love that for him) #akemi #love her #taigen #blue eye samurai #tv #my posts

[stromblessed]

Mizu, femininity, and fallen sparrows

In my last post about Mizu and Akemi, I feel like I came across as overly critical of Mizu given that Mizu is a woman who - in her own words - has to live as a man in order to go down the path of revenge.

If she is ever discovered to be female by the wrong person, she will not only be unable to complete her quest, but there's a good chance that she'll be arrested or killed.

So it makes complete sense for Mizu to distance herself as much as possible from any behavior that she feels like would make someone question her sex.

I felt so indignant toward Mizu on my first couple watchthroughs for this moment. Why couldn't Mizu bribe the woman and her child's way into the city too? If Mizu is presenting as a man, couldn't she claim to be the woman's escort?

However, this moment makes things pretty clear. Mizu knows all too well the plight of women in her society. She knows it so well that she cannot risk ever finding herself back in their position again. She helps in what little way she can - without drawing attention to herself.

Mizu is not a hero and she is not one to make of herself a martyr - she will not set herself on fire to keep others warm. There's room to argue that Mizu shouldn't prioritize her quest over people's lives, but given the collateral damage Mizu can live with in almost every episode of season 1, Mizu is simply not operating under that kind of morality at this point. ("You don't know what I've done to reach you," Mizu tells Fowler.)

And while I still feel like Mizu has an obvious and established blind spot when it comes to Akemi because of their differences in station, such that Mizu's judgment of Akemi and actions in episode 5 are the result of prejudice rather than the result of Mizu's caution, I also want to establish that Mizu is just as caged as Akemi is, despite her technically having more freedom while living as a man.

Mizu can hide her mixed race identity some of the time, and she can hide her sex almost all of the time, but being able to operate outside of her society's strict rules for women does not mean she cannot see their plight.

It does not mean she doesn't hurt for them.

Back to Mizu and collateral damage, remember that sparrow?

While Mizu is breaking into Boss Hamata's manse, she gets startled by a bird and kills it on reflex. She then cradles it in her hands - much more tenderly than we've seen Mizu treat almost anything up to this point in the season:

She then puts it in its nest, with its unhatched eggs. Almost like she's trying to make the death look natural. Or like an accident.

You see where I'm going with this.

When Mizu kills Kinuyo, Mizu lingers in the moment, holding the body tenderly:

And btw a lot of stuff about this show hit me hard, but this remains the biggest gut punch of them all for me, Mizu holding that poor girl's body close, GOD

When Mizu arranges the "scene of the crime," Kinuyo's body is delicate, birdlike. And Mizu is so shaken afterward that she gets sloppy. She's horrified at this kill to the point that she can't bring herself to take another innocent life - the boy who rats her out.

MIZU'S ONE MOMENT OF SOFTNESS AND MERCY, COMING ON THE HEELS OF HER NEEDING TO KILL A GIRL TO SPARE HER THE WORST FATE THAT THIS RIGID SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER WOMEN, AND TO SPARE A BROTHEL FULL OF INNOCENT WOMEN WHO ARE THE CASTOFFS OF SOCIETY, NEARLY RESULTS IN ALL OF THEIR DEATHS

No wonder Mizu is as stoic and cold as she is.

And no wonder Mizu has no patience for Akemi whatsoever right before the terrible reveal and the fight breaks out:

Speaking of Akemi - guess who else is compared to a bird!

The plumage is more colorful, a bit flashier. But a bird is a bird.

And, uh

Yeah.

I like to think that Mizu killing the sparrow is not only foreshadowing for what she must do to Kinuyo, but is also a representation of the choice she makes on Akemi's behalf. She decides to cage the bird because she believes the bird is "better off." Better off caged than... dead.

But because Mizu doesn't know Akemi or her situation, she of course doesn't realize that the bird is fated to die if it is caged and sent back home.

Mizu is clearly not happy, or pleased, or satisfied by allowing Akemi to be dragged back to her father:

But softness and mercy haven't gotten Mizu anywhere good, recently.

There is so much tragedy layered into Mizu's character, and it includes the things she has to witness and the choices she makes - or believes she has to make - involving women, when she herself can skirt around a lot of what her society throws at women. Although, I do believe that it comes at the cost of a part of Mizu's soul.

After all, I'm gonna be haunted for the rest of this show by Mizu's very first prayer in episode 1:

"LET" her die. Because as Ringo points out, she doesn't "know how" to die.

Kind of like another bird in this show:

#blue eye samurai #mizu #akemi #kinuyo #bes #women are birds okay they are BIRDS #the let me die line is so SCARY AND SAD like a part of Mizu wants death but she cant? she doesnt know how?? excuse you show??? #when all these other delicate birds are dying all around her #akemis character gets more and more gutwrenching upon subsequent rewatches because whenever she says her life is in danger #NO ONE BELIEVES HER - certainly not other women #because shes rich and pampered and that means shes safe and is worrying about nothing right? right????? #and it turns out that all of akemis instincts were right and she was in danger the ENTIRE TIME #also I need to make a post just for kinuyo because I am sad

[balee-art]

What a dysfunctional squad.

#im begging u to watch this show #for everyone asking: ringo is the only functional one ok #blue eye samurai #blue eyed samurai #bes #art #artist #digitalart #fanart #baleeart #bes fanart #mizuki #memes #meme redraw #myart #artists on tumblr #taigen #akemi

[stedesbonnets]

i can't stress it enough how crazy the love triangle situation is. mizu and akemi have a slow motion romcom first glance at each other. mizu and taigen are enemies to lovers. mizu taunts akemi about taigen while wearing his scarf. mizu imagines taigen while seeing a threesome. mizu and akemi have sex scenes juxtaposed with each other. taigen and mizu's brawl is an obvious parallel to mizu and mikio. "this isn't over" "i know". both could happen. neither could happen. all could happen all at once. and i'm watching it all like this

#THE MOST BIG BRAINED WRITERS OF ALL TIME #blue eye samurai #mizu #taigen #akemi

[acarillustrated]

blue eye samurai has taken over my brain. but the good thing is that it has made me want to create! and figure out how to draw mizu bc i love her and im obsessed i've already posted why

where's that tumblr post about the person who is both a twink and a butch lesbian. that's mizu.

they way u can see me get better at drawing her from top to bottom 😭😭

#blue eye samurai #bes #mizu #akemi #taigen #blue eye samurai fanart #softboy art time

[ercticisms]

in the spirit of renewal...

#bes #blue eye samurai #blue eye samurai mizu #mizu #bes mizu #blue eye samurai akemi #akemi #bes akemi #blue eye samurai ringo #bes ringo #abijah fowler

[soranatus]

The Gang from Blue Eye Samurai By Devon Ste Marie Rubin, a character designer and concept artist who worked on the show

#Devon Ste Marie Rubin #blue eye samurai #mizu #ringo #taigen #akemi #takayoshi #production art #fan art #? #bse #character design

[mountainmagpie]

Every friend group should include:

#I left out some categories because of possible spoilers #as of season 1 #this could age poorly with season 2 #but that is fine as long as we get a season 2 #and listen #I love Akemi #the thin ice is her sanity #I thought about her being the meaner lesbian #but that woman knows what she likes and she gets it #Ringo is the best of them #blue eye samurai netflix #mizu blue eye samurai #blue eye samurai #mizu #ringo blue eye samurai #blue eye samurai taigen #Akemi blue eye samurai #Akemi #Ringo #taigen

[artmadval]

I want to be great 🔥

#blue eye samurai #akemi #blue eye samurai akemi #blue eye samurai fanart #liardraw

[anteomnia]

just endlessly thinking about blue eye samurai.

thinking about how akemi, taigen, and mizu are if a coin had three sides or maybe just the two and mizu is the bridge of metal between them.

akemi being the ideal image for women, for the life they endure. she was simultaneously a princess, a prostitute, and a prisoner. her entire life was men making decisions for her, even the ones that had good intentions, and she believed her deepest desire was freedom. it still is, but she has been revealed to this heinous predicament of her gender, and she’s realized that to reach true freedom as a woman is to be the bird in the cage, to play nice and to earn the love of a man until he buys her a bigger cage and a bigger cage until he trusts her not to fly away. and it'll never be true freedom, but it will come with power. it'll come with the freedom of only one master rather than many.

taigen being the ideal image of a man. not all powerful, but not weak. he had a taste of what it'd be to succeed, and when it was taken from him, that easy success, he mistook it for his honor. he hunted mizu down to kill him, and instead he saved him. he saved him and saved him and he came closer to killing mizu when they were on the cliff's edge, and just when he gets to the point where he may actually fight mizu, he's tortured for information on him. he is tortured. Literally tortured within an inch of his life, enduring such a heinous violence, and he refuses to break. this man was a fight, was the torturer, and the victim of his torturing could've been his salvation from pain but he refused. mizu gave back taigen's honor but not by fighting him.

akemi wanted freedom and learned she would need power to have it.

taigen wanted power and learned that the violence that came with it was infinite and dishonorable.

and then there's mizu. mizu who wants revenge, wants acceptance. arguably the same things as them both. mizu wants acceptance, the freedom of living and the freedom to love and be loved. mizu wants revenge, which follows after violence and power, to get said acceptance. she thinks she must do both, have both, to live peacefully, and she's blatant about how she will not live without either.

she's given acceptance with the blacksmith, her "mother," her husband, but she sees the flecks of avoidance in it.

the blacksmith will not hear of her true gender. her "mother" will not acknowledge the crime of her birth. her husband can't find tolerance for the violence within her, the man of her.

and so she has to balance the woman and man of her, the ronin and the bride. taigen and akemi. and it's meeting mizu that they start to unravel their own identities.

mizu, who is both, and akemi and taigen who thought themselves one but turned out to be neither.

god.

#complexities #and comparisons #i think they are so much more than what i’ve said but just #the cinematography #and the metaphors #the underlying theme of birds #blue eye samurai #the poetry that you are #it feels like every scene was specifically crafted #like they did not make one undeliberate mark #like it all has meaning #i’m insane #mizu #taigen #akemi #mizu x akemi x taigen #the ronin and the bride

[dragonstoned]

listen that was a romantic ass slow mo of a first meeting

four seasons planned...... look there is plenty of time to go there. it could happen. 'oh theyre just foils' yes they are but also why frame their twinned developments with intimacy and sex and orgasms. why are they building these associations and beaming it into our brains. why did akemi say she searched for love in mizus eyes????

anyway. just look ok

all the dreamy little snowflakes while the music swells tenderly. lingering gobsmacked eye contact. no cishet explanation for any of this.

#blue eye samurai #mizu #akemi #mizemi #is that the ship name???pls help thanks #listen i dont /not/ like mizutaigen. i am not fully immune #but thats not what im /about/ ok #wanted make gifs but just dont have the space sadly. bes is such a pretty looking show pls watch it dont let it die like so many others