History WesternAnimation / BlueEyeSamurai

* BifurcatedWeapon: Mizu's katana can also be integrated into a naginata.

[He slowly pushes his sword from the collar bone, until the entire blade is inside the torso of [[spoiler: Heiji]]]

* NaginatasAreFeminine: Ironically it was Mikio, [[spoiler: Mizu's husband]], who first demonstrated to her the usefulness of the naginata, saying it's old-fashioned but [[ChekhovsLecture useful when you're outnumbered]]. In that same episode, we discover the [[ImposedHandicapTraining metal plates present-day Mizu wears wrapped around her legs and arms]] [[spoiler: can be curled up and connected together to form the shaft of an improvised naginata]]. Mizu also plays with this trope in that while she is a woman, she isn't particularly feminine and is also [[SweetPollyOliver successfully passing as a man to everyone around]]. The only time this trope is played straight is the flashback, where [[spoiler: Mizu in her bridal kimono and gentle, if [[YourMakeupIsRunning running]], make-up, defeats a group of bounty hunters, fighting with Mikio's naginata.

* PainMistakenForSex: Mizu enters a brothel to get information but refuses every girl in the place [[SweetPollyOliver to keep her disguise]]. Meanwhile, Princess Akemi is posing as a high-class courtesan so she can enter the brothel and assassinate Mizu. She enters Mizu's room, declaring to other prostitutes that no man can turn her down. [[spoiler: Mizu sees through the ruse and easily overpowers Akemi]], but on hearing the subsequent ruckus, one of the girls chuckles and comments "She's good".

** There are ''countless'' small nods toward both Franchise/{{Zatoichi}} franchise at large and its [[Film/Zatoichi2003 2003]] reboot in particular.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Akemi's stance towards [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohaguro ohaguro]] as disgusting and ugly is a modern, ''Western'' perception of it. It's far more likely she would be practicing it herself on her own, if not as part of her ProperLady image, then as TheFashionista due to the period-appropriate fad for it.

* FlamesOfLoveIn: The scenes of Mizu [[ForgingScene forging steel]] ([[ItMakesSenseInContext while naked, no less]]) are intercut with [[spoiler: Princess Akemi making love to her husband-to-be]].

** Mizu spent most of her life as a swordsmith apprentice. [[spoiler: The weights she's wearing aren't just for the purpose of training or protection - she designed them for the telescopic shaft of a naginata]].

* MercyKill: Madame Kaji asks that Mizu kill Kinuyo, a young woman who was taken from her brothel and forced to be a sex slave under Boss Hamata, the brutal town overlord. Kaji would prefer to ask for Mizu to rescue her, but if Hamata knew Kaji was involved he would simply slaughter them all and take Kinuyo back anyway. This is the only way Kaji can free her.

** When Hachiman is threatening Ringo in the soba bar, Mizu slooooowly pushes the table she's sitting behind, making as much ruckus as possible to draw Hachi's attention.

* TheToothHurts: Mizu's fight with the Shindo-Ryu Dojo sees a lot of teeth flying. She rips out one guy's teeth with her fingers, knocks a few out, and rips another guy's teeth out by slamming her bokken into his mouth and then yanking it out. To top it off, she throws the pulled teeth into another guy's [[EyeScream eye]].

* ChefOfIron: [[spoiler: Mizu, settled down into a housewife life, faces a group of soldiers after her bounty with nothing more than a kitchen knife. She kills first of them with it, before switching for an actual weapon]].

* SkilledAndStrong: Fowler has mastered the use of a Japanese katana well enough that Mizu comments on the cleanness of a rose stem he cut, stating that it shows a master's skill. Despite that, he prefers using brute force in a fight whenever he can't use a gun, using speed and strength and whatever is in the environment to give himself every advantage he can, putting Mizu on the ropes several times despite her sword skills being among the best demonstrated in the series.

* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Heiji Shindo's troops wear black armour with [[RedShirtArmy red clothes]] and serve the EvilMinions of the show. Even their banner is red with black markings on it.

-->'''Fowler:''' I don't hate the shogun, I just want his chair.\\

** As big part of her CombatPragmatist approach, Mizu ''repeatively'' attacks feet and lower calfes of her enemies. If she isn't cutting them off, then she will stab, bludgeon or stomp on them, while also routinely breaking or crushing bones.

** It is never made clear who actually sold Mizu out to her enemies: her husband (who grows terrified of her due to her combat skills and [[BloodKnight lust for battle]]), her mother (who is addicted to opium and needs to fund her habit), both, or neither.

* BribeBackfire: Mizu sees a traveller arrested for trying to bribe a gate guard. Since she had been planning to do the same thing she tries to quietly step out of line, only to be picked out by the guards who ask why she's trying to sneak away.
* BrickJoke: At the festival in Mihonoseki, an old woman says that she is planning to wish for a new husband if she wins the contest. Two episodes later, when Akemi travels to Mihonoseki, the old woman reappears with her new husband in tow; though she didn't win, her wish still came true.

* TheCatCameBack: Mizu repeatedly tries to get rid of Ringo, first tying him to a tree, then hiring prostitutes to seduce him, then threatening to kill him if she ever sees him again. Each time, he pops up again, and she eventually decides to accept it after he saves her at a checkpoint.

* ChekhovsSkill: Mizu is shown meditating upside down, supporting herself on one hand. Which comes in [[{{Pun}} handy]] later in the episode when she falls off a cliff headfirst, only to land on her outstretched hand.

** Mizu is entirely motivated by her {{Revenge}}. She couldn't care less for what's honourable or even to follow any kind of etiquette, and she is there for the kill of whoever stands in her way, with the least possible effort put into it.
** Fowler tends to bring guns to swordfights, and as a foreigner, he holds Japanese customs in contempt, but also finds them useful for his schemes - after all, it's easier to fight against fools who care more about showmanship than defeating their enemies.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Even with the AlternateHistory conceit, the show does an accurate portrayal of Japanese culture during the early Edo period. This is an extremely hierarchical era, in which women could not enter large cities without a chaperone, ticking off the wrong type of samurai can be a death sentence, and having foreign blood not only made you stand out but marked you as ''non-human''.

* ForeignQueasine: At a meeting of conspirators, Fowler offers two of them cheese curds, to their obvious disgust. One of them is brave enough to try it, even saying that it has a "good sourness", which Fowler [[ActuallyPrettyFunny laughs at]].

* GambitPileup: There's a lot of conniving going on in the politics of this version of Edo Japan, with Mizu, Abijah Fowler, Heiji Shindo, Akemi, Mizu, the Shogun and many others all having schemes of their own that alternatingly intersect or clash as the story goes along.

* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse:[[spoiler: Ise, the courtesan who overhears Fowler bragging about his plans to overthrow the Shogun and tries to report them, is asked this by Akemi's father, Lord Daichi Tokonobu, before he throws her out a window]].

* IgnoreTheFanservice:
** Mizu is directed to a brothel as a prank by students of the Shindo Dojo, and once she realizes what happened she asks the prostitutes for directions to the Dojo itself. The two greeters repeatedly try to get her to come inside and partake of their services, but she refuses without any hesitation or temptation.
** When Mizu visits Madame Kaji's brothel, she refuses all offers of service and repeatedly asks specifically to speak with Madame Kaji herself. Greater and greater temptations are offered -- some of which she does at least appear curious about -- but she remains focused.

* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: A recurring theme as naked violence and raw sex are explicitly compared and contrasted either by [[DiscussedTrope characters themselves]] or by the editing. The most notable and explicit case is probably Akemi telling Taigen how she imagines Taigen will kill Mizu in a duel ''while'' they have sex and climaxing at the same time as her narrative of violence.

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: When Madame Kaji asks Mizu to [[MercyKill kill Kinuyo]], she explains that it can't look like a rescue or Hamata will know to slaughter Kaji's entire brothel. Mizu kills one of the guards, and arranges the bodies so that it looks like he attacked Kinuyo and she managed to stab him while he strangled her. [[spoiler:Unfortunately she was seen leaving the building by a boy passing by, and he exposed the entire plan]].

%%* MoralityChain: Ringo becomes this for Mizu.

* SelfMadeOrphan: Mizu's driving motivation is to kill anyone that might be her father. [[spoiler:She also allowed the woman she believes to be her mother to be killed, although Fowler claims that she was actually just a maid hired to care for Mizu]].

* SingleStrokeBattle: The duel at the start of "Peculiarities". It's probably a homage to a similar duel in [[Film/SevenSamurai Seven Samurai]].

** When Mizu kills the Four Fangs, Heiji Shindo arranges a peace parlay. He points out that he ''could'' spend more and more money to hire stronger and stronger thugs one after the other, but he doesn't want to get stuck in that situation. So, instead he offers her a ''gargantuan'' bribe (Money, and titles, and influence with the Shogun) to put an end to her vendetta right away.

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: After losing to Mizu in the first episode, Taigen tracks her down to demand a rematch, and winds up becoming her ally to ensure she lives long enough to give him said rematch. He lost his reputation as an unbeatable swordsman (and thus, all the future prospects he'd been working towards) when she beat him, [[JustifiedTrope so beating her in an official duel is the only way to get his life back on track.]]

* UseTheirOwnWeaponAgainstThem: [[spoiler:In "The Great Fire of 1657", Seki and Akemi try to escape and are cornered by the latter's father's guards. Mizu comes to their rescue, introducing herself by swiping one guard's sword and killing him with it.]]

* WorfHadTheFlu: Taigen claims that his defeat at Mizu's hands only happened because he was half-drunk from celebrating his engagement when the fight began. Mizu then beats him up while they're both cold sober (and she has a half-healed stab wound in her side) with a ''chopstick''.
* WreckedWeapon: [[spoiler:Mizu's meteorite sword is shattered by Fowler's bullet in the sixth episode.]]

* InstantlyProvenWrong: [[spoiler: One of the two shogunate emmisaries points out that [[WhoDares nobody would dare]] [[DiplomaticImpunityattack dignitaries like them]], as it would bring wrath the entire shogunate against such a person. His partner agrees... and is instantly pierced by Mizu's sword, InTheBack to boot]].

* ShoutOut: The men of Boss Hamata, the Thousand Claws, wear kimonos with the [[Film/TheShining Overlook Hotel's]] infamous carpet pattern.

* SamuraiPonytail: Most of the Samurai, including Mizu, tied their hair into a topknot hairstyle called chonmage. Taigen joins the plot because Mizu cut his off in their fight, and it is such a mark of shame that he wants a rematch to restore his honor.

* FourIsDeath: As stressed repeatedly, at the time of Mizu's birth there were a grand total of ''four'' white men in Japan who might be her father (and thus four men who she wants to kill). Apparently all of four of them were extremely ruthless gun/opium/people traders with no moral compunction.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Even with the AlternateHistory conceit, the show does a accurate portrayal of Japanese culture during the early Edo period. This is an extremely hierarchical era, in which women could not enter large cities without a chaperone, ticking off the wrong type of samurai can be a death sentence, and having foreign blood not only made you stand out but marked you as ''non-human''.

* AlternateHistory: The show takes place in the early Edo Period, with the main action in 1656 and 1657. While the show is very accurate on details of Japanese life at this time, it makes three major changes to history for the plot: the Itoh clan rule instead of the Tokugawa, the highly limited Western trade of the period is done through four British criminals rather than the Dutch East India Company (who operated openly, if under strict restrictions, from the island of Dejima off the coast of Nagasaki rather than in secret), and Japan has never adopted firearms for any of its armies (Firearms appeared in Japan around 1270, as primitive metal tubes invented in China and called teppō and Western-style arquebuses were adapted and manufactured by the thousands during the Warring States-period).

* AllohistoricalAllusion: Fowler comments that Japan might have managed to keep the rest of the world at arm's length for "a couple of centuries" were it not for his presence in the country. In real life, the ''Sakoku'' isolation lasted until the arrival of the Perry Expedition in 1853 (the show is set in 1657, almost exactly two centuries before).

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: While Mizu arguably never had much of a home to begin with, [[spoiler:her leaving Japan to pursue the last two men on her list makes it unlikely she will ever return, as the rules of the Sakoku period not only restricted foreigners entering Japan, but also Japanese leaving it - by sailing to another country without leave, she is banished from returning on pain of death.]]

* ScaramangaSpecial: [[spoiler: Fowler manages to hide his shipment of rifles from both the shogun and his fellow co-conspirators by having the individual components disguised as furniture(stocks as piano legs, flintlock mechanisms as chess pieces, etc) and then assembling them later.]]

* ColorMotif: Each of the main characters has a specific color or color palet that crops up around them repeatedly: Blue for Mizu (obviously), Green for Taigen, Red for Akemi, Grey for both Ringo and Eiji, Yellow for Shindo, and Orange for Fowler.

* AnachronismStew:
** Fowler ships in a large shipment of pianos [[spoiler:to conceal that their legs are gun stocks]]. In 1657, the inventor of the piano was still in diapers, and the oldest known piano to be sold in Japan was made in 1823.
** Fowler repeatedly refers to 'the British', in the modern sense (as in, the inhabitants of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). In the 1600s the term would've been used to refer to the 'Britons', the inhabitants of Wales and Cornwall, seen as being the last descendants of the population of pre-Roman Britain. At this point in time England, Scotland, and Ireland were all still separate kingdoms, and the inhabitants were viewed as separate "races".

* HiddenHeartOfGold: The shogun's second son is said to be an abusive monster who kills his wives and won't even deign to ''speak'' to women. [[spoiler:When Akemi gets him alone, however, it's revealed that he's actually silent to conceal his stutter, while the stories of his brutality are invented by his mother and her servants to terrify his wives.]]