Revenge is like gold. It does not rust.

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 TV of 2023

#10 :  Blue Eye Samurai

Coming out of nowhere to carve a bloody path through the competition, Kurosawa-inspired animation Blue Eye Samurai is more than a little reminiscent of its eponymous hero. Voiced by Maya Erskine, Mizu is a mixed-race samurai on a path of vengeance during Japan's Edo period, when non-Japanese people were banned from its borders. But this is much more than just another rip-roaring rampage of revenge. Created by husband and wife team Amber Noizumi and Michael Green, this gorgeous-looking eight-part series boasts electrifying fight sequences based on precisely choreographed motion-capture brawls, and charts an engaging tale of isolationism, prejudice and female empowerment. With a voice cast including Masi Oka, Mark Dacoscos, Ming-Na Wen, George Takei, Randall Park, Stephanie Hsu and Kenneth Branagh, this is a stunningly-rendered and emotionally loaded tale that demands to be watched, even by animation sceptics.

The second one in a row that only features on Empire's list and it's another one I'd never heard of - but I do like a bit of animation (and Empire are pretty good with their recommendations in this area) so I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah, I really liked this - as The Guardian explains we're following Mizu on a search for vengeance but there's an awful lot more to it than that. We've got betrayal, injustice, prejudice and all sorts of other lightweight fun as well. And lots and lots of fights!

You certainly can't accuse it of lacking plot or ambition with the story working both backwards and forwards in time with flashbacks explaining how the various characters found themselves and each other (and things often turn out to be not quite as they seem). There is an argument that the story is possibly a little too convoluted in places and I'm not sure it really needed to be eight episodes long, but I wouldn't say I ever got bored with it and it manages to conclude pretty well, whilst also making it very clear there's going to be another season. I did get very confused by a lot of episode six though - I had no bloody clue what was going on for most of it. I think it's also fair to say that it's not always realistic, but who cares about such things?

It's well animated with some nice touches and variety of styles involved throughout. It also has some very good voice acting with Maya Erskine as Mizu (she was Sully in Obi-Wan Kenobi, but obviously I don't remember anything about that other than how boring it was), Brenda Song as Akemi (she's been in LOADS of stuff - there are six series in which she's been in at least ten episodes and I've seen none of them!) and Masi Oka as Ringo (he was Hiro in Heroes and Dr Bergman in Hawaii Five-O, which I was amazed to see there were ten seasons of) taking the plaudits for me. It's also nice to hear George Takei still working at the age of 87 (and doing a good job) but I was very unconvinced by Kenneth Branagh's Irish accent (which is, of course, somewhat ironic given he's a Belfast boy).

I was quite surprised that this got at made at all because it's quite ambitious and not all that mainstream so I imagined that one of Amber Noizumi and Michael Green must have a bit of clout - and it's Mr Green who's been involved in writing many things including Heroes, American Gods, Logan, Alien: Covenant, Blade Runner 2049 and Murder on the Orient Express, so it's fair to say he knows one end of a script from the other.

A lot of people won't watch this because it's animated but I think it's well worth a look - it's definitely not for kids (although I'm sure they'd like the fight scenes). If you fancy it, it's on Netflix - season two is on its way and I'll definitely make the effort to try and catch it.

#11 - It looked good, but I just didn't care