**episode 1 **stellar animation and setup; beats are predictable , though will be interesting to see how it all pays off.tHE PHILOSOPHY OF SWORD MAKING IS BEAUTIFULLY INTEGRATED , fights are cinematically interesting, there are certain narrative convineces as is the trademark of animated storytelling. 4.5/5
**epidode 2** gives you cinematic high not available in half of the popular series or movies available i the market. One of the strongest episode visually, with breathtaking imagery. The main character are now set on their path , it is intresting to see what would be the role of our dumb brute. 5+/5
**Episode 3**: After the high of second episode, this episode forms a narrative key for our way fwd, as all the characters are now put in perfect places to reach the enivatble conclusion due for the ned of season one, though, as a narrative this chapter truly reflects on one character, while oue titular character is just cool stoic badass. The ch primarily serves uses tried and tested tope to achieve the two things a.) seting up the villan and b) recrruiting allie, philosophy of sword and dialogue are strong as always but overall it is worst of the three, with imagery still better than run of the mill shows, but it is overshadowed by the highs of t=its own benchmarks 4/5 Highlight akemi and his servant talking about destny and seeing reality as is. akemi decision to to conflict uncertainity; truly powerful, yet arguably foolish stuff.
**Episode 4:** Best part of the episode is the addition of madam e of the brothel for various intrestes into the cast, shejjust drops truth bombs evreywhere.Best philosopher on the episode till now. The brothel in itself is a unique , place while watching it came to my understanding how differntly we see sex fm that in japan. Moreover I loved how the story is taking these detour , normally I would be pissed but here it makes the story all the more wonderful. the camerawork is dynamic, little flourisjhes like painiting of blood and killing of the bird are nice flourishes , that both symblically signifies the character and their ruthlessness for their goal, It beautifuly belances the strange dichotomy o the protagonists. It is here I also comes to understand how at each episode fm second ch our character is provided with various questions in these detour which shows their character in front of seemingly nothing burd=ger for them in their goal. Making Mizu atypical of powerful male fantasy enhances her character. Iloving these detours througly 4.75/5 (as it nitself is not a satisffying arc , if it hasd a better stand alone story, The ch in itself would have been a 10/10 worthy for its screen play, dialogue delivery. art direction, and memorable imagery esp that last 10 minutes sequence)
**Episode 5:** First off, I forgot the villain monologue last ch that was shakespearian. Moving on Thiis episode had the best god damn naative tghroughlin eand felt like culmination of everrything I havebeen pointing out through out previous episode. Though vosuals were stilll beautiful , but the close quarter fights while tense and interesting gets tedious after a while. Ending of the narrative was beautiful. Though its visual opf past were not as effective as episode two neither the fight were as dynamic as in those episode , it is more than made up by the narrative thrust of the episode . Overall Better than anyother episode so far 5+/5
**Episode 6:** What is with this series , by the 20 min mark it was going to be another mindless action jhon wick with artistic flair, but the confrontation with villain made me rethink the whole episode in retrospect. The theme that is prevalent in this episode is the madma line of desire in ep4 and the theme I Ignored in epidode 5 i.e, expectations of others a v/s perception of self and how both shapes on one another. This ch carrries fwd previous ch theme and give us a narrative pay off as our blue eyed boy is healing while not giving up on their goal. How is this going to patyout nobody understand. WHile I can be sure that The samurai have much more ground to cover. As the way fwd seems bleak. Narratively it is a perfect end , but it still caught me by surprise as I have ecome too used to trash in my media consumption. 4/5
**Episode 7:** One of the best fucking penultimate episode; parallel between feamle leads are drawn , final battle lines are drawn, and we have the final twist reveal, though I don't consider the villan a"villain" to me he sounds like a chaotically neutral person, even benevolent to their own family, The use of voillain bgm , is effective is shocking us, but it doesn't convince me he is a villain but an opporunist. Similarly I don't know what is the stance of shogun wether he iois tyraant ior benevolent ruler or neutral. He doesn't apppear to be anything truly and that is why my sympathy for oplan is directed more twds akemi rather than shogun family, similarly my sympathy is for blue eyed samurai , becoz if he fails he will, have much harder time conquering jap. But even then execllent ch, with beautiful bird imagery of running princess being the highlight. Though still a notch less than the best ch of the series. Ah and did I discuss how gr8 is the primary antagonist.4./5
**Episode 8:** Perfect Finale, answered all the questions from previous sections and didn't leave any narrative thread dangling. Some Unexpected winners and reveng saga continues. Don't know what happeed to rival charcater at the end. 5/5
Overall one of the great series I have seen in a long time 4.8/5
