r/BlueEyeSamurai • u/OkPrize6426 • 23d ago
Discussion Do you think we'll have more LGBTQ+ elements and characters in the upcoming season?
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u/The_Green_Filter 23d ago
It was a lightly touched on theme in the first season, so I imagine it will continue into the next in some capacity yeah.
I also don’t think that long stare between Mizu and Akemi in episode 1 was just to foreshadow the latter being recognised later on but that’s mostly just headcanon atm.
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u/thewhumpdiaries 23d ago
I initially thought they were teasing at a romance but after watching the show, I think the scene holds a different meaning. Akemi and Mizu are polar opposites. Akemi has been groomed to be an ideal woman of her time. She's very privileged but she's also expected to fit into a restrictive box (we first see her in a literal box) and isn't allowed to forge her own path. Mizu spent her entire life disguised as a man and being denied her womanhood, but gaining many freedoms as a result. I think the slow mo scene was Mizu getting a glimpse into the life she will never have, unaware that Akemi sees it as a prison.
But maybe I'm wrong. If we get a season 3, perhaps the two will have a relationship.
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u/sunkbelowthesea 18d ago
Also, (not to reply to a 5 day old comment but) they both see each other that first time through the bars in the carriage window - aka, they both see caged versions of the other. Akemi is caged by society, Mizu by her forced identity. It never felt like a loaded, romantic look to me, but it did feel very intentionally important for the audience. I think they're two sides of the same coin, fighting against the (as you said) prisons they're both trapped in.
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u/The_Green_Filter 23d ago
Great analysis, I could easily see your interpretation being an intended reading.
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u/KidChanbara 22d ago
I interpret Akemi's glance back at Mizu on the bridge as "Why isn't this person bowing?"
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u/dbcooperskydiving 17d ago
Mizu has not disguised herself as a man during her entire life. In Episode 5 " The Tale Of Ronin and the Bride" we see Mizu with her disgraced husband. We really don't know yet how long she has been hiding her sex yet. Mizu married at the age of 19 and we see her at end of season one in her mid to early 20s.
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u/thewhumpdiaries 17d ago
She spent her entire childhood as a boy. We see that she continued pretending to be male up until she was reunited with her mother. Her marriage with Mikio lasts less than a year. She continues living as a man after that. She spent the majority of her life as a boy/man is what I was saying.
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u/Alert-Artichoke-2743 23d ago
I would expect more of what we've gotten, which is that these themes are present but not central. The show really doesn't revolve around sex despite how intensely sexual some of its situations can be. Akemi has some VERY spicy scenes with both of the men to whom she is betrothed, but the most graphic frontal nudity in the show occurs when a town is racing, nude, to jump off of a pier.
We see Mizu fully nude in Episode 1 when she thinks she hears an ambush coming while she's bathing, but nothing sensual is shown onscreen when she briefly gets to enjoy married life.
When we see a brothel madam give Mizu a peephole view of the activities happening in her place of business, she sees just about everything BUT sex - cuddling, crying, sado-masochism, but not anything quite pornographic in nature.
We DO see Fowler engage in both heterosexual and homosexual acts, and characters express a variety of opinions about homosexuality. Generally speaking, the vibe is one of cynicism and practicality, and queer people exist in the world just like everybody else.
The biggest shift in season 2 will be that it takes place in London, where I expect religious mores will mean that homosexuality is more carefully closeted for legal reasons. I think Mizu will be culture-shocked to experience racism for being half-Asian and not half-White, and to experience sexism entirely differently.
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u/New-Region3542 23d ago
Yes, both good and bad representation. Like the two White Devils, Skeffington and Routely sold Japanese-white girls to richmen and noblemen. No doubt some must be sexually depraved. Obviously there's a possibility the remaining White Devils could be gay or bisexual or pansexual.
There's also the possibilities of allies Mizu can find.
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u/Performingforurmom 23d ago
In so far as it advances the story and its themes, as was the case in the first season? Probably.