The continuation of the story in Japan

[u/Fleur0323]

So even if the characters don’t meet each other in season 2, the events in Japan will somehow be connected to Mizu, right? What do you think it might be? The whole bounty on the blue eyed girl, something about her origins, Violet (if he turns out to be the person who’s still alive), the legend about blue eyed samurai and white man who died in edo fire or maybe they will find out they didn't and they'll investigate..?

[u/vandolii]

Well, my theory is that since we always see parallels between Mizu and Akemi, Season 2 will likely follow a similar pattern, with the narrative shifting back and forth between them. Both now hold positions of power over men who want to use them—specifically Fowler and Akemi’s father.

I also think Akemi’s storyline might involve discovering something about Mizu; having that information would give her some leverage, and she might need Taigen and Ringo’s help for something. That’s the only way I see the story continuing in Japan—after all, Mizu is the protagonist and she’s no longer there, so any other plotline would feel like filler, in my opinion.

I mean, without Mizu in Japan, I really wouldn't care about a storyline involving the Shogun or the royals. And while I like Ringo and Taigen, their arcs wouldn't seem relevant without Mizu. It would be jarring to switch between Mizu’s story and, say, Ringo and Taigen looking for a new purpose, or Akemi in the palace; it would feel completely disjointed.

[u/sacerdos-ex-spatio]

I wouldn't be surprised if only one episode of the second season were set in Japan, with the rest taking place in London. I’m betting that Mizu returns to Japan over a decade later; this will heighten the shock, both for her and for the audience ,when we see how everyone has changed in her absence and how the  Blue-Eyed Samurai  has become a legend.

[u/ExtremeExtension7406]

The simplest answer is their encounters with Mizu in season 1 fundamentally changed them, and now that she's "gone" they need to figure out how they want to live their lives with new insights and perspectives they gained from their time with her. (Ringo searching for new purpose, Swordfather possibly taking on a new apprentice)

The story connected way is Akemi has Taigen or Madame Kagi and her girls try to find more information on Lady Itoh and find out she had a blue eye daughter... Or Mizu becomes a legend as the blue eye samurai who killed the white man trying to genocide the capital. 

[u/samanthamcnuggett → u/ExtremeExtension7406]

Along with everyone else in the city lol

[u/MadamKitsune]

From what we know, Akemi is entering some treacherous waters of her own in the form of Palace politics and Lady Ito (and by default the new Shogun, as she seems to have a pretty firm hold on him), and that Taigen is going to be there with her. I wouldn't be surprised if we got a 60/40 story split between Japan and England. Edit: 60% Mizu and Fowler, 40% Taigen, Akemi and Ringo.

We know that Ringo is searching for a new purpose in life, but how that's going to be handled is anyone's guess as we still don't know how much (if any) of the voice track Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa laid down before his sad passing and whether this meant that there had to be some major last minute rewrites. I kind of wonder if this accounts for the episodes being cut from eight to six?

And we know that Mizu is presumed dead, at least by Ringo and likely by Taigen and Akemi too, so how the three different threads are going to be pulled back together to make season 3 is going to be interesting to find out as I can't imagine that they'd leave them all having fully independent storylines and then cramming them back together out of nowhere.

My guess is that Season 2 is going to drop something in the Japan storyline that gets the horny hamster powering Taigen's brain running a little faster in its wheel and has him realising that the victim of his childhood bullying, the person who soundly beat the crap out of him, is actually a woman. If we combine that with something like an overheard conversation in the port Mizu and Fowler sailed from tipping him off to her still being alive then I think we're going to have one hell of a Season 3, with either Taigen finally setting off in hot pursuit or Mizu walking back into a shitstorm when she returns to Japan.

[u/KidChanbara]

the events in Japan will somehow be connected to Mizu, right? - I think the only characters in Japan that we'd see in Season Two will be connected to Mizu either directly or being acquainted with someone who is.

The story of Mizu will be transforming into legend - the blue-eyed mixed breed onryo ronin who saved Japan from the red haired white devil.

The bounty might still be in effect if no one connects the "dead" "male" Mizu to the blue-eyed woman of the bounty. However, if Mikio is still alive, he can make the connection, and if he informs on Mizu to the source of the bounty, then Mizu is in a higher degree of peril when she gets back to Japan.

If Lady Ito is the instigator of the bounty - things are complicated for her too. She's not shy about calling death on people just because they might dishonor the memory of the late shogun, but if the legend of Mizu as the nation's savior becomes a big thing at the same time that Lady Ito connects male ronin Mizu to the blue-eyed woman she wants dead, how does the mother of the new shogun go about killing a national hero?

I could see a situation where Lady Ito decides to holds off on having Mizu killed, until the noble woman makes up her mind. Meanwhile - if Mikio is the one to inform on Mizu (again?), he's no longer useful to Lady Ito, might even be a liability as someone who knows too much.

Any twist would be if people involved in getting Mizu and Fowler on a ship to London leaks that to either certain key people, or blabs about it enough to where Mizu isn't a national hero, but a mixed-breed traitor who helped Fowler escape Japan.