Blue Eye Samurai. Maya Erskine as Mizu in Blue Eye Samurai. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2023
Blue Eye Samurai has been one of the best surprises of the year and undoubtedly will likely be ranked amongst the best series added to Netflix in 2023. Fans are already clamoring for a season 2, but will it get one? It’s yet to be greenlit and the team behind the show has given some tips on how you can help the show get renewed.
Created by Michael Green and Amber Noizumi, the beautifully crafted and animated series sees an outcast samurai living in Edo-era Japan out for revenge. The show features an all-star voice cast, including George Takei, Maya Erskine, and Masi Oka.
If you don’t have a Netflix subscription and want to check out the show – you can do so on YouTube, where the first episode is available for free.
Has Netflix renewed Blue Eye Samurai for a season 2?
Official Renewal Status: Pending
When the show was initially ordered, we only heard that it was picked up for a single 10-episode season. As a result, the show is waiting on renewal and will need to jump through hoops that all Netflix shows will have to get through to justify moving forward.
Typically, with animation titles, we see shows get renewed upfront for multiple seasons. That doesn’t appear to be the case here, with numerous people attached to the show encouraging fans to watch for a renewal.
Michael Green, in August 2022, wrote about how to get a show renewed at Netflix and retweeted it on November 11th for “no reason just cuz!!”:
“This will sound stupid (and it is) but if you are savoring a new show dropped on Netflix, if it’s all the same to you, please let the episodes play through right away so the completion is counted in a timeframe that is meaningful to the show’s success.
I love Netflix. Working there is a creative joy. I do believe this will change in time. But for the moment this is relevant.
You can’t save a show after it has been cancelled. You can get it renewed by watching it all the way, right away.”
Jason Scheier (a production designer on the show) echoed those sentiments on X on November 12th:
“… Netflix will not green-light season 2 until we watch the show all the way through. Help me repost and get the word out to watch Blue Eye Samurai!! You won’t be disappointed!! Also be sure to thumbs up on the app!”
Picture: Netflix
The reason that these episode orders are frontloaded is because of the length of time it takes to develop a show like this and how they’re put together behind the scenes. As a result, we do not always see renewals for animated shows that go beyond their initial orders.
There are plenty of exceptions, of course. Blood of Zeus is a great example that was given a two-season order after season 1. But in that case, we’ve had to wait three years for a new season to land. That’s a considerable wait, and viewership will undoubtedly suffer.
We’ll have more on the viewership in a second, but Michael Green noted that the ratings released on November 14th were “encouraging.”
It’s worth noting that Netflix has put significant marketing out for the show with a lot of backing from the streamer. Through numerous information drops, the show was slowly revealed. It also featured prominently at both DROP 01 ahead of release and Netflix’s Geeked Week following its release. They’ve thrown lots of articles at it with their TUDUM website and even marketing post-release, such as the drop of the black and white special release of season 6 on YouTube.
How well is Blue Eye Samurai Performing on Netflix?
Before we get into viewership, we should begin with the critical acclaim the series has picked up.
Those reviews are summarized by RottenTomatoes, where the show has a 100% score, with the critical consensus being as follows:
“Visually dazzling while paying deft attention to character, Blue Eye Samurai is a masterfully rendered animated adventure.”
The show also, at the time of publishing, ranks as the 86th highest-rated title on IMDb of all time, with a 9.0 rating from 11k users.
Netflix clearly has high hopes for the series when it comes to awards, too. As of November 2023, the series has been placed on Netflix’s For Your Consideration satellite site, a promotion site that pitches voters for events like the Emmys. The series is front and center at the top, next to the long-running series Big Mouth and The Dragon Prince.
Performance will no doubt be critical to renewal, however.
Let’s begin with Netflix’s own Top 10 data, where the show missed out the first week of release but did go on to feature in week 2.
- In week 2 (Nov 6 to Nov 12), the series ranked 6th globally with 18.10M hours watched, equating to the completed viewing equivalent of 2.9M.
In our top 10 report for that week, our resident numbers expert, Frederic, wasn’t particularly praising of its performance thus far but did conclude:
“Animated series have had a tough time charting in the Top 10 since 2021, bar a few significant exceptions, so the fact that it did for its second week is already a success. It was a very small success but a win nonetheless.”
We are moving onto FlixPatrol next, which allows us to take a deeper dive on the daily Netflix top 10s.
There, we can see the show seemingly peaked on day five and has been sliding ever since. The show has performed best in some Asian territories, such as India, France, and the United States.
Another metric we can use for external popularity is Google Trends. Let’s compare it to some of the other animated releases so far in 2023. We can see that it’s keeping pace with Castlevania: Nocturne and trouncing two canceled series, Agent Elvis and Captain Fall, both of which were canceled.
Picture: Google Trends
There’s more to come on this front in the coming weeks so stay tuned.
What to Expect From Season 2 of Blue Eye Samurai If It Happens?
If you’re wondering whether the show has enough story to justify getting a second season and not looking for spoilers, we’ll say this. While the door is left open for more, season 1 as a package does tell a nice contained story.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the finale of season 1.
The final episode, titled Great Fire of Meireki, named after the actual event of the Furisode Fire that destroyed up to 70% of the Japanese capital of Edo, ultimately sees Mizu hunting down Abijah Fowler but, surprisingly, decides to spare him because he’s the key on finding others.
Season 2 would see Mizu and Fowler’s journey to Europe, specifically London, to hunt down Skeffington and Routey. Will Fowler still be spared if Mizu finds them? That’ll be the crux of the next season.
Now it’s over to you – do you want to see a second season of Blue Eye Samurai? Let us know in the comments.