I thought, "I have this idea for this hybrid production pipeline."
"I think this is a project I can try it on."
Hi, I'm Jane Wu, and this is Making of A Warrior.
Blue Eye Samurai is a revenge story
of a person who lived in early Edo Japan.
Please give me the strength to kill them,
or let me die.
Our character Mizu, who is biracial,
she doesn't look like everybody else.
Society has told her she is evil.
You watch how this character deals with this,
and it's how you really fall in love with this character,
and you want to root for this character.
I have no interest in being happy, only satisfied.
In visualizing the script, as I first read it,
I wanted authentic martial-arts movements in there,
because being a martial artist myself
that studied for many years,
I can't stand when martial arts is not accurate.
So bringing the stunt choreographer
in the beginning
was, to me, keeping the authenticity of the martial arts.
He was like my little brother.
He came over a lot, and we spent a lot of time together
with our martial arts community.
We wanted to pay an homage to gaming and anime
because without those two genres, you couldn't have a show like this.
Also, I used to watch a lot of old samurai movies, like Zatōichi.
And all those movies really hearken back to your Western genres.
It's an Eastern Western.
Her personality, her characteristic, how she should move.
Just imagine this is Clint Eastwood in every single shot.
That's who Mizu needs to be.
Revenge does not hesitate.
Being from live action
and having some experience in animation,
I really wanted to combine these thought processes together
to create something that feels new.
Our production was very much prepped like a live-action show.
It's just when it came down to shoot,
it was animated instead.
Sunny and I would talk about story,
'cause it's always story and character first,
and how does the story and character support the action?
He would take a couple of days out to choreograph it, learn it.
He would shoot sections of it, and then present it to me.
We would talk about, "Well, maybe the kick is better here,
or actually, bring him in faster."
And it was actually quite seamless.
Don't hold back.
We would storyboard all the way up to where the action starts,
and then cut in the live-action stunt visuals.
In that way, the animators could really see
how these parts connected.
Not bad.
I also made them do a little martial-arts class with me,
'cause I wanted them to feel what it felt like to throw a punch
or wield a sword,
because the animators have to know how it feels
in order to articulate that.
And it gave me goosebumps seeing that.
It's pretty epic.
To a man lost in the dark, an ember can light the way.
I think the show is about pushing so many boundaries.
There's a quote from Queen Elizabeth I
that I've always loved, and it's become my motto.
"Tenacious virtue overcomes all."
It's keeping that focus to work on your skill set all the time
so that when the fight is ready, your sword is sharp.
Show me your blade.