How Blue Eye Samurai Team Recreated Edo Japan For Hit Netflix Show [SCAD]

Blue Eye Samurai is one of Netflix’s most critically acclaimed animated series of 2023, with the show winning multiple Emmys and getting renewed for a second season. The Netflix original series Blue Eye Samurai follows Mizu, a mixed-race female Japanese warrior who goes on a quest for revenge on four white men who live in Japan. The show was praised for its mature story and themes, its action, and its gorgeous animation, with these aspects leading to the show’s incredible critical reception. Blue Eye Samurai‘s violence and action are made beautiful through its animation style and fantastic production design.

The visuals of Blue Eye Samurai led to the show becoming an awards season darling, with it winning all kinds of awards, including four wins at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Blue Eye Samura i won Outstanding Animated Program for the episode “The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride,” while it also won three Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation Emmys for Brian Kesinger’s character design in “Nothing Broken,” Ryan O’Loughlin’s storyboarding for “Hammerscale,” and Toby Wilson’s production design for “The Great Fire Of 1657.”

Blue Eye Samurai production designer Toby Wilson was at SCAD AnimationFest 2024 to talk about the production design of the Netflix series, with him presenting some of the inspiration materials as well as his process of recreating Japan’s 7th century Edo period for the show. Screen Rant interviewed Toby Wilson after his Blue Eye Samurai presentation in order to further discuss his work on the series, with him giving an in-depth look at his process for creating the show’s beautiful visuals and locations. On top of that, Wilson also teased what he is excited to work on in Blue Eye Samurai season 2.

Toby Wilson Needed To Be Involved With Blue Eye Samurai

“This is the kind of story that I wish the industry was doing more of.”

Screen Rant: How did you first become involved with Blue Eye Samurai?

Toby Wilson: I read the first three episodes and I was hooked. I was like, ‘I need to be on this project.’ This is the kind of story that I wish the industry was doing more of. This is the kind of project that we all want to do. I had to be on this because I want this to be successful, to prove to the world that you can do this. Audiences want it. Let’s do more of it. And so then I got called in.

I got to meet Michael Green and Amber Noizumi, our showrunners. I got to talk with Jane Wu, who I had worked adjacently with at Disney in the past. And I had worked with Earl Hibbert, our pre-vis and layout supervisor. And so there were familiar faces and it was just, ‘OK, we have people that know what they’re doing, they know their business. And now we just need to collectively figure out how the heck we are going to make these awesome scripts on a series budget and schedule.’ And that was the challenge. We were in it together.

Blue Eye Samurai Had A Rigorous Research Process

“You can’t just rely on Google,” the designer explained.

Screen Rant: When you get the scripts, what’s your research process? Going from ‘I see the words on paper’ to, ‘I have fully designed a building,’ for example.

Toby Wilson: So it’s a little bit boring at the beginning. That’s where I read the scripts, and in my position as the production designer, I have to design the production. How are we going to produce this visually? So I have to look at things like ‘What’s my budget? What’s the screen time for these things? What are the most important story things?’ And I have to make sure I prioritize those things. So there’s a bit of prioritization and budgeting at first.

Once you have that, you dig in on the research. We had research consultants. We had specialists like our costume designers, Suttirat Anne Larlarb. We’ve got personal consultants like my family. On my wife’s side, a lot of them are still in Japan. So my brother-in-law was helping me by sending me history books and things like that. Because you can’t just rely on Google. The Edo period is 400 years. It’s a lot different at the beginning of the Edo period versus the end of the Edo period. So once you know the scope and you know where you want to focus, then you dive in on the research and you employ the specialists. Because you need to make sure that you’re not researching and designing in a vacuum, and that you’re getting feedback.

Screen Rant: In the panel at SCAD AnimationFest, you said because of the COVID-19 pandemic, you couldn’t go visit Japan. Is that something you would normally want to do on a project? And were there any other challenges that came with making Blue Eye Samurai during the pandemic?

Toby Wilson: Oh yeah. That is something that everyone wants to do on every project. Research trips. Just being there and walking through it, you see so many things. After we finished the series and the pandemic was done, I went to Japan on vacation. We went and visited family. I went and walked through Himeji Castle and was shooting everything. And it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we got it right! But it would’ve been so much easier if I could have just come here and taken these photographs.’ Research trips help so much. But due to the pandemic or schedules, you can’t always do that. But I can say they are super invaluable and we’d love to do that.

Another thing for the pandemic that was tricky is you had to figure out how we were going to make the show 100% remotely. There are challenges to that because you can’t just get in a room face-to-face and hash it out or draw something on the table and pass it over. But there are digital ways around it. Like I mentioned in the panel, it allowed me to be able to work with artists from around the world that I wouldn’t have necessarily been able to work with. So you could be in Spain and I could work with you, or you could be in Los Angeles, and our interaction is exactly the same.

Production Design For An Animated Series Like Blue Eye Samurai Has Some Major Differences When Compared To Live-Action

Though it may come as a surprise, “it’s actually a lot different…”

Screen Rant: Also in the panel, you said that as a production designer for an animated project, you also have to think of things that a DP would in live action, like camera lenses. Are there any other challenges to a production designing animated project that production designers who work in live action wouldn’t necessarily have to deal with?

Toby Wilson: Well, yes and no. Because each project is different. Each production designer works differently. And there are things that we do in animation that they all have to do in live action. It’s just slightly different. Well, it’s actually a lot different, because none of it exists in animation. We have to build everything. In live action, they have to make everything practically. Everything we do is imaginary.

And I do have to think about camera and composition and stuff like that, but I lean on Earl Hibbert, who was our layout lead. He and Jane Wu were really driving the lensing. I was more on the color and lighting design, but I have to work and think about the camera lensing and things like the focal depth and all of that. Typically, in live action, production designers are more about the practical set, and you have a DP who is thinking of the color and the lighting and the lensing. Animation is a different workflow, a different pipeline. So the roles are a little different. An animation production designer oversees everything visual. So that means color, lighting, effects, sets, and all that.

Screen Rant: What is the process of a production designer, a character designer, costume designer, and all of those roles working together in forming a consistent visual style, while also making sure that everyone has their own creative input and is bringing something unique to the table?

Toby Wilson: That’s one of a production designer’s major responsibilities. To make sure that there’s visual cohesion. In the early stages, some of the early concept art for Blue Eye Samurai was looking more textured. Not photo-real, but a little bit more realistic looking. And that’s when we shifted it to be more 2D. We were embracing the Ukiyo-e look, so we pushed it that way.

You could have character designs where the design and the shape is the same, but the way you surface, shade, and light it can completely change the visual perception of it. So that’s where I get involved and work with Brian Kesinger, our character design lead. Jane Wu, our supervising director, had a very clear vision of what she wanted the look of the show to be and the characters. So I got to kind of come in, and she pitched what she was looking for. I said some things back, ‘Oh, you mean like this?’ And she was like, ‘Yes, exactly!’ So we just had a Vulcan mind meld, and it was just riffing like jazz from that point on. I had the pleasure of working with some amazing people and got to partner with them and create that vision. So it is a collective thing for sure.

How Blue Eye Samurai Balanced Entertainment With Accuracy To The Edo Period

“As scripted, he sneaks in through the sewers. There were no sewers.”

Screen Rant: Since so much of the production design of the show was based in being very accurate to the culture and feeling grounded, were there any situations where you had to choose between accuracy and entertainment? When those problems came up, how did you address that issue?

Toby Wilson: Yes. I’ll give you a simple one, case in point. Spoiler alert! In episode eight, Ringo needed to sneak into the castle. And as scripted, he sneaks in through the sewers. There were no sewers. You think of the catacombs and the sewers underneath Paris and things like that. Edo didn’t have that.

But they did have the canals. And so that’s where we then would talk with the consultant. I do my research and find, ‘Okay, well, they do have to have a water source. They have a well, and they would be getting the wells from the water source. It could be from the canals. He could swim through the canals and up into the well. He would have to hold his breath for a very long time.’ But that’s where we make sure it’s founded in some basis of reality. It’s just Ringo can hold his breath for six minutes. Because he’s amazing.

Screen Rant: Was there any behind the scenes conflict when addressing issues like that? Did some say “Let’s just cut this and change it to something more accurate,” while others wanted to go on the path of adding more historical fiction?

Toby Wilson: Yeah, there’s always that. When you’re doing something creative, there are going to be creative differences. But the thing is, you come at them knowing we all just want to make this the best thing it could possibly be. So everyone’s opinion is coming from nothing but good intentions. Sometimes you have, not heated discussions, but difficult conversations. But that’s actually really good because that means you’re scratching at something that’s really important.

Everyone is saying what’s really important from their perspective, and that’s where we can collectively find the right solution. So yes, that does happen. We did have to make some calls. We didn’t have to cut something, we just had to either meet in the middle or acquiesce to ‘Yeah, that didn’t actually happen, so you absolutely can’t do that because that would be insulting the culture.’ If there was a very Western sort of thing, we would have to alter that. Or it would be, ‘The story absolutely needs this. This is a known cheat, and we’re going to all have to just hold hands and be okay, because this is just what the story calls for.’ We did make some concessions on both of those sides, and we also met in the middle.

Blue Eye Samurai’s Worldbuilding Started Big And Then Honed In On The Specifics

“You start big, to get a nice solid foundation to also inspire story.”

Screen Rant: Since the animation process takes a long time, there are a lot of situations where a story will change when you’ve already started animating. What kind of precautions does someone as a production designer on animated project take to make sure that, if these story changes happen, you haven’t wasted too much time on something that’s getting cut?

Toby Wilson: On Blue Eyes Samurai, we had a luxury where the scripts really didn’t change. To Michael and Amber’s credit, they wrote solid scripts. They were so tight, and they really didn’t change that much. They just wrote really big compelling scope scripts, and the challenge was figuring out ‘How do we make all of this?’ Because we wanted to make all of this.

In my past experience in feature films, it’s been a little different. They are feeling this out and there’s an exploration and an understanding that it’s going to go into story and then it may change, and we’re going to have to figure this out as we go. That’s where the production designer and everybody needs to look at what feels the most solid, and how we can work on something that is foundational and essential for the project. Where we know it’s the heart of the project and it’s safe to work on, because in any way, shape, or form, it’s going to be in there. So you start broad and big, and hopefully plan it so that, as story figures out the specifics, you can hone in on the specifics. You push the little details out. You start big, to get a nice solid foundation to also inspire story. So it’s a challenge that you just use your experience to call upon to make sure you plan that accordingly.

What Blue Eye Samurai’s Movie & TV Inspirations Were

“We didn’t want to be an anime,” Toby Wilson clarifies.

Screen Rant: You’ve talked a lot about the artwork and the puppets that inspire the visual style of Blue Eye Samurai. What were some of the movies and TV shows that you and your team were referencing throughout the production process?

Toby Wilson: Well, like I mentioned, the classic Japanese Kurosawa and Ozu films. Samurai films. It’s this interesting thing where you watch the spaghetti Westerns and you look at the Japanese Samurai and you’re like, ‘Yeah, clearly those spaghetti Westerns were looking at the same material.’ That was a huge inspiration. We didn’t want to be an anime. We weren’t trying to be an anime because we didn’t animate in Asia. But we wanted to be inspired to have that kind of action.

Jane was coming at it, saying ‘I want the martial arts to feel right’ and that comes from her Wushu training and from live action. So that’s why we did the stunt vis. We used a live action technique there where you work with the stunt choreographer to get that. We pulled from live action, we pulled from animation, we pulled from anime, we pulled from historical art, and we pulled from Japanese cinema and Westerns.

How Blue Eye Samurai Season 2 Is Handling The Show’s Big Location Change

“It would be a shame to go to season 2 and turn the crank, and everything’s exactly the same.”

Screen Rant: As you move forward into season 2, there’s a big location changed to London. How is your process changing as you’re starting to work on building this new world, and what are you excited to get to work on as the show continues development?

Toby Wilson: Yeah, okay. The process doesn’t change too much. Obviously, you learn a lot from season 1 where, ‘Okay, let’s not do it that way.’ Now we know how to do it better, because now we’ve worked with our partner studio and we have a tighter relationship. So now it’s muscle memory like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s how we did it. Let’s do it better this time.’

I’m excited because it’s an all-new culture. There’s so much research and referencing that we have to do. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also a fun, creative challenge. That’s the juicy creative thing. Something new! It would be a shame to go to season 2 and turn the crank and everything’s exactly the same. I mean, it’s not a shame, but how cool is it to do a season 2? And there’s all new juicy visuals that I can explore while the story continues. We have the same challenge though. It’s like making a pilot episode all over again because it’s all new assets. We have no European anything.

More About Blue Eye Samurai Season 1

Set in Edo-period Japan, Blue Eye Samurai follows Mizu, a self-trained samurai on a mission of revenge.

Check out our other Blue Eye Samurai interviews:

Blue Eye Samurai is now streaming on Netflix.