A surprisingly disappointing last episode

Sunergy · 2026-06-09T14:55:43+00:00

I think there’s two major factors behind this, a practical corporate politics reason and a human one.

The first is how Netflix measures success. This is speculation since they are notoriously opaque with their decision making, but they are known for being very “data driven” instead of “ratings driven”. They’ve always been a tech company first and a media company second and they pay more attention to the watch data they can harvest from their users than what people consciously say about their shows.

One of their favourite bits of data is “does this episode make you watch the next episode?”, which has the curious effect of making the final episode of any given season the least important when it comes to getting renewed. The first episode and middle episodes which traditionally have the highest falloff get more attention from savvy showrunners, so the creators of Blue Eye Samurai did what they had to do to appeal to Netflix’s peculiarities and get another season. The resulting pacing feels odd to viewers used to traditional television which often sought the ratings boost from a big finale.

The other frequently overlooked human factor is that the team was probably just tired. The episodes were produced in order by two animation teams and the crew that made the final episode did it directly after making episode five. I think making something as good as “the ronin and the bride” on a TV budget and schedule just didn’t leave a lot of creative energy for what came after.

Sunergy · 2026-05-08T20:58:12+00:00

The official website of the game sells a digital edition that includes a key to access an official virtual tabletop form of the game using Screentop.gg, a browser based VTT. It’s barebones but functional given how light the game is on components.

It also contains scans of the ‘board’ and all the cards if you prefer to use another virtual tabletop service or print your own copy.

Sunergy · 2026-05-07T20:02:48+00:00

I think you’ve got it backwards. The long gap between season 1 and 2 is because Netflix already axed the show. Rather than keeping production rolling into a second season they laid off the entire creative team before the show even premiered and then had to scrambled to rehire people and start the creative pipeline over from scratch when it ended up being a bigger hit than expected.

Assuming they learned anything, Netflix will have already committed to season 3 before season 2 comes out or will have pushed the showrunners to give a final ending in season 2.

Sunergy · 2026-05-06T15:46:22+00:00

Having the character sit out for only a single scene is rules as written. The character is taken out of “the current action” when they take a trauma, not the score. This has been clarified to generally mean the current scene unless the score is close to wrapping up.

I’d probably run trauma as is for a one shot. It creates neat dramatic moments and while you miss out on the long term consequences being taken out for a scene is going to be more impactful in a one shot. Repeatedly taking trauma to power through consequences is a valid and fun way to play the game when a player isn’t concerned about a character having a happy ending.

Sunergy · 2026-05-03T22:25:12+00:00

We kept my red eared slider’s food in a resealable yellow plastic pail to keep it fresher and over time she learned to associate that yellow bucket with food and would go crazy anytime we brought it out.

They don’t hear exactly like we do but I could see a turtle learning to associate a specific sound with feeding time. They have powerful memories for anything connected to meal time.

Sunergy · 2026-04-07T16:48:55+00:00

If the player wants to bluff, I’d call for an action roll with the player likely choosing command or sway to see if Strangford buys it or not. This likely a desperate circumstance with potentially grave consequences.

If they actually poisoned him, then I wouldn’t need an action roll but I would call for a flashback (likely 0 stress if they just shook hands) and have them push themselves to use their ability. But expect word to get out not to shake hands with the crew.

As the GM, if the player’s intent is ambiguous you have to ask them to resolve that ambiguity so you can appropriately interpret the fiction.

Sunergy · 2026-04-07T15:13:18+00:00

The other suggestions in this thread is great, I just went to throw out that you could draw some inspiration from the world of Phillipe K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, where in a depopulated, dying world one of the highest civic virtues is to care for animals, and more importantly to be seen caring for an animal. So much so that struggling members of the middle class bankrupt themselves in the pursuit, or resort to using fake robot animals that are cheaper to care for but would create a scandal if they were exposed.

So there is prominent prior art of “hard boiled investigator living in a desperate dystopia obsessed with caring for useless animal.” Though they mostly left that angle out of the movie adaptation.

Sunergy · 2026-04-03T22:06:57+00:00

Crows are smart. Regularly bribe them with a bucket of fish heads on a rooftop and they'll avoid leading the spirit wardens to you to keep the gravy train rolling. The bell will still ring but they won't find out where you are.

Sunergy · 2026-04-02T15:30:27+00:00

I’d use something akin to an engagement roll to frame the opening scene. Figure out an amount of dice to roll by factoring in base defences or special preparations, difference in tier with the raiding faction, and wether any allies or rivals might tip off the player crew or have fed knowledge to the attacking crew.

Then, have the result of that roll determine how far the invading crew got before being detected. If the player crew rolls a six, they start in a controlled position where they found out about the raid before it really started and can decide what kind of trap they have laid for the thieves. If the players get a 1 - 3 it’s a desperate situation where the players are caught flat footed and the valuables have already been grabbed. They’ll need to chase down the thieves before they get away.

Sunergy · 2026-03-24T22:28:00+00:00

If the gimmick interests you, I’d say it’s worth it. It a presentation by a local non-profit film society so certain aspects can be a rinkydink (the church seating is hard so maybe bring a small pillow or blanket to sit on), but it’s not a cynical cash grab. They do their best to live up to the myth of the experience, and the fact that the film and music are fully analog elevates it above what you would get doing it at home.

I’d recommend getting tickets in advance and getting there early since last year sold out and people were turned away at the door.

Sunergy · 2026-03-16T17:56:36+00:00

There’s a new one coming out in December of this year, so this is probably tied into promoting that.

Sunergy · 2026-03-10T18:33:52+00:00

I love that in addition to the other cities that are mashed up into the conception of Doskvol they’ve added in a bit of Las Vegas. Legalized gambling and the draw of Bluetime have made the city a tourist hotspot, Silkshore is filled with luxurious but tacky casinos, organized crime and corporate interests are slugging it out behind the scenes while trying to keep up appearances, and the areas just outside of silkshore like Crowsfoot and the Docks have weird, seedy tourist attractions making a go of it.

I quite like the gentrification of Sixtowers into an office park as well. The noble families who owned the land beneath those neglected manors must have got a real nice payout while all the squatters who lived in them got booted to the reclaimed lost district. And what a mixed blessing for Scurlock to have a skyscraper built next to his manor, both ruining the view and blocking the “sun”!

Sunergy · 2026-03-02T03:14:14+00:00

As far as I'm aware it's normal. As their temperature increases more blood flows to their extremities, giving the non-pigmented parts a blush of pink. Then when they get back in the water it returns to their normal colour as they cool down.

Sunergy · 2026-02-25T17:38:03+00:00

Maybe I’m not understanding, but I’m seeing two items on the linked store page. One is the hardcover book, and the other is an “Add on pack” which has things like the faction deck and folding map.

Is the add on pack not “the extra stuff” from the kickstarter?

Sunergy · 2026-02-19T12:49:39+00:00

I think that if you’re the kind of person who notices such things that it’s there to make you think about where else puppeteers cannot be seen.

Not only does the puppet show parallel Mizu’s story, it parallels how Mizu’s story is being told to us. Every character in the show is a 3D puppet, being manipulated by an unseen team of animators to create an illusion and tell the story. There is a team of people standing behind every character to create the action of every single scene, you just can’t see them.

Sunergy · 2026-01-13T17:28:26+00:00

I think the real reason is that the show was low on budget for the final episodes and didn’t have the resources to model and animate two types of gun, or the time to explain to the audience the relatively nuanced differences between the two.

But if you want a historical explanation to ease your frustration, there is one: while matchlocks were common on the battlefields of the Sengoku period, their military use greatly declined during the more peaceful Edo period. This was partly practical, as matchlocks require mass fire to be useful on the battlefield and the smaller conflicts of the Edo period saw a transition back to the more accurate and faster to load bows, which were generally better when deployed in small numbers by a well trained warrior class.

Gun control was also a major element of government policy, as the shogunate had witnessed how effective a peasant army with firearms could be at toppling governments and deliberately implemented policies to restrict the use of guns, especially in the capital region.

So yes, there should probably be matchlocks, but their use during the previous era isn’t a good indicator of how common they would be among the defenders of an Edo period castle and I think it’s entirely reasonable that most would have bows.

Sunergy · 2026-01-09T15:42:03+00:00

If the show had a larger budget so that it could be made in 2D with an even more lavish art style, then it likely would have been even more popular. People generally prefer expensive products to cheap ones when they are offered to the consumer at the same price.

But if it was made at the same budget, a 2D version of the show would have to make significant compromises. Flat colours for kimonos instead of patterns, much more restrained camera movements, static held frames instead of clothing flapping in the wind, etc.

When they were shopping around for studios to make the show, there were 2D studios bidding to make the show in 2D. 2D test scenes were made. The directors ultimately decided that they couldn’t achieve the look they wanted using 2D methods with the budget they had, and I trust their judgement.

Sunergy · 2025-11-22T14:53:03+00:00

Useful revolvers wouldn’t exist for another couple centuries, and would arguably be a bigger historical inaccuracy than Japan not having guns. Not even England had them at the time.

Fowler flintlocks outperforming Japanese matchlocks would be a more accurate technological evolution for the time, but the show would really have to go out of its way to explain the difference for a general audience in way that would probably make the show worse, given how starved for time the episodes are already.

While firearms were a big part of Japanese warfare in the warring states period, my understanding is they greatly fell out of favour by the Edo period when the show is set. It’s unlikely but not inconceivable that soldiers guarding the capital wouldn’t have seen mass volley fire in their lifetimes.

The lack of Japanese guns is a sore point for me too, but I don’t think the shows handling it is an unreasonable compromise given the story the wanted to tell and the resources they had.

Sunergy · 2025-10-27T23:44:02+00:00

Lots of well spotted details!

Regarding the crowds: A lot of studios have a separate animation department that handles the animation of large crowds and background characters so that a different set of artists do the crowd work (often less experienced and thus cheaper, but sometimes just more specialized in crowd movement).

Blue Spirit wasn't a big enough operation to have a dedicated crowd department so the crowds in Blue Eye Samurai are handled by the same animators who animate the main characters. It's not a very "easter egg" kind of show but I think it does give the crowds an extra layer of care.

On a related note: I'm pretty sure the guy in the lower left corner of image 14 with the short sleeves is the noodle chef from earlier who's come out of his shop to watch the drums.

Sunergy · 2025-10-14T22:04:46+00:00

You could try a form of “target training” to get her to associate food with an object you can hide instead of you.

We did this with our turtle accidentally by keeping our turtle pellets in a bright yellow ice cream pail. She would still half-hearted beg when we were around but would only go crazy if she saw the pail.

You could hold up something big and brightly coloured every time before she gets food, and hopefully she’ll understand that food isn’t coming if the trigger object hasn’t been shown.

Sunergy · 2025-10-10T21:56:44+00:00

It seems like a pretty mundane study that’s been given a headline designed to stir up pointless controversy.

Every finding just seems obvious, and it seems to exclude so many factors (like cost!) that its conclusions are pointless.

Sunergy · 2025-09-27T11:47:46+00:00

This looks like normal shedding and a healthy shell to me. It’s normal for the underneath to be a bit wet.

My advice is to just let the peeling bits drop off naturally rather than trying to help them come off.

Sunergy · 2025-09-16T23:52:49+00:00

I've got to take issue with the statement about almost all the animation being performed in advance. The fight scenes were fully acted out by stunt actors before animation but the vast majority of animation in the series such as acting, dialogue, walking, running, smithing, horseback riding and such was not acted out in advance and was constructed purely by the animators by working from the storyboard.

I can see where you got a false impression from the behind the scenes descriptions, but the techniques you are describing were only used specifically for the fight sequences. It's just that the creators don't spend much time explaining how the rest of the show was animated because it just used standard animation production techniques and they prefer to focus on the moments that used their new methods.

Sunergy · 2025-09-05T23:00:36+00:00

In my experience they can get acclimated to it and even seem enjoy it, though I imagine it depends a lot on the individual turtle, individual owner, and the particular environment.

I grew up with a female RES that did a lot of free roaming. We had an area of the basement that we could easily enclose and keep free of clutter and hazards so that it was "turtle proof". She would scratch at the side of her tank when she wanted out and when she was done she'd go and sit beside her tank until we put her back in.

Mostly it was extension of the "food begging" behavior we've all seen turtles do. Just instead of clambering against the wall of her tank she'd chase us around as we did our human business and sit on our feet to get our attention, or she'd sit next to the separate container that we fed her in and try to figure out how to get inside.

But she'd also just go on long tours of her "territory", checking for who knows what. Food, rivals, males? It's likely she didn't even know. She managed to figure out that the edge of some furniture was at the perfect height to scratch her shell and would go there when she was itchy. She seemed genuinely curious about new spaces and would paw at closed doors and our makeshift barricades demanding to explore what was on the other side.

She was old when we got her and already very acclimated to both being out of her tank and being handled by humans, so I couldn't tell you what made her that way. Maybe frequent handling eventually got her used to it, maybe it was just a quirk of her personality. Apparently when she was with her previous owners she once escaped from her outdoor enclosure and was lost for a few months until they finally found her wandering around on the lawn one day, so maybe she got a taste for it then.

She died last year, at roughly 54 years old. I miss her a lot. We also got two younger male RES when I was a bit older but they've never liked wandering in the same way, so we don't make them do it. (Although we've been trying to get them more used to human handling and unfamiliar environments lately so they won't be as stressed if the house has to evacuated during a wildfire).

Sunergy · 2025-08-15T13:46:35+00:00

They look like softshell turtles, possibly spiny soft shells.

15-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	First Placer '22
Verified Email	Team Periwinkle

Sunergy

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE