u/KidChanbara

The way the artists of BES draw Mizu, it's often very difficult to tell if she's wearing her special arm and leg weights that can be joined to make a shaft that converts her sword into a naginata.

I was thinking she would be inspired to make that special set of weights after her experiences with Mikio's naginata. But could she have made them while still at Swordfather's?

When Mizu and Mikio are starting their sparring match, Mizu says she's never gone up against a naginata. But given the skillful way she uses it later makes me think that she's had a lot of solo time with one, maybe one left at the forge. As far as we know, the first time she's faced a truly hostile opponent was at the sake shack where she got stabbed, so her saying she hadn't fought against anyone armed with a naginata is both truthful and leaves out a lot, like her saying "All I did was train with a sword".

I think one of the main motivations for Ringo staying with Swordfather in Season Two will be their mutual love for Mizu. And Ringo will also be eager to hear everything Master Eiji cares to share about Mizu's time at his forge; likewise Ringo has lots to share with Swordfather.

So - how much dancing around the topic of Mizu's gender is there going to be when the discussion is about her? I can't see Ringo saying "Mizu" or "Master" every single time when using a casual pronoun like "she/her" would suffice.

I'm in the group that believes that by the time Mizu left his forge on her revenge quest, Swordfather already knows she's a woman, who came to him as a girl pretending to be a boy. What he says in their final scene together has a hint of "I didn't ask/don't tell me" . My personal theory was that it was for plausible deniability if questioned later by Mizu's enemies - "My former apprentice Mizu is as male as you or me".

It would be a nice scene in Season Two for Ringo to confirm to Master Eiji what he already strongly suspected if not known outright about Mizu's gender.

OK, I'll admit right now that this idea is more of a joke than something I actually want to happen. But since a recent post asked for "unpopular opinions", I thought I'd post this and see how the discussion goes.

The basic concept : attraction occurs between Mizu and someone else during the voyage to London. "Attraction" I've left vague to widen the discussion.

The attraction can be one-sided or mutual.

Like Taigen, the person who is attracted to Mizu may be confused about their feelings, if she is still presenting as male.

I think that if the writers of BES go there, then the characters who are attracted to Mizu should have a key role in the storyline.

I'd hate it to be that cliche , "main character is female, must throw her into a romantic relationship".

Or else, something like "Mizu's heart is broken again when her new love dies in her arms after a pirate attack".

Thoughts? Riffs?

As have been mentioned and criticized, Mizu uses her meteor sword to cut through ridiculous things that would snag , bend, or break a real world sword - tree trunks, steel bars, roof beams, etc.

I don't know about the general state of samurai anime and live action movies these days, but is this a common trope - katanas making unrealistic cuts through such materials, including incoming slugs from a firearm? If so - it just occurred to me that the BES writers could have been setting us up for the scene where the slug from Fowler's musket shatters Mizu's meteor sword.

I feel there's also a kind of symbolism involved, where unbreakable sword = undefeatable Mizu - if the sword can be broken, Mizu can lose, at the cost of her life.

I don't feel I'm being as articulate as I'd like to be about this, I'm tired from a long weekend campout. Still, I'd like to read your opinions about it!