Princess Akemi is one of the main characters in Netflix’s action animated series, Blue Eye Samurai. The character is voiced by Brenda Song.
Akemi is the daughter of Lord Daichi of the Tokunobe clan. Daichi built himself from a poor man to one of the lords and seeks a position and status higher still.
A golden cage
Akemi wants to be a free bird and marry her lover, the reputable samurai Taigen. She tries to convince her father to let her marry Taigen, and after a lot of No’s, she is finally allowed to marry him.
However, when Taigen loses his first fight at the hands of Mizu, he bolts off to chase after the blue-eyed samurai and restore his honor by challenging Mizu for a rematch.
Meanwhile, his dishonor entails the cancellation of the engagement. This leads to the princess begging her father to not reverse his blessings and permission for the marriage, but the harm is already been done.
On the run for freedom
Daichi is on the ninth cloud when the proposal for marriage comes directly from the Imperial house, for the shogun’s youngest son Takayoshi.
However, horrible rumors about his indifferent cruelty to animals and humans alike terrify Akemi, who’s even more terrified of the possibility of her freedom being taken away from him.
Everyone else sees a blessed life at the Edo castle but all she sees is a life where she can’t have control over her own life and fate. And so she runs away from home, to track down Taigen, have him restore his own honor, and then convince her father to let her marry him.
However, fate desires something else, and she finds herself back at home, back to square one, and bound to marry into the Imperial family.
She does get married and is enraged by her husband’s brutish ways, which turn out to be a misunderstanding on her part. In reality, her husband is active a meek but gentle and understanding man who stammers and does mostly as his mother commands.
Taking control of her fate
Akemi finally realizes her self-worth and gathers the courage to take control of her fate and life. She empathizes with Takayoshi and makes him fall in love with her, physically and emotionally.
It all takes a turn for the worse when her father turns out to be an accomplice of Fowler, the white man leading the coup against the shogunate.
Fowler is eventually stopped, but not before the whole castle and city are engulfed in flames, Akemi’s lifelong attendant Seki dies, and the shogun is killed. At this momentous hour, Taigen reunites with her.
However, while all he seeks now is happiness, away from the trappings and chaos of glory, Akemi wants greatness and she remains to stay with the royal family as it seeks to rebuild itself and reestablish its rule.