Shogun S1 EP 1 Review: The audience gets a taste of period drama based on power struggle and cultural clash

Shogun Season 1, the much-anticipated series based on the 1975 novel of the same name by James Clavell has finally arrived on FX Networks and available streaming on Hulu, giving the audience a taste of period drama based on a power struggle and cultural clash.

It seems pretty impressive for modern-day viewers with its incredible costumes and wide shots of jaw-dropping locations and sets.

This latest screen adaptation is portrayed as seen through the eyes of shipwrecked English sailor John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis).

The premise of the series is set in 1600 AD, the Sengoku Period in Japan. For those unserved, the Sengoku Period was a time of warfare in which the Shogun, or warrior class leader, had lost power. This resulted in a few great warlords stepping up to extend their influence and unify the country again. The two great unifers were Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Though the story is fictional, it implacably portrays the historical facts.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, before his death, put together the Council of Five Elders. These “elders” would be responsible for overseeing Japan after Hideyoshi’s death and ensuring that his five-year-old son would claim the throne when he was of age.

The most powerful of the Five Elders was Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ieyasu is the historical inspiration for Shogun‘s lead character, Lord Toranaga.

Season one of the series will comprise 10 following the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and the transition from the tumultuous Sengoku (warring states) Period into the Edo Period, a time of isolation and peace.

After a brief history lesson, let’s now dive into the Hulu series, whose next episode will be arriving on March 5th.

The first episode opens showing English pilot John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) confronting the ship’s Dutch captain about their ability to make landfall. The Dutch ship Erasmus is washed ashore of a fishing village somewhere in Japan and its sickly starving crew are taken prisoner by the Japanese. Not to forget that this Feudal Japan has its Catholic Portuguese allies and the newly arrived English and Dutch protestants at one another’s throats.

It establishes the main characters and their different perspectives, especially those of Lord Yoshii Toranaga, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), dubbed “Anjin-San” and Toda Mariko, who is one of Toranaga’s most trusted allies.

1 Ep titled, “Anjin,” introduces  Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuka Sanada), who is seen riding a horse through a field with his entourage, watching his falcon dive out of the sky to take down a pheasant and the English sailor who has been named Anjin by the Japanese after being captured,

Toranaga then marches through Osaka castle where he faces the other four leaders of the Council of Regents, who reprimand him for consolidating power and threaten to impeach him from his position. Toranaga, throughout the tribunal, tries to remain deferential and impassive.

But he is conserving his energy as he awaits his moment.

Toranaga, who is being confined to a castle in Osaka, by his spy in the region gets to know about the ship washed ashore which is also laden with cannons and ammunition.

This discovery could be the turning point for Toranaga, who sent his most trusted aide to investigate the matter.

The ship’s English pilot, John Blackthorne, wants to speak to whoever is in power to establish a trade relationship to undercut the Portuguese Catholics because he is an English Protestant who hates the Catholics.

Lord Yabushige, who rules the region that includes the fishing village the captured ship’s crew is taken to, plots with his nephew Omi (Hiroto Kanai), who oversees the fishing village, to hold onto the guns and cannons as a bargaining chip to give to Ishido, who is plotting to impeach and kill Toranaga (whom Yabushige is sworn to).

It seems to be an endless power struggle… which I find quite fascinating. The story is in feudal Japan with the first colonials arriving from far-off Europe. There is an evident clash of civilizations— between Japan and the West and between protestant and Catholic.

Omi tells him that Ishido will need to eventually face the Catholic monarchs if he wants to seize power, and the guns and cannons will be helpful because the Catholic monarchs have guns and cannons which they have received from the Portuguese Jesuits.

As the story progresses, it is established that Lord Toranaga comes from the Minowara bloodline that held the title of Shōgun (ultimate military dictator of the entire country of Japan) for hundreds of years, and when characters inquire whether he intends to ascend to that title, thus nullifying the Council of Regents, he is stern with his decision that he doesn’t want to be.

Well how Blackthrone is transported to Osaka, here I deliberately leave the details in a bid to not to give spoilers.

In between, a new character Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai) is introduced. She is married into Lord Toranaga’s aide family. She has converted to Christianity and has been learning Portuguese and English languages for the past 14 years.

She was tasked by Lord Toranaga to be his translator when Blackthrone, who has been given the Japanese name of Anjin-San, translated as a pilot of the ship.

I must say, Cosmo Jarvis in the opening episode is channeling some Tom Hardy vibes here.

We get to know that the character of Blackthorne is based on William Adams, the first Englishman to travel to Japan.

It emerges that, in the Shogun series, Blackthorne is going to play a much more vital role in Lord Toranaga’s rise to power than Adams did in Takagawa’s rise.

While, Lady Mariko’s character is based on Hosokawa Gracia, who had no connection to Adams in real life, given that Garcia died the same year Adams first landed in Japan.

But there is a hint that being a fictional story, there appear to be some minor changes to the timeline and major additions of romance and drama to embellish the story.

The episode ends showing Blackthrone is presented before Lord Toranaga and see how things will unfold.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.