It has been difficult to ignore the heavy marketing of Disney+/Hulu’s mega-budget Shogun for the past few months. It’s a captivating and glossy historical drama based on James Clavell’s acclaimed 1975 novel, which has a big cast of fabricated characters who are renamed versions of real individuals. The main character, Cosmo Jarvis’s John Blackthorne, is comparable to the first English samurai, William Adams, while Yoshi Toranaga, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, is the Shogun’s reincarnation of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate (Japan’s military administration).
Shogun has garnered immense popularity and critical praise, and for good reason. What can fans who are having a hard time getting over their Shogun withdrawal do now that the streaming has concluded? If you have a strong desire for violent action, political intrigue, and intense historical drama, there are lots of anime options to watch or purchase.
Jidaigeki is a genre of Japanese theater, television, and film that typically centers on samurai in the Sengoku or Edo eras and is set prior to the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Anime is less constrained by location and finance than live-action films and TV series, with events frequently merely being the creatives’ ideas. Thus, what would have been a straight drama in other mediums might instead include well-known historical characters who are gender-bent and brought to the present day, or they might have them being transferred to other realms to battle monsters. I’ll steer clear of those shows in order to concentrate on historical fiction that is more grounded, but I’ll add some spicy options at the very end. It’s a little difficult to locate pure jidaigeki anime without any fantasy elements than you may think.
First, a quick synopsis of history. The Muromachi period (1336–1573), which began the loosely defined Sengoku (Warring States) period, ended in 1638 with the Edo period. Just prior to the commencement of the Edo era (1603–1868), in 1600, Shogun is set during the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573–1603). Tokugawa Ieyasu was one of the retainers of the well-known historical figure Oda Nobunaga, who was a daimyo during the Azuchi-Momoyama period and the subject of numerous bizarre anime. Goroda, the legendary Shogun equivalent of Nobunaga, was slain by Lady Mariko’s father Akechi Jinsai (actual name: Akechi Mitsuhide) prior to the Shogun period. The relatively tranquil and protracted Edo Period, during which the samurai were remained Japan’s governing class, was brought about by the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate under Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Between 1633 and 1639, a few decades after the Shogun’s reign, the Tokugawa Shogunate implemented its isolationist sakoku “locked country” policy. Nearly all foreign nationals were prohibited from entering Japan, and trade and relations with other nations were severely restricted. It was prevented for Japanese citizens to leave the nation. The Dutch were the only Europeans allowed influence, and that was limited to the artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki. Sakoku was implemented in order to negate the religious and colonial power of Spain and Portugal, who had brought Roman Catholicism with them in order to exert social and political control (as portrayed in Shogun). As a result, after the Shimabara Rebellion in 1637, Japanese Christians were brutally exterminated. The Meiji Era (1868–1912) began in the late 1870s, with the abolition of the samurai and the termination of the sakoku policy in 1853.
Anime that takes place in the further past, prior to the Sengoku Era:
The Heike Story, from critically acclaimed studio Science SARU, is based on the 13th-century monogatari (epic story) The Tale of the Heike, via a modern Japanese translation by author Hideo Furukawa published in 2016. The Heike Story, which is set in the Genpei War (1180–1185), chronicles the ascent and decline of the formidable Taira clan. Supernatural elements include the future-seeing ability of the heterochromic lead character Biwa and the ghost-seeing abilities of another character. Similar to Shogun, the eleven-part story revolves around political intrigue, bloody battles, and heartbreaking deaths. It ends with the dramatic, historic naval battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185, which decided the fate of the Taira clan and made Minamoto no Yorimoto of the Genji clan the first shogun of Japan in 1192, solidifying the samurai class’s dominance. You can watch The Heike Story on Crunchyroll.
The Heike Story is indirectly continued in 2021 with Masaaki Yuasa’s Science SARU production INU-OH, a theater film that takes place in the fourteenth century, many years after the battle of Dan-no-ura. It’s a historical rock opera with mystical elements and a dash of political intrigue. It is also based on a book by Hideo Furukawa, Tales of the Heike: INU-OH, published in 2017. Despite its many absurdities and bizarre musical numbers, it is reminiscent of the rigidly stratified civilization of Muromachi Period Japan. Tomona, the protagonist of INU-OH, is a blind monk who plays the biwa and loses his shyness to become a flashy rock star. Notably, Queen Bee’s Avu-chan, who also provides the voice of co-protagonist INU-OH for her speaking lines, sings on the wonderful soundtrack.
INU-OH is available from Shout! on Blu-ray! US factory and UK company Anime Limited.
Dramas that take place in the Sengoku (Warring States) period:
Dororo, an Osamu Tezuka manga published in three volumes in 1967 but left without a proper ending, was adapted into two anime series: a 26-episode black-and-white TV show in 1969, and an updated 24-episode version from MAPPA in 2019 that updates Tezuka’s cutesy, cartoony graphics and makes an ending. (Dororo was also turned into the fantastic Blood Will Tell, a PS2-era game that is currently absurdly costly to buy used.)
Hyakkimaru is given a prosthetic body that conceals deadly bladed weapons after being cursed as a youngster by his father for offering numerous body parts as sacrifices to demons. He travels the devastated area, vanquishing demons and gradually taking back aspects of his humanity. The diminutive yet ferocious Dororo, who also has secrets of her own, is a friend of his. It appears to be set during the Onin War (1467–1477) and emphasizes the misery of the people, who are despised by the samurai aristocracy that rules. Interestingly, Hyakkimaru loses strength as he grows more human with each body part given to him, as opposed to growing stronger over time like a typical shonen protagonist would.
A 2021 television series consisting of six episodes, Yasuke shares a premise with Shogun. The first Black African documented in Japanese history was the actual, historical Yasuke. During his 1579–1582 sojourn in Japan, he was appointed as Oda Nobunaga’s retainer. His true identity is unclear, but the program refers to him as “Eusebio Ibrahimo Baloi, a Yao man who most likely hailed from Mozambique.” It has a lot of fantasy elements, just like practically every other anime adaptation of a Nobunaga work. It takes place in a comparable time period to Shogun since it is set 20 years after the death of Nobunaga. Yasuke battles Mitsuhide, the “dark general,” who is modeled after Mariko’s father, the Nobunaga slayer and a Shogun. It “manages to tell a very thoughtful story over two interconnected three-episode arcs,” according to Mercedez Clewis’ ANN review, and it’s a “beautiful depiction of Blackness in alternate-history Japan.”
Yasuke is available on Netflix.
The 2007 film Sword of the Stranger by studio BONES appears to take place in the early 1600s, right after the Shogunate and around the end of the Sengoku Era. With his dog Tobimari, young Kotaro flees his Chinese Ming assailants, and he appoints the itinerant swordsman Nanashi as a bodyguard. Nanashi secretly dyes his hair black to avoid drawing attention to the fact that his red hair suggests he is of Western descent. “Breath-taking action scenes wrapped around a compelling story that makes sense,” was how Justin Sevakis put it in his ANN review, while Bamboo Dong called it “a gorgeously animated, blood-soaked samurai romp that entertains for its full 102-minute run.” Sword of the Stranger is a great option for fans who want something that requires less of a commitment than a full-length TV series.
Sword of the Stranger is available on Blu-ray in the UK from Anime Limited and on Blu-ray in the US from Bandai (2009) and Funimation (2019).
Animation Set in the Edo Era:
Directed by Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichiro Watanabe, Studio Manglobe’s 2004 release Samurai Champloo is among the first Edo Period-set anime that should come to mind. Fans adore Samurai Champloo because, among many other anachronisms, it blends hip-hop music prominently with samurai historical drama. Like Watanabe’s later Space Dandy, it has an episodic, road movie-esque format and is sleek and free-form, giving the idea that it is being made up as it goes along. Watanabe says that films about blind samurai Zatoichi served as his primary source of inspiration when he was producing.
Samurai Champloo travels across Edo Period Japan with a motley crew of vagrants: the self-taught swordsman criminal Mugen, the composed ronin Jin, and the happy little girl Fuu. They nearly always run into disaster. Similar to Blackthorne in Shogun, Mugen faces discrimination because of his race. He is a member of the Ryukyuan ethnolinguistic minority, which is based in the Ryukyu Islands, which are located between Taiwan and Kyushu.
Hiroaki Samura’s manga, Blade of the Immortal, is brutally violent and beautifully illustrated. The entire plot is adapted in the 24-episode 2019 edition of LIDEN FILMS, which is a better watch than the shoddy, partial 13-episode anime adaptation from studio Bee Train in 2008. The story, which takes place in the middle of the Tokugawa Shogunate, centers on the immortal swordsman Manji’s desire to defeat a thousand bad men in order to return to mortal form, and the quest for vengeance by the female sidekick Rin against the renegade swordsman Anotsu Kagehisa and his Itto-Ryu sword school.
The wicked, disfigured, white-haired Shira is one of the most terrible antagonists in all of anime and manga. She is grim, nasty, gritty, and brutal. Manji’s (often horrifying) wounds are stitched together by mysterious “sacred bloodworms,” which are the only supernatural elements in the novel. Notable live-action adaptation of Blade of the Immortal was also helmed by the legendary Takashi Miike.
HIDIVE and Amazon Prime Video both offer streaming for Blade of the Immortal (2019).
Author of the Monogatari series NisiOisin is the creator of the unrelated Katanagatari (2010, Studio White Fox). Yaasuri Shichika, a swordsman from the Edo Period, is able to battle without a blade and with only his hands. A strategist named Togane hunts for the twelve mythical swords with Shichika. Its twelve fifty-minute episodes are arranged in an unusual way and are filled with elaborately planned battle scenes as well as rapid-fire, drawn-out, and verbose conversations—all hallmarks of NisiOisin. Carl Kimlinger gave it high marks for being “witty and fun with a potent final act” in his ANN review. Sadly, this event is probably the most well-known these days for being difficult to locate. In 2011, NIS America released it on extremely pricey and restricted Blu-ray, which is now nearly impossible to get.
There is a supposedly available Blu-ray from NIS America called Katanagatari. It cannot be legally streamed anywhere.
The 2023 Studio DEEN film Ōoku: The Inner Chambers is based on a 19-volume manga that tells an alternate history. The “Redface Pox” epidemic claimed the lives of 80% of the nation’s male population during the reign of the third Tokugawa Shogun, and Japanese women assumed power. The story spans approximately two centuries of actual history, but the notable public leaders and politicians are all actually concealed as women. In this version of events, Japan’s isolationist policies stem from more than simply xenophobia; they are required to keep the epidemic contained within Japanese borders and cannot inform other nations of their manpower shortage.
Ōoku is a terrible yet addictive watch, full of political intrigue, perverse sexual politics, self-sacrifice, and horrifying human rights abuses. Although the initial 80-minute episode works quite well on its own, the later series is just as interesting. The term “Ōoku” alludes to a group of males who are kept hidden from society in order to serve as a breeding stock for the female Shogun, a gender-flipped representation of the actual institution.
You can watch Ōoku: The Inner Chambers on Netflix.
Let’s move on to something a bit fancier. Enfant dreadful Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Wicked City, Cyber City Oedo 808) directed a grand guignol blend of intense violence and gore in Ninja Scroll (1993), a film that became a mainstay of the anime sections of late 1990s Blockbuster VHS rental stores. Even while it has a terrible sexual assault scene that was probably wisely removed for its original UK VHS release and is very misogynistic by today’s standards, movie still has amazing and imaginative action scenes. The same-named TV series is largely unrelated to the film and is usually thought to be dismal, so disregard it.
The events of Ninja Scroll occur at some point in the Edo Period. The primary enemy, known as the “Shogun of the Dark,” wants to destroy the Tokugawa Shogunate by obtaining enormous amounts of wealth so that he can purchase Spanish weapons. Jubei, the main character, fights a phalanx of vengeful freaks with superhuman abilities in a series of gory encounters. Yagyu Jubei Mitsuyoshi, a historical character who lived from 1607 to 1650, is the inspiration for Jubei. He has made appearances in many fictional works of art, such as the title character in the beloved CAPCOM PS2 game Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny.
In both the US and the UK, Ninja Scroll is no longer in print. Currently, the Blu-ray release from Sentai Filmworks costs approximately $200 USD.
The 2010 film House of Five Leaves, directed by Studio Manglobe (also known for Samurai Champloo), garnered positive reviews from critics. It takes place in the Edo period and centers on shy ronin Masanosuke Akitsu, who becomes Yaichi, the flamboyant leader of the Five Leaves bandits,’ bodyguard after losing his job serving the Shogun. It’s a slow-moving samurai mystery with peculiar character designs and a weird ambiance, all set in an offbeat tone. Carl Kimlinger praised it for its ability to entertain “without pandering or compromising” but also called it “deliberately unconventional and even alienating at times” in his ANN review.
While it’s not available in the UK, House of Five Leaves is streamed on RetroCrush in the US.
A 24-episode 2003 anime series by Gonzo, Peacemaker Kurogane takes place in the Bakumatsu Period, near the end of the Edo Period, and immediately before the Meiji restoration (1866). A fifteen-year-old boy named Tetsunosuke Ichimura is left on his own when his parents are brutally murdered. He becomes a member of the well-known Shinsengumi, a police-like group whose tales are almost in and of themselves. Kyoto’s order is upheld by a tiny, elite force of swordsmen known as the Shinsengumi. Ichimura is modeled after a Shinsengumi officer who existed in actual life. Although it doesn’t appear that ANN has reviewed it, my more knowledgeable Shinsengumi-otaku pals tell me that “it’s an excellent drama but with some lame comedy.” I haven’t watched this one.
Crunchyroll is where Peacemaker Kurogane streams (under the moniker Peace Maker). Crunchyroll also features the 2018 film Peacemaker Kurogane for streaming.
Last but not least, Blue Eye Samurai isn’t even an anime, but it’s so excellent and timely that I couldn’t possibly leave it off my list for the Edo Period. It’s an amazing US/French co-production that Studio Blue Spirit animated. Set in the 17th century, following Japan’s adoption of an isolationist foreign policy, the half-Western, half-Japanese female samurai Mizu sets out to find her biological father in Europe in order to exact retribution for the way she was treated.
Mizu wears tinted glasses to cover up her obvious blue eyes because she experiences severe discrimination because of her non-Japanese features. It’s a superbly researched and produced period piece with amazing action scenes and exquisite computer-generated animation. Kenneth Branagh delivers a menacing performance as the primary adversary, the ginger-haired Irishman Abijah Fowler vocals. For an anime non-fan who has just watched and appreciated Shogun, this program might be the next most logical step toward anime.
You can watch Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix.
Films set in the Meiji Period:
Golden Kamuy, a four-season TV anime from Geno Studio and Brains Base based on the 31-volume manga by Satoru Noda, is the most recent set show I’ll suggest. The story takes place right after the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). Japan began an aggressive policy of empire expansion during this time, capturing large portions of China, Taiwan, and Korea in addition to many other regions.
The majority of Golden Kamuy is set in Hokkaido, the northernmost of the four major islands in the Japanese archipelago. It heavily emphasizes the history and specifics of the Ainu population, who were forced to flee their homeland and face discrimination at the hands of the Japanese. The main character, Russo-Japanese War veteran Saichi Sugimoto, is searching for a significant amount of wealth in Ainu gold. The map must be reconstructed by killing and skinning former prisoners so that the tattoo indicating the location of the riches can be removed. It’s a show that explores survivor’s remorse and honor while simultaneously presenting the glistening bodies of frequently nude, muscular guys. It can be horrifyingly humorous at times and brutally serious at others.
Crunchyroll offers Golden Kamuy streaming.
Historical animation began in Japan.
Based on a 15-volume light novel series, The Apothecary Diaries (2023, TOHO/OLM) is an exceptionally high-quality drama that blends political intrigue centered around a fictionalized Tang Dynasty China (618-907), medical diagnostics, and detective work. It has great characters, complex, nuanced storytelling that takes several episodes to fully develop, and is typically highly grounded.
Maomao, the protagonist, is a unique anime heroine. Despite her beauty, she would rather remain hidden behind a purposefully unadorned exterior, deflecting attention from her sharp intellect with caustic jabs. The show’s core is her abrasive back and forth with government official/eunuch Jinshi, but it’s also fascinating to watch the thoroughly studied medical aspects of herbology and medieval sickness.
You can watch The Apothecary Diaries on Crunchyroll.
In a similar vein, the heroine of Raven of the Inner Palace, a fictional China palace story, is a teenage girl. Despite being a consort, Liu Shouxue doesn’t interact with the Emperor and is consequently free from “nightly duties.” With Liu having the ability to summon the spirits of the dead, this has a stronger supernatural bent. While they wait anxiously for the second season of Apothecary Diaries, which is scheduled for 2025, fans might do worse than check this out.
Crunchyroll hosts Raven of the Inner Palace streaming.
There are two excellent grounded historical fiction series that are worth checking out: Wit Studio’s (season 1) and MAPPA’s (season 2). It tells the tale of Icelandic Jomsviking Thorfinn and is set at the turn of the century. After Askeladd, the Viking captain (the Magnificent Bastard from textbooks), kills his father, Thorfinn ends up in Great Britain during the Danish invasion and occupation. The majority of the primary characters, notably the future King Canute and his unfortunate father Sweyn, are based on true historical people.
For fans of Shogun’s similar combination of elements, Vinland Saga is a clear pick because it offers deep, conflicted characters, intricate political intrigue, incredibly horrific bloodshed, and epic battles. The second season explores forgiveness and atonement more slowly and thoughtfully than the first, which is a violent tale of retribution. Honestly, it’s among the greatest and most significant anime productions ever.
Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Amazon Prime Video all offer streaming for Vinland Saga. HIDIVE offers Season One for streaming as well.
