The Promise of War

The mini-series Shōgun is an interesting one to review because, in some ways, it’s only a part of a larger story. We covered the start of the series with a review of the premiere, and my thoughts there haven’t really shifted. This is a gorgeous, well crafted, well written, and well acted series that keeps you within its grip from start to finish. Anyone with even a passing interest in this time period (feudal Japan) or even period pieces in general absolutely should check out Shōgun because it’s so, so well made. There’s not even a question in my mind about that.

At the same time, though, I found the ending confounding. I’m hesitant to spoil any of it, because the series only just finished airing and it does feel like there’s at least a minimum statute of limitations for most works, but the series makes a few choices in the end that left me… wanting. It was in a good way, as I wanted more of the story, more of what comes next, more of everything. But I’m also not certain any of that will happen and, frankly, it’s unlikely that we will hear anything about that any time soon.

Shōgun is based on the third of six novels that comprise James Clavell’s Asian Saga, and (as far as the in-story chronology is concerned) it’s also the earliest one of the set. Shōgun takes place 141 years before any other story in the saga which makes it a pretty self-contained, distant prequel to the rest of the set. One would think that would make it a story that ends without any question, ready to tie up its storylines so that, a century and a half later, related characters will be in power and we can follow their adventures having gotten a taste of the world. And yet… that doesn’t exactly happen.

By the time the series ends and the credits roll we do, in fact, have hints about what comes next for all the characters. Some are dead (as is the way of war), some have risen in power, and some will eventually get to go back home. But the why or how or what comes in between for all this is left annoyingly vague. There’s a lot that could come, story-wise, after the events we see, and to that promised ending many years later… but we won’t get to see it. Considering the novel and the mini-series end at about the same place, we have to assume this is the end. No more for Shōgun, and while we might get more stories adapted from the Asian Saga (this mini-series was a big hit for HuluOriginally created as a joint streaming service between the major U.S. broadcast networks, Hulu has grown to be a solid alternative to the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime, even as it learns harder on its collection of shows from Fox and FX since Disney purchased a majority stake in the service.), we aren’t going to spend more time getting the clarity the series is begging for in Shōgun itself. We’re done in this time period. That’s a wrap.

The series, as we established for the premiere, follows three characters. The first is Blackthorne, a pilot-major for Britain, thrust into command of the privateer ship when the boat is becalmed, half the crew dies, and his captain blows his own head off. Blackthorne still feels the desire to complete their mission, to get to Japan and find an ally among her leaders so that he can drive a wedge into the control Portugal has over the land. This puts him, eventually, in the service of Lord Toranaga, one of the five regents serving the young leader of Japan.

Toranaga was friends with the old leader of Japan, but he told his friend (we assume, although an unreliable narrator could be at play) that he didn’t want to be the sole regent for the leader’s young son. He didn’t, he swore, want to be Shōgun. So a council of five regents was set, with Toranaga serving as one of the five, and that then quickly put him on the outs from the other four. They, led by Ishido Kazunari, distrust Toranaga and want to see him executed (as a way to consolidate their own power). But Toranaga is wily, and with his new British pilot, and the help of his loyal servant and counselor, Toda Mariko, the lord might just find a way to fend off the other four factions and save Japan from herself.

The power of Shōgun really comes from watching Toranaga twist everyone around him as he plays his political games. He’s fantastic at politics. If he were in a different series, say Game of Thrones, Toranaga would have had the whole kingdom tied up, with a bow, before Ned Stark lost his head (spoilers for a completely different series). He’s cunning, seeing the path at least five steps ahead of everyone else. Even when something doesn’t go his way he has plots within plots he can hatch to twist everything in his direction. He’s brilliant, but in a way that feels realistic, and he’s able to pull all of it off because he can command the absolute loyalty of all his subjects. Watching him is watching a master of the craft at work.

The trick for the series is that it has to keep Toranaga inscrutable while also making him likable. He has to be above the fray, beyond everyone else, a living embodiment of lordly royalty… and yet he also has to be human. He has to show compassion, honor, and loyalty. He has to make you like him just enough that you want to hang on every word. It takes someone special to play him and the series cast Hiroyuki Sanada to play the role. He does it perfectly. He is seriously the single best part of the series despite playing a character so far at a reserve from everyone else that you’re never really sure what he’s thinking.

The character that takes us through the journey of feudal Japan is Blackthorne. He’s well played by Cosmo Jarvis even if his performance does feel like he’s doing his best Tom Hardy impersonation. There’s life and compassion and all the things lacking from Toranaga in Jarvis’s performance. Plus, he’s paired up with Anna Sawai's Toda Mariko and Sawai is absolutely fantastic in this series. Toranaga is the main driving force of the series, but it’s really Mariko who’s our main character for most of the show. She has a rising and falling arc, finding happiness and losing it more than once, all while pursuing her ultimate goal: being allowed to die.

It’s feudal Japan. You just have to go with some things.

Shōgun works because of its characters, but that’s also a big reason why the ending feels like less of an ending than I’d like: I want to see more of these characters. Yes, technically the story comes to a kind of conclusion, something you can stick a pin in and then, maybe, revisit 141 years later in the setting and story, but that means we miss out on what’s next for the characters we’ve come to care about. Likely we’ll hear about what happened from the next generation of characters we see, but being told isn’t the same as seeing it for ourselves, and I absolutely want to see more.

I suppose that is a good thing. Even with the show over I want more. If Hulu were to announce a sequel mini-series (likely on the next chronological novel, Tai-Pan), I’d be there. I was hooked by Shōgun and I absolutely want more, in whatever form it comes. I just… really wish there were more to this story too because I came to really enjoy the characters we have in Shōgun and, whether fair or not, it feels like we should get more.

And we won’t. That’s a bittersweet pill to swallow, for sure.