Starting a thread on the 2013 taiga, 'Yae no Sakura' (mostly to wash the taste of 'Taira no Kiyomori' out of my mouth)

Synopsis:

Yae (Haruka Ayase) is born into the Yamamoto family in Aizu, Fukushima Prefecture. Her father is Aizu domain's official gunnery instructor. Yae becomes more interested in guns than sewing. She learns gunnery from her brother Kakuma (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and participates in the Battle of Aizu. Aizu though loses the battle.

Yae divorces her husband Naonosuke Kawasaki (Hiroki Hasegawa) and walks away from guns. She finds a new interest in learning. Yae then meets Jo Niijima (Joe Odagiri), the founder of Doshisha University, and marries him.

Yae is a strong proponent of gender equality and acts according to what she believes in. This rubs others the wrong way, but her husband, who experienced western culture in the United States, supports her. In her later years, Yae served as a nurse during the Russo-Japanese War.


Cast:

Haruka Ayase - Yae Niijima
Joe Odagiri - Jo Niijima
Hidetoshi Nishijima - Kakuma Yamamoto (Yae's brother)
Hiroki Hasegawa - Naonosuke Kawasaki (Yae's first husband)
Tetsuji Tamayama - Ookura Yamakawa
Ryo Katsuji - Kenjiro Yamakawa
Kiko Mizuhara - Sutematsu Oyama
Mitsuki Tanimura - Tokie Oda
Mitsuhiro Oikawa - Takayoshi Kido
Masahiro Takashima - Masanao Makimura
Hiroki Matsukata - Seihachi Taiyaki
Shun Oguri - Shoin Yoshida
Yutaka Matsushige - Gonbachi Yamamoto
Jun Fubuki - Saku Yamamoto
Kyoko Hasegawa - Ura Yamamoto
Asuka Kudo - Saburo Yamamoto
Ayame Gouriki - Yuki Hinata
Meisa Kuroki - Takeko Nakano
Ikeuchi Hiroyuki - Heima Kajiwara
Mikako Ichikawa - Futaba Kajiwara
Yoshinori Okada - Tomijiro Hirosawa
Shidou Nakamura - Kanbae Sagawa
Katsuhisa Namase - Taro Katsurin
Somegoro Ichikawa - Tenno Koumei
Takahashi Sorimachi - Yasuke Ooyama
Koutaro Koizumi - Yoshinobu Hitotsubashi
Toshiyuki Nishida - Tanomo Saigou

Screenwriter: Yamamoto Mutsumi

Mutsumi Yamamoto wrote "Gegege no Nyobo" which brought the asadora format out of their nosedive. Hopefully she can do the same for taigas.

If Ayase can show off some cleavage, this could be a ratings winner.

NHK has released 3 previews,

2 minute version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TAGTl5S6qA&feature=player_embedded

5 minute version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ryanr2CeRE&feature=player_embedded

and 10 minute version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jg9sOOGDXZM

Nice article in yesterdays Japan Times: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fd20130104r1.html

^ Good read, thanks.

I hope this will be better than last year's taiga, stupid train wreck that it was. I like Ayase generally as an actress, and I'm happy to see Nishijima Hidetoshi in this (love him in Strawberry Night). Neutral on Odagiri, but hope he and Ayase have chemistry.
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Absolutely disagree with Kuroki as Nakano. That has to be an April Fool's Joke. They can't seriously be using a third rate actresses with the acting skills of a trout for one of the more interesting characters. I don't care about how hot Kuroki is (don't think she really is anyway.) This is Nakano Takeko who crashed her squadron of external combatants into the imperial lines and gave them a severe thrashing. She deserves a far better actress. I also fear what has been hinted as a rivalry between Yae and Takeko. If it's over some guy I'm going to headbutt a kitten.

Other than that it seems fine, a lot better than the train wreck that effectively put the taiga on its deathbed.

Nishijima, heck yes. Pretty much the best news.

But I really wonder how they're going to make 48-odd episodes with a character like Yae. The siege only lasted a month, they can't milk it too long. Five episodes max maybe. Other than that, I'm curious how they're going to fill that. I fear there will be a lot of boring stuff, which is generally the one big problem this format has (and makes me actually prefer shorter period dramas, since the plot can be more compacted in 6-12 episodes than in almost 50, which gives far too much down time) and should be bigger with a character like that. Even then I'm expecting it to be better than TnK.

Overall it's about time the "Aizu Women's Brigade" gets the recognition it deserves. It was these women (external and internal combatants alike), elements of the Aizu-Wakamatsu forces and what was left over of the Shinsengumi who held the castle, not the overhyped Byakkotai, who were pretty insignificant to the actual defense.

NHK released a 2-part documentary on the filming. It's been floating around over on d-addicts. Definitely worth watching. Ayase put a lot of work into it.

I just wish people would stop calling Yae "the Japanese Joan of Arc." Yae was a warrior, like thousands of samurai women, who actively fought in battles (recent research hints to heavy involvement), before her. Joan of Arc was a lunatic and religious fanatic.

I watched the first episode of this taiga last night. It was most interesting and shows great promise. I loved the way the children were put into the beginning action and really wish they could have prolonged into another episode. I imagine that after all the samurai actions, we will see Yae in her future life, which was also full of major undertakings. I also wonder about fifty episodes however. Just hope they are all as good as the first one.
One thing is sure, Ayase is a fine actress and she will do a good job with this role.
She is not just a 'glamour girl' posing for the camera.

She's not listed in any of the credits, but the little girl that plays the young Yae is Suzuki Rio. She's a peach.

^ Agreed. They just keep churning out good child actresses. Not that many child actors though, I wonder why lol.
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WD wrote:

Not that many child actors though, I wonder why lol.

You probably can blame Johnny's for that.

^ LOL but Johnnys don't have child actors, only teen actors.
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Up to episode 8 and really not too bad. Found an excellent blog covering this drama: http://misaki-toyodome.tumblr.com/yaenosakura

And if you don't understand the era (it WAS confusing as hell) that 'Yae no Sakura' covers, she's got a link called "A �gBrief�h Backgrounder on the Bakumatsu", I recommend reading it, it really explains it somewhat simply, but pretty well.

Up to episode 12, I thought the battle scenes were very well done.

Quote
from the Yae no Sakura subs thread on D-Addicts:

tiger457
Joined: 03 Jan 2012
Total posts: 15
Gender: Unknown

PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 1:49 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0 Reply with quote
Hey folks
Malfunction. I was only able to get an incomplete rip. Need the first 7 minutes of the show with hard subs for episode 14. Does anyone has the TV rip version and can post


So the subber missed the first 7 minutes. Could someone here please help out?

^ Oops!! Too late!! It aired last weekend on 18.2 but I'm not recording it. All that happened in the beginning of the episode was Yae and Shonosuke's wedding. They really didn't miss much, you seen one Edo period wedding, you've seen them all. The bride and groom get married, the men all get drunk.

Which pretty much also applies to weddings from the Meiji, Taisho, Showa and Heisei eras as well.

GaijinMark, thanks for your reply. The problem has been solved though. So we can watch the wedding with subs : )
I hope it won't be a red wedding like we had in Game of Thrones : P

Episode 16, Meisa Kuroki has arrived, ready to kick some ass!!

There's a couple actors in this that I've never been real big fans of Kotaro Koizumi as Yoshinobu and Shido Nakamura as Sagawa.

I never cared for Koizumi because I just didn't think he was a very good actor, but he's great as Yoshinobu in this. Probably as close to a real villain as there's been so far.

I never liked Nakamura because he's seemed like such a dick in real life (see his short-lived marriage to Yuko Takeuchi). I know I should keep the two separate but he makes it hard. Anyway, he's real good in this. (But I still don't like him as a person.)

it seems good

Up to episode 21. One of the better renditions of Choshu/Satsuma/Unveiling of the Imperial flag/Aizu are screwed I've seen in awhile.


I'm trying to figure out if this taiga is really that good or it just seems that way because the two that preceded it sucked so bad.

Episode 25 finished. They're doing a pretty good job of showing the frustration and futility of what Aizu is going through.