Fan reviews: Shinsengumi

MonsterZero65 · 18 Aug 2010

I have to say I found this to be good but not great. Though the acting was of course wonderful and the cast was talented the story was uneven and at times it dragged along. Most everyone knows of Shinsengumi and they did their best to show them in a new way I found it a little disappointing based on my expectations. If you watch it with lower expectations you may enjoy it more.

Wynter · 1 Jan 2009

I have to admit that I knew nothing of the Shinsengumi when I first started watching this Taiga. I read bits of information online and in two particular books, and asked a bucket full of questions directed at me peers on this site (thanks for the help, boys!). Whether the drama was accurate to historical fact I donft know, so I wonft touch upon that topic.

I really enjoyed Shinsengumi. It was long. Very long. But the characters kept me captivated. I have seen most of the actors in the drama in various other shows, but after Shinsengumi I think I will always know them for the roles they played here. Particular stand-out performances for me are those of Yamamoto Taro, who really convinced me that he carried around a terrible smell, and yet warmed my heart in all the right places; Nakamura Kantaro, whofs character (Heisuke) I rooted for in his rivalry with Okita; Tabata Tomoko, whofs portrayal of Tsune was good and honest; and Eguchi Yosuke, who, with his hair pulled back out of his face, truly shined.

I canft say much for the plot, since itfs a historical drama, but I will say that I found its portrayal a little confusing. The Shinsengumi seemed a happy bunch of farmers bent on making a difference and protecting their country, but as the story progressed, a nastier side to them surfaced. The viewpoint/bias of the portrayal seemed to flip about, and so for me, coming with no knowledge of the historical time period, I found myself at times lost and confused. Was I seeing what I was supposed to be seeing? I was cheering for the right side? Was I experiencing an uncalled for hatred towards an otherwise uplifting character? I donft know.

But no matter. I enjoyed the format of a Taiga and look forward to watching more. I can also now admit that I do enjoy historical dramas and hope to encourage this preference.

moeru_h · 28 May 2007

The first and maybe the best taiga drama I've seen. Katori Shingo played excellently as Kondo Isami. And all other artists played their roles very well. I especially like Sakai Masato as Yamanami Keisuke.

Besides some books about, or that mentioned, the Shinsengumi, the drama is really a great source of information about them. It is sufficiently detailed and the screenplay writer made his own version of what and how the members of the Shinsengumi felt at that particular time.

All in all, funny, exciting, full of human drama and most of all, it makes history even more interesting.:P

MonsterZero-65 · 28 Aug 2006

I am a big fan of Taiga drama's. NHK always assembles a great cast and Shinsengumi was no exception. I had high expectations for the drama because it is one of the more famous stories in Japanese history. The acting was great as always but I found the pace of the show very unbalanced. They glossed over some of the most important moments and spent too much time on minor incidents. I still enjoyed the show a lot but I did not enjoy it as much as other Taiga dramas I have seen. Good but not great.

Pinoyboy · 11 Aug 2006

Okay let me start off by saying I wish they were still showing that series over here in the States! I miss it EXTREMELY. You all don't know HOW MUCH I miss it! At the beginning I thought the Shinsengumi was a fictional militant group that was featured in the OVA series Samurai X. But until I saw a promotional commercial for the series 2 years ago which had the title "Shinsengumi", I said to myself "There was actually a historical group call the Shinsengumi?" Okay so I decided to check it but I missed a couple of the beginning episodes. I think it was Episode: 7 or 8 I started to watch it. After watching a couple minutes of it, soon thereafter I instantly fell in love with the series. I would wait every Saturday night at 9:00 PM (California) to watch it. Alas, once the last episode aired I was sad because it was the series finale. With only 49 episodes and a mini-movie after Kondo Isami's starring Kondo's righthand man, Hijikata Toshizo. What also sucks for me is that I reminisce about the series everyday and that I'm stuck with watching these corny Honky-Tonk/Crackerjack crap like the "Law & Order" franchise, the "Stargate" franchise, % Eye For The Straight Guy", "The Sopranos", "The Simpsons", "Desperate Housewives" and all that other Euro-American garbage. My only salvation is the Japanese channel on Cox Cable. I wish I had a cable company with nothing but Asian channels. But enough about that, let me tell you all the details why I liked the series. The actors and actresses portrayed their roles perfectly. Everyone fit the their parts exactly. Production quality was superb, such as the enviroments, the props--everthing was a great. Music is another thing that lured me into the show. The music was phenomenal, excellent, magnificent, fantastic, extraordinary and unparalleled. The music sounds so similar to Disney. Also, I can't forget to mention all the Beautiful, Gorgeous, Pretty, Cute, Hot, y, Delightful, Charming, Elegant and Exqusite s in Shinsengumi. I thought Tsune was Cute, Oume was Cute, Miyuki Dayuu and her longlost twin sister were Cute, Hide was Cute, Okoto was Cute, Akesato was Cute and--ah, hell all of them were Cute, except the elderly. The only problem is that they all had lovers, husbands and boyfriends. When the truth of the matter is that THEY ARE ALL MINE! MINE! No other man's. So screw the guys! But anyways, my favorite male characters are of course Hijikata Toshizo, Kondo Isami, Okita Souji, Serizawa Kamo, Sanosuke, Jinpachi, Saitou Hajime and Toudou Keisuke. I know I keep mentioning this, I don't know if anyone else has read my previous posts, but my favorite character off all time from that series is Koji Yamamoto as Hijikata. He makes the best Hijikata of all time. I know I've written this before too, but not to sound ish or anything but I he's a handsome dude. From a male perspective, of course! Secondly, if you read my profile, I put under Fav Artistes that he has a strong resemblance to Kenshin Himura from Samurai X and Ruroni Kenshin. If they were to film an adaptational movie about Samurai X, he would make a great Kenshin Himura. And if any of you agree with me, they should do it in English, since Koji spokes English (Don't know if he can speak fluently but I saw him in this Japanese show called, "Can you Speak English") When I saw him as a guest on the show, I was utterly surprise that he spoke it fluently, I don't know if he's a beginner or what, if he is, he's a damn good learner. Picking it up fast. I also think they should an American movie about the Shinsengumi. Just like what they did with Memoirs of A Geisha. 'Cause like I said earlier I'm not only tired of American TV shows, but American movies as well. Not to disrespect or take anything away from the Japanese audience or the actors and actresses native language but I wanna see more Asian actors and actresses, especially Japanese, speak English in an American-made Asian movie. Just like what they did with Memoirs Of A Geisha. Hollywood has a stereotypical view on a lot of Asians. They always portray Asians as being the Pidgeon English speaking F.O.B. Hollywood only believes in "White Power". If they did make an American version of Shinsengumi I would want to see the original cast or at least most of them from the TV series in the movie. So now you all know why I'm calling this review "Supreme Sovereing of Japanese Dramas". I'm doing everything in my power to obtain this drama on DVD w/ English Subtitles. I'm starting to get desperate, though. I'm thinking about buying a Region Free DVD player from YesAsia.com and just buying the Complete DVD boxsets. Unless anybody here on this website knows any other resources I can try on the internet. Please, tell me if you do. Well, I have nothing more to say, you all know how much I love the series. If I were to pick a rating from 1-10, I'd I give a 1,000,000,000,000. I'm out

Pinoyboy

sunnycleya · 19 Feb 2006

one of my favorate drama! Shingo acted excellent! an other side of Shingo had been shown. other actors also played perfectly!

Gao · 29 Jan 2006

Excellent in every way. The roles of each actor fir the characters perfectly. I enjoyed watching how great everything came out. Katori Shingo and Yamamoto Taro are astounding actors. I saw Taro in battle royale,and his performance then and now is still great.If you're interested in japan's history or just for a great drama,watch shinsengumi.

yanie_chan · 4 Feb 2005

Fabulous script, great directing, excellent musics, superb casts!! This taiga dorama has EVERYTHING! I'm glad the script is written with comedy in it, instead of the usual heavy and serious taiga dorama^^ Shingo Katori done a superb acting job here, we can see the character Isami Kondou grows and matured from one season to another season NATURALLY!! Yamamoto Kouji is EXCELLENT, he can make the audience both love and hate his character! Tomoko Tabata acted an excellent Tsune, Kondou's wife. Sawa Suzuki is an amazing Akesato[Yamanami's lover], brilliant acting!! okay, im running out space here if i have to mention the great casts one by one.....lets make it short, ALL of the CASTS have done an excellent job portraying their characters!! Unbelivable!!! Really, one of the greatest series EVER! CLASSIC! You wont get bored even if you watch this over and over! oh...and dont worry abt the amount of eps....its 49 episodes, but it is in a PERFECT PACE! not draggy nor slow at all, neither rushed .....The Best Shinsengumi Adaptation, There Is!
I've seen quite a number of taiga dramas and movies...and so far, i can firmly say, none of them beats Shinsengumi...yet^^

jashingo · 3 Feb 2005

I don't watch taiga drama, but this is the only one that I watch.. It's great!! Fabulous!! Shingo's acting is really really great~ Bring out the Kondo!! So do other artiste.. All of them is great!!! It's worth watching..

Doramafan113 · 30 Jan 2005

Fantastic Taiga Drama! I think Katori Shingo was Excellent as Kondo, I also really enjoyed Sato Koichi as Serizawa, Yuka, Yamamoto Taro, and Tabata Tomoko among others in this great story. Some of the pacing was strange it seems the battles were only a side story or cliff note the main focus seemed to be the people and their intereaction with each other and the people of Kyoto. I still think I prefer Musashi but this is also very nice.