lrs808 wrote:Just finished watching Atsu-hime and Musashi liked them both any suggestions on other Taigas that were good?
The best written, best acted Taiga I've seen is Aoi--Tokugawa Sandai. It starts with the Battle of Sekigahara when Tokugawa Ieyasu established himself as de facto ruler of Japan. If you're not familiar with Japanese history, the plethora of names, places, and events in the first few episodes may overwhelm you, but then the series starts to settle down and focus on the principal Tokugawa members. The clever prologues help clarify things as well; they're presented as very informative (and often humorous) mini-history lessons.
Another excellent Taiga is Genroku Ryoran. It's the famous Chushingura story and boasts two superior performances by Nakamura Kanzaburo as Oishi Kuranosuke, the leader of the loyal 47 ronin, and Hagiwara Kenichi as Shogun Tokugawa Tsuyanoshi.
Toshiie and Matsu is another good one, not quite as excellent as the first two I mentioned, but still well written and well acted. The principal characters are Maeda Toshiie, an important figure in the latter part of the Sengoku era, and his wife. However, much of the series is devoted to the Big 3--Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu. Among many good performances in this series, Kagawa Teruyuki steals the show with his depiction of Hideyoshi.
Shinsengumi generated quite a bit of controversy when it aired. Taiga purists generally hated it. They viewed it (correctly imo) as a very inaccurate view of the Shinsengumi with a different tone than previous Taiga. For me, it had too many fanboy and fangirl actors, a trend which has unfortunately continued with succeeding Taiga; casting Shingo Katori, for example, as Kondo Isamu, head of the Shinsengumi, was horrible. But despite all the negatives, I thought it was entertaining, primarily because it was written and directed by the immensely talented Mitani Koki.
Takeda Shingen (with Nakai Kiichi in the titular role), Dokuganryu Masamune (starring Watanabe Ken as Date Masamune) and Sanada Taiheiki (about the Sanada clan) were three, more traditional Taiga that I thought were very good.