Anime to Watch if You Liked Shogun

For the past couple of months, it's been hard to ignore the loud promotion of Disney+/Hulu's mega-budget Shogun. Based on James Clavell's feted 1975 novel, it's a compelling and glossy historical drama following a large cast of fictionalized characters who are renamed versions of real people. Protagonist John Blackthorne (played by Cosmo Jarvis) is analogous to William Adams, the first English samurai, while Hiroyuki Sanada's character Yoshi Toranaga is Shogun's version of Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder and first Shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate (military government of Japan).

Rightfully so, Shogun has achieved great popularity and critical acclaim. So now that it's finished streaming, what can viewers suffering Shogun withdrawal do to fill the void? Well, there are plenty of anime options available to stream or buy that will scratch that itch for serious historical drama, bloody battles, and political intrigue.

In Japan, jidaigeki is a film, television, and theatre genre — often featuring samurai during the Sengoku or Edo periods, usually set before 1868's Meiji Restoration. Unlike live-action movies and TV shows, anime is less hindered by budget and setting, with events often limited only by the imaginations of its creators. Therefore, what could have been straight drama in other media may instead feature prominent historical figures transported to other worlds to fight monsters or gender-bent and brought to the modern day. In general, I'll avoid those shows to focus on more grounded historical fiction, but I'll include some spicier options at the very end. Pure jidaigeki anime, without fantasy elements, is a little harder to find than you might expect.

First: a brief history overview. The loosely-defined Sengoku (Warring States) period began around 1454 during the Muromachi period (1336–1573), and only ended in 1638, during the Edo period. Shogun is set in 1600 during the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1573–1603), immediately before the start of the Edo period (1603–1868). Famous historical figure Oda Nobunaga (star of many… weird… anime) was a daimyo during the Azuchi-Momoyama period, and Tokugawa Ieyasu was one of his retainers. Nobunaga's fictional Shogun equivalent, Goroda, died before Shogun's period, assassinated by Lady Mariko's father Akechi Jinsai (in real life: Akechi Mitsuhide). The institution of the Tokugawa Shogunate under Tokugawa Ieyasu ushered in the relatively peaceful and lengthy Edo Period when the samurai were still Japan's ruling class.

A few decades after the Shogun's period, between 1633 and 1639, the Tokugawa Shogunate instituted its sakoku “locked country” isolationist policy. Relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely restricted, and almost all foreign nationals were barred from setting foot on Japanese soil. Japanese people were kept from leaving the country. The only permitted European influence was via the Dutch, and only in Nagasaki's artificial Dejima island. Sakoku was enacted to remove the colonial and religious influence of Spain and Portugal, who had imported Roman Catholicism as a method of social and political control (as depicted in Shogun). This eventually resulted in the brutal extermination of Japanese Christians following the Shimabara Rebellion in 1637. The sakoku policy ended in 1853, and the samurai were abolished in the late 1870s, at the beginning of the Meiji Era (1868–1912).

Anime set during the more distant past, pre-Sengoku Era:

From critical-darling studio Science SARU, 2021's The Heike Story is adapted from the 13th-century monogatari (epic story) The Tale of the Heike, via author Hideo Furukawa's 2016 modern Japanese translation. Set during the Genpei War (1180–1185), The Heike Story follows the rise and fall of the powerful Taira clan. There are some supernatural aspects: hetero-chromic main character Biwa can see the future, while another character can see the spirits of the dead. Like Shogun, the eleven-episode narrative features political intrigue, wars, and tragic deaths. It concludes with the historic, climactic 1185 sea battle of Dan-no-ura that sealed the Taira clan's fate and led to Minamoto no Yorimoto of the Genji clan becoming Japan's first shogun in 1192, establishing the supremacy of the samurai class. The Heike Story streams on Crunchyroll.

2021's theatrical movie Inu-Oh, also from Science Saru, directed by Masaaki Yuasa, functions as an indirect sequel to the Heike Story, set during the fourteenth century, many years after the battle of Dan-no-ura. It's a supernatural, historical rock opera with its share of political intrigue. It's also based on a book by Hideo Furukawa, this time 2017's Tales of the Heike: Inu-Oh. Full of wild anachronisms and crazy musical performances, it's nonetheless evocative of Muromachi Period Japan with its strictly stratified culture. Inu-Oh's main character, Tomona, is a blind Biwa-playing monk who sheds his inhibitions to become a flamboyant rock star. Notably, the excellent music features vocals by Queen Bee's Avu-chan (who also voices the co-protagonist Inu-Oh's speaking lines).

Inu-Oh is available to buy on Blu-ray from Shout Factory in the US and Anime Limited in the UK.

Anime set during the Sengoku (Warring States) era:

A three-volume 1967 Osamu Tezuka manga left without a proper conclusion, Dororo received two anime adaptations: first a 26-episode black-and-white TV show in 1969, then an updated 24-episode version in 2019 from MAPPA that makes its ending and updates Tezuka's cutesy, cartoony designs. (Dororo was also adapted into the excellent PS2-era game Blood Will Tell, which is stupidly expensive to buy secondhand now.)

Hyakkimaru, cursed as a child when his father sacrificed many of his body parts to demons, is provided with a prosthetic body that hides lethal bladed weapons. He wanders the war-torn land, defeating demons and gradually reclaiming parts of his humanity from them. He's friends with the small but fierce Dororo, who holds secrets of their own. It seems likely to be set sometime around the Onin War (1467–1477) and foregrounds the suffering of normal people, disdained by the ruling samurai class. Interestingly, instead of becoming stronger as time passes, like a standard shonen protagonist, Hyakkimaru becomes weaker as he becomes more human with each body part returned to him.

Dororo (2019) streams on Amazon Prime Video and HIDIVE.

Yasuke is a six-episode show from 2021 with a similar premise to Shogun. The real, historical Yasuke was the earliest Black African to appear in Japanese records. He stayed in Japan between 1579–1582 and became Oda Nobunaga's retainer. His real name is unknown, but the show names him as “Eusebio Ibrahimo Baloi, a Yao man who most likely hailed from Mozambique.” As does almost every anime version of anything referencing Nobunaga, it features significant fantasy elements. It's set 20 years after Nobunaga's death, so it occupies a similar period to Shogun. Yasuke fights the “dark general” Mitsuhide (based on the same character as Shogun character Mariko's father, the killer of Nobunaga). In her ANN review, Mercedez Clewis stated, “It manages to tell a very thoughtful story over two interconnected three-episode arcs,” and it's a “beautiful depiction of Blackness in alternate-history Japan.”

Yasuke streams on Netflix

Sword of the Stranger from studio BONES in 2007 seems to be set in the early 1600s, towards the end of the Sengoku Era, just after the time of Shogun. Young Kotaro escapes his Chinese Ming pursuers with his dog Tobimari and hires the wandering swordsman Nanashi as a bodyguard. Secretly, Nanashi has red hair, suggesting he has Western origins, so dyes his hair black to avoid attracting attention. In his review for ANN, Justin Sevakis described “breath-taking action scenes wrapped around a compelling story that makes sense,” while Bamboo Dong wrote that it's “a gorgeously animated, blood-soaked samurai romp that entertains for its full 102-minute run”. For viewers desiring something less of a commitment than a full-length TV series, Sword of the Stranger is an excellent choice.

Copies of Sword of the Stranger on US Blu-ray are available from Funimation (2019 release) and Bandai (2009 release) and UK Blu-ray from Anime Limited.

Anime Set during the Edo Period:

One of the first Edo Period-set anime that should spring to mind is 2004's Samurai Champloo from Studio Manglobe, directed by Cowboy Bebop's Shinichiro Watanabe. Samurai Champloo is beloved by fans for its fusion of samurai period drama with pronounced use of hip-hop music, amongst myriad other anachronisms. It features an episodic, road-movie-like structure, and a little like Watanabe's later Space Dandy, it's stylish and freewheeling, giving the (not entirely untrue) impression of being made up as it goes along. Watanabe states his main inspirations during production were movies about blind samurai Zatoichi.

Samurai Champloo follows an eclectic trio of wanderers: self-taught vagrant swordsman outlaw Mugen, calm glasses-wearing ronin Jin, and cheerful young girl Fuu, as they wander throughout Edo Period Japan, more often than not getting into trouble. Like Shogun's Blackthorne, Mugen is othered due to his ethnicity. He's Ryukyuan, an ethnolinguistic minority group from the Ryukyu Islands, which stretches between Kyushu and Taiwan.

Samurai Champloo streams on Hulu (US) and Crunchyroll.

Blade of the Immortal is a supremely violent and incredibly illustrated manga by Hiroaki Samura. Forget about 2008's poor, incomplete 13-episode anime adaptation from studio Bee Train, and instead watch Liden Films' 2019 24-episode version that adapts the entire story. Set during the mid-Tokugawa Shogunate period, immortal swordsman Manji's quest to slay a thousand evil men to become mortal again intertwines with female sidekick Rin's quest for revenge against rogue swordsman Anotsu Kagehisa and his Itto-Ryu sword school.

Grimy, gory, grungy, and brutal, the sadistic, mutilated, white-haired Shira features as one of the most hateful antagonists in all of anime and manga. The only supernatural components to the story are the mystical “sacred bloodworms” that keep Manji alive and knit together his (often horrendous) wounds. Blade of the Immortal was also notably adapted as a live-action movie directed by the incomparable Takashi Miike.

Blade of the Immortal (2019) streams on Amazon Prime Video and HIDIVE.

From NisioIsin, author of the Monogatari series, comes the unrelated Katanagatari (2010, studio White Fox). Yaasuri Shichika is an Edo Period swordsman who somehow manages to fight bare-handed style, without a sword. Togane is a strategist who, together with Shichika, searches for twelve legendary swords. Unusually structured, it comprises twelve fifty-minute episodes, full of grandly-staged fights and rapid-fire, lengthy, and verbose conversations — i.e. typical for NisioIsin. In Carl Kimlinger's ANN review, he praised it for being “witty and fun with a potent final act.” Unfortunately, this show is perhaps the most famous these days for being hard to find. It received a very limited, very expensive Blu-ray release from NIS America in 2011, which is now practically impossible to acquire.

Katanagatari (allegedly) exists as an NIS America Blu-ray. It is unavailable to stream legally anywhere.

Ooku: The Inner Chambers (2023, Studio Deen) is based on a 19-volume manga, an alternate history story. During the time of the third Tokugawa Shogun, the “Redface Pox” plague killed 80% of the country's men, and Japanese women took over the government. The total sweep of the story covers around two centuries of real history, but the prominent politicians and public figures are secretly all female instead. In this timeline, Japan's isolationist policy is due to more than just xenophobia — they cannot let other countries know of their lack of men, plus they must keep the plague confined to Japanese shores.

Full of political intrigue, twisted sexual politics, self-sacrifice, and horrifying human rights abuses, Ooku is disturbing yet compulsive viewing. The first 80-minute-length episode stands alone very well, but the subsequent series is equally compelling. The titular “Ooku” refers to a harem of men kept away from the world to act as seed stock for the female Shogun, a gender-reversed version of the real-world institution.

Ooku: The Inner Chambers streams on Netflix.

Now for something a little more extravagant. Enfant terrible Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Wicked City, Cyber City Oedo 808) in 1993's Ninja Scroll directed a grand guignol mix of extreme violence and gore, a movie that became a staple of late 1990s Blockbuster VHS rental store anime sections. Quite misogynistic by modern standards and featuring a horrible sexual assault scene that was perhaps sensibly edited out for its initial UK VHS release, it nonetheless features spectacular and creative action sequences. Ignore the TV show of the same name, it's got little to do with the movie and is generally regarded as disappointing.

Ninja Scroll takes place at some point during the Edo Period. The main antagonist, the “Shogun of the Dark,” intends to overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate by acquiring vast quantities of gold to buy Spanish firearms. The main character, Jubei, engages in a series of brutal battles with a cavalcade of bloodthirsty freaks with supernatural powers. Jubei is based on the historical figure Yagyu Jubei Mitsuyoshi, who lived between 1607 and 1650. He's appeared as a fictionalized character in myriad media, including as the main hero of the classic Capcom PS2 game Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny.

Ninja Scroll is out of print in the US and the UK. Sentai Filmworks' Blu-ray release goes for about US$200 right now.

2010's House of Five Leaves from Studio Manglobe (who also made Samurai Champloo) was critically well received. Set during the Edo period, it follows timid ronin Masanosuke Akitsu, who, after being let go from his position serving the Shogun, becomes the bodyguard of Yaichi, the charismatic leader of the Five Leaves bandits. Striking an unusual tone, it's a slowly-paced samurai mystery with unusual character designs and an odd atmosphere. In his ANN review, Carl Kimlinger described it as “deliberately unconventional and even alienating at times” but also compliments it for its ability to entertain “without pandering or compromising.”

House of Five Leaves streams on RetroCrush in the US, but is unavailable in the UK.

Peacemaker Kurogane is a 24-episode 2003 anime from Gonzo set during the Bakumatsu Period, towards the end of the Edo Period, and just before the Meiji restoration (1866). Tetsunosuke Ichimura is a 15-year-old boy left to fend for himself after his parents are brutally murdered. He joins the famous Shinsengumi, a police-like organization (stories about whom are practically a genre unto themselves). The Shinsengumi are a small, elite group of swordsmen charged with maintaining order in Kyoto. Ichimura is based on a real-life historical figure, who was a Shinsengumi officer. I've not seen this one, and it looks like ANN has never reviewed it, but my better-acquainted Shinsengumi-otaku friends tell me “It's an excellent drama but with some lame comedy.”

Peacemaker Kurogane streams on Crunchyroll (under the name Peacemaker). The 2018 Peacemaker Kurogane movie also streams on Crunchyroll.

Lastly, for the Edo Period comes something that isn't anime — Blue Eye Samurai — but it's so good and so relevant, there's no way I could exclude it from this list. It's a US/French co-production animated by studio Blue Spirit, and it's remarkable. Set during the 17th century, after Japan enacted its isolationist policy, the female samurai Mizu, who is half-Western, half-Japanese, searches out her European biological father to enact revenge for her treatment.

Mizu suffers greatly due to discrimination for her non-Japanese features, and she wears tinted spectacles to hide her telltale blue eyes. It's an incredibly well-made and well-researched period piece with spectacular action sequences, and the CG animation is gorgeous. The main antagonist, ginger-haired Irishman Abijah Fowler, is voiced with sinister relish by Kenneth Branagh. In some ways, this show could be the next most natural step in the direction of anime for a non-anime fan who has just watched and enjoyed Shogun.

Blue Eye Samurai streams on Netflix.

Anime set during the Meiji Era:

The most recently set show I'll recommend is Golden Kamuy, a four-season TV anime from Geno Studio and Brain's Base, based on the 31-volume manga by Satoru Noda. It's set during the immediate aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). In this period, Japan embarked on a rapid program of empire expansion, conquering great chunks of China, Taiwan, and Korea, among many other areas.

Golden Kamuy takes place mostly in Hokkaido (the most northerly of the Japanese archipelago's four main islands) and prominently features the history of, and details regarding, the indigenous Ainu population who were displaced and discriminated against by the Japanese. Protagonist Saichi Sugimoto, veteran of the Russo-Japanese war, is on a quest to find a huge fortune in Ainu gold. The way to said treasure is tattooed onto the skin of former prisoners who must be killed and skinned to re-form the map. At turns uproariously funny and at others brutally serious, it's a show that explores survivor's guilt and honor while also showcasing the glistening bodies of frequently naked, muscly men.

Golden Kamuy streams on Crunchyroll.

Historical anime set out with Japan:

Set in a fictionalized alternate universe version of Tang Dynasty China (618–907) and based on a 15-volume light novel series, The Apothecary Diaries (2023, Toho/OLM) is an exceptionally high-quality drama mixing complex palace-based political intrigue, medical diagnostics, and detective investigation. It's generally very grounded, with excellent characters and deep, subtle storytelling that takes many episodes to pay off.

Protagonist Maomao is an unusual anime heroine. Although she is beautiful, she prefers to hide behind a deliberately plain facade, diverting attention from her fierce intelligence with acerbic put-downs. Her combative back-and-forth with government official/eunuch Jinshi is the beating heart of the show, but the well-researched medical aspects of herbology and medieval disease are fascinating.

The Apothecary Diaries streams on Crunchyroll

Similarly, Raven of the Inner Palace is also set in the palace of a fictional China and also features a teenage girl as the protagonist. Although Liu Shouxue is a consort, she has no contact with the Emperor, and therefore no “nightly duties”. This has more of a supernatural bent, with Liu able to call forth the spirits of the dead. The Apothecary Diaries fans anxiously awaiting the second season planned for 2025 could do worse than check this out in the meantime.

Raven of the Inner Palace streams on Crunchyroll.

For grounded historical fiction with no fantastical component at all, look no further than the masterful Vinland Saga from Wit Studio (season 1) and MAPPA (season 2). Set around the turn of the first millennium, it follows the story of Thorfinn, a Jomsviking from Iceland. Following the murder of his father by (textbook Magnificent Bastard) Viking commander Askeladd, Thorfinn finds himself in Great Britain during its Danish invasion and occupation. Most of the main characters are based on real historical figures, including the eventual King Canute and his ill-fortuned father, Sweyn.

Featuring epic battles, spectacularly bloody violence, complex political intrigue, and deep, conflicted characters, Vinland Saga is an obvious choice for someone who enjoys Shogun's similar mix of ingredients. While the first season is a brutal revenge story, the second is a slower, more contemplative examination of forgiveness and repentance. It's honestly one of the best, most meaningful anime ever made.

Vinland Saga streams on Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll, and Netflix. Season One is also streaming on HIDIVE.

More fantastical anime:

As promised, I'll cover some anime dramas that are less “historical” but still feature similar vibes to Shogun, foremost of which is the inimitable Berserk. Now at 42 manga volumes (continuing despite author Kentaro Miura's sudden, tragic death in 2021), this has been adapted into anime three times. The first, a 25-episode TV series from 1997, covers the entirety of the Golden Age arc. Despite some budgetary limitations hampering its visuals and animation quality, for most fans, this is the best anime version. It's a grand, tragic narrative set in a fantasy world not dissimilar to Medieval Europe. It follows Guts, a young, incredibly strong swordsman, as he joins his friend Griffith's mercenary Band of the Hawk.

The Band of the Hawk becomes embroiled in wars and political intrigue, and Guts and Griffith's friendship becomes famously broken as they become bitter enemies. A story filled with brutal, horrifying twists and turns, it's incredibly compelling. The later Golden Age movie trilogy covers the same story in less time, with some slightly iffy CG animation, though it also adapts some aspects from the manga that were removed from the earlier TV edition. The less said about the 2016 TV CG anime abomination, the better. There's a reason that it's remembered purely as a meme for shitty anime CG now.

Berserk (1997) is available to buy on US Blu-ray from Discotek and UK Blu-ray from MVM Entertainment.

Based on Akira Kurosawa's legendary 1954 Seven Samurai movie (also adapted by Hollywood as the 1960 Western movie The Magnificent Seven), Studio Gonzo's 2004 TV anime Samurai 7 transplants characters with the same names and personalities to a future time, a planet somewhere in outer space. A village elder hires a group of seven samurai to help defend their settlement against a band of cybernetically enhanced bandits. Eventually, the scope expands as the samurai eventually mount an attack on the capital to defeat the corrupt emperor.

Samurai 7 still holds up well two decades later, despite featuring early 2000s anime CG (which remarkably isn't anywhere near as terrible as Berserk 2016's…) and some inconsistent animation. Its iconic cast of characters is deep and interesting. In his ANN review, Theron Martin considered it “one of the most epic TV anime of the 2000s.”

Samurai 7 streams on Crunchyroll.

Finally, the recent Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku (2023, MAPPA) is an entertaining mix of Edo-period Shinsengumi/samurai-style storytelling and supernatural fantasy. A group of criminals sentenced to execution are offered a chance for pardon if they agree to explore the mysterious island of Shinsenkyo to retrieve the fabled Elixir of Life. They are accompanied by a group of highly-trained Shogunate-affiliated swordsmen (and women) from the famous Yamada Asaemon family of executioners. (Manga fans might recognize that as the name of the main character of Kazuo Koike's Samurai Executioner.) Suffice it to say, nothing goes according to plan, and psychedelic carnage ensues.

Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku streams on Crunchyroll.

Conclusion

Although it's a little outside of the scope of this article, if you're interested in manga set around the time of Shogun, then Takehiko Inoue's 37-volume Vagabond (published in English by Viz) is a stunning achievement of manga art. Set in the aftermath of the 1600s Battle of Sekigahara (as prominently featured in Shogun), it follows the life of the legendary swordsman who would eventually be known as Musashi Miyamoto. Unfortunately, it's been stuck in limbo for over a decade as Inoue has declined to complete it, focusing instead on other series.

Alternatively, Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's seminal Lone Wolf and Cub is a 28-volume historical revenge epic set in the 1700s during the time of the Tokugawa Shogunate. For me, this manga is the absolute pinnacle of the samurai manga genre; the final dozen volumes are so relentlessly intense. Koike and Kojima's similar Path of the Assassin and Samurai Executioner, all set during the same period, are also highly recommended, and all are published in English by Dark Horse.

There are no doubt many other anime I could have included in this overview, so feel free to make your helpful suggestions in the comments!

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Kevin Cormack is a Scottish medical doctor, husband, father, and lifelong anime obsessive. He writes as Doctorkev at https://medium.com/anitay-official and appears regularly on The Official AniTAY podcast. You can also find him on Twitter @Herrdoktorkev. His accent is real.