Finally finished all 48 episodes of Ryomaden and what a journey it was! I have watched so much bakumatsu stuff especially all the Shinsengumi shows. I knew that Sakamoto Ryoma was the mediator between Satsuma and Choshu and and Shinsengumi was after him but Ryomaden really went into what society was like in this era, how incredibly difficult what Ryoma did, especially with every clan having their own objectives and how forward thinking he was in a society so steeped in tradition.
My favourite line is episode 47 were Kinpachi sensei playing Katsu sensei said that if the shogunate restored the emperor, 20000 people would lose their jobs and Ryoma replied that he could not care less because the 20000 people will just have to work for a living like the merchants, artisans and farmers.
The shogunate was in power for 280 years but society was rigid, people were discriminated based on their birth and Japan had fallen behind the rest of the world. The world of the samurai was over and there were many people who were not happy and Shinsengumi in Ryomaden were not portrayed as honourable people but killers who did not know any other way to live.\
The second half of Ryomaden is so good, watching him convince Satsuma and Choshu to team up and later Tosa to pressure the shogunate. Everything had to be done in secret and Ryoma had to stay alive because he was the witness who could verify the terms of the deal. I liked that everything Ryoma went through allowed him the standing and trust to get the two clans together and the show really showed the difficult steps he had to do getting different clans with their own agendas to work together and getting them to trust him and each other while evading the watchful eyes of the shogunate was very difficult.
The most important thing is that Ryoma did not work towards overthrowing the Shogunate for power. He did seek any positions in the new government nor did he profit from selling weapons when everyone was fearing war. He realised that he could not have any vested interest in what was happening so that everyone from Satsuma to Tosa could trust him.
Ryomaden has been the most educational taiga dorama for me and I loved everything set in Nagasaki with all the merchants local and foreign and the clash of cultures for a country that has been closed off for so long. Unfortunately, I don't Rise of the Ronin has Nagasaki, only Kyoto, Edo and Yokohama. I would definitely like to go to Nagasaki and visit historical sites there.
Ryomaden is a must watch for me, especially from an educational perspective. So many things I like are set in the bakumatsu period like The Last Blade (Gekka no Kenshi). Its such a romantic period because it is the end of the samurai and the beginning of modern Japan and it is such a clash and we all have Sakamoto Ryoma to thank for it.
5 comments:
hi mike, know where i can go watch ryomaden?
Hopefully not avistaz. years back you reminded me to register when registration was open, was able to register, but was so busy with life, i lost my account because of inactivity.
thats the problem with taigas and large episode counts...not enough HD space on pc to get em, when they are airing, and only getting ones that are review good/must watch.
thanks for the review mike.
@dgundam
It looks like all episodes can be streamed at watchasia.to ...it's listed as "Ryoma den".
@dgundam: Will post on blog if registrations open which is rarely. Once you get hooked on a taiga dorama, be prepared to sacrifice everything else! Download to a microsd card on your pc if you run out of space.
thanks robert and mike!
Ya, i got into asadoras a while back and was getting em each year, even tho they werent getting subbed. coupled with the regular jdramas and kdramas i was watching, it was piling up and i just gave up a decade ago, since file sizes were also getting larger and larger as well. I got into taigas later in my life, but i think i only got 4 taigas in my collection gunshi kanbei, taiya kiyomori, go, and something else.
i love history and taigas but busy with kids and i have no one to watch it with. looks like the wife and first kid might not be into slow shows (which invalidates so many good jdramas)...the only hope is my second kid lol.
@dgundam
If you are worried about files....the Bluray's of asadoras are amazing. Expensive but you get what you pay for. Hiyokko's Bluray files are over 10gb for 1 week's worth of 5 x 15min episodes.
That appears almost the norm for Japanese Blurays. A number of my Japanese movie disk have movie files that are in the range of 46gb - that is just the movie not including the extras. Where as most of my disks from other countries top out at about 25gb.
P.S. Turns out the only way to save on Harddrives is emptying your wallet.
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