A Guerra dos Samurais

I don't know anything about this subject so I can't speak to the veracity of the information. However, it is overall quite engaging and the mix of dramatized scenes, information from their experts, and narration is good. However, I feel like there could have been better diversity in their "experts". I find it odd that they're essentially all British or American. I can't believe that they weren't able to find more Japanese subject-matter-experts to interview. That strikes me as a real issue with their production decisions.

While it is easy to get swept up into a sea of negativity and pick apart the fine details of a series, the reality is I feel this is a good gateway show. Could there have been more? Yes, always. However the director and production were not looking to create a flawless recreation, and openly state that they used creative costuming and sets for many scenes. The creative costuming and set designs were based on period accurate research, and then given a creative spin.

There are Japanese historians who appear in the series and speak, and a number of professionals who provide great quick info about the various events and battles. In truth, there was so much that happened in this period, a whole series could be made about just -1- historical figure such as Oda Nobunaga. Instead there was a broad review of the period that touched on many points.

I hope that the success of this series will prompt studios to take a more serious look at Japanese historical productions, and properly budget and dedicate more research and resource to them. This period in Japanese history, as well as many others, is ripe for film and deserves to be taken seriously.

So, if you enjoy Japanese history and want to quickly sink your teeth into this period, or introduce someone to this period this is a great series for you. LEt's hope that Hollywood in the future will take a serious approach to this kind of topic, and better fund and research their work.

This time in Japanese history is fascinating and Age of Samurai does a very good job of conveying that. The production values are very high with plenty of re-enactments that are portrayed by strong and compelling acting, but that's also part of the problem. This emphasis on entertainment means that just like in biopics, there have been quite a few liberties taken creating a plethora of historical inaccuracies. The flip side is that the 6 episodes really fly by and keep you vested in the next one.

An enjoyable series that should come with a disclaimer.

Personally, my knowledge of Japanese history in the XVI century equals to not much, therefore I was interest in this documentary. I vaguely remembered the names of Hideyoshi and Ieyasu as the men who reunited Japan, but I missed a large part of the history.

The structure of the documentary is the usual: historians narrating the events, interspersed with acted battles and daily life scenes. The interior design and costumes look OK, but the narration (and battle scenes) go very much in the direction of "this strong samurai fought bloody battles" followed by even bloodier ones, won by the next fierce samurai.

I get that the point is narrating the reunion of Japan under a single ruler and that part of history is mostly the succession of samurais that it took to complete the task, but all the battle scenes look pretty much the same. Still worth to watch.

PS as to the criticism that the historians are mostly not Japanese... since when one should study only the history of one's own country? Which level of crazy is that even if I am interested in Japanese history, I should not talk about it because I'm not Japanese?

I primarily watched the first season of this documentary series for the viewing of costumes, interior design, and overall Japanese artistry / craftsmanship. The historical accuracy and narrative quality were secondary or less to me. Many reviewers criticized the historical "inaccuracies" (we don't know this and the reviewers did not provide any credentials) and injection of Western historians, but given the target audience of the series, i.e., Americans, this makes sense. When the series employed an "authentic" Japanese historian, we had to read subtitles, which greatly interrupted with the flow of background re-enactments, etc. If non-citizen historians can be trusted with world history, why not Anglo-American historians with Japan's history? Nevertheless, I give this series an 8/10 in light of all of the reviewers who screamed, "Inaccurate!"