meganbmoore | Yoshitsune through ep 21 (Reply)

Sadly, it seems that they decided they had enough blatant fan service in the first handful of episodes and decided to tone it down. Apparently I have to watch TAIYOU NO KISETSU if I want to mock the excessive fanservice.

Most of these episodes have been about Yoshitsune gathering his chief vassals (aka "The Boys") and fleeing Kyoto and living in Oshu(where he acquired half of The Boys) and then going to Izu to serve under his brother Yoritomo, who was a clever and likable kid and seemed good at first, but yeah, he's pretty much a jerk. Doesn't deserve his brother OR his wife. There's also a lot of other political stuff going on, but too much to get into(as a warning, the political narrative often overshadows Yoshitsune's narrative). Love Kiyomori's wife and, of course, Abe Hiroshi's character. Thankfully, he was able to grow and become more assertive and commanding quickly, because a meek Abe Hiroshi was very hard for my brain to process.

Tomoe Gozen is great and most definitely rules that household. Not that Tomoe's Guy(her lord-she's both his concubine and his retainer- and his son are named Yoshitada and Yoshitaka, as there is no way I can keep that straight without referencing it, they are Tomoe's Guy and Widdle Guy 2) really seems to mind except when she gets a little too caught up in her fervor to further him, at which point, he's more than capable of putting his foot down. Those two I really like. Tomoe's Guy is a cousin of the brothers, but Yoshitomo killed his father, so they aren't exactly friends. To force good behavior, Widdle Guy 2 is betrothed to Yoritomo's daughter, Teeny Princess, resulting in absurd levels of cuteness, as Teeny Princess is very shy and unsure about Widdle Guy 2 so he has to win her over. It's especially cute when Yoshitsune plays with them.

Yoshitsune's True Love, Shizuka has been around for a few episodes, and...eeeh...she's likable enough and not a weakling, but I'm largely neutral about both her and them. I much prefer Utsubo, who I've gotten very attached to. I know there are a lot of people who don't like Ueto Aya, but this is my first time seeing her and I really like her here. I can't help but think that the only reason Yoshitsune loves Shizuka instead of Utsubo is because that's the way it happened in history, as opposed to the characters really being written for it. Still, it works well enough and it's history, so I'm ok(though if it weren't history and both girls were created for the series, I'd be forced to be bitter.)

I have to say, though, that the best parts are the parts with The Boys. My favorite of The Boys, is Benkei(aka, the guy Takki fights on the bridge) He's like a big, faithful dog. Who hates women. And has severe "must serve my master" blinders on. There's also Kisanta, who served Utsubo's scum!brother but realized that Yoshitsune was a much better guy and would have provided health insurance if it'd been around then. Then there's Crab, who followed Yoshitsune's father and then became a bandit until he met Yoshitsune. There's also Jiro, an underhanded boatman who...was won over by Yoshitsune's all around good-guy-ness or something. Basically, he liked them and joined up. Finally, there are The Brothers, two young samurai whose father is a Heike ally...Yoshitsune tried to send them back because of that so there wouldn't be trouble, but they told him they'd been disowned(so they could follow him) so he didn't have much choice. One of my favorite scenes(before The Brothers join up) is when Benkei complains that all of Yoshitsune's followers are bandits and pirates (as in, not good enough for Yoshitsune) Utsubo shoots back that Benkei is just a priest who was banished from the temple himself(as Utsubo was right and neither a bandit nor a pirate, all Benkei could do was stutter and glare.) If it sounds like Yoshitsune is a babysitter, it's because he is. The Boys also LOVE running into Damsels in Distress...largely because it means there's someone to cook and do the laundry, but their hearts are in the right place.

Oguri Shun plays the son of one of Yoritomo's followers and is Yoshitsune's friend and an honorary member of The Boys, making him the co babysitter. They went through a lot of effort to not really show Shun and Takki side-by-side the first few eps, and it's really obvious why once they're bot wearing armor...Shun completely dwarfs Takki then. Even though Takki was the focus of the scene and Shun was behind him, you almost have to hunt for Takki. This is also the case in a lot of Abe Hiroshi's scenes, but it's more OK for him to dwarf everyone as his character is growing into a very forceful(in a good way, so far) and dominant man.

There's also the hats. The hats-and war helmets-amuse me greatly. Oh sure, they're nothing compared to what TVB likes to put officials in in their ancient series(a good gust of wind and I swear, those men could literally fly) but they are amusing. And those helmets are huge...except for Abe Hiroshi, you almost have to hunt for their faces.

Incidentally,

dangermousieposted a bit on the life of Shizuka at her LJ

here. It's basically proof of that it sucked to be a woman of the time period.