I have fond memories of the series from the 80's.
This started very impressively from every perspective. My partner became so fascinated by it that he read the book super quickly.
But after around the 3rd episode my patience ran very thin.
All the visual aspects of the show are incredibly authentic and impressive. What let the show down for me is the way the story is told.
Japan is portrayed as a massive death cult. People die at the drop of a hat to defend someone else's honour / face or whatever. With 10 hours of screen time you thought they might have time to portray some interesting / fun aspects of life at the time. But all you ever see is the ways people are killed or kill themselves, and a bunch of selfish old men wanting the power for it's own sake while being depressed about it. From what I remember GOT is like that too , that's why I stopped watching early in series 2. But remembering the 80's series and knowing this won't run to 7 seasons I persevered.
My partner said the book doesn't tell it like that at all. In fact so many storylines have been altered that it makes very little dramatic sense. Towards the end it's just talk and talk. It seems the producers wanted to avoid any big battle scene at all costs, so the characters just talk about how it all ends.
The Blackthorn character seems to understand no Japanese one minute, and totally fluent another. This especially when his translator is gone is very baffling.
For all it's flaws the old series afforded some satisfaction when it ended. This just left me scratching my head.
This started very impressively from every perspective. My partner became so fascinated by it that he read the book super quickly.
But after around the 3rd episode my patience ran very thin.
All the visual aspects of the show are incredibly authentic and impressive. What let the show down for me is the way the story is told.
Japan is portrayed as a massive death cult. People die at the drop of a hat to defend someone else's honour / face or whatever. With 10 hours of screen time you thought they might have time to portray some interesting / fun aspects of life at the time. But all you ever see is the ways people are killed or kill themselves, and a bunch of selfish old men wanting the power for it's own sake while being depressed about it. From what I remember GOT is like that too , that's why I stopped watching early in series 2. But remembering the 80's series and knowing this won't run to 7 seasons I persevered.
My partner said the book doesn't tell it like that at all. In fact so many storylines have been altered that it makes very little dramatic sense. Towards the end it's just talk and talk. It seems the producers wanted to avoid any big battle scene at all costs, so the characters just talk about how it all ends.
The Blackthorn character seems to understand no Japanese one minute, and totally fluent another. This especially when his translator is gone is very baffling.
For all it's flaws the old series afforded some satisfaction when it ended. This just left me scratching my head.