IMAGE SOURCE: Pixabay.com
It’s somewhat rare for a television show to sweep entertainment headlines in the winter months. This has become even more uncommon with the stacks of sludge dumped onto the many different streaming platforms, making it even more difficult for the masses to find and converge on a very good show. That all changed in 2024 with Shōgun – the FX-made historical drama miniseries that’s taken entertainment by storm. Set in 17th Century Japan, it’s another product set in or from the country that has, again, made it big with Western audiences.
Shōgun becomes the hit show we needed
There was an announcement that House of the Dragon, The Bear, and The Boys would all be returning at the same time in 2024, making for a blockbuster summer of TV. Thanks to Shōgun, though, we didn’t need to wait months before the best shows of the year hit the small screen. Despite the setting and story, unlike many live-action movies, Shōgun isn’t drawn from a Japanese-made story. Instead, it’s the second miniseries adaptation of the 1975 novel by British writer James Clavell. The first miniseries was released in 1980 to critical acclaim.
Its successor, 44 years later, has landed with very similar levels of praise. Released on February 27 for a ten-episode run, Roger Ebert gave the series a 3.5 out of 5.0 score, praising the writing and the expertise in the adaptation as a sign that great TV shows can still be made. Clearly, audiences were keen on such a show, with the first episodes hitting nine million views in the US to pip The Bear Season 2 as FX’s biggest hit premiere on Hulu. Shōgun has landed very, very well, to say the least.
The viewership and review scores speak for themselves and, being a miniseries, there’s a reduced chance of it failing to stick the landing – especially as the novel it’s adapting ends particularly well. One of its most appealing aspects is its setting. Feudal Japan and the legends of samurai warriors create instant intrigue in just about any medium of entertainment. Yet, strangely, it’s been a historically seldom-explored theme. Perhaps it’s because of the costs or the quality of what’s come before, but at least Shōgun isn’t alone in Japanese works making it big in the West.
Raw appeal of Japan
Japan, obviously, dominates one distinct medium of entertainment in Western markets, but hasn’t had a particularly prominent presence here for a while. The best samurai TV shows, like Lone Wolf and Cub, were made in the 70s, while The Trusted Confidant, which started in 2007, has barely made a dent in the West. The best of samurai cinema, of course, is credited to Akira Kurosawa. His black-and-white films from the 40s, 50s, and 60s – as well as his later works in colour – remain the epitome and a great source of inspiration in other mediums.
More modern productions have made way for animated films. This certainly isn’t a bad thing as the creations, particularly out of Studio Ghibli, are loved around the world and have won stacks of awards, but they are niche at the Western box office. Last year, of course, this trend was bucked by the record-breaking Godzilla Minus One. Hollywood’s 2014 Godzilla did well to change the focus to the human characters, but this Toho-made film took that to another level, fully earning its Academy Award and $104 million worldwide gross – $3.1 million of which came from the UK.
The interest in Japan has even been on the rise in other perhaps unexpected forms of entertainment. In a sector that has found much of its success by leaning into ancient Greek, ancient Egyptian, and Irish myths, some may be surprised that historical Japanese themes are finding a lot of success on the betting site. Ancient Warriors and Shogun of Time have quickly become hits among the established slots. It’s quite telling that, among the hundreds of slots spanning different themes and features, these two Japanese-themed ones are finding an audience.
Japanese fiction writers of different formats have also found their way to Western audiences en masse. In fact, of the two million works of translated fiction sold in the UK in 2023, one in four were Japanese, as were half of the top-selling titles, per Penguin. What You Are Looking for in the Library (2023) and The Art Skura (1984) are two of the big headline acts of this trend. Then, of course, there’s the manga. Reaching huge audiences, sales have exploded from 434,000 in 2012 to two million in 2022 in the UK alone. In 2024, the medium’s still selling very well.
Japanese-set and Japanese-made entertainment products are surging in the UK and further west right now, with Shōgun hopefully being just the start of a run of prestige Feudal Japan shows.
