Abarenbō Shōgun (1978)

Original title

暴れん坊将軍

Directed by

Ozawa Eisuke, Tomari Tsutomu, Ichikura Haruo, Morimoto Hirofumi

Cast

Matsudaira Ken, Yokochi Masashi, Tamura Ryo, Arishima Ichiro, Funakoshi Eiji, Kitajima Saburo, Yamamoto Joji, Hamahata Kenkichi

Genre

Jidaigeki

Country

Japan

Length

12 seasons, 834 episodes

Rating

8.0 of 10 from 8 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A fictional version of the Tokugawa shogun Yoshimune secretly investigates corruption and abuses of power among his officials in 18th century Japan. He acts as a vigilante to expose and punish wrongdoers, restoring justice to the common people.

light-heartedaction-packedformulaicnostalgicadventurouswholesomestraightforwardswashbuckling

What happens

The Unfettered Shogun (暴れん坊将軍) (Abarenbō Shōgun) was a Japanese television program on the TV Asahi network. Set in the eighteenth century, it showed fictitious events in the life of Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa shōgun. The program started in 1978 under the title Yoshimune Hyōbanki: Abarenbō Shōgun (Chronicle in Praise of Yoshimune: The Unfettered Shōgun) who went after rogue councilors and daimyō who were abusing their power. After a few seasons, they shortened the first two words and the show ran for two decades under the shorter title until the series ended in 2003; a two-hour special aired in 2004. The earliest scripts occasionally wove stories around historic events such as the establishment of firefighting companies of commoners in Edo, but eventually the series adopted a routine of strictly fiction. Along with Zenigata Heiji (1966–1984, 888 episodes) and Mito Kōmon (1969–2011, 1,227 episodes), it ranks among the longest-running series in the jidaigeki genre. Like many other jidaigeki, it falls in the category of kanzen-chōaku, which loosely translates to "rewarding good and punishing evil". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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