A great historic drama that felt rather autentic and realistic that It introduced many to Japanese history and culture. Richard Chamberlain made a solid appearance and it featured tons of Japanese actors and actresses talking in their real native tongue but it overuse ritual suicides and has too many scenes drag on as we first get to see Japanese characters talk and then their dialogue is translated. It is understandable that the producers wanted us to be as much "fish out of water" as our hero, but they should have subtitled it. The awaited epic battle that would make one of the characters Shogun, and the reason for the series' title, is also only mentioned in an narration and is done off-screen. Acceptable but maybe a remake is needed?

A timeless TV classic from when the whole family came together to watch. Totally worth a re-watch after all these years.

I have not read the book as of yet, so I can only compare this to the 2024 version, which I saw first. I have to begrudingly admit that this series is much superior to the 2024 version. Sure it is not as pretty and the action is comparatively lackluster, which is to be attributed to the time it was produced but at the end of the day, Shogun 1980 offers amuch more interesting story and gives its characters much more depth and things to do than the 2024 remake. The one flaw it has is the decision not to include subtitles for the Japanese spoken, it greatly hinders attachment to those characters that only speak Japanese and obscures a lot of scenes where Blackthorn is not provided with an interpreter. This is undoubtedly something the remake did better.

Awesome show, I watched this when it first came out as a kid and I loved it then. Now that I'm done with it I'm moving in to the remake. Reviews there look good I hope for the same.