Fumiko

The characters on this page (Matsumoto/Ieyasu being the lead, Hiroshi Abe as Takeda Shingen, Arimura Kasumi as Sena, Okada Junichi as Nobunaga, Mansai Nomura as Imagawa Yoshimoto, Tsuyoshi Muro as Hideyoshi) are the six primary characters.

The new characters are the newly announced support cast mostly vasalls of Ieyasu like Ii Naomasa, Hattori Hanzo, Honda Tadakatsu.

Hirose Alice is Ieyasu's sidewife Oai/Saigo no Tsubone and the mother of Ieyasu's son Hidetada.

Arimura Kasumi is the main female lead Sena/Tsukiyama dono who married Ieyasu when Ieyasu was still a minor. The reason why she is the female lead is since the other main characters beside Ieyasu (Sena, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, Yoshimoto, Shingen) are obstacles in Ieyasu's way to become Japan's most famous shogun.

Since episode 10 has aired now so far my impression:

Good:
Most of the Hojo family is well casted: Tokimasa's actor is perfect since he can become ruthless from one moment to the next perfectly, Miyazawa Rie is perfect as the stepmother Maki no Kata.
I am also warming up to Koike Eiko as Masako.

Many likeable sidecharacters: Wada Yoshimori, Miura Yoshimura, Hatakeyama Shigetada, Awa the sister of Yoshitoki and Masako etc.

A more realistic portrayal of Yoshitsune. He will even have more wives than Shizuka for once.

We will see all the court machinations since even Sanetomo's story will be entirely shown as announced.

Characters that are often neglected will get screentime:
Two examples.
Imai Kanehira who is super important for the Kiso storyline and crucial to understand Yoshinaka's character. I think Yoshinaka is only interesting when Kanehira is around.
Sato Gozen who is often ignored in favour of pushing Shizuka despite Yoshitsune having more wives than Shizuka (Warabihime, Minazuruhime, Sato Gozen)

The bad:
I normally like Oguri Shun but Yoshitoki is super boring so far. Hope he improves when he becomes more important at court.
I am not content with the Hime no Mae cast since it should have been a a-list young actress to get Yoshitoki out of the boring plotlines with aunt Yae.

Yui as Yaehime, Yoshitoki's aunt. I dislike her interactions with Yoshitoki, they are uncomfortable. I have nothing against the historical Yae but this is a typical badly written unnecessary OC female Taiga character (along with Kiri from Sanadamaru and Koma from Kirin ga Kuru.). In Sanadamaru Otani Yoshitsugu's daughter should have been the heroine and in Kirin ga Kuru Mitsuhide's wife Hiroko. In Kamakura dono it should have been Masako as a family heroine.

Mitani as I mentioned in my reviews for Sanadamaru already had trouble with female characters which is also mentioned by Japanese reviews about Sanadamaru and Kamakura dono.

Ishibashi Shizuka plays Shizuka Gozen, Miura Toko plays Sato Gozen (Yoshitsune's legal wife).

Rare to see Sato Gozen depicted.

Many people on twitter actually thought that Hotta would be the wife of Yasutoki (Sakaguchi Kentaro) instead of Yoshitoki/Oguri.

In real life Yoshitoki was 29/30 when chasing after Hime no Mae (age unknown likely late teens to mid 20s and his son Yasutoki was 9/10 years old at this point.

In Sanadamaru Matsuoka Mayu played Otani Yoshitsugu's daughter from 13 to adult woman with young children who was the wife of Sanada Yukimura (close to 30 when they married) played by Sakai Masato (in his 40s). While the writing in Sanadamaru wasn't good or accurate historically she did a good transformation lookwise from childbride to adult woman with children. Matsuoka Mayu has good acting chops.

Hotta could have been a fitting Wakasa no Tsubone (wife of Yoritomo's oldest son Yoriie and relative of Hime no Mae).

I hope that Shizuka's cast will be great since Yoshitsune and Benkei are fitting lookwise.

I would have hoped for Matsuoka Mayu as Hime no Mae since Hime no Mae is described as a very diginfied character who rejected Yoshitoki for one year until marrying him.

Hotta Mayu from what I have known is rather teen centered regarding her projects so far (not one historical from what I have seen).

However Shizuka could still be played by someone like Nagano Mei, Matsuoka Mayu (Mayu was also sometimes said to be a possible Shizuka). Kawaguchi Haruna would be good as well but she was only recently on Kirin as Kicho.

Well curious how the chemistry between Oguri and Hotta will be. With Matsuoka I could have imagined Hime no Mae's plotline more.

New casting announcements:

Sakaguchi Kentaro as Yasutoki.

Hotta Mayu as Hime no Mae (called Hina on the show).

Shizuka Gozen is still not announced.

Both Yoshitoki's first girlfriend as well as Yoshitoki's other sister do have the title Awa no Tsubone in history.

Yoshitoki's other sister will marry Ano Zenjo the brother of Yoshitsune. She acted as a wetnurse for Sanetomo and her husband was ordered to be executed by Yoriie, the older son of Yoritomo and Masako. Yoriie also wanted to executed her but Masako didn't allow this.

As for Yae episode 5 hinted that she will have an affair with Yoritomo again soon since they reunited romantically and she left Ema Jiro.

Yoshitoki will likely fear for her safety since Yasutoki's birth will be at the same time Masako lashes out against another mistress of Yoritomo (Kame no Mae).

I think they will keep Yae around for raising Yasutoki only. The love interest of Yoshitoki will then be Hime no Mae just like in Azuma Kagami.

I would prefer Nagano Mei as Shizuka as well since she is a good actress and lookwise resembles Shizuka's character more.

Mayu as Hime no Mae could be good since I would love seeing her and Oguri Shun acting the romantic romcom like subplot between Yoshitoki and Hime no Mae from the book Azuma Kagami that Kamakura dono is based on.

They should have just included a first girlfriend character who later isn't around anymore for Yasutoki's mother. I think they can only use Yae as Yasutoki's mother right now since there is too little time to include someone else.

In Kusa Moeru Yasutoki by the way also wasn't Yoshitoki's son. Yoshitoki had a fictional first girlfriend there called Akane and Yoritomo one night slipped into Akane's room... Then she gives birth to Yasutoki. Maybe this could be a reference to Kusa Moeru.

According to Interviews Kame no Mae, Yoritomo's mistress will see both Masako and Yae as rivals. Masako will see both Kame no Mae and Yae as a danger to her marriage.
Thus Yae and Yoritomo doesn't seem to be over yet.
Maybe this will also be connected to Masako's reaction when she finds out about Kame no Mae and Yoshitoki if Yae really becomes involved with Yoritomo again just is extremly worried that Yae will be targeted by Masako next.

The real Hojo were ruthless and would have certainly only given positions to family members only.
Yasutoki was specifically chosen since 1. He was the oldest. 2. Hime no Mae's sons Tomotoki and Shigetoki did get posts but their mother was a Hiki clan member a clan that was so influential at court that the Hojos destroyed this clan.

The son of Iga no Kata was out of question for the Hojo since the Iga clan was powerhungry. To avoid Iga no Kata pushing her son to the front Masako suggested that Yasutoki is the heir and banished the Iga clan.

Tsuchiya Tao along with Nagano Mei is rumored to be a possible actress for Shizuka, Yoshitsune's dancer girlfriend.

Both Tao and Mei have worked with Suda Masaki before and Tao is experienced with dance.

Yoshitoki's wife Hime no Mae (the one he bombarded with love letters) is heavily theorized to be played by Matsuoka Mayu since Mayu matches the description of this wife a lot. Mayu also has often worked with Mitani and Oizumi (Hime no Mae was Yoritomo's employee before becoming Yoshitoki's wife).
Mayu despite the Netflix series about Geishas is also pretty free.

The last wife Iga no Kata will join around October/November thus for her there is still a lot of time. Iga no Kata is usually depicted as evil thus I except someone who can play evil characters.

The thing is that Yae makes it very unlikely that Yasutoki, the oldest son of Yoshitoki will be Yoshitoki's son on the show. Yasutoki was born by a non entity woman when Yoshitoki was 20 and this woman (who just has a title Awa no Tsubone is never mentioned again).

My theory is that since Yoritomo will cheat on Masako soon with Kame no Mae (around 1182) that he will also sleep with his ex Yae again. Yae gets pregnant again and Yoshitoki covers this up by pretending that Yasutoki is his son by an unknown woman (Yae's first son by Yoritomo called Sentsurumaru was killed by her father Ito Sukechika).

So far (first 3 episodes) it's ok but Masako is such a strong and important character that they should have chosen a actress with really good acting chops (Koike Eiko is ok but far away from Iwashita Shima who played Masako in Kusa Moeru).
With Oizumi I hope that since he has played evil characters before that he can play Yoritomo as ruthless as possible.

Yoshitoki is at the moment rather bossed around since at this point the historical Yoshitoki was a teen and he only later gets influence at Yoritomo's court and after Yoritomo's death.

Worst part to me in my opinion so far is Yui as Yae. The story of the historical Yae is over in episode 3 (impregnated by Yoritomo, her child then ordered to be killed by her own father Ito Sukechika, Yoritomo moves on to Masako and Yae is remarried to Ema Jiro).
My problem is shipping her with Yoshitoki. She is Yoshitoki's aunt (Yoshitoki is Ito Sukechika's grandson, Yae is Ito Sukechika's daughter, Yoshitoki's mother was Yae's sister).

Yoshitoki had three significant wives:
The mother of his heir Yasutoki. This woman is largerly unknown but Yasutoki was his oldest son who was born when he was 20 years old.

Hime no Mae. Hiki Tomomune's daughter. She was an employee of Yoritomo. Yoshitoki fell head over heals for her when he was 29/30 and bombarded her with love letters for over a year.
Yoritomo played wingman and Hime no Mae and Yoshitoki married. They had two son's. After Yoritomo died the Hojo turned against the Hiki clan due to their influence on Yoritomo's son Yoriie (which resulted in the destruction of the Hiki clan) and Yoshitoki divorced Hime no Mae.

Then he married Iga no Kata in a political marriage. The Iga clan were a plotting clan and tried to push Iga no Kata's son with Yoshitoki above all his other sons which is why Iga no Kata did not get along with Yoshitoki's sister Masako. It is also rumored that Iga no Kata poisoned Yoshitoki. After his death the Iga family were banished by Masako.

Hime no Mae and Iga no Kata are not announced yet which is why I worry much about their casting and that their storylines are rushed and not well written like Otani Yoshitsugu's daughter in Sanadamaru (in history a very interesting character who should have been Yukimura's heroine but the script gave her the short end of the stick and added her way too late).

I don't like love triangles in general since it's always obvious who the main character will choose and the other romantic option is just drawn into this to set up drama (in Western books see Jacob from Twilight or Orion from the Starcrossed triology). In Asian dramas it's the same since the second love interest often just gets some consolation at the end and the romantic interactions with the main lead are pretty much pointless.

One of the more interesting love triangles was the one of the Peach Girl manga since both guys could have worked with Momo. The movie version interestingly avoided much of the triangle since it made the guy she ends up with the male lead.

Matsuoka Mayu. She was a seiyuu in a Pokemon movie, in A Silent Voice, in the Japanese dub of Disney's Cars and voices the heroine in the upcoming movie Birthday Wonderland.

Takahata Mitsuki has worked as a seiyuu as well. For example she was the voice of Lily James in the Japanese dub of Cinderella.

So far my must watch is Saint Oniisan I love the manga and OVA.
Though I will check out Nisekoi and Switched.

I also agree that it had references to the original Agatha Christie story as well as similarities to Clue and the Clue games.

The last few Taiga were pretty much entirely fictional (Hana Moyu (regarding Sugi Fumi's character), Sanadamaru (the characters were nothing like the historical Sanada and it was disgusting with its bashing of important female characters in favour of a fictional one) and Naotora (regarding Naochika 'loving Naotora' and Naotora's boytoy Ryuunmaru).

Segodon is more serious again and ok at the moment. Kiyomori and Gunshi Kanbei were the last ones that were good regarding the acting and writing though.

I am looking forward to this movie it seems to be really good and has an excellent cast.

I also have to mention Shoplifters. It seems to be excellent and since it won in Cannes I'm really excited to see it.
Especially since Ando Sakura and Mayu are good and the rest of the cast as well. Mayu's role also seems to be a type of character she hasn't played yet so far (she is already very versatile and I am glad that she isn't typecasted) from what I have read so it's definitely on my list.

Mayu is now casted in more 'high profile' roles. Like 'Tremble all you want', 'Chihayafuru' or the upcoming 'Shoplifters' movie by the same director as "Our little sister".
She also had more main roles (Aquarium Girl, my Loser Husband) and an upcoming main role in an Agatha Christie special by Mitani Koki (in the past Kuroki Haru also played in a Mitani Koki Agatha Christie special)
I would now put Mayu into the same category as Nikaido Fumi, Takahata Mitsuki and Kuroki Haru who just like Mayu were also casted in Taiga doramas (though Mayu's Taiga role certainly deserved more effort however I blame the script writers for this since they downplayed it on purpose).

Mayu is like Fumi in the aspect that both are very talented but other actresses are hyped more.
Suzu , Alice, Tao and Kasumi are pretty surely more talked about. They are also good but Fumi and Mayu who are super talented are still rather overshadowed (though Fumi and Mayu are definitely not unknown or obscure)

I would have expected Oshin being high in this survey since it's so famous.
I liked Haru's Asadora, Takahata Mitsuki's and Arimura Kasumi's.
For the future I wish for Matsuoka Mayu, Kuroshima Yuina or Yoshimoto Miyu to get a main role.
Kasumi was also in Amachan before Hiyokko thus Mayu (side role in Amachan) and Miyu (side role in Toto Neechan) could perhaps also get main roles one day.
Yoshine in Beppinsan and Wakana Aoi in Warotenka were too unconvincing in my opinion since they are not as experienced as Mayu, Yuina or Miyu for example.
Mayu for example would have certainly have been more convincing if she would have been paired with Matsuzaka Tori in Warotenka.

The older Taiga dramas were better.

Fuurin Kazan is very well acted and the plot intriguing. It's both based on history and a novel.
The Taiga "Takeda Shingen" is also great.

Dokuganryu Masamune is very famous.

Gunshi Kanbei was also really great and had great characters.

For Heian era Taiga I would recommend Yoshitsune and Taira no Kiyomori.

For the Sanada Clan I would recommend Sanada Taiheiki instead of Sanadamaru.
Sanada Taiheiki is not a Taiga but just as long and has a good Yukimura and the show actually likes the important clan members.