Kelcie Mattson is a writer for Collider who specializes in Marvel, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, horror, classic movies, and K-Dramas.
The Big Picture If you're like me, you love a good romance. Specifically, a historical one, and bonus points if it amplifies the surrounding story's themes. Of all the heady topics Shōgun interrogates, romance might not seem like an applicable candidate. Yet Lady Toda Mariko and John Blackthorne's undeniable connection is the series' secret heartbeat. As each episode unfolded, I held my hopeful breath.
Release Date 2024-02-00 Cast Anna Sawai , Hiroyuki Sanada , Tadanobu Asano , Yûki Kedôin Main Genre Drama Seasons 1 ‘Shōgun’ Parallels Mariko and Blackthorne As frequently as their ideals, perspectives, and cultures clash , Mariko and Blackthorne complement one another in ways neither expected nor can replicate in this life. Their convergent journeys have always echoed, because an echo both parallels and distorts.
Mariko and Blackthorne’s Intimacy Develops Naturally Close And their relationship indeed evolves. Mariko and Blackthorne are opposites in almost every regard: English and Japanese, Protestant and Catholic, a man with privilege and a woman owned by her husband. John acts impulsively, wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Mariko operates with silent calculation and protects herself through her Eightfold Fence.
When Mariko is briefly free to choose, she chooses the English hatamato. Antagonism becomes begrudging tolerance, which becomes fond respect, then hushed sex in a darkened room and a deeper kinship perpetually denied by circumstance. When they have no other recourse, John kneels outside Mariko's room to recite the Lord's Prayer with her. The door separating them is achingly symbolic. Once again, all they can share are their words — what united them in the first place.
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