Fans have hailed Disney+’s latest drama miniseries as a ‘masterclass in acting’ and are already calling for awards to be handed out to its top star before the finale.
Before its debut in February, Shogun had been touted as the next Game of Thrones, an action television drama set in 17th-century Japan.
Its staggered release finally comes to an end on April 23, but viewers are already calling for female lead Anna Sawai (Lady Mariko) to receive an Emmy.
They wrote: ‘Anna Sawai is an ABSOLUTE STAR #Shogun…
‘ANNA SAWAI WE’LL GET YOU THAT EMMY.’
Fans of the Disney+ and FX series Shogun have praised Anna Sawai’s performance as Lady Mariko (pictured) as a ‘masterclass in acting’.
Even before the show’s finale next week, viewers are demanding that the 31-year-old female lead get an Emmy for her role.
Shogun’s penultimate episode, Crimson Sky, premiered on April 16, and one fan said it left them “emotionally battered” after Sawai’s “magnificent work.”
Shogun’s penultimate episode, Crimson Sky, was released on Tuesday.
The reaction continued on X: ‘Crimson Sky is honestly Anna Sawai’s Emmy-nominated SHOGUN episode in my book. Magnificent work by her on this one. She hits you emotionally at the end…
‘Every Emmy. It doesn’t matter what category it is. Give Anna Sawai EVERY damn Emmy. Honestly, that still won’t be enough…
‘I said this in two episodes, but after watching episode 9 of #Shogun you buy all the Anna Sawai shares you can. She is surprisingly bright. My God, what a performance…
‘Crimson Sky was amazing. Just wow. Anna Sawai deserves an #Emmy…
‘Anna Sawai was just amazing. Give him the Emmy now…
‘Crimson Sky was the showcase for an army of one. Mariko-sama served throughout the episode and did it HER WAY. Go ahead and let the Emmys know that Anna Sawai won 2024.
Another enthusiastic viewer wrote on She is tremendously brilliant.
Sawai is joined in Shogun by Cosmo Jarvis (pictured as John Blackthorne), who plays an English sailor shipwrecked in Japan in the 17th century.
Created by the American channel FX, the series debuted on both sides of the Atlantic on February 27.
The 31-year-old’s character is “a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties, who must prove her worth and loyalty.”
Shogun also stars Cosmo Jarvis as male lead John Blackthorne, “a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unknown culture will ultimately redefine him.”
There, he meets and clashes with Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) and Lady Mariko.
The new 10-episode miniseries is an adaptation of the 1975 novel of the same name by James Clavell.
Shogun sold more than 15 million copies worldwide by 1990 and was made into a television series for NBC in 1980.
American channel FX announced that they were reviving the story in 2018 and it finally made its debut, on FX and Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ in the United Kingdom, on February 27.
The drama is an adaptation of James Clavell’s 1975 novel of the same name, which was previously made into a television series in 1980 (Richard Chamberlain appears as Blackthorne).