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The story
NHK’s Taiga drama ‘Toyotomi Brothers’ has posted single-digit ratings for a second straight week, coming in at 9.9% after last week’s 9.2%. The series had already drawn criticism from descendants and viewers over its historically inaccurate portrayals, including its depiction of Nakagawa Kiyohide. On 5ch, many blamed the low ratings on the show’s writing, which they say softens Hideyoshi’s brutal historical record to paint him as a good man—though some pushed back, arguing that ‘Taiga dramas were never strictly accurate anyway’ and that it can be enjoyed ‘as historical fantasy,’ leaving opinion split.
Following last week’s 9.2%, ratings have stayed in the single digits again. This drama has already faced plenty of criticism from descendants and viewers over its historically inaccurate portrayals, including how it handles Nakagawa Kiyohide.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Sure, when there's a clear original source it can take liberties, but when there isn't, it's usually based pretty closely on what's actually known about the period.
This show has definitely crossed a line.
Honestly, I was so disappointed.
Why did they change it so the massacre at the Battle of Kozuki—crucifying and impaling women and children—wasn't even Hideyoshi's order? And then they portray him as a good man grieving over it…
And whenever things get inconvenient, they just conveniently give Hideyoshi amnesia.
Were you there to witness it or something?
Every Taiga has its token 'alien' character, so that's fine.
At least that one could be enjoyed as a B-grade Taiga.
This one's marketed as the 'serious' historical drama, and yet here we are.
It's been the same pattern the whole way through, and honestly it's worn thin.
Even 'Dousuru Ieyasu' (the 2023 Taiga about Tokugawa Ieyasu) sold that same line harder.
'Hanzawa Naoki' (the hit corporate-revenge drama) was just as one-note, and I lost interest partway through too.
Only someone who never studied history—who doesn't even like history—
would come up with something this absurd, mocking the historical record to do it.
The characters are a problem too: aside from Shibata Katsuie and Oichi, none of them carry any dignity at all.
They don't feel like Sengoku-era warlords in the slightest. I haven't seen such a scrawny, pathetic Tokugawa Ieyasu since 'Dousuru Ieyasu.'
This year's Taiga somehow pulled off something as hard as making curry taste bad.
As for builds, everyone's too tall and too skinny across the board
—though that's not unique to this show.
Tier 1: Tenchijin, Kirin ga Kuru, Shie
Tier 2: Kiyomori, Untora
(all shorthand nicknames for earlier Taiga dramas)
Looks like Toyotomi Brothers might just crack Tier 1.
Here's my ranking:
Tier 0 (trash): Dousuru Ieyasu, Idaten, Shie
Tier 1: Tenchijin, Untora
Tier 2: Kiyomori, Kirin ga Kuru, Toyotomi Brothers
The early episodes were actually good, but around the time Hideyoshi got amnesia, it started feeling like they were forcing him into the 'good guy' role way too hard.
Wouldn't it have made for better drama if Hidenaga had to cover for Hideyoshi as he gradually fell into darkness?
Early Hideyoshi did seem to have a bit of a psychopath streak, so it did feel like it was heading toward Hidenaga having to rein in a Hideyoshi going dark.
A 'Brother, why are you doing this!' kind of arc would've felt a lot more believable.
I don't want to see Lord Katsumoto suffer like that.
It's Hidenaga's show—it's not going to go that far, monkey 😂 ("monkey" was Hideyoshi's famous nickname, used here as a jab)
The invasion of Korea was in 1592.
Hashiba Hidenaga died in 1591.
They probably just won't show it.
Siege of Odawara
→ 'Brother has become the sun that lights up the realm!'
→ Some time later, Hidenaga takes ill and is confined to bed. (The end.)
Ieyasu in 'Tokugawa Sandai' and the leads in 'Kamakura-dono' did plenty of brutal stuff too.
'Kirin ga Kuru' and this one, though, are way too goody-goody.
'Tokugawa Sandai' is probably at the point where it'd run into some compliance issue or other if they tried to rerun it today.
Exactly, and there was even a scene early on like 'I'm scared of my brother.'
It could've gone: brother slowly falls into darkness, but supporting him is the only way to end the age of war; except the now-mad brother has no intention of ending the wars and instead launches the invasion of Korea; the brothers clash, but at the moment of death he remembers their old ideals and the show ends on a wish for peace.
A cliché arc like that would've been fine by me.
Something like being terrified of his brother's brutal side, but still having no choice but to bet everything on him to end the Sengoku era—that's the direction it should've gone.
That kind of performance is still beyond Nakano Taiga right now.
Well, he was actually suspected and killed historically too, so I guess it's convenient for them.
It'd be fine if they just said 'we're doing historical fantasy!'
The problem is they said 'we're doing a Taiga drama!'
Background and Key Points
Unlike commercial network dramas, it’s unusual for an NHK Taiga drama to drop into single-digit ratings at all, and ‘Toyotomi Brothers’ has now hit that mark two weeks running, following 9.2% the week before—a historically weak showing. This comes against a backdrop of earlier criticism from descendants and viewers over inaccuracies such as the portrayal of Nakagawa Kiyohide. In the thread, the main complaint wasn’t really the departure from history itself, but rather the show’s approach of softening Hideyoshi into an overly sympathetic figure—glossing over uncomfortable historical episodes like the massacre at Kozuki Castle by, for instance, giving him amnesia. At the same time, a fair number of posters pushed back, noting that ‘Taiga dramas have rarely stuck strictly to the historical record anyway’ and that it ‘can be enjoyed as historical fantasy’—a nuance that’s easy to miss, since the real debate wasn’t whether the show deviates from history, but how it deviates and how well the writing pulls it off.
※This article was compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Bad News] NHK Taiga Drama Toyotomi Brothers Hits Single-Digit Ratings for Second Straight Week at 9.9%, Fictional Flourishes to Blame?“.
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