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Shōgun’s Lost ’Ship
It was never going to happen, but I’ll sure miss pretending it could have.
This is especially impressive when considering the many ways their relationship could’ve crumbled into a mess of painful clichés: A strapping white man swoops into feudal Japan, encounters a native woman suffering from the burdens placed upon her by her society, and offers himself up as her means of liberation. After all, their chemistry is essentially that of a will-they-won’t-they workplace romance: They connect, they bicker (“What’s going on with you and the Anjin?” asks an annoyed Toranaga, after one such argument in his presence), they’re kept apart by all sorts of obstacles (including a back-from-the-dead Buntaro and, eventually, death itself). Later, in “ Ladies of the Willow World,” they engage in what can be clinically described as intimacy-by-proxy, where Kiku, the courtesan, functions as an emotional and physical conduit between the two budding lovers, who are held back from consummating by their circumstances.
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