Anna Sawai

Shogun – A Stick of Time / The Abyss of Life

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Shogun – A Stick of Time / The Abyss of Life
  • IMDb: link | link

Shogun - A Stick of Time / The Abyss of Life

Things get even worse for Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his followers as his attempt to form an alliance with his estranged brother (Eita Okuno) ends in betrayal and in the death of his son (Yuki Kura). With Toranaga apparently willing to give up the fight, John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) finds himself released from his service but with nowhere to turn. His attempt to reconnect with his fellow sailors end disastrously leading him to attempt to cultivate a new partnership with Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) who initially refuses but, given his lord’s refusal to fight on, eventually accepts.

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Shōgun – Ladies of the Willow World

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Shōgun – Ladies of the Willow World
  • IMDb: link

Shōgun - Ladies of the Willow World

While much of “Ladies of the Willow World” takes place in Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), including the title which derives from Mariko (Anna Sawai) setting up John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) with another prostitute, in terms of events moving the larger story forward we must look to Osaka. Here we see the impact of Ochiba No Kata’s (Fumi Nikaidô) return in pushing Ishido (Takehiro Hira) to act bolder with the Regents beginning with replacing Toranaga’s open seat with a flunky and then murdering Lord Sugiyama (Toshi Toda) after the Regent refuses to go along with his plans.

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Shōgun – The Eightfold Fence / Broken to the Fist

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Shōgun – The Eightfold Fence / Broken to the Fist
  • IMDb: link | link

Shōgun - The Eightfold Fence / Broken to the Fist

“The Eightfold Fence” and “Broken to the Fist” focus on John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) teaching Lord Toranaga’s (Hiroyuki Sanada) soldiers while continuing to struggle with cultural nuance of the foreign land. Blackthorne and Mariko (Anna Sawai) are drawn closer together only to be pushed apart by the miraculous appearance of her douchebag of a husband Buntaro (Shinnosuke Abe) who continues to struggle with his wife earning greater favor with their lord. In a forceful display of power, the samurai forces Mariko to explain to Blackthorne her past and unfortunate familial ties. That, along with Buntaro beating his wife that night, nearly forces a deadly confrontation between Buntaro and Blackthorne (who does witness an example of the samurai’s skill with a bow).

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Will the Real May Please Stand Up?

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Will the Real May Please Stand Up?
  • IMDb: link

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters - Will the Real May Please Stand Up?

From the episode’s title, you can probably guess that this is the episode the dives into May’s (Kiersey Clemons) past and explores what she’s been running from. Given the foreshadowing and build-up, the reveal is a bit underwhelming but how events of the episode unfold do have ripples across the MonsterVerse beyond just this series as it relates to Applied Experimental Technologies. Needing help finding the friend they basically already abandoned, Cate (Anna Sawai) and Kentaro (Ren Watabe) team up with Tim (Joe Tippett) eventually leading to Monarch stepping in and helping procure her release, allowing her to rejoin the halfsiblings in their search.

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Terrifying Miracles

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Terrifying Miracles
  • IMDb: link

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters - Terrifying Miracles

After more of a concentration on current events and flashbacks into the pasts of Cate (Anna Sawai) and Kentaro (Ren Watabe), “Terrifying Miracles” brings back the 50s storyline with flashbacks that run through several import moments in Monarch history. We get a holiday party flashback to party in the 50s party which teases the romantic undercurrent between Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) and Lee (Wyatt Russell) which plays into a later flashback when Lee chooses Keiko over Monarch pushing control of the organization into the bigoted military officer played by Matthew MacCaull who doubts every aspect of it. The flashbacks also show the return of Godzilla, a secret Lee chooses to keep from the military given the shake-up within the organization.

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