1) Can't explore exotic cultures without the white man's POV guiding us: it's just inherently insulting. It's a constant reminder of what this show's intended audience is - not me. I resent that I can't get stories made about my culture without the faustian bargain of appealing to close minded white people who can't envision entertainment without them in the lead role. The entirety of the first episode's narrative is centered around extremely unsubtle commentary about WOW LOOK HOW DIFFERENT THEY ARE THAN US which is just. Not great. Ever. The tone is more travelog than anything else, more appropriate for works of science-fiction and exploring alien cultures. To do that to other humans always feels kinda icky. The show seems to be setting up the main character learning about this alien culture and growing to navigate and appreciate it. But like, that's his journey as a white guy. I don't care about that. The actual history and events of that time are inherently interesting by themselves, we shouldn't need this framing device. Which brings me to:
2) I cannot get over the show renaming historical figures: I just don't get it. As a student of history, I know most of the events and big movers and shakers of this place and era. I'm watching the first episode and trying to piece together what is going on based on the names and none of the character relationships really make much sense, until I realized oh. These are just Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi and other figures with their serial numbers filed off. Everything about the plot started clicking, and yet I really don't friggin' get it. The only reason I can guess why you'd do something like this is because if you wanted to veer off of history for dramatic/entertainment purposes. But again - the history of this time is already fascinating and rich with story and intrigue! You don't need to make shit up for it to be a good show. It's just bizzare and distracting. Imagine if someone made a story about the American Revolution, but they decided to follow General Gregory Williamson as the leader of the Revolutionaries, and first President of the United States. Why? It's just like, fundamentally disrespectful.
3) This top-down view of Japanese culture is alienating and banal: And all of that brings me to this. I can tell the vast majority of this show is going to be centered around court intrigue - the strange cultural practices and social moores, the culture of the elites and powerful, the casual brutality. All of it othering, all of it a dysmorphic view of a real culture/people. The warrior caste only really made up about 5% of the total population. It's a tiny minority/subculture that barely reflected the lived experiences of the vast majority of people. It's about as good of a reflection of society as when outsiders of the States think Hollywood == America. I've heard people compare this as "Japanese Game of Thrones" -- but just like the poor imitation of a prequel that HBO is putting out, they're missing the fact that the lowkey best part of GoT is that the show gives a look at their society not just from a top-down perspective of the aristocracy, but shows all other angles of society as well - how they interact, how their lives are different, how one supports and either abuses/exploits or supports the other. Shows like Shogun likes to explore how different and peculiar the cultures of these out-of-touch aristocracies get, specifically accenting moral atrocities. And while setting aside the hypocrisy of avoiding giving us full context of how white people treated people back then too, it's just othering to not also focus on all the ways that people back then were more like us than not - which gets further accentuated when you don't give a closer examination of everyday people living everyday lives.
