Review of Gou ~ Himetachi no Sengoku Ep 1

Oda Nobunaga (Toyokawa Etsushi)'s younger sister, Ichi (Suzuki Honami), is a well-known beauty who has three daughters namely Chacha (Miyazawa Rie), Hatsu (Mizukawa Asami) and Gou (Ueno Juri). However, Gou has no memories of her father.

Back to the time when it was 1568, Ichi was bethrothed to Azai Nagamasa (Tokito Saburo) and was due to get married in summer. Hideyoshi (Kishitani Goro), a follower of Oda, lamented to his wife One (Ootake Shinobu) that it was a waste for Ichi to get married to Azai and he didn't bother to conceal his admiration for her. Ichi herself did not like the idea of marrying Azai as well but decided to do it for her brother.

However, Ichi gradually fell in love with Azai and gave birth to two daughters Chacha and Hatsu. Just then, relations between the Azai and Oda clan soured and Ichi had to choose sides. She decided to stick to her husband as both families went to war.

After 3 years of fighting, Oda's side was clearly at an advantage when Ichi found herself expecting her third child. Although she wanted to die with her unborn baby, Chacha pleaded with her mother to give birth by threatening to kill Hatsu and herself. Ichi gave birth to her daughter Gou amidst the battle cries surrounding Odani-jo but that was also when Gou had to part with her father Azai who committed suicide.

Most of the time, it would take a few episodes before the childhood stories of lead characters in Taiga dramas are completed. As such, it is a pleasant surprise to note that Ueno Juri will appear in Ep 2 rather than having to wait for another few more episodes. I guess this is also due to the fact that Gou's life as an adult has more significant events than her childhood so there was a need for more time to concentrate on that aspect. Juri only appeared for a short while in the beginning of this episode so it's too early to tell if she can handle the role. I have faith in her acting skills though.

Suzuki Honami is back again after such a long time but she seems totally at ease as Ichi which feels as if she's never stopped acting. Too bad she won't be around for a long time. Tokito Saburo was also very good but it was such a waste to have his character die in just one episode. Likewise for Toyokawa Etsushi, he probably won't last more than 2 episodes since Honnoji no Hen was pictured in Ep 2's trailer because that's when Oda Nobunaga died. We'll probably see a lot of star cameos coming up along the way to generate hype for the series so it will be interesting to see who appears next.

The first episode is largely about Gou's family background so I can't really tell if the story will be fascinating enough to keep me going for over 40 episodes. At the very least, NHK is not making it into a boring war story (yet) which reeks of macho power so my interest in the series will at least stay for some time.