Rating: 
Summary: The best of the best
Review: As Mr. Bernabo states, the original airing of this series was without narration and it worked so much better because, like Blackthorn, the (non-Japanese speaking) audience often had to rely on the voice inflections and facial expressions of the Japanese actors as well as the often suspect translators to understand what was going on. My only hope is that when this is released on DVD (WHEN!?!?!?!) that the option is there to see it as it was first released (sans subtitles and narration.) I recommend this miniseries to anyone and everyone who wants to appreciate the beauty of a culture that is rarely understood by those of European descent.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I first saw Shogun when it aired on TV, back when I was a kid. I loved it at the time. I recently saw it again, and was very disappointed. First, the lack of subtitles is annoying in the extreme. For a story involving court politics, Jesuit schemes, pirate treasure, and forbidden love, one really needs to be able to follow what is said. For the first four hours or so, forget about it (unless you speak Japanese). If you don't, you'll know some basic phrases by the end.So on my mini-series scale, with North and South a 5, and something truly terrible a 1 (I suppose if WWF made a mini-series, this would be it), Shogun is a 3. Not terrible, but not good either.
Rating: 
Summary: Shogun
Review: I don't know what's wrong with me, because most people seem to like this miniseries. I love miniseries, but I found this one really boring. Maybe it's because I'm a girl, and there are hardly any women in this series. Also, the first 4 hours were interminable because everyone was speaking Japanese, and there are no subtitles! I guess that's supposed to show you how scary and unsettling it is to be in a foreign land, but it seemed overdone to me. In general, the plot moved way too slowly to keep my attention.
Rating:
Summary: Shogun - A Super Mini-Series
Review: The whole mini-series was most excellent. They did not skimp on the production, were historically accurate to the period and the acting was above average. I watch it whenever it comes on (alas all too infrequently). A DVD set would be great - could add footage from the different versions they produced (European version, re-edited American version and original version) that would make the extras worth having in themselves.
Rating: 
Summary: WHY NOT ON DVD??
Review: The Ninja attack alone makes this thing worth watching. The best mini-series ever. Put it on DVD NOW!
Rating:
Summary: Why not on DVD????
Review: Jim Halverson's review was spot on, so I won't add more about the series other than the production values were tremendous, the costumes and scenery spectacular. I only wish that this was done on DVD. If anyone could read this who might have a say in getting this done, PLEASE make it happen!
Rating:
Summary: Shogun
Review: The best miniseries ever! This is the only American made movie that depicts ancient Japan in an accurate manner. Shogun will open your eyes to a completly different world.
Rating:
Summary: Glory and Shame of Ancient Asia
Review: Familiar with the traditions of ancient Japan and the multi-caste role within her society, Shogun depicts both a good yarn and semblence of historic truth. Although names, places and roles portrayed are not biographically distinguishable among real persons, the story moves along revealing the fulfilment of duty and honor from that period. While the lifestyles of the peasants are not shown well, it focuses on the powerful and elite classes very well. On the down side, the love interest bogs the show down a bit but not enough to taint the main story theme or my rating. At one point, 1970s' love mores enter the story which compromises modern occidental background against ancient oriental values. I was uncomfortable with the unlikely physical and emotional portrayal the lead characters had in their love segments. Other than those amorous points, the film is suitable for both men and women wishing to travel back to a time before email, airplanes and the U.S. Postal Service. In its isolation, Japan is fractured by power struggles and alliances, is nervous about foreign barbarians polluting their lives, and religious conflict crashing onto their societal shores. Not much different than what students or workers face every day.
Rating:
Summary: Shogun -The Complete Epic, Read the book see the series!!!
Review: James Clavell's Shogun is perhaps one of the best told stories in the past century, both in novel and in the mini series. As you may all ready have read, the photo an acting is great, but to enyoy the Shogun experience at it's fullest, I can advice you the following: Read The book and then see the tapes. The tapes shurely deceipt the scenario and the general view of the story, but it ( and it's perfectly explainable) misses to portrait all the political intrigue an the very special way of thinking of all the characters, this is the real meat and potatoes of the soup. Shure the series are very well done and are worthy buying and seeing without the book, but you will still miss all the flavour of this exceptional story.
Rating:
Summary: So sorry, let down by the ending?
Review: Shogun is a superb adventure story, of that there can be no doubt. This boxed set of videos from the TV mini-series of the novel brings James Clavell's characters vividly to life, making the experience even more memorable for anyone who has read and enjoyed the book. For me the screen version added to the pleasure of reading Shogun because it explained things that were not entirely clear in the printed form. Both in print and especially on screen Shogun is much more than a great tale of adventure. It contains, in my opinion, an even greater love story featuring, in the person of Mariko, one of the finest romantic heroines in all fiction. As brought so exquisitely to life here by Yoko Shimada, who to my mind is the real star of the series - the set is worth buying for her scenes alone - Mariko is beautiful, brave, loyal and sincere. Delightful and totally believeable in all she says and does, I could not help but do as Pilot-Major Blackthorne did and fall in love with her, wishing that she would find with him the happiness that she has not known with her Japanese husband Buntaro. In creating this unforgettable character James Clavell clearly set out to win the hearts and minds of his readers and , later , his viewers. Yet having succeeded in this he cruelly dashes all our hopes. Mariko is given her moment of triumph, but she pays a terrible price for it. It is as if Clavell felt that she was drawing too much attention away from his principal male characters, Blackthorne and Toranaga, and judging by Yoko Shimada's portrayal of Mariko in the series he may well have been right. Yet if you go back to the book and read the crucial scene again, line by line, it seems clear that right up until the last instant a different outcome would easily have been possible. On screen it appears even more contrived than in print. Was James Clavell genuinely undecided as to what to do with Mariko? I think he was, and for me he made the wrong choice. If ever a heroine deserved a better fate, it was Mariko. Once she is gone, both versions of Shogun start to fall apart. The ending of the novel is far from satisfactory, and perhaps in the years following its publication James Clavell may have realised its imperfections. However, when he came to produce the TV mini-series in 1980, the best character in the book was gone and could not be kept alive in the film. So the changes introduced in the last hour of the screen version, which until now has followed the text of Shogun fairly closely, are invariably for the worse and result in the film having an even less satisfactory ending than the book. But at least we are given a chance to hear the words of that beautiful and moving final letter which Mariko leaves with Toranaga to give to Blackthorne. And karma or not, both in print and on screen she surely lives on in the memories of all who read the book or see this screen version.
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