Best Shogun Anime to Watch If You Love the Hit Shogun Live-Action Series

Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku features a group of criminals on a deadly quest that will get one of them pardoned by the shogun.

While it's largely a fantasy anime with unreal scenarios, Hell's Paradise offers interesting insights about life in a shogunate and the brutality both samurai and executioners could easily be desensitized to.

What are the shogun's sinister plans for the elixir of immortality and will the operation succeed?

Dororo is another fantasy anime that doesn't focus on military strategy. It does, however, illustrate a samurai lord's downfall after a failed occult plan.

However, Hyakkimaru's father is a samurai lord who makes an evil decision to keep his power, sending Hyakkimaru down a path of unimaginable brutality.

The anime's aesthetics, social constructions, and fighting styles all point toward a samurai era. The presence of 12 demons spices things up.

If you would like a brutally realistic and very violent historical anime about samurai under the shogun rule, do give Shigurui a chance.

It follows two rival samurai past their physical prime, one-armed Fujiki Gennosuke, and blind Irako Seigen, who meet again after a long time for an endgame fight that can only have one winner.

While the anime focuses on two individuals, it features shogun characters and acts that threaten the shogunate itself.

If you're looking for a shogun anime with samurai characters but a modern twist, Gintama is a hilarious alternative history story.

It takes place during an alternative Edo era where a cowardly shogun has given in to the demands of alien invaders and banned the use of swords.

How would a samurai's life even look like under those conditions? Although Gintama focuses on samurai characters, the shogun's strategy of appeasing the aliens changes the samurai way of life forever.

Basilisk is a great series for those who enjoy both the bitter politics and the action of shogun anime.

It focuses on the members of two rival ninja clans who hope to unite their people through marriage.

Their dreams are shattered when the vendetta reignites, culminating in a violent battle royale. Can they save their people?

Samurai Champloo is one of the most beloved samurai anime. It follows a waitress, a samurai, and a ronin.

Fuu Kasumi's clumsiness gets her in trouble, which leads samurai Mugen to come to her rescue. A fight with Jin, a ronin, leads the two men to face execution, but Fuu saves them and hires them as her bodyguards.

Can she keep them from killing each other?

While this is primarily a samurai anime, the shogunate does get involved in the story's events.

Blade of the Immortal is firmly rooted in Japan's feudal past while also featuring magical elements.

Manji is an immortal ronin who is responsible for the death of many.

After a long and violent life, he meets a woman named Rin Asano and decides to help her avenge her parents.

For context, the historical series unfolds toward the end of the violent Bakumatsu era during the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

House of Five Leaves, also known in Japanese as Saraiya Goyou, features a unique artistic style.

Its main character is Masa Akitsu, a ronin wandering in Japan's peaceful Edo period.

His meekness makes it hard for him to secure jobs until he meets the carefree Yaichi, who hires him on a whim and drags him into all sorts of illegal activities.

In the beginning, Masa was a loyal subject of his shogun, and being released from his service led to a major identity crisis.