Outstanding Period Costumes for a Series. Special Visual Effects. Stunt Performance. Hairstyling and Makeup. And of course, the highly coveted Lead Actor, Lead Actress, and the highest honor of all, Outstanding Drama Series. The FX series Shogun blew everyone away by winning a whopping 18 awards at the 2024 Primetime Emmys, out of 25 nominations. The series broke the all-time record for Emmys won for a single season of television.
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Dig deeper into Shogun’s source material with the original series#ad and the book#ad.
Image by NBC News
You can find the full list of nominees and awards won here.
This sweep is not something to be taken lightly. Shogun was lovingly crafted with the blood, sweat, and tears of the entire cast and crew, a true testament to the “east-meets-west dream project, with respect” as stated by actor and producer Hiroyuki Sanada in his acceptance speech for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. The talented and highly experienced Western cast and crew collaborated heavily with a specialized team of experts from Japan, who were crucial in making sure every prop, costume and headpiece was historically accurate and properly represented on screen.
Shogun’s massive win signals another step forward for representing a more international perspective at American award shows. Blue Eye Samurai, a Netflix animated series set in feudal Japan that is created by and stars a Japanese-American cast and crew, won Best Animated Series at the Emmys this year. Squid Game and Everything Everywhere All at Once made waves with their multiple nominations and monumental award wins in recent years. Overall, as far as film and television goes, it’s been a good couple of years for Asian-Americans and the general Asian diaspora. After the extremely tough period of racism-fueled hate crimes during 2020 and most of the early COVID-19 pandemic era, it’s a win we really, really needed.
Image by IMDb
These films and series, which have increasingly involved Asian creators and collaborators, show our community through a different light, one that is not marred by Western stereotypes and Orientalist views. They give a more honest and authentic portrayal of Asian history, culture, and people. Much like how EEAAO took the “strict Asian parent” trope and wove it into something original and captivating, Shogun shied away from a generic samurai performance (i.e. Tom Cruise’s The Last Samurai) and brought a stereotype-shattering accuracy and beauty to James Clavell’s story.#ad The characters and names may be fictional, but the real-life history was brought to life before our very eyes.
And what a performance it was! Hiroyuki Sanada’s stoic Yoshii Toranaga kept you guessing until the very end. What motivated him? What was he thinking? Who did he trust, and who was his enemy? Both the heaviness and cunning of his performance led to a very nuanced, majestic portrayal of the future unifier#ad of Japan. His fellow Emmy winner Anna Sawai was similarly breathtaking. Her portrayal of Toda Mariko, a Catholic interpreter who serves under Toranaga, was equal parts inspiring and heartbreaking. She was, arguably, the strongest character in the series: loyal, intelligent, and determined, but weighed down by the unbreakable restraints of patriarchy. Many viewers, critics, and fellow A-list actresses have gone on to praise Sawai’s performance. I can definitively say that Shogun would not be Shogun without its two phenomenal leads.
Image property of FX
As far as acting goes, the Emmy wins were well-deserved. Néstor Carbonell, who played Vasco Rodrigues, a Spanish sailor who befriends Blackthorne, took home the award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. Tadanobu Asano (Yabushige) and Takehiro Hira (Ishido) were both nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, but lost to Billy Crudup from The Morning Show. While I can’t speak on whether or not Crudup’s win was deserved, as I haven’t seen the show, it was hard to believe that Asano didn’t secure the Emmy with his show-stealing portrayal of the treacherous Kashigi Yabushige. Whether you think this was a snub or not is up to you.
While Shogun has clearly demonstrated that it put in the work to deserve all of its Emmy wins (and maybe more) with its stellar cast and attention to historical detail, some naysayers have spoken up following the televised award ceremony. A high profile article from The Guardian claimed that despite Shogun’s “[majestic] performances, direction and writing”, their Emmys sweep was “arguably the biggest snub the ceremony has seen in years.” Ummm… what?!
Image by The Japan Times
The article follows with the very weak argument that Shogun’s Emmy “monopoly” was the reason why “other worthy contenders were shut out”, implying that the name-dropped Gary Oldman and the series Slow Horses were more deserving of the titles they were nominated for. The article also mentions, on what is a very unrelated note, that some series were “nominated in the wrong categories.” Does anyone honestly think that The Bear would win more if it got moved into the drama category??
It really just boils down to plain old racism, I think. We saw the same thing happen when Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite and Everything Everywhere All at Once won Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s not in English, it uses too many subtitles, the story doesn’t make any sense or appeal to broader audiences (= Caucasian people). It’s always the same tired argument, and frankly I’m getting sick of it. When The Bear walks away with an Emmys sweep, people applaud it all year long, but when Shogun does the same thing, suddenly it’s a problem.
The Guardian piece seems to hint heavily that Shogun was somehow given unfair preferential treatment by the awards committee, labeling the series as “prestigious with a capital P.” This kind of thinking is dangerous because it severely undermines the actual hard work, dedication, love, and commitment that went into creating this series. It implies that at the heart of Shogun is a bunch of hoity-toity showrunners, instead of a very devoted team that loves what they are creating. A snub, by definition, is when a nominee loses, even when they were clearly more deserving of the win. While I’m sure the other nominees in the drama category were also excellent contenders, there isn’t a shred of evidence that supports the ridiculous notion that Shogun was lesser or undeserving.
Image by The American Society of Cinematographers
The people behind Shogun worked for nearly 10 years to bring the series to life, and their efforts shine through in every single episode. The dialogue and subtitle translation is masterful, resonating with both English and Japanese-speaking audiences. The acting is just unparalleled, with both raw, emotional conversations and epically violent battle scenes. Every minute detail passes the authenticity test, even under the scrutiny of native Japanese people and longtime fans of jidaigeki. Shogun deserves every single one of those Emmy awards, and no silly little butthurt comment can take that achievement away from them.
Featured Image by Deadline
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