Shinsengumi - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Shinsengumi are a staple of Japanese popular culture in general and jidaigeki in particular.

Shinsengumi has been adapted in TV drama time and again since "Shinsengumi Shimatsuki" (Shinsengumi and its birth to end) broadcast by TBS on 1961, which was viewed nationwide. Another TV version, highly evaluated still, is "Shinsengumi Keppuroku(narrative of struggles)" broadcast by NTV on 1967. In 2004, Japanese television broadcaster NHK made a year-long television drama series following the history of the Shinsengumi, called 新選組! (Shinsengumi!), which aired on Sunday evenings. Many other series and specials have featured the history and fiction surrounding this group.

In 2003, a Japanese samurai drama, When the Last Sword Is Drawn, depicts the end of Shinsengumi, focusing on various historical figures such as Saito Hajime. The 1999 film Taboo (Gohatto) depicts the Shinsengumi a year after the Ikedaya Affair. The film Shinsengumi, starring Toshirō Mifune, depicts the rise and fall of the Shinsengumi.

The 2004 video game Fu-un Shinsengumi developed by Genki and published by Konami is based on the Shinsengumi.

Manga artist Nobuhiro Watsuki is an self-acclaimed fan of the Shinsengumi and many of his characters in Rurouni Kenshin are based on its members, including Sagara Sanosuke (inspired by Harada Sanousuke), Shinomori Aoshi (modeled after Hijikata Toshizo), Seta Soujiro (based on Okita Souji) and, most famously, Saitou Hajime after his real-life counterpart.

The 2003 manga Getsu Mei Sei Ki or Goodbye Shinsengumi by Kenji Morita depicts the life of Hijikata Toushizou. The Manga Kaze Hikaru presents a fictional tale of a girl joining in the Shinsengumi under disguise and falling in love with Okita Soji. The anime/manga Peacemaker Kurogane by Nanae Chrono is a historical fiction taking place during the end of the Tokugawa period, following a young boy, Ichimura Tetsunosuke, who tries to join the Shinsengumi. The anime/manga series Hakuouki follows a girl, looking for her lost father (a doctor who also worked with the Shinsengumi), joins the Shinsengumi. Although the show is fictional, adding supernatural elements and fictional enemies, it mixes these elements with real events. The characters within the Shinsengumi she associates with are fictionalized adaptations of actual members of the Shinsengumi and retain their real names throughout the show.

In the parodic manga and anime Gintama, the Shinsengumi -- written 真選組 -- are also portrayed, and can considered to be main characters, some of them ranking in the top 3 of the most popular characters in the show. Their depiction however, being freely adapted for comedy purposes, was sometimes complained about by various PTA for lacking historical precision, though it was never Gintama production staff's intention to make any historical claim of any kind.

In March 2012 the stand alone expansion for Total War Shogun 2, Fall of the Samurai features the shinsengumi as a recruitable agent used for assassination and bribery.