I love this series (a 15 volume series covering all of Japanese history from the Jomon Era to the Second World War). The depictions of the events, the key personalities, their facial expressions and what they say and do, as well as the narration, really brings to life the dry words of the history books I read in college.
Japanese history, like everywhere else, turns out to be an endless cycle of probity and good intentions followed by loathing, jealousy, hate and tragedy. A central government is fitfully and then finally established, and clear governance laid out, but this organization cannot withstand the generational erosion of greed as entitled families who are supposed to act for the good of the public welfare come to think that their family’s wealth is more important than whatever happens to everyone else. Unfortunately for those families and the general public, the patriarchs screw themselves by screwing around, and the whole edifice is consumed in the fire of the jealous hatred of half-brothers, making this reader want to scream. When things fall apart, the warlords rise up and the rest, as they say, is history.