Ever since I saw the Sengoku Basara anime, I've had a strong interest in the historical Date Masamune as well as his brotherly bond with Katakura Kojuurou, one of his chief retainers. Masamune's fearsome reputation on the battlefield gave rise to the nickname "One-eyed Dragon" (Dokuganryuu) and Kojuurou was known as the "Right Eye of the Dragon", a reflection of his importance to the Date clan during Masamune's reign. I'm a fan of this lord-retainer pair. Pretty much every incarnation of Date Masamune I've seen has a Kojuurou, kind of like how you can't have Oda Nobunaga without a Ranmaru somewhere. So I was pretty excited to watch Touken Ranbu Giden Akatsuki no Dokuganryuu (2017) in which Tomita plays Date Masamune in a supporting role.

And OMG does he slay in this role. In my dream world, he would be in a NHK Taiga drama but realistically speaking, I really want to see him lead a purely historical Sengoku play.


( Touken Ranbu review )

And while we're still on the subject of Date Masamune, how could I not talk about this other play that he did: Nobunyaga no Yabou Yukimura to Gorin no Ken (2016)! Touken Ranbu was actually Tomita's second outing as the Date warlord. :)



( Nobunyaga no Yabou review )

Seeing how good Tomita is in a historical setting (even as a cat LOL) really makes me want to see him as Kagetora in the Kaikou-hen prequels. I guess I can still hope for it.