I've been thinking about this drama for a few days now, and I'm curious if anyone else felt the same.

SPOILER (EPISODE 1)

​From the very first episode when Nagakura Shinpachi intervenes to "save" Makoto from the group of drunkards, we, as the audience, are kinda tricked into trusting him. He comes across as a man of honor, and we just accept his version as the "truth".

​But that final episode made me wonder.

SPOILERS (FINAL EPISODE)

​So when he describes Serizawa Kamo’s death as a spectacular honorable duel with Soji (let's be honest here their fight was a joy to watch), well, let's just say it goes against what we know from history. And Makoto calls him out on it. What she was told before is that Serizawa's death was just a brutal assassination. No duel.

​So what exactly is going on here? Two possibilities come to mind

1. Nagakura is deliberately lying, he chooses to "rewrite" history to sanitize the Shinsengumi’s brutal actions

2. Less likely IMO, but maybe his memory is failing? Maybe he has lived so long and has genuinely convinced himself that the reality was more honorable than it actually was? 🤔

​

what do you guys (and girls) think? Is Nagakura a reliable narrator? Or do you think he's hiding the truth to try to protect the Shinsengumi reputation, or maybe just trying to keep the "spirit" of the Samurai alive?

Hmm, or is the show simply set in its own universe? So it uses real historical figures but has its own "spin" on their stories, which means Nagakura is not an unreliable narrator at all and the entire show is just historical fiction?