The story of Shinsengumi and some of its members have been on screen various times. I think it can be said this Taiga drama summarizes the whole incidents and characters pretty good. For those who have no idea about Shinsengumi I shall mention that Shinsengumi is a so called police force made of some ronin who protect Kyoto City in the name of Shogun during the chatoic and bloody 1850-1860's when there was almost a civil war between The Shogunate (and its supporting clans) and the Imperialist Clans.(Choshu,Tosa, later Satsuma)Well the incidents and politics are a lot more complicated and full of twist and turns but the incidenst that have happened that time are a mile stone of todays modern(western) Japan. The story of the drama is being told from Shinsengumi's perspective, and I felt like it was pretty fair. The only bad comment could be the pace and character developments,which were a little slow. There are no breath taking action scenes or tear jerker twist and turns, because the story more likely focuses on the caracters as well as the incidents. The acting is fairly executed since all the actors are pretty well experienced and well known. The music on the other hand was simply no good. I think especially the intro music is a complete failure. I do understand that they wanted to do something militar and heroic but to me it was simply annoying. Lastly,I recommend this drama not to those who want to watch a japanese version of "sageuk" but to those who want to know more about Japan's history lead by good actors and a little fiction to be more fastmoving. If you are interested, the rewatch value is higher and if not,than probably lower. Overall it was a good executed Taiga, which was a little slow and in my opinion a little sugar coated,but not boring and very educative.