Embracing Love: A Cicada in Winter

Embracing Love: A Cicada in Winter (2005) blends Animation elements. Top cast includes Toshiyuki Morikawa, Shin-ichiro Miki, and Showtaro Morikubo. Relationships and emotional turning points shape the core of the story.

Actor: Toshiyuki Morikawa • Provider: Netflix

During the late Tokugawa period, tensions between the bakufu and Chōshū clan are rising due to arguments over how to deal with foreigners in Japan. However, unlike the rest of the Chōshū clan members, Touma Kusaka wants Japan to develop good relations with foreign nations. To achieve this, he attempts to learn English behind his clan's back. A man named Keiichirou Akizuki decides to become Kusaka's teacher, but their relationship soon grows into something stronger, despite the fact that Akizuki works for Kusaka's clan's enemy, the Tokugawa bakufu.