Title: Oda Nobuna no Yabou
Genre: Action, Comedy, Romance
Rating: 7.7/10
Summary: The historical romantic comedy follows 17 year old high schooler Sagara Yoshiharu who one day time-travels to the Sengoku period, where all the major Samurai lords are cute girls. Yoshiharu meets Oda Nobunaga, and begins to serve her as a substitute of Kinoshita Tokichiro, who has been dead in the world.
Review: Here was an anime that should have taken everyone by surprise if they bothered to watch it. I couldn't believe that I actually ended up liking
Oda Nobuna no Yabou as much as I did. Most of you might not think that my rating was all that high considering some of the anime I've raved about, but I assure you that the rating is quite a shocker. It wasn't the best, or worst, story of the Summer 2012 anime season. It didn't have the best, or worst, art of the Summer 2012 anime season. But it sure had some of the best character development of the Summer 2012 anime season. If anyone has ever watched an anime filled with girls and very few men you would probably know that nothing ever really happens in terms of romance.
Oda Nobuna no Yabou blind sided me with actual romantic development and character backgrounds. It had its normal ecchi moments for those looking for a repetitive fit of antics, but for the rest of us it is actually worth picking up.
The art style for this anime wasn't amazing and overall I would say that it meets typical standards. I remember a lot of great scenes where a castle was engulfed in flames or moonlight pierced the trees, shadowing figures to give an ominous feel. Some of the facial expressions still stick in my mind because how much passion they held. I'm glad that they took their time on key scenes where the characters were beginning to develop and show their true colors. However, it wasn't anything to write home about (maybe on a small blogging site but certainly not home). Overall I would say that I was satisfied and nothing more. In fact, I would say that the music was also pretty standard. It didn't strike me as great and I skipped the opening and ending most of the time unless I got distracted for the minute it was playing. Another big reason I skipped the opening was because I actually couldn't wait to see how some of the episodes turned out.
The story in
Oda Nobuna no Yabou was what kept me going. It didn't keep my attention the whole way through and some episodes were naturally better than others, however, more often than not I quite enjoyed it. The series picked up very quickly and it got rather dark about half way through. Now it wasn't something that made you shed tears or take you into the fictional-character-spiral, but you would feel for the characters. Even episodes that could be considered filler were entertaining to watch because they brought you closer to the characters. I'm surprised that I actually ended up liking the anime because of the premise of an alternate world that some kid was thrown into by who-knows-what where a lot of the big names in Japanese history have become female. It screams harem and ecchi which I consider two of the most annoying anime genre. Thankfully the writers knew what they were doing and decided to take an alternate route. While there were a couple ecchi moments it was never over the top. The main character Yoshiharu was quite a lead. He had his moments of 'being a guy' with his famous line "Women's breasts are made of a man's hopes and dreams!" which had my on the floor laughing, but he nice side too. Despite being surrounded by women he always knew one of them was truly special, one that he could depend on, and one that could depend on him, Nobuna. Their relationship was far more interesting than a lot of the romance anime I've watched. It's something about a man running into battle and doing everything he can to help a girl achieve her dreams that really get your heart tingly. When it comes down to it, it was the character development that keeps you going. It wasn’t the best anime but I would be more than thrilled to have a second season to get some sort of closer. Do I expect there to be a second season any time soon? Not really. I was close to picking up the novels (which are quite a bit farther ahead), but some of the scenes I saw in the anime made me reconsider. I don’t feel like my imagination is good enough to recreate some of the special moments between Nobunaga and Sagara.
Final statements: It’s worth while to pick up especially if you feel like you’ve been lacking anime recently. The characters were well developed, the romance was there but not overbearing, and the action wasn’t half bad. There are a few filler episodes but they generally bring something new to the table in terms of a character’s background story. It’s a
preferred watch in my book and I’m sure that anyone who really gives this anime a chance will think the same.
