Nobunaga Concerto (信長協奏曲) is a
10 episode historical fiction based on the manga of the same name by
Ishii Ayumi. The series originally aired in Japan during the summer of
2014.
Saburo, an average and unacomplished high school student, finds himself
in the Sengoku (waring states) period. He falls from the sky in the
presence of a young and sickly Oda Nobunaga. Seizing the opportunity
before him, Nobunaga convinces Saburo to act as his stand in for a
while, so he can rest and gain his strength. Saburo, only partially
understanding the situation, decides to do it. The impostor Nobunaga
shocks everyone with him enthusism, sudden quirkiness and odd speech
patterns. Time passes and Saburo finds himself beginning to lead the
way towards unifying Japan under the Oda family banner. Armed wth his
high school history text book and complete confidence he leads armies
into battles and builds alliances. Will he be able to live up to the
historical Nobunaga and can he ever return to his own time?
This series crept up out of leftfield and I was a little hesitant about
it. The character animation really bothered me. The technique used
was motion capture cell shading, a style I have little love for.
Someting about using real people and their movements to help in the
animation process tends to make it less natural looking. The character
movements are jarring and creepy...like the animatronic robots at Chuck E
Cheese. Beyond the character design and movements the artwork is
rather high quality, with finely detailed backgrounds and clothing.
Artwork aside, I like time travel stories and this one was
interestingly done, if a bit unconventional for the genre. Typically
characters who time travel without their own consent try everything they
can to reverse their situation and the story focuses on that goal.
This show instead pushs all that to the side and focuses on the
monumentous history the character finds himself the focal point of.
Saburo's character is kind of flawed. He's positive and enthusiastic
beyond anyone else. Even when his life is in danger he doesn't show
much more emotion than blind faith and positivity that everthing will
work out. He acts as if he's not participating in the events but only
spectating, even though hes the one making many of the decisions.
The story its self is rather interesting and has spurned me to want to
learn more about this incredibly important moment in Japans history.
Through the show we follow along with highlights of integral battles and
decisions in Nobunagas campaign to bring all of the daimyo in Japan
under a central ruler, himself. Given these are real historical events
a large cast of historical figures make apperances through out the
story. Not entirely familliar with what these powerful men were suppose
to look like, I really wonder if the shows representation of Tokugawa
Ieyasu as a fat cherub is accurate. One of my favorite
boardgames, Shogun, takes place during this period of time, so I was
midly familair with many of the people and places mentioned in the
show, if completely unfamiliar with the events and their significance.
Don't go into this show expecting all sorts of epic and bloody combat
though, there is very little. Instead the focus is on the character
interactions and the negotiations and strategies deployed. There are
some probelms as well beyond the main characters personality quirks.
Through out the series I continued to wonder why those around him never
attempted to kill him for being possesed. He doesnt hide the fact he's
not from their time that well and whenever he uses Englsh based words
everyone stares at him in confussed wonder. When he offered his wife
instant ramen he had...priceless. The passage of time is not really
understood as well. You have to know when the key events take place to
get a feel for that. The series covers close to 20 years worth of
events though and none of the characters appear to age. They gloss over
Saburo instantly being a badass on a horse too...
With its flaws this was a good series, unfortunatelly, like Nobaga's
unification goal, we don't get to see any sort of conclussion. The
story ends rather abruptly with no resolution to Saburo's situation or
Nobunaga's campaigns. Spoiler; Nobunaga never succeeds, Hideyoshi
Toyotomi picks up the job but he also fails to complete the task.
Tokugawa Ieyasu picks up after Hideyoshi and does succeed, ushuring in
the 250ish year Tokugawa shogunate. If you like informative historical
stories this is a good one. But the story is also quirky and the main
character is fun to watch so more tan history buffs can enjoy it as
well. This was a good show with its flaws and I wish there was more.
There is word of a pending OAV follow up but I have no information on
that.
The series was simulcast via Cruchyroll. Given the tepid North
American response I doubt it will see a commercial disc release. The
manga is not commercially available in North America either.
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