"It was inevitable." - Oda Nobunaga (The Great Fool) Nobunaga The Fool was a pleasant surprise of this winter season for me, a very curious yet enjoyable mix of many genres : Mecha, Sengoku Period, Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Romance, which may raise many brows given the unique sense of history of this anime, but that flamboyant extravagance also has many charms!
Story
If you want to enjoy this anime like I did, be ready to suspend your disbelief. The anime is a war story that takes place on two stars, east and west. The east star is dominated mostly by Japanese warlords from the Sengoku period while the west star is mostly dominated by famous Europeans plus Chandra Gupta. At some point in each episode, a new card is revealed that signifies the topic of the episode and a character or event during that episode. It's generally predictable, but it does make the anime more entertaining. (The idea is admittedly clever!) Now for the actual story-line, There's a prophecy that two kings will be born— a Savior King and a Destroyer King whose destinies are to save and destroy the world, respectively. The higher-ups on the west star believe that Arthur, an enigmatic and seemingly faceless man, is the Savior King. After Jeanne Kaguya d'Arc has premonitions of an east star warrior called Oda Nobunaga or The Great Fool, she and Leonardo da Vinci defect to the east star to see if he's the actual Savior King. They join the Oda clan and then continue Nobunaga and his comrades efforts to unite heaven and earth.
Characters
The characters of the anime were amazing but the characters personalities don't necessarily reflect those of their historical counterparts, they are just there to make them look cooler. Our MC, Oda Nobunaga, a foolish and persistent man who aims to conquer heavens and earth as he is said to be the Savior-King by his allies, Jeanne d'Arc and Leonardo Da Vinci. His resolve and potential steadily draws other characters to him, allies and enemies alike. Gaius Julius Caesar, King Arthur and many other notable historical figures make their entrance, while the internal strife of the Oda clan is at its peak. Historical inaccuracies aside, the characters were very interesting and had distinct personalities. I had only one problem with the characters, that was that our main characters, Nobunaga, Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi had some habits like Mitsuhide flips his hair, Hideyoshi rubs his nose and Nobunaga adjusts his shirt sleeves which I saw atleast once in every episode and as habits are supposed to reflect character personalities, not define it. The habits shown felt overstated and for the most part, not special. Overall, the characters were amazing and they also did go through some characters development through changes in their ambitions and temperaments, but the changes were often sudden and not sufficiently explained.
Animation and Sound
The animation and artwork of the anime was amazing. You'll be easily able to tell that a lot of the animation budget went into the magnificent giant war armors which looked amazing and had their own unique design. The characters looked original with very detailed outfits that look nothing like anything I've ever seen before. The same applies to the mecha, which is even more important as I like it when an anime series has mecha which are unique.
For the sound, The background music which was a mix of traditional and orchestral music, fitted the series perfect and was exceptionally well. The most memorable soundtracks were the ones played in the more intense fight sequences, and they were one of the things I like the most about this anime. The 1st OP's and ED's were very good But the 2nd OP was random and pretty shitty. The voice acting was top-notch, though a little over-the-top at some times.
Enjoyment
While I enjoyed many of the early episodes in terms of their action scenes or occasional emotional moment, the story, as crazy and illogical as it is, didn't really get going until the second half of the show. So, You have to have a bit of patience to get to Nobunaga the Fool's best parts and enjoy it like I did!
Overall, Nobunaga The Fool has to be one of the best anime of the Winter 2014 season. Many may not agree, but that is what I believe though as a reviewer I cannot recommend it to just anyone. I think the people who will get the most enjoyment out of this show are those who really love their mecha series and those who can endure the low points of an illogical show to experience its high points. It's not the worst series out there by any means necessary, but it is far from perfect as well. But if you are a fan of mecha series, I think you'd be a fool to miss this show!
4 STAR ANIME.
A brief trip to google shows me that people seem pretty divided on this one. Looking at the premise and screenshots I can see that it has some potential, so I guess i'll give it a go.
ReplyDeleteYeah... I guess you should watch it if you're are a big fan of mecha series but if you can't endure the low points of an illogical show to experience it's high points. Then, you shouldn't as you would find a lot of other show more interesting than this.
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