anime dominion

This is the final episode of Nobunaga the Fool and if any of you have not watch the last episode; I suggest you watch the anime before continue reading, as I will reveal the conclusion of the series.

First of all, most of my earlier predictions did not come true for the final stage. Mitsuhide truly believed that Arthur is the savior and he intended to kill Nobu for real. Arthur real ability was changing his appearance to suit the desire of the person who met him. For example, in front of Mitsu; he appeared as his deceased father and persuade him to join his round table. He was a brilliant strategists yet he still unable to see through Arthur intention.

Third, Nobunaga choose to become the real destruction king by combining the regalias and turned the Fool into a black dragon. During his battle with Alexander, who also uses the power of the dragon, he purposely drove the dragons to Palais Natura and killed Arthur by crashing the two dragons to him. Later on he commanded the black dragon to devour his people and create chaos to the land.

  

All AGREED!!!!

What truly astounds me was the revelation about Mitsuhide role in the series. As Nobunaga power grew uncontrolled, he challenged him in the battle of death. It is as if he was the real savior king and Nobunaga was the real traitor. However, Nobunaga was the real schemer and he knew that when the time came, Mitsu would be the person to stop him. He purposely devoured the people and all of the war armors but did not kill the living being. Then, when Mitsuhide fought him, he purposely loses so that Mitsu could continue their sacred promise from episode one (the unification). By the end of the match he told Mitsu that his boundless pains would make him a wiser king.

In my impression, Nobunaga The Fool really throw some of my prediction away. I like how the producer ended up trolling my guess and killed Da Vinci with the weirdest death scene ever (seriously his platform fall out in his standing position ^-^! he should see it coming). Then in the end, Mitsuhide was revealed as the real savior king, who ended the life of the destruction king and creates peace to the land (it was mind blown and out of my prediction^0^). The weakness from this episode was how short the ending sequence. I knew that having last two episodes before the last battle would take some of the ending moments. If possible, I would like to see the peace moment with Saru and Mitsuhide as well as the west and the east stars before the end credit. However, I knew the time slot would not permitted such luxury T-T

I am being honest here; the new episode was better than what I thought before. As the next episode will be the last for Nobunaga the Fool, the producer did not hesitate to make Nobunaga and Co launch a frontal attack to Arthur’s Palace, Palais Natura. They need to bundle the fight in a more efficient manner by cramming plenty of battles inside the 22 minutes. For instance, In the middle of the episode, Nobunaga and Hideyoshi dropped several war armors using melee attack. The battle was fast but filled with acrobatic movements of the giant armors and several slash and dicing moments between the opposing factions.

The episode started with Nobu interrogating Davinci about his real intention, in which the later explained his research as well as the world that Arthur wants to create. After Da Vinci told Nobu about the probability that Arthur only crated the world for him and his perfecta, Nobunaga gathered his remaining followers to storm Arthur Palace and end the war. Then, Himiko proposed that she would use Azuchi to create ladder of heaven

Another interesting point that happened in the episode was the comeback of Uesagi Kenshin. I know he has grudge with Alexander after losing the previous battle and it was the perfect moment for him to enter the battle and end their rivalry in a battle to death. Different with the last encounter, his newfound enlightening and acceptance of the dragon’s power turned him equal if not more capable than Alexander.

Just like what I predicted last week, Himiko’s death was really happened in this episode. In order to save Nobu, she used her last remaining power to send the Azuchi as well as Nobu’s The Fool and Jeanne’s Orleans to Arthur’s Palace. Unable to restrain the ley lines anymore, Himiko frail body fell in Nobu’s arms and with the last of her strengths, he gave her blessing to Nobu and Jeanne.

While I knew about the inevitable, I thought the producer gave a better farewell for Himiko. In contrast to Caesar and Ichihime death, Himiko was more endearing. If Caesar and Ichi deaths, while also inevitable, were forced to happen in one episode, Himiko’s death took more time to build the sentiment. Maybe, Hideyoshi and her assistants’ pure affection to her made the scene before parting looks more convincing with how they want her to live. Alas, Himiko wanted to participate in the last battle and she would not let Jeanne took all glory for herself.

Mitsuhide’s betrayal portrayed directly just as Nobu and Jeanne entered the palace. He told Nobu that he turned to Caesar and also admitted that he killed Nobukatsu. As the character with more development time, his betrayal may make more sense than Caesar’s sudden turn of allegiance. Still, I think there is more about Mitsu than what we perceive. I thought he was way too cunning to take advantage with. In short, if my hunch is not mistaken, he might end up using Arthur in order to bring the favor to Nobu.

I think we all have our own prediction about what will happen next week and the only way we know if by watching the last episode. I am more or less excited with the end result and I hope Gonzo could bundle the last episode with an unpredictable ending. If Nobunaga truly the destruction king, he might destroy the entire world and create a new world where the real Oda Nobunaga and real Jeanne the Arc born (ala KR Decade). Well for now I can only cross my finger cause it was all just my prediction but lets watch the next episode and see the result. In addition, I guaranteed you that I haven’t watch the last episode when typing this.

 Fate and decision

The prelude for the last battle

 Nobunaga the Fool Episode 22 Impression

We are already at the 22 episode of Nobunaga the fool and only two more episodes remaining. I was truly worried with the current progress of the series since with a fewer airing time, could the producer create a good closing for the series?

 

Nobunaga the angsty king

Then, we have Mitsuhide who already lost the purpose of his life. Having lost the person he loved the most and with the realization that she still chooses her father murderer in her last breathe, Mitsu could not accept the bitter reality of fate. He was always Nobunaga’s trusted friend in most occasions but now with Nobu’s decisions only bring more death and destruction than peace, he started to question whether it was wise or not to follow him. Also, in this episode he finally told Toyotomi that he was responsible for Nobukatsu death and while Toyotomi hated his action, he could understand that he did that for Nobu’s sake.

I knew many would hate Mitsuhide’s lost of confidence to Nobu. At this moment, he looks like another backstabber who turned from loyal friend into an enemy. Nevertheless the situations took the worse for him and as a person with bitter fate, he had reasons for every decision that he made. I am not exaggerating but in this series, his characterization surpassed even the main character. Unlike Toyotomi or Jeanne who choose to remain loyal to Nobu, he was expecting more from his actions. He was expecting a just reason from Nobu and only considered the sacrifice was necessary as long as it was for greater good. In my opinion, I thought Mitsu as a person who would check everything beforehand and being unable to trust anybody a hundred percent; he decided to find the enemy’s motivation before he could decide his next moves.

I praised Gonzo for making Mitsuhide such a deep character, who progressed the most from this series. For instance, he was the person who started as Nobu’s loyal friend, who decided to hide his feeling for his friend’s success, who decided to kill his best friend’s brother to make him the ruler, who lost in many strategic battles, his love suddenly turned unrequited, he lost all his purpose, happiness, and motivation, now he had to decide whether he could still blindly follow Nobu or not. Unfortunately for him, his meeting with Arthur was not a wise one since Arthur could basically change his/her appearance and brainwashed any person s/he met. Indeed, by the end of the episode Mitsuhide was no longer Nobu loyal strategists but Arthur newest puppet and he might betray Nobu in the next episode unless he could pull more trickery than Arthur would expect. In short, Mitsu was well developed and the major of the time was spent to further his character’s progression.

In addition, we could also start to wave our good bye to our loli princess, Himiko cause her death flag was not just a warning. It looks inevitable if she would met her end in the next week and only miracle (or specifically trolling) could save her. In this episode, it was revealed that she sacrificed her life force to stabilize the leyline as well as increasing Toyotomi’s recovery rate. Toyotomi and Himiko’s followers realized that she did not have much time longer and here I am preparing for another funeral.

 

Toyotomi: Rest in <Himiko> Hei!!! I am not dead yet, monkey man

Nobunaga the Fool Episode 21

Impression

With the series getting closer to the end, Nobunaga the fool didn’t take any brake to reserve the body count. First, the episode was started with Caesar asking Nobunaga to join him creating a perfect utopia in where every people would life in happiness. In the aftermath, Nobunaga’s refusal seems agreeable because sharing the world where every person could life without pain or strive is like creating a dull place. What is the fulfillment of life if you did not strive to get what you want?

Then we have Jeanne whose inconsistency angered me more than even her stupidity. She said back then that she would accept her fate completely but now she was thinking about fighting fate itself by trying to stop Nobunaga. She should know very well that nothing stop Nobu when he made a decision but now she wanted to stop him just because he reject Caesar’s offer. How Jeanne choose Caesar’s ideal world while she knew Nobunaga had saved her ass countless times was beyond me.

Last, we have the battle between Nobu and Caesar with Ichihime in Caesar’s cockpit. After defeating Caesar, the vampires that used to be Caesar’s allies struck and wound both Caesar and Ichihime. The episode was ended with their death and some screaming.

I knew from last episodes that Ichihime would not live till the end. So many dead flags were already spoken and her word from this episode clearly yell like “this is my last supper bye” but the thing that surprised me more was Caesar’s dead. He was supposed to be on par with Nobunaga himself but why did they make his dead quite cheap. Where is the same Caesar who, while in losing battle, suddenly turned the tables and activated the special regalia? But seriously he was dead because he could not see Nell attacks? With his agility he should at least give decent fight before falling to such cheap trick.

Talking about cheap death, we could also see Nell and Bianca’s death. Nell struck Caesar, along with Ichihime and for unknown reason-Bianca. Then Caesar slashed Nell and killed his ex-allies with one blow. They were both non-human characters; to be precise they were vampires and yet they were killed altogether so easily as if they were just a tool created to justify Caesar and Ichihime demise.

I have complicated feeling regarding this episode. The problem is both Ichihime and Caesar could not make me sympathized enough to feel sad with their passing.

Ichihime's dead was sad but it would become more effective if her death was sudden. With her dead flags rising higher than others, I could only guessing when she would meet her end. In fact, seeing her live by the end of the series would make me surprised (If she DID live in the end I would think Gonzo start trolling again)

Caesar is one tough guy in this series but after backstabbing Takeda Shingen and killing Nobuhide karma would hunt and put him to rest. The chance of seeing Caesar live unscathed till the end is slim and only a glorious last battle death can redeem his wrongdoing (when his time come, we get the cheap one T-T)

The vampires, Bianca and Nell, have too little screen times that whether they live or not mean nothing to me. I feel somewhat happy because they finally got rid of the unnecessary characters but sad because their death was too fast as if they were not even vampires but normal humans.

With so many deaths, I don’t even know how many characters will survive in the end. Mitsuhide already killed Nobukatsu and just like Caesar, karma could kill him either. If we follow the real life story, Jeanne will be executed or she might die protecting Nobu. Himiko death flag is already given and we just have 50% chance to see whether she survived or not. As for the enemy, it is possible that Alexander become the last person that Nobu fought and defeat in the final battle and even Nobu himself was not safe from heroic last scene death. As for Hideyoshi, he was death once but the possibility of another dead is still possible.

The only character I can gamble my money to live by the end of the series was actually Leonardo Da Vinci. For some reason he reminded me of Fudo Gen from Sosei no Aquarion or Aquarion Evol. He seemed more like an observer who know about the outcome of the events and his calm and collected nature, complete with his antique gestures, which reminded me again to Gen, made me certain that he might be the only man standing in the end.