Holy crap.
I’ve read reviews about how Sengoku Basara was a manly show, and it certainly didn’t disappoint! It was a testosterone-fuelled rampage that was almost at the level of Gurren Lagann, and it was just a thrill from start to finish.
The events and people are clearly dramatised from their historical counterparts, and I think some of the events weren’t very historically accurate either. But what the hell, the characters are all fun to watch, and the fights are pretty epic, albeit ridiculous and overboard when put in the context of actual Japanese generals in the Sengoku Era.
The ridiculousness is embodied in pretty much every single character and fight. All of them seem to have über-auras that can blow cannon fodder away. Takeda, the Tiger of Kai, stands on two friggin’ horses and can conjure up a tornado. Sanada Yukimura can do Fire Punch and also do a fire tornado, along with wielding two spears that must be completely impossible to do in real life. Date Masasune wields THREE katanas in EACH hand. Tadakatsu is a bloody flying robot, Japanese-steampunk style. Even Oichi, Oda Nobunaga’s sister, has a black tentacle aura that kills off Nōhime.
The only major protagonists vaguely normal is probably Kōjūrō, the Right Eye of the Dragon. But even he has an electric field about him when he fights. Akechi Mitsuhide is probably nowhere near as freaky as his character suggests, and wielding two scythes is just…unwieldy. Ranmaru encounters the same problem that Hawkeye of The Avengers has; infinite ammo.
But while nitpicking at the impossibly shōnen depiction of revered generals, it’s hard not to feel guilty, because it was a really entertaining anime. The Takeda/Yukimura’s dynamic of master and learner reminds me of Lee and Gai from Naruto, although I’m not sure if it’s a copy or a long-running Japanese cultural joke. The over-the-top reaction from Kasuga whenever Kenshin praises her is hilarious and draws laughter from me every time I see it. Masamune’s biker style, English phrases and devil-may-care attitude endeared him to me as much as Yukimura’s naivety.
It’s a bit weird to jump from Oda Nobuna no Yabō to Sengoku Basara, especially given how different the portrayals of Oda Nobunaga appear. Given that Yoshiharu tried to keep Nobuna from turning heartless like Nobunaga does in the game he plays, it’s likely that the main impression of Oda Nobunaga is that he’s a cold, heartless man; that the portrayal of Nobunaga in Sengoku Basara is the more accurate, if exaggerated image of the man.
From a factual perspective, it’s important to disregard the exaggerations and one-sidedness of anime in order to judge Oda Nobunaga and his achievements. After all, the protagonists of Sengoku Basara are his opponents. I doubt Japan would have remembered him as one of three great unifiers of the country if he were the monster the anime painted him as.
In a way, Sengoku Basara IS accurate. Enemies of Oda Nobunaga no doubt believed him to be a monster, and there was likely propaganda that propagated that idea. But it could well have been what was shown in Oda Nobuna no Yabō, where his goal was to unite Japan and end the Sengoku Era. Only the man himself will truly know his motivations, his ideas, his dreams, his goals.
But before I get all gooey-eyed in respect for a man who had a grand ambition and dared to try and realise it, culminating in Toyotomi Hideyoshi actually unifying Japan, I shall let the manly, testosterone-raging Sengoku Basara series blow me away!