Wednesday 3 September 2014

The Fool Indeed (Nobunaga The Fool Review)



Opening Songs
OP 1 - FOOL THE WORLD (Minori Chihara)
OP 2 - Breakthrough (Jam Project)

Ending Songs
ED 1 - AXIS (STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION)
ED 2 - RAN (ASUKA)

Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Episodes: 24



"Nobunaga The Fool" seems like a pretty interesting anime at first. It takes place during the olden Japanese war period, it involves both eastern and western heroes of old, it takes a spin on these old heroes and makes them feel fresh. There are gigantic, well designed mecha doing battle, and there was potential for a LOT of badass-ery in this one. Unfortunately...it just doesn't live up to the hype. There were a lot of questionable decisions made, and the entire anime's story line just goes from okay to bad to not so good....to completely retarded. You will question many things that the characters do in this show, and while the show does start off decently well, it only goes downhill after the halfway point. Hell, it'll start to not make sense BEFORE the 2nd half even starts. It does a good job in portraying the characters in how they're supposed to be like IN history, but that just makes things worst. In the end, watching the entire series will indeed, make you feel like a fool.



At least Jeanne is sexy.


To credit the anime, it does have some good opening and ending songs. The first opening song is "FOOL THE WORLD" by Minori Chihara. You know me, I love Minori Chihara songs, and this one felt just right up her alley. It feels a lot like "Terminated", but a little bit less badass. It's got all the tension and awesomeness to make it sound worthy of an opening song. Much like the first opening, the 2nd opening, "Breakthrough" by Jam Project, is pretty good as well. While its does not have as much impact as the first opening, it does have this intense buildup that goes well with the opening animations (Nobunaga does look somewhat weird in this one though).


The first ending theme is "AXIS" by STEREO DIVE FOUNDATION. Its hip and funky, it has a fancy beat to boot. Then we have the 2nd opening, "RAN" by ASUKA, which is easily the only "bad" song among the 4 themes used. It just doesn't bring anything memorable like the other songs IMO.



Rating: 6.0/10



It just wasn't very entertaining. Honestly, even though I said that it started off decently, its only DECENTLY. Throughout the entire series, there weren't many exciting segments, and you really don't give a fig about the characters because most of them feel so...insignificant. And during the parts where you're supposed to care...you really don't. The story is pretty uninteresting from the get go, and the only character that was entertaining was Da Vinci (lol, this is true btw).  What about romance? Dude, THERE IS NO ROMANCE IN THIS! The character development for our main females and the way they fell for Nobunaga just made no sense. Its even more mind boggling when he returns the feelings...because he shows almost no interest in them throughout the entire damn anime. The mecha action scenes are pretty well done and do feel badass, but that was pretty much it. The mechas are cool, but you really don't give a damn about the people piloting them, AND THOSE GUYS ARE THE MAIN CHARACTERS. And of course, its all made worse when they present to us the ending....that was, pretty much, one of the most WTF endings I've seen in anime, ever. It only amplified the amount of question marks that were already in my head.



Apparently THIS is where all the budget went.

The story stars the 3 stooges, Oda Nobunaga, Akechi Mitsuhide and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. These 3 are childhood friends, and they witnessed with their very own eyes, the art of war that decimates their kingdom, the eastern star. They vowed to change the world, under Nobunaga's will. While all this was happening, back in the unified western star, the child of propchy, Jeanne Kaguya D'arc, was approached by Da Vinci. Together, they set out for the eastern star to seek the savior king, which Jeanne saw in her vision. Of course, on their way to the eastern star, Da Vinci and Jeanne decide to jump ship, and fly to the eastern star on their own with a western vessel, marking them as traitors. Immediately, they are pursued with giant war armors from the west. When they crash landed on the eastern star, Nobunaga is nearby with Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi. He decides to investigate the fallen ship...and finds a giant war armor. After synchronizing himself with it and using it to slay opposing western giant armors, Da Vinci gives it to him. Nobunaga names it...The Fool.


Yeah...I don't usually berate animes like this, but I just had to do this. It has been awhile since I've watched an anime that I genuinely DID NOT LIKE, because "Nobunaga The Fool" just felt really stupid. With the only redeeming factor being the nice mecha fight scenes, there's really little reason to watch this, UNLESS you are a MASSIVE mecha nut. Otherwise, you're better off watching something else, because watching this  to the end only makes you look like a fool.


Peace.