Nobunaga Concerto - Reviews

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Noriko's avatar
Sep 1, 2014

Haiiii~ (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧

Let me start off by saying this anime is probably one of the most underrated of the Summer 2014 season.

Let's start!

STORY

Imagine if you enjoyed your everyday life and then you suddenly wake up in a completely different world :o 

Well that happened to this teenager. Luckily he meets the ruler of the land who for some reason, looks exactly like him! What could happen? hmmm

I won't spoil as much, so I'll just say that the story is really interesting! It's based on real history of Japan mixed with a guy from distant future (present day). I'm really glad there's no gore/battles/sex/nudity in this title, because honestly, it would ruin everything. So yeah, the show is kind of for everyone who's willing to understand what they are talking about.

A large portion of the show is based around war, but it's very balanced (unlike Lord Marskman and Vanadis). There is a lot of war, but it doesn't ruin the show.

Also if you have absolute NO idea about Japanese history (like myself) that is perfectly fine because I'm sure you will find this title interesting, and learn something so win-win.

It only has 10 episode so it does feel a little bit rushed. It's still pretty much enjoyable and entertaining ^^

8/10

ANIMATION

Animation is really unusual. Some of anime fans might not like it. It's a mixure of 2D and 3D art. I personally love it. The art is so beautiful, and the animation of characters seems really realistic. So I really like the style because I've never seen something like this in anime.

Now even though I think animation is really good, I'll have to say that there are some awkward scenes in which I just thought something was... off. I noticed a few times their movement just doesn't seem right or the whole scene just doesn't look right.

But yeah, pretty much unique in a good way. 8/10

SOUND

Nothing bad about sound, I love their accents.

Voice acting is good, I only caught few times where it's a bit out of sync but nothing major. Music is sort of non existant, but I wouldn't expect a rock theme playing in the background while they are drinking tea in a fancy palace so... Yeah, I have nothing against the sound in this title. It's not perfect, but solid. 8/10

CHARACTERS

Most of the characters (except the main character) are based on real people (that existed around 500 years ago...) and most of them are pretty likeable.

The main character is so funny and just the way he's acting around all of these super formal noble people is hilarious. 

So yeah, just the whole setting is hilarious. Love all of the characters and how they developed them. Love that the main character is not the only ''person in a strange world''. But I won't say more about this :P

OVERALL

This anime is great. It's funny, it's interesting, it's useful for all us who are uneducated. So if you want to watch something that focuses on story rather than action, with lots of humor, this anime is great for you!

Thanks for reading this review! ^^

8/10 story
8/10 animation
8/10 sound
9/10 characters
8/10 overall
duchessliz's avatar
Feb 7, 2015

Saborou, a modern day high school student, is flung back into the past ... smack dab in the middle of the Sengoku Era where he has a run in with a sickly Oda Nobunaga who asks for him to trade places with him due to their uncanny resemblance to one another. Despite not being well versed in history Saborou is armed with his history textbook and is determined to use it so as to not mess up history. With all his knowledge of the future, will Saborou be able to unite all Japan as Oda Nobunaga?

The plot to me was what kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved how they made it seem as if this was exactly the way things were meant to happen and how Saborou was meant to become the Oda Nobunaga his history textbook spoke of.

The animation was ... unique, I suppose. I didn't much care for it, personally, but felt that it really didn't take away from my enjoyment. It didn't come off as particularly fluid and was rather stilted and awkward at times but the backrounds were lovely and were really the saving grace of the animation. The soundtrack, on the other hand, fit the setting remarkably well!

 

The characters were one of the highlights, for me. You had the modern thinking / slightly airheaded Saborou whose luck often made him seem like a tactical genius (and who, quite frankly, was a little too relaxed at times and just went with the flow ... he came off as a bit nutty but I came to adore that part of him!), the soft-spoken and sweet Kichou, the serious yet extraordinarily loyal Tsuneaki who, although originally against the changes in his lord, eventually becomes one of his most loyal supporters, Nobunaga's airheaded sister Oichi whose personality was so like Saborou that you would think that in reality Saborou was really her biological brother, the real Nobunaga who became impressed by Saborou and became one of his staunchest supporters and went to work for him under an alias, though....

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though by choosing Matsuhide Akechi as his new name, he ironically became the future murderer of Oda Nobunaga. Since Nobunaga is who he is in reality I found it even more ironic and oddly fitting. When Saborou saw Honnoji and blurted out that it was where Oda Nobunaga dies but then blanked on who killed him ... and then 'Akechi' speaks up and says he'll see to it that nobody kills him ... I found that oddly hilarious as he, himself, was the future murderer ... (my sense of humor is weird ... I'm aware -_-" )

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Overall, I originally didn't hold much expectation for Nobunaga Concerto ... but by the end I was slightly addicted ... and very sad to have to say goodbye to it. I hope they do another season someday!

8/10 story
6/10 animation
8/10 sound
8/10 characters
7.8/10 overall
killermouze's avatar
Apr 24, 2020

As a heads up, I use a more standardized distribution ranking scale. That is, I consider a "5" as distinctly average.

Story:

A very interesting period in Japan's history. While the time traveling premise might be overused, I did think the generally more serious tone and its attempts to try and portray life of the period was refreshing - a big difference from the tiresome amount of unnecessary ecchi in many of these animes.

Animation:

I can see how the animation could be polarizing. Some might find the very static style more "artistic" in nature and consider it a central component of the way the creators wanted to portray the story.

However, I did not care for the animation style. I found it unnecessarily clunky, and as someone else mentioned in their review, the lack of facial expressions made it hard to understand their emotional states. I'm inclined to believe the creators had a very low budget and used "artistic expression" to cut costs.

Sound:

Sound was eh? The voice actors did a valiant job of trying to overcoming the weaknesses of the static character models, but didn't quite meet the bar.

Characters:

I liked the supporting characters more then the main. I found the main frustratingly detached from everything. Rather than having an anime that focused on how a normal person grew into a brilliant leader in a chaotic time, we get a highschool kid that wins more by luck then anything else. What the side characters take as "genius", I take as stupid. This might be part of the point, but I think it was a terrible direction.

Overall:

If you can get over the animation, this is a reasonably entertaining watch, if nothing really special. I suggest watching the ENTIRE first episode before making a judgement - I almost stopped 5 minutes in because of the animation. I'm glad I didn't.

7/10 story
3/10 animation
5/10 sound
5/10 characters
5/10 overall
StevenSAKUJO's avatar
Apr 10, 2017

Story [6.5/10]

Synopsis: Saburo is a disinterested high school student who inexplicably finds himself in the warring states period after falling from a railing he was trapezing across. He falls on none other than Oda Nobunaga to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance and upon noticing this Nobunaga confides in Saburo that he is sickly and has decided to run away from his responsibilities, requesting that Saburo act as a decoy for him. Saburo's nihilistic and care-free attitude is completely at odds with strict feudal Japan but as Saburo realizes that in order to not tamper with the future, he must recreate the past and conquer Japan. 

Honestly you'd think that historical anime would be the easiest to create because of how rich Japanese history is and how different it is from modern life and celebrated by many as being the extremes of duty, obligation, honour and many other things that are becoming less and less important in modern life. However in anime world, rather than making a serious anime about Japan, instead it is about Oda Nobunaga fighting with mecha or Oda Nobunaga being a girl or Oda Nobunaga being a pervert. In this sense, Nobunaga Concerto actually feels like an honest attempt to portray life in feudal Japan and for me, that is much more exciting and enjoyable than many of the other ridiculous anime plot lines. 

That being said Nobunaga Concerto is mostly a comedy and fairly light-hearted, incomparable to animes like Drifters or Youjo Senki. Much of the comedy requires some basic understanding of Japanese history as does most of the entire story, after all the story is a fairly realistic portrayal of Oda Nobunaga's rise to power and Japanese culture and the comedy comes from that. It is a fairly plain anime that lacks much of the sensational aspects of most shounen and this is quite refreshing and relaxing.

Animation [7.5/10]

I always find the opinion's of others interesting when it comes to evaluating animation because I feel that the improvement of animation quality in recent productions often comes at the expense of realism, symbolism, modesty, character development and so many other things. Characters look super kawaii or cool and it's hard to see them as actual characters to some extent, there will be one character who is supposed to be super good looking or cool but the animation makes every character look gorgeous so it doesn't even appear that way. A character can be super depressed but then you see they are gorgeous and have some super amazing style, or that they are shy and yet look like a fkn pop idol. So when an anime like Nobunaga Concerto has such an odd animation style that seems low budget and clunky, I actually find it to be really good compared to crap like Shokugeki no Souma or Kabaneri or other animes with this newer style of animation. I think it makes the anime even more hilarious, some battle scenes are not animated which was a let down but some were. 

I would say though that the animation matches the mood of the anime, very PG13 and light hearted.

Sound [6/10]

No OP exists which is great for me since I usually skip it anyway, always reveals too much and makes the anime predictable and the ED is pleasant. Mamoru Miyano is probably my favourite seiyuu and his voice is instantly recognizable to me and he plays as Saburo and improves the quality of the anime tremendously. The OST does not play a big role in Nobunaga Concerto but while pieces can be played very often they are not unpleasant.

Characters [5/10]

As with a lot of medieval anime, a great example would be Arslan Senki, the fact that the story centres around a lord and his subjects really damages the depth of characters and also their development throughout the story. Nobunaga Concerto is no exception and Saburo's conversations with others are impaired as being meaningful as his subjects are in awe of their lord being a decent person or giving them praise and every character is like this. That doesn't mean that I couldn't tell the characters apart though and everyone had their own identity but there was no depth whatsoever. 

Overall [8/10]

Overall isn't an average of other scores, watching Nobunaga Concerto immersed me into Saburo's and Oda Nabunaga's story and provided me with plenty of entertainment. Certainly not a masterpiece but far less of a load than a lot the pretentious, perverted or ridiculous shounen that are far too common.

6.5/10 story
7.5/10 animation
6/10 sound
6/10 characters
8/10 overall
kieras's avatar
Jun 30, 2020

I actually somewhat liked it despite the mixed response. If anything it was the animation that threw me off, i don't mind them not having expressions, but when they get hard news like the death of a friend i feel like it's necessary. The inconsistency in animation was a little weird too. I liked the story though, (i'm on episode 3 my opinion may change🤷🏽‍♀️) it's been interesting.

Edit: I stopped watching after the 3rd episode lol

6.5/10 story
3/10 animation
?/10 sound
5/10 characters
5/10 overall