WARNING! Spoilers ahead!SYNOPSIS: A betrayal in a magical alternate timeline sends the major generals, shōgun, and swordsmen of Japan's Warring States Period to modern-day Japan...except they're all girls! Will these out-of-time-and-space heroines be able to return home one day, or can they adjust to and accept their new lives?SUMMARY: In an alternate timeline, the generals, shōgun, daimyō, and famous swordmen of the Sentoku period are all girls, aging from very young (kindergarten age) to late twenties. Akechi Mitsuhide's historical betrayal of Oda Nobunaga repeats itself here, but instead of resulting in the latter's death, they and others from their world—including retainers, aides, two ninja, Matsuo Bashō, and (oddly enough) Liu Bei—are instead sent to modern-day Japan. After some minor misadventures with her new "retainer," Oda Nobunaga finds a shrine. She prays to the kami there to send her home so she could finish her conquest of the world, and threatens to burn the shrine down if they refuse. The three shrine miko obviously don't want that to happen, so they offer to help her. The problem is, they lack the power to do so. However, if Nobunaga were to collect the magical power sources, or "secret treasure," of the other "Sengoku generals" there, the shrine miko would have the power to finish the spell. Thus begins Nobunaga's quest to collect the energies of her old allies and enemies.Some give theirs up willingly, like Tokugawa Ieyasu (who has become a pop idol since her arrival) and Uesugi Kenshin (who is now a fashion model), as they have becomed accustomed to life in the new world, and do not wish to return to the violence and unrest that is home. Others, like Hōjō Sōun and Ashikaga Yoshiteru, fight to keep their power, as any Sengoku general who has her power given or taken away will be permanently unable to return home. Nobunaga begins her quest, accepting or taking the other generals' secret treasures one by one (or in a few select cases, in multiples) until a climactic battle between her, Mitsuhide, Sōun, Imagawa Yoshimoto, Taigen Sessai, and Fūma Kotarō.Sounds like a fun and engaging story, yes?STORY: 4/10...except that's not what we get. What we get instead is a series of monstly self-contained vignettes about the generals' lives. If Nobunaga makes an appearance at all, it is often at the very end of the episode where she takes the secret treasure. In many episodes she is neither seen nor mentioned. This is a stark disconnect that is unexpected from the synopsis and from the first few episodes' ending. It's honestly quite distracting. Some of the vignettes are entertaining in and of themselves, but with little arc to connect all twenty-six episodes it's often hard to consider them one series; instead they are circa twenty individual animations that happen to be in the same shared universe.What saves this from being a much lower score is the handful of episodes that are truly great by themselves. Both of Ieyasu's solo stories are engaging, Ōtani Yoshitsugu's plight is heartwrenching, and Liu Bei's and Bashō's individual tales are heartwarming. While many of the individual epiodes are mediocre at best, the few stand-out ones really do make the series worth watching at least once.Small bonus point for the many classic and contemporary film, literature, and television shoutouts found in almost every episode. From 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alice in Wonderland, to Female Prisoner #701 and Back to the Future, the shout outs are usually noticable, but not so intrusive as to be disruptive. Many are quite fun, in fact.ART & ANIMATION: 4/10One of the curious things that the vignette-style show allows is an exploration of various art and animation styles. Many of the episodes have slight changes to background textures and colors to help emphasize the mood; Yoshitsugu's sad episode is drab and reminiscent of a Van Gogh painting (background data will show that she is one of two generals to have not landed in Japan, having landed in Finland), while Amago Tsunehisa's episode is portrayed like a history documentary, complete with animations detailing territorial expansion and battle plans.The overall art of the show is fairly basic though. While character design is generally decent, the animation is a bit choppy, and some of the artistic elements—like the flowers, seals, and other symbols that frequently adorn (and obscure) the backround—just plain get in the way.MUSIC & SOUND: 6/10As befits the running theme, the sound is also par for the course. Sound effects are expectedly everywhere in this show, and many are the often-used effects which can be expected of series like this. There wasn't much that was innovative in the sound effect catalogue.The music is much better though. Outside of some odd choices, the music is appreciable and appropriate, if a bit basic. The first season's opening, "Close Your Eyes and Hold Me" by Abcho, is a fun romp that sets the overall tone for the show: lighthearted and simple. The first season's closing tune, "Unlucky Girl!" by Sweety (the group also provides the voices for the shrine miko) is a fun jaunty jazz piece. Sweety also provides the opening track for the second season, "Back Into my World," another lively jazzy song. The second season's closing theme, "Darling and Madonna" by You Kikkawa, a bright pop tune, has a feeling of resolve to it; a fitting final song to the series.CHARACTERS: 7/10Character design is generally decent, and some characters have historical touches that provide a nice "I see what you did there" moment for history buffs (for example, Liu Bei has a leaf-shaped head bit, a nod to the hat that the fictional version of the warlord was said to wear). What this comes as a pleasant surprise though is that, despite this show having little in the way of actual plot, many of the characters are well-written. A twenty-minute vignette is often not enough time to fully establish a character, much less explore and develop them. This show somehow avoids that issue entirely, and some of the better episodes feature an amount of development normally expected from longer episodes, or even films. Bashō's episode is especially notable, in that it pleasingly develops not only Bashō herself, but all the secondary characters around her.PERSONAL CHOICE: 5/10The show is decidedly average, maybe a tiny bit-subpar, overall. It was moderately entertaining to watch at times, but was far too limited in scope to provide more than a momentary distraction. Unlike other, more well-developed series, I never felt "glued to my seat" by what was going on. This, to me, is a sign that it could be better.TOTAL: 26/50 (52%)GRADE: D-FINAL THOUGHTS: I really wish this show had more in the way of an overall plot. Vignettes are nice by themselves, but they don't make for a notable story when pushed together. I have the feeling that the writers were beginning to hint at a larger story near the end, but they were unwilling to commit to it for more than the final few episodes. The well-connected characters, in that setting, could have made for a fun story, but instead we get single, disconnected experiences.