Oda Nobuna no Yabou – 06
Some scenes in the episode may be unsuitable for young audiences. Parental Guidance is advised.
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After Takenaka Hanbei defected to the Oda clan last week, we go to the decisive Siege of Inabayama Castle. If the Oda clan wins this battle, Mino province is Nobuna’s for the taking! Can Sagara Yoshiharu pull off the trick of constructing – and holding a castle that’s practically at the doorstep of enemy territory? |
Episode 6: “Sunomata Castle In A Night”
Player A: “wer r u dood?” Player B: “i’m in ur base, killin ur d00dz”
There’s something I like about set-piece battles, especially sieges. First of all, they look good when on the screen. You get to see the preparation of the besiegers when constructing the fortifications, the hardships they have to endure before, during and after the building of the fort (or in this episode’s case, the castle), and nice, orderly look of the newly constructed fortification once the building process is finished.
Second, there’s a lot of drama and action involved. This is especially true when the tables are turned, and the besiegers suddenly become the besieged, surrounded on many sides by the opposing force who now will try to burn the whole thing to the ground before the now-besieged-besiegers’ cavalry and reinforcements inevitably show up to save the day via a big-damn-heroes moment.
Saru and his One-Night Castle, Takenaka Hanbei and her pro-level RTS skills
Sunomata Castle, circa 15th Century A.D.
Shibata Katsuie, with her still-gainaxing plate armor no less, failed to hold and build a castle on Sunomata – so the task inevitably fell to Saru to make things happen. While he shamelessly borrowed the concept of prefabricating the castle piece by piece from his games, he still deserves a lot of praise for having the guts to go through with the plan, especially when said castle was almost burned to the ground.
Takenaka Hanbei-chan: pwning enemy troops in Total War: Shogun the Sengoku Period
Speaking of Hanbei-chan from last episode, we finally see that she really is a genius, commanding the Sagara’s detachment of Oda clan forces with skill. Last episode it felt to me as a sort of informed ability – and she seemed to rely too much more on her summoned familiars especially Zenki, but now we can see she actually can command and control her troops well – so well that Yoshitatsu cursed her name. Now if only she isn’t so shy outside of battle, I’d like her more.
Magus Killer’s Final Thoughts
Guess I was right when Hanbei-chan’s insistence on serving Yoshiharu instead of the Oda clan pressed Nobuna’s jealousy and tsundere buttons. Good thing she knew better than go 100% tsun-tsun mode and decided to take advantage of the situation. Unfortunately for Saru, I think he just set off Akechi Mitsuhide’s romance flag this episode. I’m willing to bet she’ll go Yandere for Saru once the “Incident at Honnoji” nears.
Save the loli ninja, save the world.
I knew that Goemon had armor – both the “plot-armor”-kind and literal chain mail protecting her, but I never expected that she would “pass out” from the impact of a musket ball. If she just wanted to teach Sagara the fallacy of his wanting to not sacrifice anything and have it all, she could have done so after the battle was fought and won. Granted, the seeming death of a beloved comrade did the trick. I don’t expect Sagara to heed the lesson that easily though. This guy learns lessons the hard way.
Nobuna definitely held the Idiot Ball this time. Knowing your opponent was waiting in an abandoned gold mine, and with a narrow valley leading to it, everything and everyone, especially Admiral Ackbar was just screaming, “It’s a trap!” Yet Nobuna still led her troops into straight into it. Again, secure the high ground first before going into such places! Didn’t Sun Tzu put that in his Art of War?
Nobuna doesn’t always rename a castle and a town, but when she does, she does it for her step-father
Renaming Inabayama Castle and the surrounding town into Gifu castle and Gifu Town, respectively for father-figure Saito Dousan was a nice touch, though. D’awww.
Preview:
Date Masamune: ARE YOU READY GUYS?!?
Next week on Oda Nobuna no Yabou, it looks like Nobuna and co. will take a stroll in the Imperial Capital of Kyoto. Who is that shrine-maiden-looking loli? Who has the bigger cup size, Shibata Katsuie or that blonde nun? Will Azai Nagamasa ever stop ruining the show for me? Will Date Masamune PUT HER GUNZ ON? Find out in the next episode, “Nobuna advances on Kyoto”.
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POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 323 comments
i like this episode nore ~~
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Agreed! This was great!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Amphibious Monkey-Loli Force! Go!!!
(well, that’s what I was thinking when they were floating on the rafts)
This was a really good episode, but I’m not a big fan of the “hey, we won!” plot contrivance. They were losing, the whole place is burning, how’d they win? Or is winning just staying enough alive that there’s someone for Nobuna to rescue? If so, I guess it counts.
Also, is the malleable loyalty a regular feature of the Sengoku period? Or is it mainly just that jackasses like Yoshitaru manage to drive everyone away and ethical people like Nobuna pick up the good pieces?
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
When I read your first sentence, I heard it in Amata’s voice (from Aquarion Evol).
They won because they established a beachhead and managed to hold it. When Nobuna arrived Saru was still alive, which meant they were still holding back the enemy forces (just barely). It’s easier to hold a location if you ahve some defendable structures than just the open ground.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Loyalty, rather you like it or not, is not an absolute. In the context of the show, it changes due to circumstances; one of them being the case where you actually talk to your enemy rather than simply fight them at all costs. The Viper was able to see he had more in common with Nobuna; that they shared a common dream of the future. Contrast with Yoshitaru who wants to conquer just to do it…
Which leads to him using his generals as pawns for the fire. I wouldn’t be to loyal to a guy that does that to me.
As for it being a feature of the Sengoku period, Magus_Killer brings up “Incident at Honnoji”….which if you read up on history….No spoilers…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, I’m actually not big on the concept of loyalty overall, but generally military types are. And let’s face it, the people that have switched their allegiances so far are the ones who were getting hosed: Hanzo, Hanbei, the two generals this episode. I wouldn’t put Dousan in that group, since he was essentially a free agent.
It’s mostly that it just seems to take very little convincing to get entire armies to switch allegiances that I’m kind of wondering about.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Amphibious Monkey-Loli Force! Go!!!
Oh, oh, I got this one! It’s a flo-li-tilla. Am I right? Yeah thought so…..
The loyalty issue and how it is portrayed is probably just the expediency of storytelling.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Also, you have to keep in mind that they originally followed Dousan, so their loyalty was to him. Then they thought he made a mistake by entrusting Mino to Nobuna, so they staged a coup, and ended up following Yoshitaru and later realized it was a mistake.
If you originally joined because of Dousan, and he’s now with the enemy, and your current leader is incompetent, wouldn’t you also switch sides?
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Sorry, not incompetent, just a spoiled-I-deserve-it-all-and-at-any-cost-son.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
I agree, holding out against sieges are fun to watch and play (in RTS games).
I kept thinking, when Asai appeared, “Countdown to trap get-toh”!
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Epic episode. Ambushes and sieges are awesome. What I like about set-piece battles is that they’re decided by the number soldiers with skills (300) that make it fun to watch instead of modern wars with big time weapons that spoil the excitement.
Katsuie’s armor remains a mystery. I see no point in having something like that if it looks that vulnerable. It should be like Goemon’s armor: strong, sturdy and reassuring. Unless Katsuie has Saiyan armor for women in the Sengoku period.
Hanbei-chan is worthy of her fame and she seems to have gotten over dislike of hurting people. Now if only she was more open with everything else.
Credit to Sagara for continuing to stick his neck out for Nobuna. He’s a pretty gutsy lead. I wonder if building a castle like that overnight really was in the realm of possibility back then.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Given what we were shown of the “castle”, I wouldn’t see any reason it couldn’t be erected in a night. It was mainly a wooden emplacement on a beach, and if they had pre-fabbed the main wall panels, heck even if they just pre-cut everything, it didn’t look like the biggest job in the world. I actually liked that it wasn’t some overly elaborate castle, just minimal cover and protection, so it was believable.
I thought Hanbei-chan’s hangup was ‘unnecessary bloodshed’. In that case, people directly attacking you are either going to shed your blood or you shed theirs, so someone’s becomes necessary.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 28 comments
I really recommend you not putting
in the intro(introduction page). It kills the suspense for readers who haven’t seen the episode yet. A.K.A spoiled.
Anyway hugs
POWUH: iLurker with 18 comments
Okay, I changed it to a slightly less spoiler-y caption. Thanks. XD
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Good review all around, M_K. I’m surprised you didn’t point out Ichi’s animated head gear…
POWUH: iLurker with 18 comments
Thanks. =)
About Inuchiyo’s tiger headgear getting some animation of its own, I couldn’t get a decent screenshot of it (I’d be seconds too early or too late when I press the “capture screenshot” button) – so I decided to leave it out. XD
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Most video players allow you to “start taking screenshots” and when you do that, it does so until you command it to stop; just a small amount of finesse can usually nab a good shot. I use SMplayer (an Mplayer front end), or VLC 2.2.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
You can’t advance frame by frame while paused? That’s how I get my screenshots. Of course, I have far more rigamarole (turn off direct subs, change the renderer from MadVR), but getting the right frame is easy.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I can pause and advance, yes, but choose not too. Much like M_K, I am either to soon, or to early, and find the tedium of f by f advance to be icky. So, create a folder for screenshots, and just take a bunch.
Using SMplayer on my Ubuntu machine I don’t have to toy with any of the CCCP/MadVR stuffs (and in fact, can’t).
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Haha, I do that! I turn on the screen capture in ffdshow and just play, and then just grab the ones out of the 100s that are there and delete the rest ^^
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Ooh, I totally missed that, so I had to re-watch it. Are you referring to the scene with Goemon after the battle? I like how it was kinda snuck in and then it goes back to normal ^^
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Preview: With Date’s introduction we now have a five loli show. I wonder if the LN’s have cute generals doing cute things moments….
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Haha, I do that! I turn on the screen capture in ffdshow and just play, and then just grab the ones out of the 100s that are there and delete the rest =P
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Please delete, my browser settings don’t like the new java/script layout for replying.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 23 comments
It looks like Sagara’s loli harem will expand by one..or 2 in the coming episodes.
POWUH: iLurker with 14 comments
Obi Wan: It’s over Anakin, I got the high ground.