Summary:
Shingen tells Kasuga that he will agree to Kenshin’s plan for an alliance. Although Shingen was encouraged by Keiji’s success with Date, Sasuke is unable to convince Tokugawa Ieyasu nor Azai Nagamasa to join the alliance. One major obstacle is that Nagamasa is married to Nobunaga’s sister Oichi. This puts justice-freak Nagamasa in a dilemma when Nobunaga decides to break the three way alliance between the Oda, Azai, and Asakura clans.
At first Nagamasa rides to intercept Mitsuhide’s forces, but is foolishly convinced to take Oichi with him to reason with Nobunaga. Nobunaga takes the opportunity to take Oichi as a hostage and threatens to use his shotgun on her face if Nagamasa doesn’t take Mitsuhide’s place in attacking Asakura Yoshikage. Nagamasa would rather try to convince Yoshikage to surrender without bloodshed, but Mitsuhide convinces Nagamasa to reinforce Ieyasu’s forces to the east first. Nagamasa agrees to help Ieyasu prevent Masamune from slipping through, in hopes that the victory will convince Nobunaga to spare Yoshikage.
Reaction:
As boring as it was, it was necessary to have episodes 3 and 4 set the stage for the big brawl; otherwise, I wouldn’t have a clue what the heck was happening. Fortunately, there were a few humorous elements to keep my interest from completely shriveling up. I liked how they juxtaposed Kasuga and Yukimura showing off their love of cleavage, and I loved finding out that Sasuke constantly tells Yukimura, “Kasuga is mai waifu.” Poor Yukimura is so daft that he believes Sasuke even after Kasuga completely denies the relationship, but it’s true that women are quite complicated.
Speaking of which, it would be awfully convenient if Oichi actually hated Nagamasa’s guts and planned this whole thing out with Nobunaga. Even after Nagamasa told Oichi to retreat multiple times, he still ended up taking her with him. I can totally see Oichi happily glomping her onii-chan while Nobunaga smugly makes out with Nohime in front of a crestfallen Nagamasa. Now that would have really spiced up this episode. Hmm, maybe I have been watching too much anime lately…
This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1971 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Unfortunately, Oichi is just a complete doormat. (She does seem to really love her husband, actually, but…) I don’t like characters like her, though she’s apparently pretty popular. Seriously, getting taken hostage just like that? She’s supposed to be one of the main character hero units!
Although, I did appreciate all the Nobunaga evilness going around, and the ominous Latin chanting.
The best part, though, was definitely Kasuga coming to visit and all that followed. Her “wft” reaction to Yukimura getting punched through the wall was great. And Sasuke continues to amaze with his straightness (one of, what, three characters in the show that’s not gay for their rival) and his random comments about Yukimura/Masamune. (“You’ve really fallen for him” indeed)
Oichi is just WTF. She is being portrayed as one of the worst characters (including in episode 5), though probably episode 6 will show her actually doing something.
Kasuga. <3 And every episode must have Yukimura getting punched twice by Shingen I think. Or every other episode.