Summary:
Mitsuhide reveals that Oichi’s mission was to weaken the highest general of the Azai clan and set the foundation for the attack on the Asakura clan. Since she fell in love and got caught in the middle, Mitsuhide stepped in and had Nagamasa shot to death. Mitsuhide then proceeds to drool all over the place in glee as he fights against Masamune. Ieyasu is left to fend for himself, and orders a retreat while Tadakatsu and Yukimura face off. Ieyasu suddenly changes his mind and decides it would be wise to surrender to Shingen.
Unfortunately, Nohime overhears Ieyasu’s plans and starts shooting up the place with her two pistols. She then pulls a giant Gatling gun out of nowhere, and also reveals that the gun can fire some sort of subterranean-to-surface torpedo. Tadakatsu tosses Yukimura to safety but is killed in the blast when his rocket pack finally gives out. In the aftermath, Kenshin sends Keiji to convince the Mouri and Chousokabe clans to stop fighting each other and start fighting Nobunaga. Shingen tends to Masamune (whose bullet wound originally went unnoticed), and Mitsuhide gets severely scolded by Nobunaga for acting against orders.
Reaction:
This episode made very little sense. Why did Keiji suddenly stop and then let Kenshin catch up? Was Keiji not fast enough to meet up with Nobunaga? I also had a serious problem with Nohime’s Gatling gun. I watched her riding vertically down a slope (sidesaddle!), but the gun was not on the horse. Where did it come from? And why would it fire an underground torpedo? That makes absolutely no sense! If Tadakatsu was really in Gundam, he’d be alive for sure and reappear in a few episodes with a tweaked design.
The best part of this episode was definitely the beef between Nobunaga and Mitsuhide. Mitsuhide is more along the lines of your classic short-sighted villain, betraying allies and allowing weak opponents to escape willy nilly. I like the way Nobunaga thinks, methodically picking off opponents one at a time, and allying with strong potential opponents until the time is right. The sake cup made from a skull was pretty pimp as well, although the eye sockets made the whole thing a little impractical.
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.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Nagamasa looks hot without his helmet*cough* Surprisingly, I kinda liked the Ichi-Nagamasa part of the episode (as opposed to my really strong original dislike of Ichi) but I’m glad it was short. Then we got more Masamune fighting – they’re really putting a lot into making him look cool.
It’s actually kind of interesting to see the different degrees of psycho in the show. I mean, Masamune himself is apparently pretty nuts, like at the beginning when he laughs a lot and tries to fight practically everyone he meets. But he’s got standards, which is different from Nobunaga, who’s got brains to go with his crazy. It’s pretty rare to see someone both evil without any Freudian excuse and who can still think and plan toward their ultimate goal.
Despite all his talk of loyalty and honor, Ieyasu is really practical. He aligned with the Demon King – but only for long enough to become stronger. Then, when the battle obviously turned against him and the riflemen promised were not coming, he quickly surrendered instead. Kinda nice to see such practicality. Though I think the last part, where he joins Shingen in a fit of rage and revenge (?) kinda ruins it.
Nouhime… eh. It’s like asking how many spears Yukimura has (he breaks one and then finds another one to replace it) or where Sasuke and Kasuga keep their weapons (Kasuga especially). It carries over from the fighting game.
I still find it annoying that only Masamune got shot and only once (what about all his men behind him? Guns should have hit them too). Even Mitsuhide mocks it.
And Keiji… Bah. He sucks no matter how you look at it. I guess Nobunaga left before he could catch up (last episode, actually, after telling off Mitsuhide)
If it makes you feel better, technically Masamune got hit twice, because that one bullet glanced off his helmet. And I don’t like Keiji either. Maybe everyone else hid in the bushes or something until he left, because they didn’t want to talk to the monkey-man.
I see that your comment number is to commemorate the release of the new Haruhi episode 8? Yesness? =3
Still, how did they manage to miss all his soldiers? arghNevermind. Yeah, everyone ran off before Keiji could reach them. He was heading for the cliff, but Mitsuhide and Ichi ran off to the battle last episode, Nobunaga left after seeing Nagamasa shot and finally Nouhime ran off to fight too. So I guess Keiji missed his chance~
I guess Keiji could be okay, but he’s totally out of place with his pacific, peace-loving thing, kinda like Yukimura suddenly being concerned for opposing soldiers – this is a show about hotblooded battles! I kinda like Keiji’s design too… but he’s just too dumb.
It’s amusing how everyone still remembers that after they take care of Nobunaga, they’re going to turn on each other.
Nou Hime! <3
Also, she pulls freaking gatling gun out of nowhere. Gunslinger Woman. You do not beat a gunslinging side-saddle riding woman in battle. No way.