Next up – Ieyasu!
What They Say:
Ieyasu has fell into the same parallel world as Nobunaga. While search she watches a video of Rosary, a pop idol. Her new goal is to sing and dance, but it is proving to be harder than ruling a country.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After the first episode gave us a good look at Nobunaga’s arrival in the present day, albeit an alternate timeline from the one she existed in, the show shifts gears a bit here. Nobunaga won me over with her cuteness and quick adaptation to this particular world and future since she treated it as something fun and new to understand and deal with. While I liked Nobunaga, this episode brings us Ieyasu as she’s gone through the same process that Nobunaga did, ending up in this parallel world in the future and finding it to be a strange place. What she finds though is something that’s very appealing as there’s a huge outdoor video wall showcasing a pop singer. It speaks to her heart and soul and she wants to be just like that woman, Rosary.
Ieyasu has a bit of luck in how things go after a bit and she’s quickly discovered as a natural talent with a god given gift. The push to become an idol is swift as the company that has secured her puts her through her paces, including doing the whole acting angle as well since a pop idol has many, many hats to wear beyond just singing. Not that you can tell that Ieyasu is a good singer based on the first bits we get in the first half, which makes it all the more comical seeing her being so expertly groomed. But she’s always drawn back to the billboard and images of Rosary with her performances, style and presence. For Ieyasu, it’s something that truly does speak to her and that’s sometimes more than half the battle in achieving your dreams.
Similar to Nobunaga, there is a voice speaking in her head that’s urging her on towards her dreams which is something that definitely helps to tie the two stories together for the moment, something that’s definitely needed for those that were hooked on the first episode and have no connection to this one since the characters don’t carry over. Yet. The show works through some good growth for Ieyasu as she goes on her journey and deals with its challenges. When she finally does connect again with Nobunaga, it opens up things a bit more about the series that skews it just a little in an intriguing way where they have to acquire the right amount of power in order to return to the world they came from. It’s an idea that does work, though at the same time you have to wonder why they’d return. Until you remember the allure of power in the world they came from and how much harder it truly is to acquire here, even though the rewards and scale is much higher.
In Summary:
After an episode that focused just on Nobunaga, it wasn’t a surprise to bring another of the classics into the present. What was surprising was that they’d excise the characters from the first episode almost entirely from this one. Normally you get them popping into what has been established and adding more and more from there. Giving Ieyasu her own time to shine without the influence of Nobunaga for the majority of it is an interesting choice and one that I do think will work in the long run as it lets her character be fully established while eventually bridging things together. Ieyasu’s not as interesting as Nobunaga though and her story is every bit as cliched. She just didn’t connect well in the end which made it less interesting, especially since there wasn’t any other character that she really got to play off of besides the distant Rosary, whereas Nobunaga had her boy toy to deal with. Still, the show has its appeal and by going this route it’s certainly intrigued me more.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
