Nothing says trouble like a national broadcast about the samurai girls.
What They Say:
Samurais are gaining popularity over Japan. A documentary crew is interviewing some of them including Bokuden-chan, the strongest swordsman, but when the film comes out. The Samurai Girls have a new problem to deal with.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After a bit of a darker episodes with Masamune in the previous story, the fifth episodes goes in a bit of a different direction that continues to paint the whole thing in a kind of really neat way. As we learn, the various samurai women that have been transported over have made various inroads into this world and gained popularity for some of them in a way that makes it harder to mask who they are. And as we get at the beginning, there is a known element in this as well as a documentary crew has come to interview one of the girls, Bokuden, as she instructs at the dojo. Of course, she’s all cute and excited to do so, making for a good bit of fun to be had.
Owing to that, we get the interviews across the board with numerous of the samurai women from there as well as the whole documentary concept gets rolling. It’s an interesting angle to take, showing how some of them have adapted into the world and gained game while others are living quieter but important parts dealing with the martial arts training. Questioning the various women on how they’ve adapted has some good bits to it, though they do note that there are cases where some have gone bad, making the nod towards Masamune and what she got caught up in. The idea that these women are here and are part of an important part of history, albeit an alternate history, has the smack of truth about in how they’d be idolize and seemingly neutered at the same time as they seek to find a way to gain power not through traditional methods.
Amusingly, the interview goes so badly when it’s recut to the producers intent that it causes a lot of problems for the other samurai women out there. With much of what Bokuden said being cut or distorted, she’s beyond furious over it. There’s a greater plan behind what the producers are planning and it kind of all spills out on a public stage here in a cute way as it brings in others like Yoshetiru to deal with it. It’s all about manipulation and the like and it does eventually circle back to Bokuden who ends up being the only one who can sort of save the day. It’s amusing watching it all unfold as it follows a lot of the usual things that happens when dealing with exposes on a particular thing where it’s all so slanted and perverted, much to the girls chagrin.
In Summary:
Sengoku Collection is a show that while it may fall off of most peoples radar quickly, if it made it at all based on what their presumptions were, it’s a show that I think will become a good cult series as time goes on. It’s doing a lot of neat little things with the characters and approach to the story, going non-traditional routes and shaking it up even when it does work familiar angles like this one with the documentary/expose. It plays the cute girls from another parallel reality well and hits the fanservice beautifully, truly polished, but that’s just the trappings to what’s underneath. This is likely to be one of the most underrated series of the season, which isn’t a surprise, but it’s one that more people should be checking out.
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.