It’s time to add one more cute girl to the mix. But it’s a guy?!
What They Say:
For Oda to win against the advancing armies against her, she seeks the aid of Takenaka Hanbee. But meeting with such a reclusive figure prove to be near impossible.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With things now settled in dealing with Imagawa, there’s not exactly quiet but at least a little down time for the troops before things advance again. We got to see some good movements in the last couple of episodes and a growing understanding of what Kinoshita is capable of, which is more than just cowering as he got right into the thick of things. With some usual hesitancy found in characters in these situations, it’s been enjoyable seeing him taking a firm position in things, worrying somewhat about changing things too much, and just getting involved more than most ever do. And it’s helping to cement things between him and Nobuna just a bit more each time, as much as she may hate to believe so.
Unfortunately, events after Imagawa haven’t done well for her as everywhere they advanced, they essentially kept losing and gained no further territory. Which puts her in quite a snit until it comes up that there’s a strategist that they should try to sway to their side named Hanbei, which Kinoshita knows quite well. With the threat of the forces of Mino against them, it becomes imperative to get him. But such things won’t be easy of course. Kinoshita sees this as an advantage for himself as he views it as a side quest he can take that will get him closer to his goal of getting the prettiest girl in the country. Nobuna’s not quite so keen on this, but it makes sense once again to send him and a couple of others are going along as well to flesh out the party to bring Hanbei back.
Everything turns into a competition though to get Hanbei over to their side, which he doesn’t particularly care for. But the larger truth is that Hanbei isn’t who they meet but (obviously) another cute girl that’s kind of meek and afraid. The reasons for the illusion sort of make sense but it also ends up causing a lot of problems, such as the people of Mino feeling threatened by what they believe her to be versus what she is. It also becomes obvious that Kinoshita will do what he can to help Hanbei so that he can make another pretty girl happy, and that’s kind of the grinding part of the gears of the show. Its predictability is just too strong at times. That said, the action does turn out well and Nagamasa isn’t as annoying as he could be by being included. And Hanbei, meek as she is, finds a decent place here in the end.
In Summary:
While the show continues to have its positives for me, it has things that drags it down as well, which this episode does a fair bit of. It sets out to be predictable from practically the start once the reveal about Hanbei is done as you know they have to bring him over to their side. And naturally, there has to be a twist as well in order to make it work and market it more. It’s predictable and there isn’t anything that really shakes things up much unfortunately. It does get executed well which is its big plus, and I rather like Hanbei in a way I can’t put my finger on just yet. What kept me interested at the start is seeing the way Kinoshita and Nobuna continue to interact and that just made me wish for more of it here.
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.
