The Ambition of Oda Nobuna: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

The Ambition of Oda Nobuna: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 4, 2014

The Ambition of Oda Nobuna is an odd casserole of an anime that seems to have some familiar ingredients, but which mixes them together in sometimes odd and unexpected ways. A kid lost in a virtual reality similar (if not identical) to a videogame he plays, as in Sword Art Online, .hack//Quantum OVA and/or Log Horizon: Collection 1? Well, The Ambition of Oda Nobuna does in fact posit a young current time male named Yoshiharu Sagara who’s an expert at a videogame involving the so-called Sengoku Era in Japan’s feudal, warlord overrun, past. But the anime doesn’t actually take place in the videogame, but in the Sengoku Era itself, where a mysteriously time transported Yoshiharu uses his knowledge of the game (and by default, the epoch) to help him to survive in a somewhat ruthless environment. And how about quasi-historical anime where the genders have been routinely switched, as in Strike Witches and countless others? Well, here The Ambition of Oda Nobuna traffics in a more routine approach, replacing male warlords and acolytes of yore with nubile young females, so that Yoshiharu’s time traveling adventures assume something of a harem aspect. The Ambition of Oda Nobuna walks a fairly taut tightrope between goofy, schtick laden comedy and a somewhat darker subtext (especially in the later episodes) where Yoshiharu’s attempts to keep “history” on course (even though this is by default an alternate history to begin with) leads to a number of surprising developments.

There actually is another male in The Ambition of Oda Nobuna, at least for a few seconds in the anime’s opening sequence. It’s the middle of some kind of epic battle, and an obviously out of place Yoshiharu finds himself in a field where opposing factions are about to meet. Suddenly an elderly man next to him is struck by fire, mortally. As the man lays dying more or less in Yoshiharu’s arms, Yoshiharu comes to the stunning realization that the elder is none other than Hideyoshi Toyotomi, a famous real life historical figure who lived in the mid to late 16th century and is in a way Japan’s version of George Washington, the man credited with forging a nation out of disparate elements. But Toyotomi actually lived to a (relatively) ripe old age and died not on the battlefield but due to the scourge of a perhaps even deadlier force, the bubonic plague.

Due to that fact alone, Yoshiharu realizes something odd is going on (not to mention his obvious befuddlement at having been ported back to the Sengoku Era to begin with). But he knows enough from a videogame called Nobunaga’s Ambition (again, a real life franchise) that the ostensible chieftan should be Nobunaga Oda, a fierce male who preceded Toyotomi as one of the guiding forces behind Japanese unification. Yoshiharu is therefore doubly amazed when instead of a middle aged warlord he literally stumbles across a buxom young lass named Nobuna Oda, who insists she is the reigning daimyo. Yoshiharu soon discovers that a whole glut of actual historical figures are now figures of another sort entirely—gorgeous young females.

Already those without much knowledge of Japanese history may be worrying if the series is too entrenched in a factual context to easily make sense. The Ambition of Oda Nobuna makes things relatively easy by “introducing” a lot of the central characters with freeze frame renditions while a narrator goes over exactly who they are and what their various relationships mean. The narrator also interrupts fairly regularly, at least in the early going, to offer backstory and general context, so that even the culturally illiterate can follow at least the basic outlines of what’s going on.

The central conceit of The Ambition of Oda Nobuna is that Yoshiharu ends up taking the place of Toyotomi, while also getting invited into Nobuna’s inner circle when he inadvertently helps to save the young daimyo during that opening battle. Though he’s given the disparaging nickname Saru (“monkey”), a lot of the series ends up detailing the help Yoshiharu is able to provide to Nobuna due to his mastery of the Sengoku set videogame. In this aspect, The Ambition of Oda Nobuna tends to work against some harem preconceptions by having Yoshiharu not be some bumbling incompetent who happens to stumble into a veritable wonderland of pulchritude. While Yoshiharu is disparaged, even by Nobuna herself in a traditional tsundere mode, he’s also valued and appreciated, especially as the series goes along.

Another unusual element is the way the series handles Nobuna herself. While she certainly has the trappings of an everyday tsundere, lobbing vicious insults at Yoshiharu in particular, the character is also shown to have a more vulnerable side, especially when she considers what effect her various strategic decisions may have on her subjects. In both Yoshiharu and Nobuna, The Ambition of Oda Nobuna takes very rote, even cliché ridden, components and manages to play with them in some relatively nuanced and nicely developed ways.

What also tends to be a bit unexpected from this series is how decently it works in serious content to what on its face is almost a farcical fantasy environment. Yoshiharu’s ability to “forecast” events ends up changing things, not necessarily always for the better. He’s a bit like a Sengoku Era Cassandra, a reluctant prophet who some consider a complete nutcase. This may not exactly be history as written by the victors, but it’s a frequently surprisingly involving show that manages to both use and defy a number of genre tropes.

The Ambition of Oda Nobuna: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Ambition of Oda Nobuna is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer. This is another anime which tends to intentionally exploit a somewhat softer overall look, with some nice depth in backgrounds that may not be incredibly detailed but which are painterly and evocative nonetheless (see screenshot 3). Colors are really vibrant and varied, with the series making the most of bright blues, greens, reds and yellows. Frequently scenes will be overlaid with a kind of milky white contrast boost (see screenshot 6) which tends to add a bit of softness. That said, line detail is consistently sharp and well defined and the character design, while not overly innovative, is distinctive and well rendered. The series' action elements spring to life very convincingly in high definition, with no stability issues whatsoever.

The Ambition of Oda Nobuna: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Ambition of Oda Nobuna features the original Japanese language track (with forced English subtitles) in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, as well as a new English dub, also presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. While the two mixes are virtually identical, only those with an absolute abhorrence toward reading subtitles should opt for anything other than the original language track. Unfortunately, some of the voice work in the English dub, notably Clint Bickham's Yoshiharu, is less than optimal. Bickham just doesn't seem to have the kind of hormonal enthusiasm that Yoshiharu needs, especially once he starts ingratiating himself to the various females. Emily Neves' Nobuna is better, spitting out the tsundere insults with glee, but also revealing the character's softer side. The battle elements certainly would have benefited from a surround mix, but these 2.0 offerings feature excellent fidelity, wide dynamic range and no issues of any kind to report.

The Ambition of Oda Nobuna: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animation (1080p; 1:32)


• Clean Closing Animation (1080p; 1:32)

The Ambition of Oda Nobuna: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Ambition of Oda Nobuna never quite gels completely from a tonal standpoint, vacillating between patently goofy humor and a more serious undertone that tends to hold sway the further the series gets. That inconsistency aside, the series is often quite ingratiating, though its revisionism toward Japanese history will probably be best appreciated by those with at least a basic understanding of the Sengoku Era and some of its more legendary characters. A traditionally nice looking Madhouse production, The Ambition of Oda Nobuna may indeed revisit ideas and approaches that have been seen (many times) before in various anime, but it also has the good sense to at least occasionally work against preconceptions to deliver an entertaining "kind of history" lesson. Technical merits are generally strong, and The Ambition of Oda Nobuna comes Recommended.