天下制覇

I don’t remember Nobunaga being there… or a giant wok for that matter.

Impressions:

Worlds better than season 2, but still missed that same fun of season 1. Why it seems obsessed with trying to be emotional or meaningful while also having Ieyasu giving speeches with a backdrop of a giant radish is beyond me. It should be taking its corniness and running with it. Ieyasu traveling the world giving hippy speeches and Mitsunari PMSing like he has a third ovary just make my brain ache. Of course, then Mitsuhide Tenkai arranged some master plan to let Oichi’s undead powers run amok at Sekigahara during a solar eclipse and this somehow brought Nobunaga back from the dead… with a Stand! And yet, despite having an otherworldly persona hovering above him, his shotgun remained his most powerful attack. Curious that. Everybody of course then teamed up to fight the true evil. Oh well, Nobunaga’s certainly a better antagonist than Mitsunari.

Production IG did actually put some effort into the production this time around at least, unlike the second season. Nobunaga of all people ended up being the biggest disappointment, just shooting some guns and then going down to everybody shooting their beams at the same time. Well, he got back up, but then had his throat cut after doing nothing more than shooting a few more times. Then he was hugged to death. Sigh. Oichi also killed Mitsuhide particularly gruesomely by cutting him in half, which didn’t stop him from screaming for a good twenty or so seconds after that.

Overall, despite the fairly weak ending (and I don’t mean the dance) and Nobunaga really not actually doing anything of interest after being revived, it wasn’t bad. If you liked the first season of Basara, I think you’ll like this. It was definitely worlds better than the second season and Masamune yelled all sorts of interesting things. I think my favorite was "It’s One-Eye Dragon!" which I think he also yells before sex. It still tended to bask in the hamhanded drama far more than it has any right to though, so prepare for maudlin 15-20 minute segments where nothing important or interesting happens and it doesn’t happen very slowly. I miss Sasuke and Kasuga. Hell, I miss Yukimura and Shingen punching each other. Go back to being fun, Basara. Give up trying to make me feel things. Better series than you have tried and failed.

And the award for the most randomly shoehorned in characters go to Motonari and Motochika. The former just showed up at the ambush because it was a meeting of antagonists, so of course he had to be there. Then Motochika showed up too on his landboat. They then disappeared again for the entire Nobunaga bit. Way to be a part of events, guys.