"Kirin ga kuru" NHK Taiga Drama Guide's Overview!

So, as I mentioned you before, this past year I managed to collect the three guide books of Kirin ga kuru. To be honest I was disappointed by its conclusion just like you guys, but at the same time I really enjoyed following this drama during those troubled years back then, and I really enjoyed its original portrait of Nobunaga-- So I decided to get them for my collection. In this short, filled-with-pictures post I'd like to browse through its contents, sharing some infos and considerations about its controversial portrait of Nobunaga.

Take this first post of the year as a belated San Silvestro ritual where we pay our last homage to Sometani Nobunaga by throwing him out of the window to get ready to welcome the upcoming Nobunagas of 2023!

So, the first pages of the books are nothing but huge, beautiful pictures of the protagonists, followed by some commentary on their characters.
This is Sometani's: Here the actor talks freely about this "new Nobunaga", a "pure" young man who craved affection, and how the lacking of it is the source of his "anger".
It's a "sympathetic madness" that has an emotive explanation.
Sometani Nobunaga is a greedy fellow, and he mentions how in the script his dialogues are somehow "one-sided": Nobunaga talks, with little interests in the replies, and much to the reaction to his words, I'd add.
At the end of his comment, Sometani mentions that probably Nobunaga died while still loving Mitsuhide, a guy that he felt a great attraction to because of his calm demeanor, how he looked always "in control", a virtue that Nobunaga lacked and he admired in others-- Unfortunately, that proved an one-sided love, he adds.

Following are comments and sketches about the setting and scenes in the drama.
Here's the one of market of Atsuta: A place visited by Mitsuhide during his "investigation" on Nobunaga, that strongly impacted on the man.

I already wrote about Nobunaga's costumes in the drama, but repetita iuvant: I really liked this idea of going against that "Black and Red" trope and experiment new things. Yellow is a very interesting color associated to Nobunaga, both lively yet "innatural"--

One of the last columns of the book is this Playback Taiga Drama, where the editor indulges in the previous interpretations of certain facts and characters. For this reason, Kunitori Monogatari ("国盗り物語", 1973), as the first taiga drama to focus on the relationship of Dosan, Mitsuhide and Nobunaga, is taken into consideration as a perfect "counterpart" to this new interpretation of the same events.

Here Nobunaga is portrayed by Hideki Takahashi: Curiously enough, Takahashi too, in his recalling of the character, mention that he felt like Nobunaga was strongly attractred to Mitsuhide, he used the word "love" just like Sometani.

Let's browse through the second book and check Sometani's comment on the Nobunaga of this arc: He mentions the strong feelings around the death of his brother, Nobukatsu, how complicated it felt for him to manage and express all that anger, disappointment and loneliness.
He talks about Dousan, how the director instructed them to give that mood of "yankees who are about to have a fight" during their first encounter, and the Nouhime portrayed by Haruna Kawaguchi, how she offered both the motherhood that was denied to him and a new kind of camaraderie. Of course his relationship with Mitsuhide is seen as a real "turning point" for Nobunaga, who finally could face the world thank to his suggestions.

Speaking of the set, an interesting comment: It mentioned how that "dragon decoration" was first used in Toshiie to Matsu ("利家とまつ", 2002) for the residence of the Oda, so it's a fun reference to the fans of taiga drama.

For the Playback Taiga Drama there's another focus on the characters of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi.
Here's another of my favourites, NOBUNAGA ("信長 KING OF ZIPANGU", 1992): This Nobunaga starts from the "fool" and peaked as a "deity" by following his "lonely charisma". It's an interesting story told from the perspective of missionary Luis Frois.

Here Naoto Ogata, playing the role of Nobunaga while being quite young, talks about the vibes of the time. I think it's interesting to remember how his portrayal of Nobunaga was quite original at the time. Ogata remembers how the director told him to act on the informations that he got from the screeplay only, and not study or read more about Nobunaga, so to make sure to offer a personal interpretation of the events from Nobunaga's perspective.

Reaching the third and last book, here are the final thoughts of Sometani about Nobunaga: Sometani notes how Nobunaga rose to prominence thanks to other people. By following Mitsuhide's advice, by using the influence of Yoshiaki, by embracing the vision of Dousan.
When Nobunaga met the Emperor and received praises, he felt as if the Emperor could replace his father, and this gave him the impression of an "omnipotence" that could be reached only through war.
When Nagamasa betrayed him, Nobunaga started to get angrier and angrier, isolating himself to avoid further disappointments. It's important how at this point he started to feel that his will "misaligned" from Mitsuhide's. At firt Nobunaga followed Mitsuhide's advices promptly but now he felt as Mitsuhide is just hindering his freedom. The idea of Nobunaga expressing all his disappointment by beating Mitsuhide was an idea by Hasegawa himself.
In the end Sometani hopes that "he could express Nobunaga's humanity rather than just being a villain".

Next is a special column that focus on the peculiarities of the "Three Heroes" (and Co.) as portrayed in the drama: Nobunaga's features are "a strong desider for approval", a "purity that borders madness" and "love for compliments".
Both cute and scary.

The theme for Playback Taiga Drama in this issue is the legendary "The Enemy is at Honnouji!" quote and how the Honnouji's Incident was interpreted in the various dramas.
The first taiga drama to feature the legendary sentence was Taikoki ("太閤記", 1965), that featured Koji Takahashi as Nobunaga.
Here's good Naoto Ogata from NOBUNAGA:
And the most recent before Kirin, the "Honnoji Incident" featured in Naotora ("おんな城主 直虎", 2017), where Nobunaga was portrayed by Ichikawa Ebizō XI: Curiously enough, the narrator in Kirin ga kuru was Ichikawa Ebizō XI again!
This actor has a true vocation for Nobunaga!

And that's it, this felt satisfying, I hope it was the same for you guys!

This said, speaking of taiga drama, yep, I greatly enjoyed Kamakura-dono no 13 nin this past year. Right now I'm catching up to the chinese drama Daqinfu (大秦賦, 2020) to fill the void for historical entertainment.
--This to answers the questions you didn't ask 😂