Onna Joshu Naotora (2017)

Oooh, today I'll entertain you guys with the Nobunaga featured in taiga drama Onna Joshu Naotora (for the more international of you, Naotora: the Lady Warlord). This interesting production tries to challenge the typical stereotype of the "sengoku princess" by portraying the life of Ii Naotora, one of the first "female daimyo" ever.

Before jumping on our Nobu, though, a few words about this intriguing piece.
I must say that despite the inaccuracies and mistifications for the sake of drama, I enjoyed this series and I appreciated the attempt to show an example of a woman who managed to protect her land and people without throwing in marriages or sons. Sure, Naotora's choices and events in life were far from happy and satisfying, but you couldn't really blame her deeds for it-- If anything, she was a victim of the violent society of the time, and through commerce, education and culture, she managed, at least, to prove an alternative.

The character of Naotora was played by two extraordinary actresses.
The little Miu Arai interpreted Naotora in her younger days as Otowa was absolutely delightful. Ko Shibasaki covered the role of Naotora as an adult, with an intense, inspiring performance.
It's interesting to note that this brilliant artist covered the role of Nouhime in another popular series, Nobunaga Concerto.

Issey Takahashi and Haruma Miura were Ii Naochika and Ono Masatsugu. At first I was terrified by the impression that everything would be explained as a huge triangle thing, but fortunately that was not the case. Even if Naotora had strong feelings for both Naochika and Masatsugu, and in some cases they did resemble romantic attraction, I was glad to see that what bound the three was something far more deep and interesting.

Another main character of the drama was Tokugawa Ieyasu, here portrayed by Sadao Abe. I liked the development of his character, how he grew from a "silly" young hostage to a leader capable of taking his risks passing throught the endurance of an ally.
If anything, his character was a bit too fearful and paranoid for my tastes, but that's just my personal preference.

Finally, Mitsuhide was portrayed by Ken Mitsuhishi. His depiction was quite meh, but I found interesting his attempt to allarm Ieyasu in an attempt to bring him to his side. His plan was actually well executed despite the interference of Nobunaga who sent him to help Hideyoshi against the Mouri, but he didn't take into proper consideration the upcoming chaos as Naotora and Ieyasu did.

In the end, the whole series was an "introduction" to the character and importance of Ii Naomasa, interpreted by Masaki Suda. But rather than a "mother", it was interesting to see how the authors attempted to portray Naotora's role in the life of Naomasa as an inspiration, as an edifying example.
Special mention to Kaoru Kobayashi who interpreted the monk Nankei, that with his kitties was pretty much my favourite character, ahah!

Ok then, let's get to our Nobu.
As you know, he was portrayed by "kabuki prince" Ichikawa Ebizo XI, that as I mentioned in the previous post, was already familiar with the role of Nobunaga, and he's going to portray him again in the next Fuji TV Special. To be honest, this is one of the Nobunaga's interpretations that I disliked the most. It includes everything that I loathe about how this historical figure is perceived, the "evil vampire" of Sengoku times--

To estrange his character further, he was the only one wearing absurd Western clothes, making him look like coming out straight of a KOEI videogame-- The acting of Ichikawa, horrendously over the top the most of time, didn't help-- You know, I had the impression that he was acting in a "This is what people expects of Nobunaga, so I'm going to act like this!" --He wasn't really "feeling" the character, but producing a stereotype, following the instructions of the staff.
I can't help but smile at those "He looked like the real Nobunaga!" comments that I found online, seriously guys, how old are you?!

Anyway, let's take a look at his most iconic scenes in the drama.
His first appearance was when he pretty much forced the marriage of Gotoku (Sora Uehara) and Nobuyasu (Raiki Komino in this picture, the adult Nobuyasu is played by Kinari Hirano). In the same scene is briefly showed also the young lady Toyama (Ryushouin), Nobu's adopted daughter from the Toyama clan, who married Takeda Katsuyori. --I was hoping to spot some Nobutada and Matsu, too, but that wasn't the case ^_^;

This whole Nobuyasu thing was just there to show us the psycho side of Nobunaga.
To be honest, he forced the marriage onto the Matsudaira, produced a fake letter of Gotoku to frame Nobuyasu because he didn't like his personality, refused all the proposed alternatives, I can see how Ieyasu missed the "good, old" Imagawa times, LOL --On top of it, there's this scene of Nobunaga shooting a bird in the cage while discussing the issue of Nobuyasu with Mitsuhide.
Making an effort to understand him, I can see how he maybe found in Nobuyasu a probable future rival rather than a steady ally, someone with too much pride and too little diplomacy to rely on, but, well, the whole deal was way too cringe on too many levels.

Then, the authors asked for forgiveness with the scene where Nobunaga served Ieyasu his meal at Azuchi after dismissing Mitsuhide as the host-- But if anything they make Nobunaga look even more disturbing to the eyes of Ieyasu's vassals--!
Yet, Ieyasu noticed the special care and elegance of Nobunaga's service, and "felt" that Mitsuhide was probably messing with him.

Also the scene where Nobunaga was collecting gifts for Ieyasu happily at Honnoji was nice, and the proof that Nobunaga never conspired against his ally: What he did was his way to "teach" Ieyasu about the dignity of a warlord-- I was like, "SERIOUSLY?!" but I assume that he did treasure him, and saw him as an actual ally rather than a subordinate... It's just that Nobu had the flaw to approach people as he did with battlefields: quickly, unconventionally and mercilessly.