Baban Baban Ban Vampire (2025)

So, while looking for Brothers in Arms I managed to find this movie I looked forward last year! So what about a review? This fun romantic comedy with bits of BL talks about the vampire Mori Ranmaru, portrayed by Ryo Yoshizawa, who survived his first love, Nobunaga, just to find a new motivation in perpetuating his eternal life anew: drinking the pure blood of his virgin saviour, the naive Rihito!
I'm not going to talk you about the movie in detail, as usual I'll just focus on the portrayal of its Nobunaga, here rendered by Shinichi Tsutsumi.

Baban Baban Ban Vampire (ババンババンバンバンパイア) is based on the manga by Hiromasa Okujima, and it's extremely fun and entertaining. The movie features some differences with the manga, the main being the absence of Kaoru, but for the rest is quite faithful.
The script is the job of Yuko Matsuda and the direction is entrusted to Shinji Hamasaki.

First, I was pleased by the acting of Yoshizawa, he portrayed a solid Ranmaru, coming across as credibile in both silly and touching parts. During the "musical" introduction of the character, we got some bits about Nobunaga that will be explained and shown in full during the movie. Gotta admit that the photography and special effects of the movie were quite good. The cinematography is consigned to Akiyoshi Yoshida.

So, Nobunaga appears consistently in two flashbacks; the first, by Ranmaru, that when asked by Rihito if he lost a loved one, is thrown into the Incident of Honnoji: Here we got to know that Nobunaga let Ranmaru drink his blood, transitioning him in a sweet death in his beloved arms.

This time we didn't get any Atsumori.
Tsutsumi, familiar with the role of Nobunaga already from Honnoji Hotel, presents us a solid Nobunaga, a determined warrior even in the face of death, that accepts the end of his life with a languid dignity.

The second flashback about Nobunaga is evoked by Mori Nagayoshi, portrayed by actor Gordon Maeda, the older brother of Ranmaru and a vampire himself, out on revenge.
According to Nagayoshi, in fact, he had all the good reasons to have a grudge against his younger brother: first, Ranmaru somehow "stole" Nobunaga from him: --Thinking that it was Nagayoshi to introduce Ranmaru to Nobunaga!

In this flashback Nobunaga looks like the affectionate dirty old man we got to love in fiction, and it points up his infamous flimsiness when it comes to show appreciation to his underlings. Personally I liked how this "love at first sight" was subtly rendered thorough little nothings (the infamous "Is that so..." of Nobu) and the sole meeting of eyes.
Also, it must be noted how Nagayoshi didn't blame Nobunaga at all, focusing his grudge against Ranmaru only.

Thus we reach the second reason for Nagayoshi's revenge, as he blames on Ranmaru entirely the death of Nobunaga, because he couldn't protect him, but most importantly he didn't turn him in a vampire in his final moments, grating him eternal life:
So, here's the shodown between the two brothers, which is what explains the core of this story: In the end Ranmaru faces his brother, explaining him that he may find another reason to life thanks to a new objective in life-- in short, he just tells him to find himself a new "hobby" 😂

So, there's probably too little to judge the rendition of the Nobunaga in this movie, but nonetheless he's worthy a mention, because of the solid acting of Tsutsumi, that managed a vigorous yet sweet portrayal of our favourite warlord despite the little screentime.