Nobunaga as Mona Lisa: the Curse of the Icon

--Have you heard of the Prado's Mona Lisa? Basically, that's a copy of the painting in Louvre, attributed to one of Leonardo's students, probably Andrea Salai.
The painting is interesting, because, after a recent restauration, it showed many similarities to the "original", making people realize that the French Mona Lisa looked like that because the original colours were somehow altered by the centuries.

The idea of restoring Mona Lisa was always somehow ostracized by the curators, though: first, because cleaning up the varnish stratifications could damage the work, then because the treatment would alter the original colors anyway. Others comments, though, made people think that Mona Lisa would never be restored because now her "dirty look" is what makes her "an icon", and the reason why visitors love it and "recognize" it.

The True Meaning of Power: Nobunaga in "SD Gundam World HEROES"

Yes, today I'm going to talk about an unexpected Nobunaga's rendition which becomes weirdly dear to me, and not just because I'm a hopeless gunota. I'm talking about the character Nobunaga Gundam Epyon appearing in the ONA series SD Gundam World HEROES (SDガンダムワールド ヒーローズ).

"Nagoya Omotenashi Bushotai" 12th Anniversary! Nobunaga enjoying his lunch∼

So, the guys of Nagoya Omotenashi Bushotai seem to be quite busy with the celebrations for their 12th birthday: in 12 years they faced a whole "Zodiac Round", so it's indeed an impressive task in terms of durability, considering that back in November 2009 our boys were supposed to be in activity only for six months. Among all the activities and merchandising, though, one activity piqued my interest-- The lunch donations to the enactors from the fans!

WTF as a Historical Stance, "Ikusa no Ko"

--In these past few days I managed to retrieve the missing volumes of the local release of The Legend of Oda Saburo Nobunaga (いくさの子 ~織田三郎信長伝~, Ikusa no Ko ~Oda Saburo Nobunaga den~) by Tetsuo Hara and while reading the absurdities in there I thought of the recently reviewed Yasuke. Why did I feel so outraged by the work of Lesean, and why am I so patronizing towards Hara-sensei? I wouldn't say because of the contents of the two works, they imply the same exact quantity of fantasy elements, but my tolerance surged by the different "approach", that probably made Ikusa no Ko more tollerable.

"Shinchou Meikan", Official and Updated!

Do you remember the doujinshi catalogue dedicated to all the fictional Nobus out there, starting from 1583 to 2017--? Apparently on November 2019 it was released as an "official guide" by Ohta Books publishing: This was updated with new Nobus (of course!) reaching 703 characters and covering 585 works, and included some "mini-columns" exploring the various representations, influences of pop culture on the historical image, the contributions of history buffs and so on-- You can check a preview of its contents here, on the website of the publisher.

A far-sighted Revolutionist, a visionary Anarchist or-- Nothing at all? Nobunaga in "Yasuke"

Apparently the long-waited movie about the figure of Yasuke, the legendary "black samurai" of Nobunaga, was convoluted in this 6 episodes long ONA series by Netflix. Aired on April 2021, Yasuke (Yasuke -ヤスケ-) was as bad as I expected, with a ridiculous plot that made no sense and a pitiful characters' development. Truly a pity, 'cause it had all the ingredients for an interesting production and technically speaking it was amazing, but, oh, the cringe--!

A Cocktail for Nobunaga

Part of a collaboration with Prince Hotels & Resorts of Nagoya, a peculiar "Tenka Fubu" cocktail could be savoured at Sky Dining Tenku BAR.
The wisely mixed ingredients include Gin, white peach liquor and Campari Bitter.
The cocktail is served into a special, original Mino tea cup, and it's obviously accompanied by the cocktails of the other two Great Unifiers.

OKEHAZAMA - Nobunaga Oda Hao no Tanjo (2021)

Yes, I managed to find OKEHAZAMA (桶狭間～織田信長 覇王の誕生, OKEHAZAMA - Oda Nobunaga, the Birth of the Overlord), the TV special of Fuji TV featuring Ichikawa Ebizo XI as Nobu that aired on March this year-- I waited for a bit hoping for subtitles but they never happened, so I just watched it raw! That's why this more of a "summary" rather than a proper review, hopefully when subs would be available I'll comment this properly... 'Til then, let's just look at the tones of pictures (since you guys appreciate the looks of Ebizo XI!) and let's discuss the overall impression!

Oda mon spotted during the Olympics Closing Ceremony...

It happened during the "We Remember" part of the Olympic Closing Ceremony, dedicated to the souls of the departed, when in the shots of the Nishimonai Bon Odori (西馬音内盆踊り) dance it was possible to spot the Oda mon over the stage of the musicians--
I tried to investigate immediately, but it doesn't look like Akita is hosting some ancestors of the Oda clan-- The only reference I found referred to the position of "Akita Jonosuke" (秋田城介) which was held by Nobutada starting November 1575.

Happy Birthday, Nobunaga-sama! 100 Questions for the Fans of Oda Nobunaga∼

Wohooo, I think this is the first time I managed to celebrate Nobunaga's "Official" birthday on this blog of mine--!
I decided to dust off this very old "100 Questions for the Fan of lord Nobunaga" thing. I first compiled it back in 2014, so here I am, 7 years later seeing how things changed (not much, to be honest, ahah)! As usual, I encourage you to reply to this too! Feel free to do that in the comments, or link me your answers ^_^ !