Anime: Nobunaga Concerto 1z2w5y

Nobunaga Concerto belongs to the Isekai subgenre, where people from our world are mysteriously transported to others. It doesn’t follow the degraded form most of them have today, being an excuse for otakus to form harems in fetish infested settings. Meaning, Nobunaga is not a half naked loli. Yes, that’s an actual trend in anime.

It’s not well animated, since the combo of motion capture and CGI heads throws it right in the middle of the uncanny valley. Even if you get used to the weird motions of the body, the facial expressions, a vital aspect of likability, have a robotic feel to them. Everybody looks goofy and doesn’t seem to react much because of it.

It’s not well written either, since most of the things characters and the narrator are saying come off as lazy exposition instead of a natural exchange of information. They say a lot more than they show. It even feels stupid as a premise. Some idiot gets transported into the past, gets instantly replaced with the historical Oda Nobunaga, doesn’t question it, and everybody is fine with his completely different behavior. And no, you never get an explanation for how or why he transported.

It is poking fun at the impersonation of a famous personality by making him serious every time a historical event is about to happen. This makes the fabled character development many praise the show for, to come off as artificial. Every friend the protagonist makes does not happen through his actions; it was destined to happen. His motivation for becoming the ruler of Japan comes down to having to do it because it’s in the history books. So basically, everything is predetermined, there is no free will, it’s all a big setup.

Trying to see the whole thing as a comedy instead of a historical documentary doesn’t help a lot, because the delivery of the jokes is lukewarm. You can thank the robotic expressions everybody has, which makes it hard to tell what they are feeling. Also, a big part of whatever the anime considers funny has to do with the dolt protagonist using the stuff he brought over from present time and making everybody around him to think they are sorcery. Meaning, he is not funny or talented, it’s future technology that makes him appear to be.

It doesn’t even stick to being a comedy, since it is also trying to be tragic by having lots of people dying and the surrounding lords being after his head. Without even giving you the time to get used to the deadpan jokes, it’s now full of drama and bloodshed. And just like the comedy, it’s not done in a particularly exciting way, since they hardly show any battles and every conflict is resolved in a silly way.

I also have to complain about the music. The BGM is forgettable, there is no opening, and the ending is power metal which despite being catchy it doesn’t fit the tone of the show at all. I couldn’t even enjoy it on a superficial level since the presentation is a mess of iffy animation, dull dialogues, and out of place music.

Hell, I couldn’t even enjoy it as a story in general because it’s left incomplete. If they ever make a continuation (which I doubt) I am not going to watch it since it bored me to tears. It’s not funny, the characters look retarded because of the CGI, and it’s once again a trick to make you go buy the source material. No, thanks, I’m dropping off.