Sengoku Basara Ep. 01 - Not the best History Lesson

I would have blogged this squalid garden of manliness sooner, but I was busy watching lolis with guitars. Sengoku Basara is based on a video game which is loosely based on Japanese history. So loose, in fact, that the North American port removed all traces of Japanese history from the characters' back stories. However, if you're the sort of history nerd who charts out "Who would win in a battle?" with famous historical figures, this is probably right up your alley. The episode opens up with the incredibly GAR Sanada Yukimura and Date Masamune running around cutting up things while shouting really manly phrases about war or something. Elsewhere, a thousand or so warring clans prepare for battle by showing off their cool moves or killing random people to prove how hardcore they are. The animation is great, and the battle scenes are great. Any plot is thoroughly lost on me, as there hardly seems to be one. The show itself is a bit tongue in cheek, as it's well aware that it's little more than a fighting game thinly stretched over the canvas of the warring period of Japan.

If you like manly men spouting manly phrases (and Norio Wakamoto voicing Oda Nobunaga!) while doing manly things (except for the unforunate Uesugi Kenshin, whose design looks more flamboyant than fearsome), then come watch the manliness that is men cutting and burning and punching each other! It even has ninjas (and Souichirou Hoshi, Mamiko Noto, and Romi Paku)!

--Ou-bento