The List

7 Strange Faces of Oda Nobunaga

I'm back from Sakura-Con this week! It was a blast and it was great running into local fans again. For those that attended, what was your favorite panel or event?

This week, we're opening our history books to the Sengoku era to take at some of anime's most interesting depictions of Oda Nobunaga. A warlord on a conquest to unify Japan, Oda is characterized through out the pop culture medium as ruthless, violent, and demonic...or occasionally in a more positive light via a gender swap. Japan may love to hate him, but the man isn't exiting entertainment's consciousness any time soon.

7. Hyouge Mono In the odd and artistic historical comedy Hyouge Mono, Sengoku-era figures engage reinterpretations of their acts with a focus on tea ceremony. There's some historical basis on the tea fixation, Nobunaga popularized the Japanese tea ceremony in Japan as a way to talk politics. This aspect of Nobunaga, along with his interest in Western culture and clothes, are shown in Hyouge Mono. Overall, the series shows Oda's interest in the arts while still representing his penchant for megalomania, although his mustache isn't nearly as epic as it was in real life.

6. Samurai Deeper Kyo Not satisfied with merely reuniting Japan, the "Sixth Heavenly Demon King" has aspirations of world domination, if Kyo would stop killing him. Fortunately, the warlord gets multiple resurrections in host bodies to continue his path of conquest. Oda is like the evil cockroach of series, just when you think he's dead, he crops back up again.

5. Oda Nobuna no Yabō The first of two gender-bender Oda Nobunagas on the list, Oda Nobuna is played pretty straight to her inspiration's personality even with the body switch. Fascinated by Europe's advancement and set on uniting Japan, Nobuna takes Oda's attitude with a tsundere twist. Of course, this incarnation is really just a sweet girl making tough decisions required of her situation. Unlike her historical predecessor, she's not asking for men's head in return for a stolen tea pot.

4. Sengoku Collection The second and last girl-Nobunaga on The List, Sengoku Collection's Oda Nobunaga gets points for taking the fearsome warlord, throwing her into modern Japan, and making her as dumb as a ton of bricks. That's where the comedy is supposed to lie, because what's funnier than an overly confident leader ordering people around while struggling with fast food? It's a comedic staple of any time traveler story, although Oda would probably have the staff murdered for depicting him as such.

3. Pokémon Conquest Before you all jump on me for cheating, yes Pokémon Conquest is a video game. The Nintendo DS game is a cross-over title of Pokémon and Nobunaga's Ambition video game series, featuring Oda as, of course, the villain, and warlord of the dragon nation of Pokémon. As expected, he carries three dragon-type Pokémon: Hydreigon (the "brutal" Pokémon), Zekrom (the mascot of Pokémon: White), and black Rayquaza (legendary Pokémon from Ruby/Sapphire). Oda is looking to destroy the Pokémon nation of Ransei and kill the player, his female adviser Oichi, and her adorable Jigglypuff. What a jerk.

2. Yotoden/Wrath of the Ninja If you're going to take over all of Japan, there's no better way than to hire a space demon (Ranmaru Mori) with mystical weapons as your adviser. Said space demon imbues Oda with the ability to control a three-headed demon, manage a clan of shadow ninjas, and become a demon himself. The 1987 OVA was re-cut into a film for Western audiences by MTV Japan and released under a number of varying titles.

1. Black Lion Adapted from a 1970s-era manga by Gō Nagai, the man that brought us Devilman, Black Lion takes the Sengoku-era with a campy sci-fi spin. Oda Nobunaga is well on his way to capturing all of Japan, thanks to a deal he's hashed out with our supreme space overlords. Having possessed Oda for their own trail of universal domination, the aliens equip is army with cybernetic enhancements, thus creating an unstoppable murder machine known as Ginnai Doma. A lone ninja with awesome sideburns decides to stop alien-Oda's nefarious plot and put an end to Doma's massacre, thus cementing Black Lion as the strangest Oda Nobunaga character on The List.

The new poll: Of the following rabbits/bunnies, which is your favorite?

The old poll: Last week's poll asked what anime idol (group) would you want to see in concert?. Super group from The IDOLM@STER 765PRO ALLSTARS won by a pretty large margin. Here's the full results:

1. 765PRO ALLSTARS (The IDOLM@STER) 15.7%
2. Sheryl Nome (Macross Frontier) 10.9%
3. Lacus Clyne (Gundam Seed) 10.2%
4. Mitsuki Kouyama (Full Moon o Sagashite) 9.8%
5. SUN&LUNAR (My Bride is a Mermaid) 18 9.7%
6. Sharon Apple (Macross Plus) 8.6%
7. Muse (Love Live!) 6.9%
8. No Name (AKB0048) 6.1%
9. Fire Bomber (Macross 7) 5.6%
10. Minmay Lynn (Macross) 5.5%
11. Ranka Lee (Macross Frontier) 5.5%
12. Eclipse (Basquash!) 2.1%
13. Elena Himekawa (Phi-Brain - Puzzle of God ) 1.9%
14. Creamy Mami (Magical Angel Creamy Mami) 1.9%
15. Yūki Morikawa (White Album) 1.4%
16. Meer Campbell (Gundam Seed Destiny) 1.2%
17. Fancy Lala (Magical Stage Fancy Lala) 0.7%
18. Lovedol (Lovely Idol) 0.4%
19. Lilpri (Hime Chen! Otogi Chikku Idol Lilpri) 0.3%
20. Kirari Tsukishima (Kirarin Revolution!) 0.2%
21. Lemon Angel (Lemon Angel Project) 0.0%

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Alright everybody, see you all next week! I look forward to your input in the comments and feel free to follow me on Twitter @ANN_Lynzee or e-mail me at [email protected].