The Best Cherry Blossoms in the World

Synopsis

Many have tried to unify Japan during the warring states period,

but now Hideyoshi is the closest to doing it. Sagami province still remains to be taken though with Ujiyasu Hojo holding firmly on and survived three months inside his impregnable castle against Mitsunari of Hideyoshi’s army.

Hideyoshi trusts that Mitsunari will eventually break through the siege and asks Ieyasu to oversee the Kanto region once that happens.

Mitsunari’s plan was to wait for supplies to run out and then take it by force when morale is lower. However Nobuyuki wants to avoid a forceful takeover in favour of a peaceful surrender. Hearing his, Yukimura rides out on his own.

He charges up to the castle’s frontdoor and forces his way through rock solid wall, all the while dodgy gun shots. He shouts to challenge Ujiyasu to a duel but Kai and Hayakawa is there to face him first. And then Kunoichi joins Yukimura. As Yukimura looks to be much stronger than Kai and Hayakawa, Ujiyasu decides to help and comes in to face him. And later Kotaro joins the fray to assist Ujiyasu as Nobuyuki arrives to assist Yukimura.

The main forces of Mitsunari make their charge whilst Yukimura manages to take out Ujiyasu. And with him defeated, the land is finally unified. But a happy ending is still far away as Hideyoshi collapses at the celebration party.

Thoughts

First thing to say is actually how weird it feels having seen all these characters in a game CGI to being animated in another form. Doesn’t feel right, but it’s also very gratifying seeing them move in anime.

I haven’t even got this far in the game yet but you could tell that Hideyoshi was going to die without knowing anything. Wrapping up the first episode with a complete ending wouldn’t be right anyway, something to keep uncertainty is good.

Though that said, starting at this particular point screams out that it’s not for newcomers, especially those who don’t know the sequence of events of the Sengoku period. So you all probably know that Hideyoshi dies to open up the next major conflicts between everyone who followed Hideyoshi to unification and soon to follow the battle at Sekigahara. But for the sake of those who are newcomers and still want to continue watching, I won’t spoil anything. But I will say it’s a shame that this is after Nobunaga’s death seeing as the majority of Sengoku period anime are based on Nobunaga and his ambitions, so this is taking a different angle to most of the other similar genre anime..

I would say that if I didn’t know Samurai Warriors I don’t think I’d be watching this, or if I gave this a go I probably wouldn’t continue as I would’ve had no idea what’s going on, I don’t think people would watch this without knowing stuff, as I feel skipping past so much and going into this must confuse some people who don’t know everything.

Since this isn’t going to be on the anime as it’s already happened, I will say that I was hoping not to see the whole Azai and Oichi betrayal of Nobunaga. I found that quite sad in the game, so I’m sorta happy they started it here.

So far, I like it, but perhaps that’s more to do with me being acquainted with the game rather than liking the anime, otherwise I’d probably say it’s rather mediocre. Though I will keep watching as of course you can gain much more from anime than a few cutscenes in a game, just like a book will tell you more than watching it. One thing though, I can’t take this episode seriously with Yukimura smashing through the frontdoor. I’m pretty sure that never happened in history. For one thing they would’ve stormed the castle much earlier otherwise. However I assume the 3 month wait from Mitsunari watching the cooking smoke is true. Or so I hope anyway as I think that’s a rather interesting strategy.

If you’re interested, there’s an OVA out which is the time when the Sanada brothers had to defend Ueda against Tokugawa. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m gonna continue on Samurai Warriors 4.