OP Sequence

OP: 「陽炎-kagerou-」 by 天下取り隊 (明坂聡美, 伊瀬茉莉也, 國立幸, 持月玲依)
(Tenkatori-tai (Akesaka Satomi, Ise Mariya, Kokuryuu Sachi, Mochizuki Rei))
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼

「転送乙女」 (Tensou Otome)
“Transfer Maiden”

I was secretly hoping there wouldn’t be anything in this gender reversal Sengoku period anime to grab my immediate attention so that I could avoid adding another new title to the thirty or so I’m planning to follow already, but my interest in this war-filled era of Japanese history and the female seiyuu involved got the best of me. Oh woe is me. Quite honestly, I was expecting this to be more nonsensical than it turned out to be, starting with our middle school heroine, Hide Yoshino (Hidaka Rina). However, her uncanny ability to attract misfortune reminded me of a certain person of a magical index and quickly won me over. What I really like about Yoshino’s character is the fact that she didn’t come off as an incompetent airhead, and instead just someone who has terrible luck. I dare say she was endearing to watch, particularly because Hidaka Rina plays her with a voice very similar to the one she used for Last Order. (Just take out all the third-person descriptive talk.)

What really sold me on the series as a whole was when Yoshino was pulled into an alternate dimension during the Sengoku period where everyone is female. The sight of the crescent helmet and various other samurai armaments in Date-sensei’s office (Hirata Yuka) hinted that she’s the descendent of the “One-Eyed Dragon” Date Masasume, so learning that she was responsible for accidentally transporting Yoshino to this other world put an interesting spin on things. Namely, it built up a plot with someone from her world that she can look for in order to find a way back. The twist of course is that Date-sensei will likely be Date Masamune of this world, meaning she won’t be on the same side as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, whom Hide Yoshino has effectively become to serve Oda Nobunaga (Toyoguchi Megumi) and Akechi Mitsuhide (Kitamura Eri) in their quest to collect the legendary Crimson Armor and unify all of Japan. Not exactly the most interesting development for those who don’t care about this period in Japanese history, but more than enough for me considering that I wasn’t expecting much from the plot to begin with.

Character-wise, I’ll be the first to admit that it was weird seeing Oda Nobunaga portrayed so benevolently by Toyoguchi Megumi, even though she uses her meaner Chifuyu-like voice in this role. What made me more okay with it was the comedic aspect that followed suit, and the fact that Hideyoshi goes down in history as one of Nobunaga’s most distinguished generals. The latter in particular is what made it easier to accept how quickly Nobunaga opened up to having Hideyoshi around, even with all the blushing out of concern. Thus far, there’s been a fairly good balance between the lighthearted and serious story elements that have come together much better than I anticipated, hence why I’m quite keen on seeing where this series goes. Yoshino has her history textbook with her too, so I’m curious if she’ll read about the Incident at Honnou-ji where Mitsuhide ultimately assassinated Nobunaga after betraying him. I will be really impressed if this series touches upon that.

For the time being, I’m already enjoying the quirky dynamic between the characters, given that Mitsuhide is the spitting image of Yoshino’s friend “Akerin”, and Tokugawa Ieyasu will soon be revealed to be the spitting image of “Tokunyan” (Akesaka Satomi). Then there’s the talking dog Shiro, who actually provided a decent cliffhanger of sorts. Despite my personal enjoyment, I still wouldn’t really recommend this series unless you have some interest in the Sengoku period, as that part of the premise is essentially what’s keeping my interest hooked. Well that, and pretty good opening and ending themes care of four cast members, including Ise Mariya who will be voicing Uesugi Kenshin (left in pic). If it means anything, I’m more inclined to follow this than Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai after watching both their first episodes, which is the reverse of what I expressed in the Spring 2011 Preview.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「熱き矢の如く」 (Atsuki Ya no Gotoku) by 天下取り隊 (明坂聡美, 伊瀬茉莉也, 國立幸, 持月玲依)
(Tenkatori-tai (Akesaka Satomi, Ise Mariya, Kokuryuu Sachi, Mochizuki Rei))
Watch the ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

Previews with the real seiyuus? Now that’s something different. In case anyone’s unsure, Hirata Yuka is on the left and Hidaka Rina is on the right.

51 Comments

  1. I saw this but I thought it wouldn’t be interesting and put it out of my list, but I may check it out first after a fairly positive review. Now that I think about it, reversal of genders seems interesting, but seems like it’ll be better if we had prior knowledge about japanese history.

    Chocolate
  2. I was planning to watch this until I saw a screencap of a chick wearing armors. I can already see where it’s heading to… but I’ll try to watch the first episode, and see if my thoughts prove me wrong

    Alec
  3. This seems like a very interesting take. I too wonder if they will actually do an episode based on Akechi Mitsuhide’s infamous betrayal of Nobunaga at the Honnoji Temple. Be interesting to see if they bring out Nobunaga’s brutality later in the series, because right now it feels kind of weird seeing Nobunaga as having a nice side.

    Yuri Rocks
  4. Same. i got sold by this alternate dimesion thing making the story more interesting. i think i will like this series more if she becomes very important through the series. something like ,” she is a god or something between the lines “:D

    Croosboy
  5. I guess I’ll try out one episode of this, but I seriously hope this turns out much better than that piece of crap Rio show. It will be difficult to give this show the benefit of the doubt, but I am a history buff (especially regarding the Sengoku Jidai) and I am too cheap to buy Shogun 2 Total War right now lol.

    I wish I had more time and money….lol

    longtimefirsttime
    1. Assuming that the quality will remain about the same in terms of pacing (and this is a major leap of faith) throughout the series, I think you will definitely feel better giving a bit of your time every week to this show. Rainbow Gate was just bungled from start to finish. What the hell is the significance of the gates, what the hell is a roll ruler, and why the hell do you need such goofy casino cops, etc. So pretty sure, being a history buff, you might find this worth a shot.

      Yuri Rocks
      1. Yeah, I’ll definitely take your advice to heart and give this show a few episodes before judging it, but we totally agree on Rainbow Gate. Much like Divine, if the history portion doesn’t keep me intrigued, I won’t hesitate to drop this.

        BTW, has anyone played Shogun 2? How is it? It got some pretty good reviews and I did enjoy previous versions of Total War, so I have high hopes for it.

        longtimefirsttime
  6. Also I thought that the scene where Nobunaga tried to crush the phone essentially saying something to the effect of “destroy the useless bird” was a very clever reference to the folk tale describing the personalities of the three great unifiers of Japan

    Yuri Rocks
  7. Haha, the quickest way to get Divine interested in any given show is to throw a bunch of well-known seyiuu in it.

    But in all honesty, if this is really a comedic retelling of history then it seems pretty interesting.

    Vsin
  8. when theres an all-girls cast, chances are that there will be lots of lesyay moments in it. so yeah, im mostly in this for the yuri but the plot is also interesting. I can also see some cool fights and funny moments in this one.

    amado
  9. Is it just me, or does this REALLY feels like a rip-off from Koihime Musou from the concept. Koihime Musou was the girl-moe-fied version of the 3 Kingdoms, and now we got girl-moe-fied version of the Sengoku era.

    drzero7
  10. Can’t really see this comparing well to the epic awesomeness of Sengoku Basara (anime), or even the quirky characters and interesting retelling of Sengoku Rance(game), but I’ll check out the first episode and see what I think of it I guess.

    Trifle
  11. Just watch this and I think this is pretty enjoyable when I expected this to be worse, e.g. something like Queen’s Blade with alot of fanservice, and I am not really a fan of fanservice. So this anime surprises me a bit. I like the OP song with a bit “traditional” Japanese feel. Pacing was decent, character design is kind of okay, but could make use of more detail and most of all this could be interesting, at least better than Koihime Musou (I think).

    tcm-man
  12. The ep was entertaining, but Hideyoshino is dumber than a bag of hammers. Hell, it took her half the episode to figure out that she wasn’t in modern Tokyo. That gag kinda wore thin after a while. Then again, it’s another pachinko anime, so I don’t expect much, so I can’t say I’m disappointed.

    You missed a screencap at the shrine after she got transported away of a lone pachinko ball by the altar. LOL. Nice and subtle.

    Then again, I suppose it would be over the top if battles were composed of two armies firing thousands of tiny little metal balls at each other… or the currency was composed of tiny metal balls you could only exchange for crap gifts, which you then had to go shady shops to exchange for real cash… 😀

    I’ll keep watching… mostly because there’s not much else on on Monday nights.

    sarcastic_weasel
  13. this might be another one added to the list. man, these reviews keep adding to my anime list. its a good thing university ends this month. more time to watch all these shows (until my job starts -_-).

    Otaku_Brawler
  14. I just wanted to point out that if you look closely when Hide Yoshino is looking around Date-sensei’s office, you’ll recognize some of the weapons that the other heroines use and even some of the crimson armor that everyone’s after….. I may be just guessing but there is a striking resemblence…..

    Snipingalltargets
  15. Right when I saw Oda use her cruel blade move I immediately thought of Inuyasha. And if you watched Inuyasha before you’ll notice that this story has a lot in common with it. Rather than collecting Crimson Armor that supposedly gives you special powers, they had crystal shards to up ones demonic powers. Also the way of transportation took place at a shrine. A little too similar but Sengoku Otome has a more comedic side to it. Anyways, I’m looking forward to the next episode and hopefully they’ll shed some light on the talking dog thing. (I also think that Date-sensei is some sort of time traveler living in both worlds.)

    Zangkin
  16. It’s Toyotomi, not Toyotami, ;p.

    Best thing about this whole show is the talking dog, it was so random that I laughed for the first time watching this episode.I’ve heard of Koihime Musou, but I’ve never watched an anime with nothing but girls in it.I was prepared to call it a rip off of Hyakka Ryouran, but now I can’t do that.

    Btw, anyone else get reminded of Izaya’s Cellphone Stomp when Nobunaga started smashing Yoshino’s Cellphone lmao.

    anishuma
    1. btw… Koihime Musou is worth watching. It has a large cast of likeable characters and can be very funny at times. I especially like Rin-Rin the best. The series isn’t afraid to make fun of itself, the characters, fan service, and the situations.

      Even tho it is set in the past many of the themes seem like they are in the present. Like the 3 sisters that are musicians and are treated like rock stars of their era with adoring fanboys following them around from performance to performance.

      Karmafan
  17. I am someone that actually enjoys the Koihime Musou series. KM was not rocket science and not some great mysterious anime but the series is cute and worth 24 minutes of my time each week.

    After watching this 1st episode I find I like it as well and will be adding it to my viewing schedule.

    Karmafan
  18. Definitely something I’ll be watching over the next couple months. Nothing super complex, but not horrible either. Basically, something easy to enjoy, which is just fine by me.

    HalfDemonInuyasha

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