[REVIEW] JDrama - Onna Nobunaga

Onna Nobunaga, a tanpatsu drama with 2 long episodes. It's a retelling of the history of Oda Nobunaga's conquest for Japan, but with a twist, he's actually a woman.

Sometimes, I will try watching and reviewing different types of drama. Maybe I can discover something that can interest you.

Synopsis (From DramaWiki):

In this altered edition of Japan�s history, Oda Nobuhide never had a second son but a daughter, who is still being raised as his heir and successor.

Cast: 

• Amami Yuki as Oda Nobunaga
• Uchino Masaaki as Akechi Mitsuhide
• Koyuki as Onou
• Iseya Yusuke as Kinoshita Tokichiro
• Nagasawa Masami as Oichi
• Tamayama Tetsuji as Azai Nagamasa
• Kaku Kento as Oda Nobuyuki
• Yamaji Kazuhiro as Azai Hisamasa
• Mitani Koki as Imagawa Yoshimoto
• Hiraizumi Sei as Hirate Masahide
• Takahata Atsuko as Dota Gozen
• Nakamura Shido as Shibata Katsuie
• Fujiki Naohito as Matsudaira Ieyasu 

My review

Story

This is a retelling of Oda Nobunaga's life from his birth to the end. Nobunaga is a very well known historic figure, being the first samurai becoming a Shogun and conquering most of Japan. There was  many dramas about Nobunaga or featuring him. In this drama, Nobunaga is actually a woman who was raised as a boy to become the heir of the Oda family.

I might be wrong, I don't know much about Japan's history, but I think that it covered many real historic events and happenings in Nobunaga's life. You meet also many real historic people. As someone who doesn't know much about Japan Feudal era history and that is often confused by all the different families, this one was able to make sense to me. The story was well presented and made a lot of sense. I think they did a good job with the story. The fact that Nobunaga is a female blended well with the story and didn't seem out of place.

This tanpatsu is 2 episodes and they are long. Each are a movie's length. It was hard to keep my interest the whole time and watched in separated in a couple of days.

Acting

I do not really know about Oda Nobunaga's personality, but I thought that Amami Yuki did an amazing job here. It was as if this role was made for her. Indeed, Amami Yuki comes from Takarazuka, a theather where she was playing male roles.

Overall, I thought the acting was very good. I also thought that it had a good cast. The costumes and the visual effects were also very nice and beautiful.

Music

With two episodes only, I do not clearly remember the music. However, I do remember some of the songs were good, felt epic and fitted well with the settings. They were instrumental music which fits very well in a historical drama.

Recommendation

I do not really have anything similar to recommend. However, I loved this drama so much that it made me really interested in Taiga drama. I have tried some Taiga drama before, but I often felt lost. So, I  decided to start with something about Oda Nobunaga's life, called Nobunaga (1992). I was able to find that Taiga with english substitles! Then, I will try to follow with shows about Toyotomi and the Tokugawa's.