English Dub Review: Kochoki “Parting”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

In 1556, Saitou Dosan falls to his son’s forces, meaning Minou is no longer allied with the Oda clan. Kichou grieves for his loss despite his cruelty, but is also worried as her worth as a wife is gone, though Nobunaga assures her that he loves her wholeheartedly. This is put in the backburner, as reports of a giant serpent terrorizing those near the pond pile on to his growing problems of trying to reforge alliances. The reports turn out to be the doing of Tsuzuki, who is trying to create chaos and continue his efforts to give Nobukatsu power.

Nobunaga attempts to make an alliance with Oda Nobukiyo by marrying off his younger sister Oichi, but when Nobukiyo proves to be a real jackass, the older sister Ohana slaps him and calls it off. With that, focus shifts to capturing the giant snake by draining the pond, but Kichou’s instincts help her stop an assassination attempt on Nobunaga by Tsuzuki. She tries keeping this from her husband, but she soon gets involved in a fight and her injuries give her away, so she disappears. Also, Nobukiyo makes a sudden appearance, seemingly offended by Ohana slapping him, but really there to propose to her because she showed such strength. It helps that he saves her from the giant snake, which I guess is real!

But Tsuzuki is far from done with his plans, though he confesses that he will only use Nobukatsu as a puppet so that he can become the real supreme leader. Which makes it awkward that Nobukatsu overhears this very thing right outside.

OUR TAKE
This episode probably felt the most like I was just watching a history lesson as opposed to, you know, A STORY. There’s some interesting character development for Kichou, with her still doubtful of being able to be a proper wife alongside her past as a ninja, but other than that the tone is rather all over the place. It’s following up on the wet fart that was Nobukatsu’s rebellion while also dealing with the evolving alliances of Owari AND…dealing with a romantic comedy and a legend of a giant snake that turns out to be true. Two of these things are not like the others and it just ends up bringing the episode down.

Tsuzuki continuing his goals of bringing Nobukatsu to power do make sense, but I was under the impression that the actual fighting would go a bit longer with these sorts of ploys being closer to the end of the story and being the final death knell for both of them. And so far, they’re pretty unimpressive (a recurring theme for this show, I’ve found). Using the rumor of a giant snake to lure Nobunaga out to get sniped at is hardly the sort of stuff you’d think a legendary historical figure like him would actually go through. Granted, history is often more mundane than fiction, but if you’re going to make such a very clearly overdramatized version of that history that seemingly doesn’t care too much about accuracy, you could stand to make these sorts of things more interesting to watch.

Though at least we now have a clear motivation for Tsuzuki, who admits he’s only using Nobukatsu for his own ends. I feel like we waited more than a bit too long for what should have been a pretty obvious reveal, and without all that much nuance in it. And I can’t help but notice that Nobukatsu, probably the most interesting and complicated character on this show, is now just kind of a shell of his former self. I mean, yeah he was being basically manipulated to do other people’s’ wishes before, but there was tragic sympathy to him as he attempted to maintain faith in his brother. Without that and with Tsuzuki basically controlling the wheel, he’s once again a puppet, but far less interesting. Next episode might just be the thing to remedy that though, if the preview and end card are any indication.