As second episodes go, this one accomplished quite a lot.  It worked pretty well in its own right, and also went a long way towards nudging Kochouki: Wakaki Nobunaga away from the directions I feared it might be headed, and in the directions I was hoping it would go.  That is to say, this is clearly not a fanservice piece or a simple otome game trope fest – it’s a show with at least some inclination towards a realistic depiction of an interesting and overlooked (which is a rarity in itself) period in Oda Nobunaga’s life.

That’s not to say that there aren’t fanciful elements here, but it’s not as if Oda ever wrote an autobiography (which probably would have been loaded with BS anyway) and a lot of what we know of the man himself – never mind the boy – comes second or third-hand.  I rather like this depiction of him as a reckless, irreverent lad too clever for his own good and a constant source of trial for his family.  If Oda had been a good and obedient kid, he almost surely wouldn’t have grown into the sort of man who could do the remarkable and sometimes horrific things he did.

The tale depicted here is that of Oda’s arranged marriage to Kichou (Hanamori Yumiri), daughter if the “Viper of Mino” Dousan Saitou.  The Viper was an arch-rival of the Oda clan, and the marriage was an attempt to broker peace between the two provinces.  Surely the notion that Kichou was a ninja and an assassin sent by her father to kill Nobunaga was one of those fanciful elements?  Well, she was known as an extraordinarily intelligent woman gifted in martial arts, and Nobunaga’s reputation at the time was indeed as “The Fool of Owari”.  It’s not entirely impossible that Dousan may have entertained such a plan, and there has been speculation to that effect.

Nevertheless (spoilers) that obviously didn’t happen, for whatever reason.  Did Kichou fall in love with Nobunaga, and he with her?  That’s not what the history books say but who knows.  This was of course a bloody and chaotic time in Japan, and marriages were used as political levers with great frequency.  Oda had multiple brothers but only one older, and given that Nobuhiro was illegitimate, he was the heir to the Oda clan.  That made him extremely valuable as a marriage partner, something The Viper would surely have taken into consideration.

We’ll never know how much of Wakaki Nobunaga, if any, veers close to the truth.  But almost five centuries later I really don’t think it matters much.  The chance to see this vastly overexposed historical figure get a character study as a person – not someone sharing a body with a teenaged girl, or as a spirit transported to an alternative universe or any other such tripe – is genuinely interesting.  And Oda, certainly, led a life more than interesting enough to not need the absurd twists LNs, manga and anime have persistently imposed upon it.  So far so good with the series, and it certainly – though it’s an original – shouldn’t be lacking for source material.