Okay, imagine this. One day, you wake up and aliens start attacking the Earth. "Huh, that's weird!" you exclaim. You couldn't have imagined aliens actually existed, and even if they did, you could never have imagined that one day they'd invade Earth in your lifetime. But there's a twist to this story.

You are the descendant of Nobunaga Oda, legendary historical figure. "Huh, that's weird!" you exclaim a second time. But as you are the descendant of Nobunaga Oda, this enables you the ability to summon a gigantic fucking gun and you are suddenly overwhelmed, nay, ABSOLUTELY CONSUMED, by the desire to murder these invading alien scum.

Also, the descendants of Jack the Ripper, Isaac Newton, and Mahatma Gandhi are also around and they are also murdering aliens and you decide to team up with them to FULLY satiate the blood lust by putting a bullet in little ET's brain.

That's Nobunagun. That's the entire show. ~~10/10 show, go watch it now. Right now.~~

#Introduction...?#

...I don't even know what that was. Everything just went blank for a couple of minutes. But okay, this is an adaptation of the manga by Masato Hisa, brought to us by the studio Bridge. Nobunagun was for me, a show I expected absolutely very little from, but ended up being very surprised by. Not necessarily positively so. Then for some reason after watching the first episode, I watched the other twelve in one day. I don't really know why or how it happened.

I really can't explain it. Just like how I can't explain why or how this came into existence at all. Thanks Masato Hisa, who also did another series about a bipolar prostitute that kills undead having gained power from the semen of the men she sleeps with on a day to day basis.

...What?

Descendants of Nobunaga Oda, Jack the Ripper, Isaac Newton, and Mahatma Gandhi fighting aliens. That's the show. I just can't get over that that's the whole premise. It just feels like it's so unabashed. Like you can't make that into a serious show, and I honestly think they didn't even try. Which is great because it would have been even worse if they had.

I mean just what is up with those choices? Of all of the historical figures that could have been chosen to be thrown together as a team to fight aliens, Jack the Ripper??? With Gandhi??? Wh--why? I mean there's actually more characters who are descendants of more historical figures who are a part of this organization that their entire purpose is to battle these aliens that seem hellbent on destroying Earth.

But really, the ideal team we truly need if we wish to stop the alien menace is Nobunaga Oda, Isaac Newton, Gandhi, and Jack the Ripper.

But not all aliens are bad. See, there's this one other alien guy who can actually talk, and basically he went around collecting the DNA of famed historical figures and then proceeded to go around implanting them in random family lines all over the world (?). This good alien did all of this because he knew in advance that one day, the bad aliens would come to Earth for crazy fun murder times.

Look, it's perfectly logical and sensible. If an alien just wandered into a dark alley where Jack the Ripper was doing his thing, Jack the Ripper would then proceed to stab the ever living shit out of that alien for interrupting his murdering. Therefore, get his descendant on an alien fighting team and have them go murder aliens.

Oh, by the way. Jack the Ripper's true identity is

#They're perfectly fine representations of historical figures#

The show has some leeway to work with because it's mostly the descendants of these historical figures rather the historical figures themselves, but it's essentially implied they're supposed to be actual reincarnations. Like, our main character literally has dreams of Nobunaga's life before everything gets kicked off. But Nobunaga is basically shown to be this violent and murderous guy, and when his descendant "awakens", she summons this gigantic gun out of nowhere and starts murdering aliens despite previously being an ordinary (though somewhat odd) high school girl.

Behold! The descendant of Galileo Galilei (I GUESS)!

The Isaac Newton girl is a bit too... promiscuous? There's a weird vibe coming from Gandhi in almost all non-action scenes ESPECIALLY when it's just him and Nobunagun. As for Jack the Ripper, he's nowhere as near violent or muderous as one expect but as previously stated in that spoiler there's a reason for it.

#Conclusion#

Beyond the absolute ridiculous premise and the very questionable takes on/representations of these historical figures, I don't think there's much more to say about this show. Like... plot? They eventually beat the aliens. That's it. SPOILERS! Yet, I still watched this show in the span of a day. Because a decent portion of it is enjoyably bad. Really, the true groan worthy stuff mainly (and unsurprisingly) comes from the non-action scenes.

I honestly would recommend to watch Nobunagun as I think it's the worst show I've watched that I simultaneously still really enjoyed. It probably is second to only Ranpo Kitan, but that was more of a matter of wondering what they were going to throw at me next.

Bad shows can still provide entertainment (although maybe not always the sort the creators intended), and some just don't. I'd argue Nobunagun falls into the category of one that does.

A 4.5 out of 10 or 45 out of 100, while acknowledging an even lower score would be justifiable (though I've watched worse shows that have also provided less entertainment).