Oda Nobunaga

"Oda Nobunaga"

- imparting advice to Rance that he'd never forget.

About
Oda Nobunaga was the warlord of the Oda House of JAPAN that lived during its 4th Sengoku Era. He was a very skilled and beloved leader of his clan, but he retired from the battlefield after he gradually weakened more and more over the years from an illness.

Nobunaga was born in the year GI985 with the name of Kazusanosuke as the son of the previous Oda Nobunaga. During his earlier years, the young Kazusanosuke grew as a meek and unconfident person, directly contrasting with his brutal and vicious father. With a weak and sickly body and being the son of the Lord of the Oda House, he experienced a sheltered life and found himself without having any meaningful relationships with people, since most treated him as their Lord and not as a person. One day, 3G employed a war orphan named Kichou as a maid in exchange of keeping her under the Oda House's protection. Unlike most of their servants, Kichou showed little restraint when dealing with the shy Kazusanosuke, to the point of bullying him for his lack of courage and bossing him around despite her position as an attendant. Despite this, Kazusanosuke was found her behavior as odd as interesting, and regularly seeked out for her as she was the only one that would treat him like an equal. In spite of their seemingly opposite personalities, the two became close childhood friends, often playing together under the iconic cherry blossom tree near the Oda Castle. Over time, a very special friendship was formed between the two, one that would inevitably become love. His relationship with Kichou allowed the timid Kazusanosuke to grow as a person, changing into a more confident and jovial individual, and Kichou herself changed into a more agreeable and gentle woman as well.

When the dreadful conflict with the Youkai that would be known as the Great Youkai War was initiated, both his father and elder brother lost their lives as the Oda House had allied with One-Eyed Masamune against the Youkai King Omachi, leaving Kazusanosuke as the only heir of the clan along with his much younger sister Kouhime. After the tragedy, he was left with no choice but to become the head of the House, inheriting his father's name as Oda Nobunaga. Due to his appointment, he was require to choose a wife to leave a suitable heir, leading Nobunaga to pick Kichou as a result. While the marriage was a subject of debate among the members of the clan, as she was a mere servant with no blood relation to nobility, it didn't stop the couple from happily marrying under the cherry blossom tree where the two had spent countless days together. Upon becoming the head of the House, Nobunaga successfully commanded the Oda Army towards many victories in the battlefield and was widely respected for his incredible performance both as a fighter and as a leader. Despite his outstanding talent for war, Nobunaga still had a fragile health that would quickly force him to repose, preventing him from making advancements too significant in the unification of JAPAN. Additionally, his naturally unassertive personality made him less than notable as a politician but fortunately for him, his wife Kichou was much more determined and firm, managing the diplomatic and political affairs of their territories. She was also responsible for replacing him as a commander when he was too sick to be deployed, allowing the Oda House to never lose territory while she was around. However one night Nobunaga was caught by surprise by an assassin during one of his most vulnerable periods, and Kichou traded her life to save his.

Her death was a huge blow for Nobunaga, who was left with a severe depression after the passing of his beloved Kichou to the point that he lost all his motivation as a Warlord. With an ambitionless Nobunaga and the death of one of a key military and political figure, the Oda House lost a large portion of its territory over the years, being left with only their home province at Owari by LP0005. Many of its warrior defected to other more powerful houses as well, with only its most loyal retainers remaining with the Oda. This events caused the influence and power of his house to decline significantly compared to the previous time, but Nobunaga hadn't lost his will to live yet. After Kichou's death, his younger sister Princess Kou became the focus of his life, and wanted to ensure a future full of happiness for Kou, wishing her to live a peaceful life safe from quarrels and conflicts, and became disinterested in wars or politics, but this started to look like an implausible dream after he found out he had an incurable disease.

In LP0005, weeks before the events of Sengoku Rance, he came to meet the adventurer Rance, who was at JAPAN for a vacation on a hotspring trip. The two became instant friends as they are both very easy-going, and quickly entrusted Rance with running the Oda House for him. While he initially simply intended him to lead their army decently enough to protect their territory, he was surprised by the exceedingly positive results of Rance's leadership, who was not only managing to keep their territory but also expand Oda's forces and taking over other surrounding houses such as the Hara and the Ashikaga. Seeing his incredible talent as a warrior and his sheer competence, he allowed Rance to act as he saw fit and, even though Nobunaga wanted to secure a safe territory where the would be able to live a comfortable life, Rance instead wanted to conquer the whole country and unify JAPAN, a decision that Nobunaga decided to follow. Nobunaga and Rance would regularly spend time as friends and the two were fairly fond of each other, an impressive feat considering how much Rance hates to hang around with males.

Later on, the Oda House was payed a visit by a monk of the Tenshi Sect that arrived to check the sacred gourd the Oda House was securing. The gourd was one of the 8 ancient relics from hundreds of years of the past that had been used to seal the wicked Dark Lord Xavier, who terrified the country with his Apostles on his last awakening. The gourd contained a piece of Xavier's soul, and the monk arrived to make sure that the seal remained strong. After the monk left, Nobunaga explained to Rance about Xavier and his horrifying acts but during the conversation, he accidentally breaks the gourd because of his monkey Toukichirou. While they expected Xavier to appear in some way or form, nothing happened, which led Nobunaga to assume that Xavier had perished after being sealed for so long. Over the following days, Nobunaga began experiencing strange nightmares and illusions, hearing voices and the like. He quickly came to realise that Xavier's fragment of his soul had inhabited his body, and was trying to take it over, to the point where he lost control of his body. While Nobunaga's will remained, Xavier was able to possess his body. Now in control of Nobunaga's body, Xavier used his influence as a Warlord to exterminate many members of the Tenshi Sect, which led the Sect to go at war with the Oda House after he burned hundreds of followers to death.

After some time passes, he decided secluded himself from Nobunaga's inner circle by confining himself at Honnouji away from everybody with the excuse that his illness had gotten worse. When Rance would conquer a major House with one of the gourds, his monkey Toukichirou, who turned out to be one of Xavier's loyal Apostles, would search among the destroyed remnants of the house and steal the gourd to take it to his master. Every time a gourd was broken, a fragment of Xavier's soul would inhabit Nobunaga's body, allowing Xavier to get stronger while weakening Nobunaga. Despite being possessed, his will still resisted Xavier from within, but it was only a matter of time before his will would vanish entirely.

Eventually when 5 of the 8 gourds are broken, Kouhime will try to meet with Nobunaga on Honnouji, as he had distance himself for a long time without giving her any explanations. She'd tried to speak to him countless times trying to understand why he wouldn't meet with her anymore. She forced herself in to Honnouji during a time where Xavier, with Nobunaga's body, and his Apostles were torturing a Tenshi Sect monk to death. Kouhime was only confused by the scenario and about her brother's acts, and the monk would desperately try to alert her to run away, but Xavier wouldn't allow it now. His Apostle Rengoku captured her immediately and gathered a group of young males to continuously rape her for many days until she dies. Fortunately, her sudden and mysterious dissappearance set all the forces of the Oda House led by Rance on motion, and he was able to find her before she was killed, though she was severely scarred as a consequence of the sexual abuse. Thanks to this, Rance was able to discover the truth about Xavier, and gathered all his army to raid the Honnouji Temple where Xavier was hiding. During the Honnou Temple Incident when Xavier was weakened by Rance and Kentarou in their battle, Nobunaga managed to partially reclaim control over his body, trying to wound himself further so that Rance could kill Xavier. However, Xavier ultimately escaped in his body, and Nobunaga's soul finally died in the process. After Xavier's escape, only a lock of his hair was found, and it was buried by Kou next to his wife Kichou under the cherry blossom tree.

Personality and Appearance
Nobunaga was a compassionate man and a charismatic leader. He had a very laid-back attitude and just wanted to live in peace and happy with his young sister Kou. He was a very protective older brother, being closer to a father figure for her, but his relaxed demeanor causes her more stress. He loves to pat her in the head all the time, to the point she claims it's one of his hobbies. He's a good man, rational and sensible, but he's not against killing or invading other territories for her House's convenience, seeing it as an inevitable outcome for war. He still believes that he would only take as much territory as it was necessary for his clan to survive, but doesn't go against Rance for doing the opposite and respects his approach in the matter.

He's also a very calmed man that is almost never seen mad, and laughs most of the time. He gets along surprisingly well with Rance, which is really amazing for a man. Nobunaga trusts a lot in Rance, which was a surprise for him since he admitted that he didn't expect him to get so far. He does have another serious and gloomy side that doesn't usually show. The death of his wife years ago impacted him much more than he shows, and he's still depressed by her departure.

Despite his lack of motivation to expand or wage war during a Sengoku Era, his subordinates still hold an incredible amount of respect for him, not only for his skills as a leader or a combatant, but as a human being, since the house still retained a considerable number of loyal supporters that fought for him to the death even when the Oda House was at its weakest point before Rance's arrival.

Abilities
Being the lord of the Oda house, he has control over everyone in the Oda army and in the territory of Owari. He's gained fame and praise due to his impressive ability in combat and possesses many versatile skills. His illness has removed him from the battlefield but even with his current weak body he can still pull incredible feats in combat.

He is incredibly skilled in the art of Jiujitsu and possesses a Lv2 skill in it. He's capable of disarming with ease individuals who possess higher skill levels in sword combat than him, such as Rance, in single combat, even though he can barely move, although he's easily exhausted after a short spar. He also has Lv1 skills in both Sword Combat and Bow Combat, giving him great versatility in battle. He enjoys fighting and claimed that his spar with Rance improved his health because he was having fun.

He's also a very capable cook with a Lv1 Cooking skill. He's the one that cooks in his Dango shop while Kou attends the clients. Even Rance didn't want to admit that his cooking was actually delicious, because he doesn't like eating food made by men.

Nobunaga in Kichikuou Rance
To read about the version of Nobunaga despicted in the non-canon Kichikuou Rance refer to:


 * Oda Nobunaga (Kichikuou Rance).

Trivia

 * Nobunaga is one of the few male characters that has managed to befriend Rance.
 * The famous Oda Nobunaga in Japanese history is known for his cruelty. That might be the inspiration of making the Nobunaga in Kichikuou Rance a Dark Lord.
 * The monkey on his shoulder, Toukichirou, is a parody of Toyotomi Hideyoshi whose nickname is Monkey (based on the Novel "Taiko" by Eiji Yoshikawa) because of his bad looking face. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a follower of Oda Nobunaga who rose to power after Nobunaga's death. In Sengoku Rance, there are two monkeys that were on Nobunaga's shoulder and their names Toukichirou (藤吉郎), Hiyoshimaru (日吉丸) also were Hideyoshi's names (Kinoshita Toukichirou was the name before he lived as Hashiba Hideyoshi, and Hiyoshimaru was his childhood name).
 * Nobunaga's wife, Kichou, inspired from the historical figure with the same name, was said to resemble the female Rance too much, both in Rance's Nightmare as well as the Joke Ending.