Sengoku Collection (Parallel World Samurai) - Eps. 1-4

Japan has a bit of an obsession with its history, with the Sengoku (or Warring States) period in particular proving to be of keen interest due to the sheer quantities of legends surrounding that period and the massive bloodshed surrounding some of the larger battles. What is a bit of a more recent... fixation shall we say... is reimagining the legendary heroes from this era and retelling their antics or changing their personas in their entirety.

This brings us neatly to Sengoku Collection. Described as being the result of what happens when a world where everyone looks like a high-school girl (I disagree, I have never seen a high school girl look like this...) intersects with our universe and time. Or, to put it into more layman's terms, all of the well-known generals and heroes from the Sengoku period have been thrust into our timeline, and they all look either under sixteen or like they could pass themselves off in a sexy teacher contest. It's Battle Girls all over again...

Or is it?

Oda Nobunaga, a firey young maiden (who just happens to be rather well endowed for someone who looks like she is fourteen) whose dream it was to bring together the warring states under a united Japan, has found herself in the Information Age. Her landing was not gracious, or particularly well executed for that matter, and its very likely that the young gentleman whose lap in which she landed will now no longer conceive children. While coming to terms with her surroundings, Ms Nobunaga makes the rather wise decision of threatening three rather powerful animal spirits. These spirits, who take the form of three very cute girls, offer Oda the ability to return home if she can collect the spirit power which resides in the souls of the other generals and heroes of that era. Luckily for Oda, she is not the only sword wielding maiden from the past who has found herself occupying a slice of the future.

Oda Nobunaga now finds herself travelling the world (well, Japan) with the three miko acting as her scouts, meeting with those from her timeline and offering them the choice of remaining in the future and giving up their power, or not giving their power up and facing the wrath of Nobunaga's sword. The choices these maidens make is quite interesting regarding whether to stay or go, and in each case its dependent on what they have to gain or lose by staying in the future world. Sengoku Collection is a series which tells the story behind each of these girls' arrivals in the modern world, how they have kept themselves fed, how they have lived their lives and what situations they have come from. At the end of each episode they are confronted by the miko and offered the choice to stay or to go. What will they choose?

While I appreciate that the character designs are a little cliché and that the art is rather simplistic, Sengoku Collection has quite a cute atmosphere about it which fits in very nicely with the show's writing, which I find to be quite charming.

I honestly came into this series expecting something very poor indeed, and instead I have found yet another series which will keep me entertained over the coming months. Sengoku Collection is yet another easy-going series with a wide variety of well-written characters; again, just what is needed when your day-to-day job is getting you down! Enjoy.

You can currently watch Sengoku Collection in streaming form right here at the UK Anime Network!