Nobuna Oda

Oda Nobuna is the general, as well as princess of the Oda clan, and ruler of the Owari Province. She became the leader after the death of her father Oda Nobuhide. Called a "fool" by her enemies, Nobuna is actually a very bright and talented young woman, with much knowledge of the world. Her main goal is to unite Japan, and turn the country into a power that is on par with the European nations. She serves as the main female protagonist throughout the series. One of her other names is Kichi. She is voiced by Itō Kanae in the anime. She is often depicted with a musket (matchlock) in official art. Nobuna is a fairly young woman with a lean frame. She has a heart-shaped face with big brown eyes. Her hair is blonde, and quite long, however she usually has it tied up, in a messy fashion with a red ribbon. She has what many might consider to be a flamboyant fashion sense. She wears a tiger skin wrapped around her waist, over a black hakama with yellow trim at the bottom, and white tabi with zōri. She also wears green-blue colured haori which she wears over only one shoulder. Nobuna is very ambitious, and dedicated. She not only wants to conquer and unite Japan, but she is even showing interest in the rest of the world, and starts to respect Sagara more when he demonstrates his knowledge of Europe. She seems to be particularly fascinated with European customs, and she has Sagara swear his loyalty to her in a European knight style, and says it's "cooler" and "more elegant" (as translated in English). She also seems to have an interest in Matchlocks. She usually quite friendly and approachable. For a feudal lord in Japan, she usually seems rather easygoing. However, in some cases, she can be very impatient, such as when she steps on Sagara's face, out of annoyance, because he took to long to introduce himself; and can also be very violent. Often times, she is very emotional, and starts crying when someone she cares about is in danger, such as Sagara Yoshiharu and Saitō Dōsan. She values her companions, and will go through great lengths to protect them. During her father's dying days, she and the rest of the clan brought in a number of monks to help cure him with their prayers and methods, when he later died, she killed the monks. This experience left her hating liars and hypocrites, as well as being the most likely the cause of her disbelief in gods and buddha. When he later died, she made a scene at his funeral because it was nothing more than an event for the living to help cope with the death, and none of her people were even thinking of her father since they were so busy scheming against her. At first being something of a Tsundere, she eventually acknowledges her feelings for Yoshiharu and accepts his own, this event is marked by him saving her from Asakura Yoshikage and later unfortunately by the illness-induced death of Saitō Dōsan. After comforting her and sharing a kiss during this time, Yoshiharu won Nobuna over. Her feelings since then are acted upon when the opportunity strikes, but the two acknowledge their social standings are different and try to conceal their relationship. Unfortunately for them the rumors spread quickly, even to other Daimyō such as Asakura Yoshikage, who still targets Nobuna personally. Similarly, she is also aware of Jūbei's feelings towards Yoshiharu, which has led to a rivalry between them, on top of some occasional teaming up to punish his lecherous side. After accepting her own feelings, her reaction to the girls around Yoshiharu who also have feelings for her has become even more obvious. She would go so far as to burn a temple down if he refuses to return to her side and continues to play around with the harem he managed to build on the inside, ironically he himself did actually want to return at this time. She is quite arrogant about her looks and fairly self absorbed, as she has called herself the most beautiful girl in Owari, then believed Yoshiharu meant her when he said he wanted the most beautiful girl in all of Japan itself, and seems to overall believe she is the undisputed most beautiful girl in the world. Interestingly, her mindset when she is acting as the "6th Demon King", which strongly reflects Nobunaga's historic personality, is referred to almost as a separate state of mind for her. Whenever she has to go through something particularly heartbreaking, such as executing her brother or letting someone she cares about die due to circumstances, she will close her heart. Later on, due to her feelings for Yoshiharu, this manifests far worse, which let leads to indifference and becomes outright aggression. Should Yoshiharu die or betray her trust (usually not on purpose), she will become cold, cruel, vengeful and hostile, enough to literally burn a temple, or several, to the ground with little provocation. Other warlords, some dangerous in their own right, who have seen her in a vengeful mood genuinely cannot bring themselves to recognize her as the same person, except for Takeda Shingen, who is rather similar in that respect since she plays the role of Katsuichiyo in her normal life. She is surprisingly naive and gullible for her intelligence, and was easily deceived by the likes of Menmi Senchiyo. Whenever it involves Yoshiharu she is far too quick to be deceived and snap, as when she was told she'd betrayed him in her sleep by Menmi she not only believed it but nearly broke because of it. Oddly, this becomes a bigger problem the deeper she seems to take her relationship with Yoshiharu, as she refused to be deceived by Jūbei accusing Yoshiharu of attacking her when he told her his side of it, but later completely disregards his words when Jūbei implies they slept together(referring to the time she warmed his dying body with her own).