Sengoku Collection is a show about genderbent Sengoku era warlords. We’ve seen this premise a million times, and it never amounted to anything before. So everyone’s first reaction was not to pay any attention to this show.

But everyone was wrong. You should watch Sengoku Collection! Yes, you!

It’s the kind of show where the episodes are often hit or miss. Some are, frankly, a waste of time. Most are pretty good. But a select few are masterpieces. Most of the bad episodes are in the first half, leading a lot of people to drop the show.

Fortunately, Sengoku Collection is an episodic show, in which the episodes are more or less completely independent. There are a few characters that show up in a previous arc and then reappear in a later episode, but usually you can figure out what’s going on regardless. So I’ve put together a list of which episodes you should watch, and which you can feel free to skip. Note that some of the non-highlighted episode were enjoyable to watch, they just weren’t at the same level as the better episodes.

Episode Guide

Legend:
Must Watch
Should Watch
Skippable

1 Sweet Little Devil — This episode sets up the premise, so you should watch it solely for that reason. It’s decent, but not great.

2 Peaceful Empress— A Sengoku warlord becomes an idol. Yawn.

3 Pure Angel— Models and friendship. Skip.

4 One-eyed Dragon — Masamune escapes from prison. Decent, and recommended to help follow episode 22 which is better.

5 Sword Maiden— A warlord who became a kendo instructor is blackmailed.

6 Knowledge Master — A Sengoku warlord invents a time machine and befriends a young boy.

7 Refined Bard — A warlord cleans a motel. Family drama.

8 Regent Girl — Hideyoshi and Nobunaga enter a dream world and fight in a battle between rice and wheat. An amazing episode, worth watching the series just for this.

9 Ambitious Princess I — A warlord lowers her dreams from ruling the world to ruling a school. But do her powerful enemies really exist?

10 Ambitious Princess II — See the previous episode. These two sort of matter in understand everything in a few of the latter episodes.

11 Brutal Maiden — A challeneger faces the owner of a casino in an all or nothing gamble.

12 Dancing Blossom — A convenience store clerk takes on a motorcycle gang.

13 Silver Hornet — I don’t even remember watching this episode, so it must not have been that good.

14 Novel Deciders — High school girls have fun in their room. Not bad, but not that exciting either.

15 Annihilate Princess — Girls go to a haunted house.

16 Blade Adept — Warlords trick each other into eating spicy snacks. An excellent episode!

17 Sunshine Ruler — A maid turns into a pig when the sun sets. She befriends an elderly woman. Quite the tearjerker.

18 Four Leaves — A warlord goes to meet her pen pal. Even bigger tearjerker than the previous episode.

19 Vengeful Fang, IS — Mitsuhide attempts to solve a murder mystery. Great twists.

20 Vengeful Fang, OS — A flashback to the Sengoku era. Set up for the final episodes, but as long as you know Mitsuhide tried to kill Nobunaga, in my opinion it doesn’t really matter. Skippable.

21 Cavalry Queen — A warlord fights robots on a space station. Win!

22 The Splendor — A cop and a warlord attempt to capture Masamune.

23 The Dune — Children fight the Romance of Three Kingdoms in the day care sandbox. Absolutely brilliant.

24 Peaceful Empress – EX — Ieyasu, the idol from episode two (don’t worry, episode two doesn’t matter) becomes involved in a murder mystery. Exciting, with hints of romance, and with a sequence of multiple twists at the end.

25 Marshal Princess — A warlord goes fishing.

26 Sengoku Collection — This episode wraps everything up in a way that anyone who watched episode one would have expected. The only good part is watching Nobunaga keep kicking this ninja in the face. Otherwise, no need to watch the end.

Review

This is a really tough show to give a single grade for in a review because the quality of the episodes vary so much. Generally speaking, all of the green episodes are A material, the yellow ones are B material, and the rest are C or D material. I’ll attempt to give a rating anyway.

But I think the most amazing thing about this show is how great it was in relation to its premise. The premise is the most unoriginal crap I’ve ever heard. Sengoku warlords come to the present age? I knew immediately when I heard this that Sengoku Collection would be a crappy show.

And yet, that first impression was drastically wrong. It goes to show that the premise isn’t nearly as important as what you make of it.

• Storytelling – A – Depends on the episode. They’ll often experience with unorthodox storytelling techniques, though.
• Voice – B – Manages to make you excited despite its dumb premise.
• Characters – B – Each character usually only gets one or two episodes. Some are a bit shallow, sure, but they still manage to have distinctive personalities and not be completely bound up in their unique character traits.
• Attention Grab – B – Some episodes great, others not so much.
• Production – B – Really like the visual style.
• Overall – B+

Recommendations – I honestly can’t think of anything quite like this.