[Sengoku Musou fancharacter design] Oda Nobukatsu

Ahahah, I cannot help myself ever since I saw Uesugi Kagekatsu being added to the official character lineup.

A while back my sister showed me this thread where people go write up stats for the characters they wished would show up in the game and stuff. I like to visualize things, so I go and actually DRAW the character I want, concept-art-style. I know logically they would add Nobutada before Nobukatsu, but... Well, I kind of took a huge liking for him ever since I started poking into the Oda clan, so I did him first. I do have a design for Nobutada too. It's just... progressing slower because I am not so good with drawing heavy-duty armour, yikes!

He kind of has a reputation for being “the idiot son” in the threads, it seems. So... well... I dunno, I just wanna make him seem cool. I went to make him look as different from his Nobunaga as it gets, while making sure they looks similar enough. Nobunaga likes a full suit of armour? Nobukatsu wears lots and lots of robes! Nobunaga looks like a scary bastard. Nobukatsu looks kind of like a girl. I used Cao Pi as my reference for the most part, just because his image suits the look I wanted the most.

His outfit is inspired partly by big, flowing Noh costumes because some sources said Nobukatsu is a great Noh dancer. I cannot verify the truth, but it makes for good material. Koei themselves seemed to use this Noh element on their Samurai Cats (Nobunyaga no Yabou) design for Nobukatsu: koei.wikia.com/wiki/File:Nobuk…

I gave him double fans as a weapon for almost the same reason. As far as I know in Noh the dancer only uses one fan, but I gave him two just to emphasize the whole "feminine" image.

The costume’s design is based on what he was probably wearing in the cavacade of Autumn 1581. And I quote: "… each member of the Oda family wore a white summer kimono as an undergarment and over it either another summer kimono of raw silk or one dyed in a design of azalea flowers, with one sleeve hanging loosely down from the shoulder. Their formal trousers were made severally of brocade, damask, and embroidery or of material dusted with gold. All participants wore hats, each to his own taste..." (quote from Shinchou ko-ki)

I'm still missing the hat just because I cannot decide what best to give him. A court hat? A Noh hat? A European hat?

His character symbolism are 無 (negative), 流 (flow) 潜 (submerged), and water droplets/ripples. The hiragana form of 無 (む) decorates the black fan. (ETA: I forgot that 流 is already Yoshitsugu's character symbolism, woops)

The initial weapon’s name is 夏露冬陽 (Summer Dew, Winter Sunshine). It’s the names of incense settings in a tea ceremony, referring to how he was also supposed to be good with tea ceremonies. Summer goes with the colour red, Winter goes with the colour black. It's not like it's actually something particular to him, because Nobunaga and Nobutada are adept in tea ceremonies too, but again, I wanted to push the "dainty, not at all war-like, and elegant" image.

His personality is... I guess "a negative and apathetic pushover". He does not have any ambitions, and he would obey orders mostly without question, though he would tell you how much he hates being told to fight. He would also cave to peer pressure. He can’t even be bothered to show much emotion beyond “bored displeasure”. As in… he would ramble on and on about the things he doesn’t like in this very flat tone like he doesn’t even have the energy to speak, but he won’t shut up unless you tell him to.

This would be my personal bias, ahahahah. The idea I was going with is that the only reason why he was such a failure is because he doesn't put in enough effort and he refuses to do so anyway. The kind of person who just wants to be left alone and pretty much disappear from the face of the planet.

And… that’s all for now. Too lazy to make a proper character stat/quotes thingamabob. Maybe some other day. Just general visual and personality design for now.

I've also been considering drawing Go-Tokuhime, but I can't be sure if her crest should be Oda or Tokugawa... I mean, she was part of the Tokugawa until 1579... Ah heck, maybe I should go with "non-affiliated" kind of design like Okuni or something.