"Oda Nobuna's Ambition." An obvious reference/play on "Nobunaga's Ambition," a long line of strategy games where the player plays through the story of one of the Sengoku Jidai's most famous and successful warlords. (The girl above is actually Niwa Nagahide, one of Oda Nobuna/ga's retainers. And 'Nagahide' is Nah-gah-hee-day, not Naw-guh-hide.)
ONY follows the story of Sagara Yoshiharu, a big fan of the Nobunaga's Ambition series who is somehow thrown into an alternate version of medieval japan which is dramatically less sexist, possesses a number of modern fashion trends, and has a large number of famous historical figures who were born female rather than male, despite holding their same positions. I have to say, the pitch is pretty bad, in particular I was disappointed at the very thought of a Normal High School Student protagonist. "Historical figures only female" worked pretty well in Koihime Musou, so I was open to that being pretty good. Indeed, comparing ONY to Koihime Musou seemed obvious, until I actually got into the series.
ONY, instead of being comedy, is an actual deliberate alternate history, told with a number of modern anime tropes thrown in, including a harem element and a fair amount of fan service. However, while the majority of the cast is female, there is a substantial male cast and once Yoshiharu (who is kind of being a kharmic replacement for Toyotomi Hideyoshi) influences Nobuna to behave differently from the historical Nobunaga, the series lets events begin to unfold differently.
The series actually holds together remarkably well, making itself worth watching for more than just fan service and giggles, though if you're not at least appreciative of fan service and giggles you probably won't enjoy it, likewise if you're not at least passingly familiar with the Japanese Warring States era you won't have quite enough grounding to enjoy the twists, which, like Sengoku Basara, portray the characters as slight twists of their original selves (closer to their originals here than Basara, which isn't hard).
Oda Nobuna no Yabou has action, pretty girls, and interesting plot, humor and at least a bit of heart. If you can appreciate those, you'll like it, but if you're hoping for true brilliance, ONY will leave you disappointed.
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