#There's also that Momotaro chapter but it didn't do anything for her as far as I can remember lol

[suchine-toki]

Thoughts about Nobume

I’ve seen debate regarding the use of the Emotionless Girl trope in her, something that’s overused at best, lazy writing at worst. Personally, I think it depends on how the trope is developed rather than its use in a work of any kind.

Nobume is introduced quite late in the Baragaki arc with an interesting character design, wearing her clothes differently despite being a uniform (unlike the Shinsengumi). Additionally, we learn other things about her: she’s a great fighter, she has a close relationship with Isaburou, and she likes donuts.

Later she would appear again in Courtesan of a Nation arc, in which her more comic side would be explored. Here it would be shown that Nobume is Princess Soyo’s bodyguard and that she has great chemistry with the Yorozuya and Tsukuyo, participating in their schemes and helping them even though it wasn’t necessary.

It would also explore a bit of her past, for one, revealing that she was one of Naraku's three feathers when she was a child. While it’s perfectly feasible in this series that she was strong from childhood, that seemed a bit overkill to me. Rather than highlighting how powerful she was, it shows how incompetent the others were.

On the other hand, it would be revealed she was a student of Shouyou. I like this idea and it doesn’t seem too far-fetched to me; however, it would’ve been more interesting if something had happened with that. Nobume is usually forgotten when talking about the Shouka Sonjuku students and I think it’s because her story doesn’t connect very well with the others.

But her most important moment as a character was undoubtedly in Farewell Shinsengumi arc, in which she faces Sougo (again) and Kagura, an encounter in which she acknowledges she didn’t want to fight them, and then mourns the loss of Isaburou, who was like a father to her. This is why I believe it depends on how the trope develops, the transition from coldness to warmth.

Finally, although her role was later limited to being an infodump about Utsuro, the altana and other plot points, I liked that during the second part of Silver Soul arc she was shown to continue as Soyo’s bodyguard, but beyond that, as her friend. Like her companions did with their teacher, Nobume found someone to protect.