Tsuda Nobusumi

Nobukatsu Oda is the younger brother of Nobuna and a major secondary character in the series. Initially an opponent of his sister competing for the right to rule over the clan and going so far as to start a rebellion, he has since become an ally after being defeated by his sister and spared execution. After swearing loyalty to his sister Nobukatsu assumed the name of Nobusumi Tsuda, after a branch family of the Oda clan. He is primarily known by his childhood name Kanjuuro.

Appearance
Nobukatsu is described as having a somewhat doll-like appearance by Yoshiharu and can fairly easily be recognised as Nobuna's brother, he typically dresses in noble attire fit for his status, but has taken to wearing armour later in the series when he appears on the battlefield. Due to his later training under Shibata Katsuie, it is noted that he frequently shows up with new scars upon his body.

He can very easily pass as a woman when dressed to play the part, apparently, according to Yoshiharu, he is actually better at playing a courtesan than the genuine article and shares many of Nobuna's physical traits himself. Even Nagamasa, who turns out to be a genuine woman, could not tell he was a man until he more or less allowed her to find out.

Personality
When first introduced Nobukatsu was arrogant and rather foolish, in no small part to his retainers and mother praising him while denouncing Nobuna to be a complete fool. However, he has shown himself to be naive, as he truly believes himself better suited to ruling Owari than Nobuna, despite the clear difference in their abilities. Following his defeat and near execution by Nobuna, Nobukatsu has sworn his loyalty to her, and has since started to grow as a person due to his experiences after that time.

It is brought to light that Nobukatsu himself actually admired his older sister, and that the influence of his mother and his retainers ultimately affected his judgement. During his near execution, he noticed that none of these retainers so much as raised their heads when Nobuna was about to kill him and has his eyes brutally opened to their foolishness and cowardice. After Yoshiharu prevents this execution it would appear Nobukatsu has forgiven him for striking him and later develops some form of admiration for him.

Nobukatsu is pretty much a completely casual crossdresser, as it turns out during his time in the Imagawa camp and his forced marriage to Azai Nagamasa(who fortunately turned out to be a woman so it didn't really hurt much). He is so skilled at it that so long as he doesn't talk nobody can or will tell the difference. He also appears to have no problem admitting straight to Nagamasa's face that seeing her naked body had "excited" his own, although perhaps what's worse is she wouldn't have had to ask given they were at an Onsen and he was standing in the open.

He can be easily scared by danger, but toughens himself up later in the series for Nagamasa's sake, even becoming resolved to kill or be killed by her due to their unfortunate situation. He is quite devoted to his wife, after Nagamasa "died" and became his wife Oichi he has ultimately come to spend a very large amount of his time with her, enough to make Nobuna consider faking her own death in order to become just a nameless wife of Yoshiharu's(effectively ending her dreams all for the sake of her desire to be with him).

He is apparently a very skilled and mature person when it comes to women and love, essentially opposite to his sister's poor social skills. He managed to attain a harem of beautiful girls even long before being introduced into the series and managed to make Nagamasa, who confessed to hating men just seconds before, completely confide in and love him with her heart. He changed his flirty nature during his time with Nagamasa and came to dote on her instead.

Background
Nobukatsu grew up being praised by his mother and retainers, all of which hated and denounced Nobuna as a fool. He has been led to perform acts of rebellion against Nobuna in the past, none of which were successful however, and until the present time has been truly unable to genuinely best her.

It was known that he was crying at his father's funeral, but his retainers were plotting instead to overthrow Nobuna, which frustrated her to the point of throwing her father's ashes.

Arrival in the Sengoku Period Arc
Nobukatsu initially appears alongside his retainers in order to make fun of his sister's "Saru", Yoshiharu Sagara. However, while he brags that he would be a better ruler than his sister, he is intellectually defeated by Yoshiharu and ultimately resorts to pointing out how his mother prefers him over his sister, which provokes Yoshiharu into striking him. He then tries to have Katsuie execute Yoshiharu, however, due to Inuchiyo talking her down Katsuie decides to retreat, and none of his retainers nor Nobukatsu himself can argue with her. He vows to get back at Yoshiharu for striking him later.

It is known that since then he and his retainers continued to irritate Yoshiharu's lot, eventually standing in the way of Inuchiyo during a crucial delivery and ultimately having one of their number cut down by her in order to make said delivery in time to save Yoshiharu from being beheaded. For this act Nobukatsu's retainers have demanded Inuchiyo's head, but she was not in Oda territory as a result of Yoshiharu's plan to keep her safe.

Katsuie is ordered to go to Nobuna and ask her to turn over Inuchiyo or Nobukatsu notes he will again rebel. Later, when Katsuie returns, he is shocked by the fact that she suddenly grabs him and drags him to Nobuna herself, and his retainers did nothing to even stand up to her due to their fear. He is very nearly executed by Nobuna for his actions but Katsuie herself tries to offer her life in his stead as his chief retainer. He ultimately begs that she not kill him, but also states he doesn't want Katsuie to die in his place either. Nobuna is finally talked down by Yoshiharu and reconciles with her brother. Nobuna then attempts to punish Yoshiharu for making her cry out in front of her retainers, but is talked down by Nagahide's arrival. Nagahide insists that they finish the business with Nobukatsu first, and Nobukatsu declares that he will change his name to Nobusumi Tsuda and swear his loyalty to Nobuna. Nobuna then orders him to be trained as a commander by Katsuie, effectively becoming her subordinate.

He, Nene and Katsuie later greeted Yoshiharu at his home to celebrate the outcome and ultimately suffers from Katsuie's drunken rage just like Yoshiharu. He vows that he will never forget his debt to Yoshiharu for saving his life.

During the planning for the battle against Imagawa Yoshimoto, he is not permitted into the camp itself due to his past rebellions. He later recognises Yoshiharu has disappeared and moves to meet with him in Okehazama along with his army of 100 girls, where Yoshiharu was attempting to locate Yoshimoto's camp based on his knowledge of history. One of the girls reveals that Okehazama does indeed have a pass like what Yoshiharu seeks to find, but also Yoshiharu recalls that Yoshimoto actually dies at Dengakuhazama and causes them to now have two possible locations to investigate. Goemon and her men move out to Dengokuhazama while Yoshiharu and Nobusumi head for the pass in Okehazama, they ultimately discover Yoshimoto's base is indeed at their location. Seeing that someone needs to report back and someone needs to distract Yoshimoto's men and keep them there, Yoshiharu at first decides he will lead Nobusumi's group to the diversion while Nobusumi himself reports to Nobuna, but since the group will not leave Nobusumi Yoshiharu decides instead to have him distract Yoshimoto while he reports back to Nobuna on horseback. Nobusumi and his group sneak into Yoshimoto's camp to distract her after this, with Nobusumi himself dressed up in drag.

He is later seen after the defeat of Yoshimoto and again at Yoshiharu's house to celebrate his victory, however everyone is evidently afraid to ask him what really went on in the camp itself.

Trivia

 * Strangely, he is named after Oda Nobunaga's son from true history, and while he bares the name he does not actually appear to be based on the man himself. Rather, he is more accurately based on Nobunaga's own brother Nobuyuki, who rebelled against Nobunaga.