First Impression – Brave 10

Ancient bishiefest of this season

Brave 10, one of the many manga that I keep meaning to read, but haven’t gotten around to yet. …This is also my filler before trying to watch Sengoku Basara (which is another thing that’s on my computer, but I haven’t even started yet). Anyways, if anaaga is to be trusted, I assume this will be filled with lots of homolust and gar. Excellent. I can live with that.

From what anime wants me to believe, the Sengoku era is pretty much the only historical time period where anything interesting or important happened. Everything else is garbage and not worth animating! Oh well, I figure since I love me some Sengoku Basara, I will probably love Brave 10 for the same reasons. Bishounen and action! The golden formula for success!

Finally, the yaoi bait bishie of this season is here. I was wailing and crying on Twitter for days until the sub is there and none other by Hadena *sad face*. I can’t help it, I just love the manga! Now, am I going to like the anime too? Am I going to love this as much as I love Sengoku Basara? I’ll find out soon. I’m coming, my bishies!

After some fiery start of this episode at one of the temple (including the killing package too), the scene changes to our dying main character Saizou who decided to sleep on the street because that’s what cool people do in Sengoku era. Kiddin’, he’s starving. Suddenly our only survivor from the temple arson appears out of nowhere, and she’s not alone. Saizou has no choice but to kill Isanami’s (our main girl) stalkers. After lots of persuasion from Izanami, Saizou decided to go all Esau and trades his companionship to Ueda castle with a bowl of soba.

Nise disguise Ninja-kun. We can’t see you at all. Literally.

Fist of the Blue Sky

Saizou wants that hair ornament.

Unfortunately, Izanami and Saizou are not that welcomed in Ueda castle. Not only Saizou meets his so-called “enemy” Sarutobi Sasuke (obviously these people are full of ancestral grudges), Yukimura refuses to help Izanami no matter what, even when he already listened to Izanami’s story.

Good job at being useful, Izanami

I bet this is where all the guys (and OC) fall for her

Since Saizou has no more business there, he leaves the castle #likeaboss. Izanami follows though, claiming that she won’t have any place to go after tomorrow. Or maybe she just wants someone to protect her since she’s a magnet for trouble or else they won’t be attacked again for the second time. By this time Izanami’s hormones are acting up and she vents out her frustration by shouting, and this leads to the appearance of some kind of blackhole look-alike (?) sphere from Izanami’s hair ornament. Everything it touches is sucked and is turned into ashes, including the enemies. Izanami saves the day! After everything calmed down, Yukimura tells Izanami that he’ll take care of her. Oh, he employs Saizou too since Saizou owes Izanami a bowl of soba.

Instead of sleeping, Yukimura stays up late because he’s planning to do Rokurou talking about Ieyasu (the ninjas who attacked Izanami are of Ieyasu’s) and how he needs to defeat him. For that to happen, Yukimura needs ten BRAVE and powerful warriors that can help Yukimura in his crusade of defeating Ieyasu. Not to mention that Izanami’s power is interesting in some way. Unfortunately, Saizou got caught eaves-dropping. He manages to escape but not before taking some blow from Rokurou’s mysterious power. However, the information he overheard is enough to make Saizou willing to stay in Ueda castle, curious of what Yukimura is planning to do. Even when he has to wake up every morning seeing Izanami sleeping next to him, or when he’s attacked by the Koga ninjas on a daily basis.

Sengoku Highlight of this Week:

Gravity? Never heard of it

Fun with Sub:

Yukimura showing his 1) pedophilia side & 2) homolust

Cannot…Resist…That puppy eyes!

End Thoughts:

Motivation level to read the manga: SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER. Sure it’s just another one of those badass guy meets important girl and shit happens stories, but at least it looks entertaining. I even recognised some of the character’s names thanks to historical games I’ve played. Though unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that all of the things I’ve been told about them/ what they did are inaccurate and this doesn’t look like it will help with facts either. At least I have the names down though. It’s more than I usually have.

As far as characters go, everyone is pretty badass. Even Isanagi (who annoyed me to no end at the start) looks like she’s capable of actually doing things. Plus I like her outfit. Actually, everyone’s clothing looks awesome despite being COMPLETELY out of the time frame. I’m talking about the people who weren’t dressed traditionally here. In fact, I’m betting that everyone who is dressed inappropriately are part of the 10, or are important bad guys. Yukimura could probably find his 10 by just looking for strangely dressed people. Though I don’t think the characters are even aware of how out of place they are.

Pfft you thought I would get through this without mentioning the BL undertones? Not even two episodes in and I can see possible shippings. Now imagine that with like, 7 more people. The possibilities are endless. Er, back to the story, yeah I tend to like stories that involve important/strong people gathering for whatever reason and this looks really good. …The story, people. I’m talking about the story (kind of). The verdict? The OST was good, the animation was fluid enough and the OP and ED were also very nice to look at (can’t say I’m fond of the songs used though). YES, THIS WILL BE WATCHED. And most likely adored.

I’m a bit torn for my thoughts on this show. On one hand, most of the time I was watching this episode I was thinking “This is so bland…”. Saizou is an incredibly boring character whose only talent is brooding and trying to mean, and the story failed to involve me for the most part. On the other hand, it has some surprisingly great moments. Dispersed between the dull moments and incredibly forced interactions between characters are glimpses of something much better. When Isanami started to cry about being the only survivor and being unable to find help to justify all those lost lives, I started to finally focus on what was happening. Before that, I was just watching in some sort of stupor, just taking it in. It’s just so average that these moments jump out and really grab you.

Oddly enough, in a show meant to be bishounen heaven, Isanami is by far my favourite character so far. The guys have incredible character designs and I love seeing them duke it out, but so far they seem to have less personality than I have in my big toe. I hate to compare it to Sengoku Basara, but they’re just not an unique when it comes to how they act as human beings. Sengoku Basara is very over-the-top, so everyone’s personality was revealed immediately in the first episode, so I’ll cut Brave 10 some slack and let them develop them a bit more. But for now, I can’t see them ever reaching the same levels of charming as the Basara boys. Isanami, however, could hang with the coolest of the Basara characters and be just fine. She’s effeminate and a bit vulnerable, but she’s got a good head on her shoulder. Most female characters are either feminine to the point of being useless and troublesome, or badass and manly to the point where they’re barely even women. Isanami is a nice mixture of the two, showing that you can be a bit girly and still be tough. Well, relatively tough. She still just covered her eyes and made a “kyaaa!” noise when Saizou was about to get stabbed. :/

As you can see, I’m still stuck in a kind of limbo about whether I like this show or if it’s just “meh.” I don’t dislike it, but nothing really sets it apart. It doesn’t help that I keep comparing it to Sengoku Basara each second in my head. I’m going to hang on for a few more episodes to see what the other characters are like and to indulge in some more battles. I like action anime, what can I say? I’m also quite curious about Isanami’s hair ornament and why it can disintegrate anything caught in the radius of its attack (and open trap doors to escape). I’m afraid Isanami will get a second personality though and uggghhh I don’t want that to happen. I especially hate when characters are oblivious to their powers and forget all about it afterwards. How things progress from here will really solidify my stance on the show, so I can only wait and watch more of guys fighting with each other. If they include some homolust, INSTANT 10 OUT OF 10. Don’t disappoint me, darling.

I don’t know what to make out of this because it’s not how I expect it to be. I’m sure as hell that the sucky episode title is a foreshadowing telling me that the first episode won’t be as great as how I expect it to be. Maybe the monotonous opening song is another sign that the episode won’t be great either. Seriously, that song is just out of place. It really doesn’t fit the opening. What does the animation reminds me of? Vampire Knight. Go figure since s/he’s the director of Vampire Knight, but I really don’t like the animation of Vampire Knight. It fits VK which is full of romance and self-pity, but not for Brave10, something that’s full of action thus lots of movements. I want fluid fighting scenes with NO STILL IMAGES and MORE LIGHT PLEASE. Three fourth of the episode look as if there’s barely any sunlight in Japan even when there’s supposed to be. After all of that animation awesomeness in Symphogear, Nisemonogatari, and other anime, my eyes were blinded for a while by the not-so-great animation of Brave10. The animation truly is a disappointment.

And in here I have to face the fact that Brave10 is somehow similar to other anime. Boy meets damsel in distress (in this case, extreme damsel in extreme distress), girl follows the boy, and the boy protects the girl. Saizou and Izanami’s relationship sounds like any other pairing in any other anime. I have to say though that I was pretty amused with Yukimura. From Sengoku Basara, Yukimura is naïve boy who barely have the brain to actually come up with a stratergy. In Brave10, Yukimura is pretty smart and cunning. I already like his personality when he rejects Izanami’s plead to help her. Who would help Izanami anyway? She’s annoying as hell! I do notice though that she has been toned down a lot in the anime, and I’m glad they did that. She’s really really really annoying in the manga. Unfortunately, Saizou’s personality is the same. He’s our typical lazy-but-strong main character who’s into the tsun side a little bit, protecting Izanami yada yada even though he said she’s annoying. Saizou is fine, but he doesn’t stand out. There’s nothing special about him.

Did I enjoy this as much as I enjoy Sengoku Basara? Nope, but I did enjoy it. Sengoku Basara is something different. It’s something fun and entertaining; everything is full of energy and wild there. Brave10 is not that fun. It’s more to the serious side of the Sengoku era. The characters of Sengoku Basara are interesting, but so far for Brave10, the characters are pretty dull. What I do like though are the outfits. They’re not as crazy as Sengoku Basara but not that normal either. Saizou’s outfit is fabulous, and Izanami’s priestess outfit is something that most girls love. Brave10 is not as great as Sengoku Basara, but I still did enjoy it anyway. It’s time to put the mindless plot away and to look at the serious fact of history. But Sengoku Basara and Brave10 have two things in common: bishies and homolust. ALL HAIL TO HOMOLUST BOYS. I’m talking to you, Yukimura and Rokurou.

Preview: It seems that Ueda castle will be attacked by gothic Ieyasu ninja. Honestly, he needs to change his clothes. His eyes can barely be seen. Or maybe that’s the whole point of his costume.