Series Review: Brave 10 (6/10)

Instant summary: A damsel in distress seeks the protection of a rogue ninja, and the two of them began the team known as "Brave 10", under the lord Sanada Yukimura.

Brave 10 was me trying to find something similar that would be as good as Seirei no Moribito. But it was no surprise that it never came close. The studio, TMS, was something I've never heard of, and a quick look at their resume tells me that they're mainly known for Detective Conan and Hamtaro, none of which I care about.

I can offer very little praise. The general outline of the series is as cliché as it can get, with our blue-haired lead Isanami playing out her role as damsel in distress exceedingly well. Either that, or they will be meeting new Braves, or saving someone in trouble. There's a plot twist right at the end which I didn't see coming, but it wasn't clever enough to amount to much.

The plot isn't really a negative aspect of the show, until you factor in how ridiculously simple Isanami is. Other than being a moé/fan-service mascot, her role is to be as useless in combat as possible, prompting a rescue mission or simply upping the difficulty of the fight. And as it is traditionally demanded, she got unconditionally attached to the protagonist Saizo right off the bat. Saizo isn't all that unique either. Like any other shounen protagonist, he is extremely resilient to damage, and possess a ability that allows him to increase his power drastically, something which wins him all the fights. The other Braves are actually more interesting, but too bad they don't offer any character development.

The good part about Brave 10? It has an extremely simple and straight-foward storytelling method which doesn't tend to be overcomplicated or try to be something it is not. If this were a adaptation, it would have made a good transition. It's easy to absorb, and while it has no deeper meaning to speak of, it won't leave you with any plot holes.

Animation is average, but I guess I ought to give them points for not recycling any action scenes. They really need to fire the audio guy. Too many times the speech is barely audible compared to the loud action sounds. Well, at least there's Satou Rina and Ono Daisuke.

Plot/Concept: Average
Story Style: Average
Audio/Visual: Fair
Value: 6

January Summary/First Impressions Part 1 (AnoNatsu, Another, Brave 10)

Ano Natsu de Matteru

3 Episodes

AnoNatsu has left a surprisingly good impression at the end of the third episode. Now, I'm not familiar with any of the Onegai series people kept connecting this anime with, but on first glance, AnoNatsu appears to be build on a generic setup and runs on a very formulaic development. What surprises me is that the story has consistently develop in ways I didn't quite expect. I'd have thought it'll be easy to predict the general outline of the story, but no. What I got in the end is an anime with a very familiar setting and popular character styles, but runs on a very fresh (and very welcome) story style that marks a refreshingly stark contrast with your average common anime series. This might sound like overly high praise for just three episodes, but I always appreciates it when stories avoids the cliché traps in the opportune moments. The plot itself still leave much to be desired, but AnoNatsu has already worked out half the formula for a success.

Outlook: Very Positive

Another

3 Episodes

Despite being a horror series, I failed to be even mildly thrilled by anything they've tried for the first three episodes. If anything can be considered scary, it would be the BGM; and unfortunately, only the BGM. I understand that the anime is still at the phase where it has to build up the suspense and setting and stuff, but it has never really gave the audience anything to be scared of. I'm pretty sure that if you turned off the BGMs, all you'll get is simply a pretty boring high school story with a hint of mystery.

In any case, Mei is way too cute to be the subject of my horror; and it's ironic that I'm enjoying this more as a regular high school anime instead of something that's supposed to freak me out. Being adapted into a unfamiliar style and its fantastic animation quality is keeping me interested, but I'm not sure that would carry me very far.

Outlook: Mildly Positive

Brave 10

3 Episodes

I'm not normally into samurai series like these, but this feels like a more shounen version of yet-another-sengoku-anime, without too much anthropomorphism, exaggeration or gar. TMS studio is also something I've never heard of, so I'm quite interested to check this out...

ahh... fine. I'm watching this for Satou Rina. Damn.

But ideally, I was hoping for another Samurai Champloo or Seirei no Moribito. Well, from what I've seen from the first three episodes, I'm sure Brave 10 would never get anywhere close. We have a fairly generic plot of the main character meeting and fighting the various "braves", but at least the action's pretty good so far. Nothing's amazing, but the anime has done well to avoid clichés despite having rather shallow characters. It's unfortunate that Satou Rina's character, Isanami, is portrayed as your regular female lead that falls in love with the male lead for practically no reason.

Anyway, they should fire the sound guy. Too many times the voice work is barely comprehensible compared to the overwhelming sound effects, and I can't seem to find a appropriate volume I can set to watch the show.

Outlook: Fairly Good