Common Name: Brave Witches
Score: 8/10, 5/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Action, Magic, Military, Ecchi
Summary: When humanity found itself at war with the Neuroi, a foreign foe that could not be defeated using standard military units, a new brand of warrior was created to combat them. These warriors, or rather witches, use their innate magical abilities to fly and battle the Neuroi up in the sky where conventional weaponry cannot reach or survive for long against the Neroi's overwhelming power. After the defeat of the Neuroi nest in Gallia, hope spread across the world. Now there is a chance, no matter how slim, that another recruit from Fusou could make a second miracle happen on the Orussian front.
Review: Surprisingly, I don't hate this show with a burning passion like I did it's predecessor, the Strike Witches series. I mean, it's still a show about scantily clad young girls who fly through the sky fighting alien planes. That much hasn't changed. What did change though is the tone and presentation of the series. No longer does it feel like the girls are poorly dressed for the sake of fan service and exploitative, Sapphic humor. Instead, that part of the show just feels like a natural part of the world for reasons that I still haven't divined. The show just kinda stopped being about scantily clod girls molesting each other every now and then for the show's brand of discomforting humor, and instead turned into an actual war story. Unlike Strike Witches, this show takes itself pretty seriously and feels like a great way to expand on the series' rather large canon.
I can't wait for the series about the land-based Tank Witches!
I'm not saying the show is great, but it is a big step up from the original series. The show's plot has a pretty solid pace centered around our main character, Karibuchi Hikari, as she joins the Brave Witches, learns to use her own magical abilities, and gets to know each member of the team better. What's particularly hilarious is that the show's cast actively shuts down the Sapphic nonsense that was standard in Strike Witches be outright ignoring the flirt on the team who constantly makes passes at the other girls. However, the show would be remiss to not mention that such relationships do actually occur within the series (as implied in the cut away of episode 8). So, it would seem that the series has matured a little over the past few years. Rather than an excuse for fan service, Brave Witches has an actually engaging story. It's characters are fairly well fleshed out and don't grate on my nerves. There are even a few well placed gags here and there that don't rely on inappropriate or generally absurd behavior. Of course that doesn't meant that show doesn't have it's dumb moments though. For example, the team's plans for defeating the Neuroi are usually pretty simple.
I kid you not. One of the team's Aces just punches the alien planes to death.
What really impresses me though is the novelty that this show has, and I'm not talking about the novelty of the show's...lore, for lack of a better word. No, this show's novelty comes from something I've only seen done well a few times and that is the act of blending standard animation with CG. While there are shows out there, like Etotama, that do CG really well most shows and studios don't know what to do with it so they either don't bother or try and fail horribly because of it. Brave Witches does neither of these things though. It's CG isn't great, but it's also not a detriment to the show. It's like they threw it in to try it out every now and then, particularly when animating a scene the usual way might be more difficult. And the best part is that it's sometimes hard to notice that the scene was done in CG.
Seriously, this is CG, but it looks like the usual animation. That's AMAZING!
The only things that give it away is the way that the character's hair moves a little stiffer than normal, the shadows look a little different, and the mouth flaps don't always match the timing of the words. I know that might sound like a hot mess when written down like this, but believe me, it is a MASSIVE improvement from how CG is usually done. If it's inclusion in the work was meant to serve as a kind of test run for the tech, which I assume is the case, then I'd love to see what this team could do with it in the future.
I'm honestly really weirded out by the sudden maturity of this series. It's moving in a direction that I really like and is willing to experiment with techniques that most studios still struggle with each season. In the past I had to begrudgingly admit that Strike Witches wasn't a bad show. I made arguments that it was a really well done show with a premise that deserved it's own personal pit in hell. Now...now I actually don't mind the premise because it doesn't draw too much attention to it. The animation, music, and pacing are all done really well, so I have nothing to hate on, and that just really bothers me. The worst part of this though is that I'm actually looking forward to what this series could do in the future. It's definitely no great of the anime industry, but damn if it isn't good. So, bottom line, if you think you can tolerate a ridiculous war story with scantily clad girls in it, give this one a chance.