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earthstellar · 2 months

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Brave Bang Bravern!: A Review for Transformers Fans

I've seen so much about this on my dash that I had to give it a try, and I gotta say, as someone who hasn't watched any new anime series since around 2008 at the most recent and I also hate the fucking military, this is a pretty good show.

THERE WILL BE SOME MILD SPOILERS. Nothing major. I'm not gonna spoil anything critical or mention characters that are introduced later etc. At of time of writing, only 6 episodes have been released.

Understanding Genre: The Trailer is A Lie

Now, while there is a trailer here, I want you to largely disregard it.

Why is that? Well, we need to talk about the "big two" robot show genres in Japan, which are as follows:

Real Robot -- This refers to a typically military setting or other serious setting, in which robots are handled as realistically as possible in terms of how they work and how they are applied. There tend to be less individual/sentient robots and more "suit" type mechs right along side human-made, more realistic machinery and mech designs, although that isn't entirely unique to this genre. Usually this stuff is labelled as sci-fi/action outside of Japan.

Super Robot (THIS IS THE SHIT TRANSFORMERS FANS GENERALLY WANT) --Essentially borderline seemingly magical robots with their own rules and in universe backstory for how they work, which isn't necessarily tied to realism. Usually this stuff is labelled as sci-fi/fantasy or space fantasy outside of Japan, since a lot of these tend to be space robots. They can be "driven" by pilots or just straight up sentient robots who are vibing with some human companions, although it's not exclusively that. It can be both, it can be neither, but no matter what, Super Robot shows are less about strict realism and more about really cool shit with robots that are basically their own people and exist according to their own rules.

Now, the trailer for BBBB (the acronym for the show is based on the Japanese title, which is Bang Brave Bang Bravern) is a COMPLETE FUCKING LIE.

It wants you to think this is going to be some dumbass GI Joe shit.

While there are elements of dumbass GI Joe shit, this is largely just to set up the premise for why shit is happening in the first place, and to help introduce the main threat (alien space creatures with fucking light beam lasers) as well as bring in our main characters under the premise of everyone having to work together to address this alien threat to Earth.

What we care about here amongst Transformers freaks is gay space robots, and this show delivers.

Getting Into Bravern: First Episode, Mild Plot Spoiler Summary

It wants you to think this is a Real Robot show.

The first episode sets things up as though it will be a Real Robot show.

There is a threat to Earth, a mystery space alien mechanical enemy, and nobody knows what the fuck to do. A military exercise between multiple nations using Titanostriders (which look very much like Shiro Masamune Appleseed-style mechs, human made in nature) to practice battle drills who are now instructed to swap over to real ammunition and go to fucking town.

Nobody knows how to do that.

They're skilled with the Titanostriders, sure, but it turns into a shit show. The alien mechanical enemies are using fucking space laser shit, it's a disaster---

--And then Bravern drops in from the fucking sky and it IMMEDIATELY TURNS INTO A SUPER ROBOT SHOW.

There's a "get in the robot, Shiji" moment where one of the Titanostrider operators, Isami Ao, is encouraged by Bravern to get inside of him.

He does. And immediately has no idea what the fuck is going on, Bravern is largely in control, and starts to blast his own theme song inside his cockpit as diegetic music while Isami is generally losing his shit, as one might do.

Humanity's reaction to Bravern is Real Robot genre type, where it is handled seriously by all the characters and organisations involved in universe, however Bravern is very much a Super Robot genre character who brings more of a Super Robot energy to the show at large.

The serious elements are mostly balanced by how fucking silly Bravern is, and there are some excellent moments in this show (currently only 6 episodes have been released) which make it entirely worth a watch.

Fun Things About Bravern Himself

Braven is very, very, very gay for his pilot.

Chances are, you've seen the screenshots of some of these moments on Tumblr already, but the delivery of these lines is magnificent.

Bravern sings his own theme song. It's the voice actor for Bravern doing the vocals, and the song itself is reminiscent of 1970s orchestrated big band energy mecha themes. For Transformers fans, it has a very Transformers Victory theme kind of vibe to it.

You gotta hear it, it fucking rules. The album cover shows Bravern holding a giant microphone.

Bravern is generally light hearted, doing his best to motivate his pilot while not hesitating to enter the action and try to defend humanity.

Now, why does Bravern care about humans so much? We don't know, but we'll talk about some mysteries in a later section below.

He is surprisingly insightful at times, while also fucking around and enjoying himself. (You may have seen screenshots going around Tumblr of Bravern with a loop of hot dogs strung around one of his chevron points on his forehead. This follows a scene in which he wants his pilot to take a break and associate with his peers for once, as a way to relieve stress. So they go to a bar, it turns out reception is positive and someone even brings weenies out for Bravern since he's too big to fit inside, lol.)

Generally, he's a very interesting mech, because we have so little information about him. He's fun, and clearly vibing, but he's also borderline if not outright obsessed with his pilot and has unknown origins, which has lead to some darker interpretations and audience discussion.

A lot of people have compared Bravern's energy to Rodimus, and generally I would agree with that. He has his high-energy silly moments, and his more serious personal moments (primarily with Isami, but also with Smith), and I think these aspects of his character work well to create a fun mech with the potential to be deep in a believable and effective way, with an equal capacity for being a doofus.

Bravern is obviously the number one reason to watch the show for most people, and I would say that if you're purely here for a giant gay space robot, then this is going to be a decent watch.

The Military Sucks: There Are Militaries Involved Yet Somehow This Is Still Watchable

I hate the fucking military, so at least the military here is depicted in an acceptable way (so far, at least). In episode 2, they waterboard Isami to interrogate him for information he doesn't have regarding Bravern, which is a realistically shitty and awful thing for the military to do-- They don't sugarcoat how fucked up the military is. These people very much have the capacity to harm their own staff, and they will do so if it means they might get an edge over the enemy.

At the same time, the actual characters in the military are depicted as primarily doing this shit out of a genuine personal desire to defeat these horrendously destructive space entities, which have attacked at least some of their home towns and home countries, so it's more personal rather than purely being a military directive that people are being forced to follow.

In this way, it's not really realistic, but everyone is on board for their own largely humanitarian aid type of reasons (there is a mission which is basically just locating survivors of an attack and then getting the fuck out) which makes the military context feel less oppressive and shitty.

Part of why this is more OK than other military depictions is because the military forces involved here are international (collaborating to defeat a global threat rather than kill each other's civilians) and because the military is clearly losing this war.

Because it's an international effort, this brings more diversity to the show-- There's a surprising amount of English interspersed between dialogue in Japanese here and there, and the military board consists of representatives from multiple nations, including some Germans who at first believe Bravern is some kind of secret American operation, lmao.

Bravern calls the military out on its shit, and essentially tells the military board to stop with the suspicious infighting bullshit and drop the internal tension because otherwise they'll all die to this mechanical nightmare creature threat.

They actually listen, which means this is an unrealistic portrayal of the military, lmao. I think they struck a good balance so far between showing that the military sucks and has problems, while also making sure that you're not really cheering for any given military force, but rather, you cheer for individual characters who just happen to be stuck doing this military shit as a premise for anything to be going on in the show at all.

So it's not the worst when it comes to the military shit; At least so far, it's watchable, which as someone who passionately hates the fucking military, is surprising to me.

It's less GI Joe and more "we just needed a reason for these characters to be involved in this situation".

Of course, your mileage may vary, but personally I found it easy to tune out or just skip through any military shit that got grating and I didn't miss anything important by doing so. At the very least, you can skip around and ignore a lot of this stuff and get right to the gay robot if that's all you want to do. It becomes clear pretty quickly what's going on if you skip around a bit, so no worries there.

Fun Speculation: What is Bravern?

Only 6 episodes are out at the moment, so there's tons of shit we don't know yet.

Bravern has a notable resemblance to a type of enemy in the show, called a Death-Drive.

Death-Drives are mecha who are distinct from the "minion" type enemies (which almost resemble flying saucers with laser gun arms and light shields), and have their own unique character designs and names.

Why these things are here, how they are here, why they are interested in Earth, and everything else is currently unknown.

Bravern looks like he could possibly be of the same mechanical species, although we don't know if that's true (yet). He has abilities that the other mecha don't seem to have, but how far this goes and what it might mean is not yet clear.

Bravern also seems to have knowledge of human media (he references The Abyss at one point and he likes 3D printing figures of sentai show characters lmao), and was immediately able to speak to the humans using language they would understand, so it's unclear if Bravern may have been studying Earth for some time before his arrival or why.

He is obsessed with his pilot and cares for him so much that he extends some care towards others purely based on their relation to Isami as co-workers; Why? What makes Isami special?

How does Bravern know seemingly every human language? How does his piloting system work? How similar is he to the Death-Drives-- Are organic beings critical to them in some way? If so, why are the other mechs killing so many of us? (These are big questions especially by the end of episode 6, due to some spoilers and a spoiler character who shows up later.)

We know little to nothing about a lot of the key elements of the show, including any motivations for the Death-Drives or what they are, what's up with the fucking UFO looking laser things, etc.

There's more to speculate on, but that would be getting into deeper spoiler territory so I'm gonna hold back on that for now.

Summary: It's Gay and Cool and Has Interesting Ideas

Bravern's not the sole source of gay vibes in this show, but it's fun that he is also a source of gay vibes in this show.

The designs are great, the Titanostriders remind me of Appleseed style mechanical suit designs which is nice, the Death-Drives are super interesting, Bravern is fucking fabulous but he's not too goofy to take seriously, and the military is unfortunately present but it's clear that they suck and are generally losing (and since the conflict is not between different groups of humans but rather is about human collaboration to defeat a non-human shared threat to our entire planet, this goes a long way to make the military shit tolerable).

It pretends to be a Real Robot show but has so much Super Robot show sprinkled in that you might as well consider it a little bit of both which the show balances pretty well.

I haven't watched an anime since around 2008 at the very latest, so I don't know how this might compare to any other robot animes since then and I am certainly not an anime expert by any means LOL, but this has been a fun show to watch so far.

It does have its problems, of course, but if you can get past the setup for the first episode (when it's still pretending to be a Real Robot show), from the moment Bravern arrives towards the end of that first episode, the show gains momentum and starts to get interesting very quickly.

It has some issues. But we're only 6 episodes in, so at the moment, they have plenty of time to potentially address those issues and we'll see where things go.

I'd recommend it if you want to give it a try!

I think there's enough here to appeal to the usual Transformers crowd and you might end up liking it, or at least having fun while watching it in the background.

If you end up wanting to to tap out then no worries-- I think it's worth giving it a shot and if it's not your thing, no problem.

Each episode is around 25 - 30 minutes, so while the first episode might feel like a slog to get through because fuck the military, once Bravern shows up the show actually gets started and I wouldn't blame anyone for just skipping to that point in the first episode and going from there, because there's nothing in that opening that you won't be reminded of or be able to figure out. It mostly just sets up the intro to the human characters and the collaboration training session, introduces the Titanostriders as a thing, and you can always go back and watch that part later if you want to.

All in all, pretty decent! Obviously we're Transformers people so we're here for the robots, and the robots are interesting and fun, and that's all I need to have a good time.

Hopefully this was a useful summary if you're interested or have seen Bravern stuff on your dash! :)

Thanks for reading!

BONUS: I forgot to mention this somehow, but there's a lot of overlap between Transformers and other Brave shows involving actual Transformers re-used in Japan for these shows; There's a good video about it here on YouTube which explains some of this, but if anyone's wondering, yes Bravern has a grounder alt-mode and it's pretty cool. Will we get a transforming Bravern figure??? We can hope!

There's another video here which mentions some of the Transformers elements in other Brave shows/Yuusha, which might be interesting for those of you who are unaware. :)

#maccadams #maccadam #bravern #bbbb #ba #bang brave bang bravern #long post #bravern review #transformers

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forged-cold · 3 months

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tumblr makes it so much easier to group pictures together, but i think the limit is ten and that might be an issue

it's been quiet because i've been learning how to paint, animate, and i've been managing a little queue of trades. i'm hoping everything posted below is content i've not shared to tumblr yet

oh, and i began watching brave bang bravern

a little bit of robogore below the cut

a draft of this drawing already exists, but i wanted the design to match

#transformers #maccadam #brave bang bravern #artists on instagram #tfoc

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margoshrmargoshing · 2 months

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IT'S BRAVERN THURSDAY BABY. THEORY TIME

(SPOILERS) I watched the ninth episode of Bravern twice in a row (I want a third time) and I am BURNING WITH EMOTIONS.

So. We confirmed the theory that Bravern is Smith, and even the crazy conclusion that Bravern is in some sense a kid/descendant of Smith and Knuth (or I watched with my ass?? in general, after watching i thought he used her power in some way for this to happen)

This answered some questions and created new ones. Let's say, how did Bravern know Isami's name in the first episode, is Bravern a deathdrive and who is he anyway.

But then who is the Lewis Smith we have seen throughout all the previous episodes? Where did Bravern come from if Smith had not yet died there and how did he even return in time?

We still haven't been told what the rest of the Deathdrives need and who they really are. Knuth's true goal was to merge with Smith, but he did not agree in this world. If he was Bravern from the beginning and was there with himself, then perhaps it's like a loop: the Lewises die and become the new Braverns. So, maybe there is a universe in which Bravern did not appear at all?

If he had agreed to merge with Knuth, then this would have collapsed the loop and Bravern would not have appeared in the next universe, and both worlds would have died - the first because of Isami's despair and the victory of Vanitas and Pessimism over Bravern, and the second because of for Deathdrive attacks and Bravern's absence

Maybe the Lewis and Bravern loop is Knuth's selfish wish? She said that she rewinded time over and over again, "repeating their tryst”(or something like that). Perhaps the moment of Bravern's appearance was the very “tryst” that she repeated? Killing and reviving Lewis again and again for the sake of this feeling? The loop can't end there every time

FUCK I THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE A FUNNY ANIME COMEDY WITH A FUNNY HUMANPHILE ROBOT AND THERE IS THINGS HAPPENING NO WORSE THAN EVANGELION. I SHAKED AND NEARLY CRIED WHILE I WATCHED THIS SERIES I WAITED A WHOLE 168 HOURS (!!!) IT WAS UNBEARABLE

THIS IS HYPERFIX

I will miss Lewis TERRIBLY. But I know that he will remain with him, in a different form though, and that there would be no other way out, but they will still be together and will be able to fulfill the promise. He was destined to this for Isami's sake every time

Other notes:

—Knuth's VA performed MAGICALLY, just LISTEN TO THIS WHAT HER VOICE HAS

—The voice actor of Vanitas is no worse 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏HE HAS SUCH A GREAT LAUGHTER

AND AT THE END, WHEN HE MOANS IN DEATH, I NEARLY DIED MYSELF. SO MUCH EMOTION

—I’m shocked by how they changed the design of Bravern and it reminds me of the changes to Optimus from the third season of TFP. Bro went to the gym

—I realized that I prefer original to Russian voice acting because Japanese actors are not shy about YELLING.

—LULU 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞

—Lewis flies naked and glows as if he was censored

Overall I'm shocked

#bang brave bang bravern #yuuki bakuhatsu bang bravern #bang bravern #bravern #bravern spoilers #bang brave bravern #bravern theories #bbbb #lewis smith #isami ao #ao isami #knuth #margosher🚛

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renard-dartigue · 2 months

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Today's Bravern episode was awesome, had alot of funny moments. I'm convinced Bravern's VA is having a blast lol.

Also

Lulu: You got games on your phone?

Spoiler discussion below

So Superbia is back and that is genuinely fascinating because he might give us more hints as to where Bravern and deathdrives come from.

Something that really stood out to me was the fact that before Superbia could speak Japanese, he was clearly trying to communicate in his original language. Isn't it strange how Bravern doesn't understand this language? How does he know Superbia's name then? I legit believed Bravern knew because Superbia told him during their fight in Hawaii. But I guess that wasn't the case???

Its also strange how Bravern isn't baffled by Superbia's return, almost like he expected him to come back after exploding. Like how do I put this? Ok so clearly, this isn't the same Superbia as the one Isami and Bravern defeated. He must have been rebuilt. Whether or not he has the same memories isn't clear since Superbia doesn't seem to know Bravern. Or maybe he does but because of the language barrier he didn't understand Bravern's fancy introduction. Regardless, there is a possibility that Braven doesn't know everything about deathdrives.

My biggest questions right now are: Is there a chance to bring Superbia to their side? Does Superbia only want Lulu because she makes him stronger? Or does he have a similar attachment to Lulu as Bravern does to Isami? Because if its the latter I could definitely see Superbia joining their side if its the only way he can protect Lulu. Cause let's face it, ain't no way that girl is leaving her dad's(yup thats Smith) side willingly. Personally, I hope Superbia joins the team just to see him and Bravern talk more. I'd love to watch two giant robots bicker over dumb shit while Isami losses his mind lol.

Also, I love Smith dude. This isn't American bias or anything. (Especially given what my country's leaders are doing right now but let's not get into it). When Smith is positive its so infectious and I think him and I are on the same wavelength. There is this moment when him, Isami, and Bravern are flying over to Japan and Bravern says one of his wacky phrases followed by an awkward silence. I literally, out LOWD, say "Ookay". And right after that Smith says "Ookay" in the EXACT same way and I started wheezing dude. 💀

Ok ok that's enough rambling lol. Now to wait another week for (hopefully) some answers.

For once I gotta say, the English in this hasn't been as painful as some other animes I've seen. Both Smith and the Major have been pretty alright. (What I'm saying is that I'm not cringing as much when a primary English speaking character doesn't pronounce English words right.)

#bang brave bang bravern #Bravern #Superbia #ao isami #lewis smith

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hanamiyama-basketball-club · 1 month

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So I was skimming the first episode of Bravern looking for something else entirely and ended up massively overthinking this scene in the bar instead, and I made a Tumblr to massively overthink things so here we are.

Now, I feel like there's a lot of stuff in Bravern left unsaid or up to (multiple possible) interpretations, which I guess is sort of how all of media works but somehow Bravern has turned on some kind of 101 lit brain that my mathematician ass does not usually have so bear with me here. And so the narrative I'm going to present here isn't an argument really. It's just a "wouldn't it be nice". This is the story I like to imagine in this scene. I call it A Tale of Two Wingmen.

We start out with Isami and Hibiki at the bar chatting about the war games exercise. (They seem to be the only ones at the bar rather than at a table, and don't have food; I like that Hibiki at least has a flower on her drink.) It seems clear that they're friends, probably a somewhat mismatched pair since Isami is in his dress uniform and Hibiki is out of uniform.

Isami has just started talking about the other TS that charged ahead with him when who should walk in the bar but the pilot in question with his friend Ryoma (soon to be RIP):

(I can't hear the dialogue for them tbh so I'm a little confused by the subtitles - it looks in the animation like it's Smith saying he didn't drink enough, but the phrasing makes it sound like it's Ryoma saying that. Whatever. Minor point.)

And then he sees Isami and stops suddenly, dramatically enough to get Ryoma's attention.

And heads straight for Isami (seemingly without saying anything to Ryoma, lol)

Hibiki actually spots him first, or at least reacts to him first.

Smith invites himself into the conversation:

Hibiki watches him a little warily at first and seems annoyed when he starts thumping Isami on the shoulder.

(I have a fondness for this whole interaction tbh because like Smith I am an American that reckons I can get through any social situation just by being really talkative, friendly, and complaining about authority figures. And like Smith I have often totally misjudged how to befriend people now that I'm in another country. "Mildly annoying American" is apparently louder and more negative than any Brit judging by the reactions I get, and I can only imagine the American-Japanese culture clash is worse.)

But once Smith starts praising Isami (and agreeing with the argument Hibiki was making), Hibiki seems to warm up to him:

By the time Smith starts challenging Isami to a duel, she's leaning in and grinning over her cocktail.

Ryoma also seems to be watching this conversation from across the room:

Isami needles Smith in a line that definitely isn't foreshadowing at all, and Hibiki whistles which is also very cute

Smith heads out once he has the agreement to the duel, Hibiki grinning after him

Hibiki seems deeply amused by this whole situation and entertained by Smith's laser focus on Isami (and maybe a little surprised that Isami hasn't seemed to retain as much about Smith as Smith has about him)

On the way out Smith bumps fists with Ryoma, who's also left the conversation he was in.

(Yes, they did introduce themselves; no, Isami does not seem to remember this, which is very funny considering what's going to happen tomorrow.)

So what's the narrative I'm enjoying from this scene? Basically, if you imagine that both of these friends know that their main character buddy is gay, it becomes kind of adorable. (Well, it's kind of adorable anyway, but an added layer of adorable.)

Ryoma is the guy who's been hearing all evening about this cool Japanese pilot and the way he maneuvered his TS even though they say they're not as good as the M2s, and he seems kinda shy but do you think he'd maybe go for a duel? You know, first you fight, then you team up? So he's maybe a little surprised when Smith wanders off mid-conversation, but he knows what's up. Once he hears that his bro has successfully secured the not-a-date he was hoping for, he's got to give him a celebratory fistbump.

Hibiki clearly knows Isami well, and I'm guessing that she has never known him to actually date anyone. Possibly he's never explicitly come out to her; I doubt he'd be generally out (even if that was a good idea in any military, which I imagine is rare), or that he'd talk about his personal life to most people even if he was straight. But I imagine that Hibiki teases him in a friendly way about it and, as someone who's familiar with Isami's impenetrable shell, is kind of interested to see what kind of romantic partner could possibly get through that. Kind of obnoxious but well meaning hunk shows up out of nowhere clearly hung up on Isami? This is either a love story in the making or something to tease Isami about at the bar for years, and either way she is in.

Or maybe she just thinks it's funny that he has a loud American obsessed with him now. That was my read at first, and is probably the most likely.

But if you imagine an Isami who is gay, then it's nice to think that he has somebody that he can, if not talk to about it directly, at least knows. (Obviously bisexuality exists and the above still more or less applies if he's bi rather than gay, but I personally imagine Isami as the type who has gone well I'm only interested in men so conveniently I can just put all of romance in the box of Sounds Hard, Not Doing That.)

Also considering how she reacts to Honoka I think Hibiki just thinks it's funny if anyone has a crush on Isami which is a fun relationship for a male and female best friend to have.

#bravern #overthinking it #there's so much going on in this one scene if you want it to be #again none of this is proof of any of that it's just nice if you think about it that way #I guess he kind of got that date but in the boxing ring instead?#if he had dueled bravern in his TS would bravern have let him win #bbbb #yuuki bakuhatsu bang bravern

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i-guess-im-into-this-now · 25 days

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Brave Bang Bravern

Friends.

I've finished watching Bravern and I have some thoughts and questions.

First of all, I love parody. In fact, I love commentary and analysis of stories in many forms, but parody is fun. Mecha anime is very far outside my wheelhouse so I'm coming into this show purely as someone who enjoys unhinged stories.

Also, I love gay shit.

If it's gay + 🍌🍌🍌 now we are where I like to be. I was told Bravern is both.

And it is.

I should preface any of my analysis of queer content with the fact that I am not well educated in queer or gender studies and am in fact just some person on the internet with uninformed opinions. I often struggle to understand and explain how I think and feel about media. So please feel free to share other analysis with me, I love to learn.

Okay.

There may be spoilers ahead.

Bravern is gay. The show, the robot, Smith and Isami. It's gay. I watched it on Crunchyroll and to my bafflement, some people in the comments disagree. An argument can be made that the homosexuality in the show is overt at times, but even if you take the stance that it's subtext or metaphor, it's still prevalent.

Some of that has to do with the fact that Bravern is a parody of Mecha anime. Pilots riding inside a combat robot becomes a metaphor for sex. And in Bravern that comparison is pushed about as far as it can go without becoming tiresome. I'm on the fence about whether this joke about the homoeroticism of it is made with fun wink to the gay community or whether it is at their expense. I'd love some other opinions on this.

Also going to take a moment to insert that I'm also not Japanese so I don't have a perspective that is informed about how culture may play into this topic.

Overall Bravern is really fun. It pokes fun at ideas like the power of friendship and the roll of bravery in anime.

The robot is called Bravern and is an amalgamation of a robot of lust and the spirit of a fallen solider, Smith. Smith has an interesting relationship with Isami. Smith is inspired by Isami's bravery and envious that he is able to "ride" Bravern. They are also friends who have complicated feelings towards one another. Smith's lifelong dream was to become a hero and he tries repeatedly to merge with one of the sentient robots so he can be like Isami and Bravern, but fails. Eventually he dies, bravely I might add, and is able to fuse with a dead robot to become Bravern and travel back in time. Back in the past as Bravern he was able to have Isami ride in him and feels a sense of deep fulfillment. The plot is convoluted which is probably also parody, but plot is also not the point.

Bravery comes up constantly in this show. It's the name of the robot. It's Smith's motivation. It's Isami's character arc. It's a mystical power that can empower Bravern/Isami (by the end I'm not sure what the difference is between the two) to evolve into his most powerful form and defeat his opponent. The roll of Bravery in this show is deliberately over-the-top.

Another theme that is poked fun of it the power of friendship. The bromance between Smith and Isami is made homoerotic, and the friendships of everyone else are used as way to empower Isami/Bravern, sometimes psychologicaly, other times quite literally as a magical power source.

There are plenty of laugh out loud moments and a lot of action, which make it fun to watch even if you just want to enjoy it casually without trying to analyze it. The deadpan looks of the people who witness Braven and Isami's absurdity are hilarious. Also, some of the one liners are just 💋🤌

I'm sure I'm missing some key themes because I haven't even mentioned Lulu or Superbia. But that's my two cents for this show. I would love to hear someone else's take on it.

#bang brave bang bravern #bravern spoilers #bravern #brave bang bravern #ao isami #isami x smith #isami x lewis #isami x bravern #lewis smith

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what-am-i-outside-my-google-tabs · 25 days

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You watch Bang Brave Bang Bravern and you ask yourself, how much of this was intentional and how much casual.

The girl in the box is an actual child. We see her grown up in the future, and her face and body changed, she is a child and she get adopted and watch cartoon and does not have a romantic relationship with one of the leads. But her body is still sexy, and in the beach episode she have a bikini and low waist jeans, and her tits giggle, and it is normal for tits to giggle, but was this fanservice for the classic mecha public, was it a critic to how these character are represented. She is a baby, but we see a shot of her ass, and we are not sure if the very cis very male director didn't do this scene as a consolation price to the men forced to draw oiled abs and men grinding on each others.

The CIA waterboard the protagonist, and it is a traumatic experience not even being saved and thanked can cancel out. There are two other waterboarding scenes after, one against a child and one against a giant robot. They both play comedically, because they both fail. It is just to show how the genre of the story changed, from real robot to super robot, or does it means more? Is it a critic to the system of torturing people to get information, because it will never function, and maybe waterboarding a giant robot will not get you anything, or is it just for laugh?

And you ask yourself, why are you asking these questions on a gay mecha anime, and well, i would not ask these questions if it was not a gay mecha anime.

It is a show decided to change genre three times and mix real robot and super robots in a gay romance that save the worls, and it is meant to be a love story to the old super robot genre, and to aks the question of why these type of stories exists. Maybe i should ask myself these questions.

They reference evangelion, but they are not able to give a woman character space, and you have no idea if it is for parody or for being unable to do it. There is an autistic fujoshi, and she is only an autistic fujoshi. There is the woman love the protagonist, and she save his life, but she is not important to the plot to she stay on the sideline. They tell you the military is not that bad, and you close your eyes to it because it is set in a not so far future and maybe things have changed, and than they give you two men singing a love song to each others shirtless.

And then the story tell you that the desire to die honorably, the very japanese feeling of getting out in a spectacle, is not good. It is actually what the evil guys want, to die honorably. You deserve to live, and you deserve to want to live. You can say no and hope in a future with the men you love. And if you want to live any diegetic explication for the super robot effects will disappear, and people will be able to transfer you the energy to resuscitate the commands and transform in the final gold form, and your hairs get longer and you can now defeat the final main guy, a giant angel created from the deaths of your other enemies. And since now everything does not need anymore to make sense, your partner is send to you again, for a third time, and you want to kill him for what he put you thought but you take his hand and the sky is blue and everyone is happy and the world is saved.

Where does the comedy end. Where do the serious thoughts start. How does the fanservice, and which kind of fanservice, control the plot. And it is a gay mecha show.

#bang brave bang bravern #i have so many thoughts about this serie is unreal

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