I can’t say the setting and the premise are that interesting. They are in fact quite basic and there have been several other stories based on the same period and people. The most famous example is Naruto but the relations don’t go beyond names as well as both shows being equally gay. Samurai Deeper Kyo (SDK) is another case, this one even centered on the exact same events and characters. The anime adaptation sucked ass but the manga was amazingly GAR for the most part.
You see the fail just from the intro song, which is nothing but a cameo parade of all the characters and their special abilities. Seriously, where is the interest in watching the show if you already know what they all do? And come on, is this show so shallow that they had nothing else to show other than a character selection screen?
Maybe the intro is bad and the plot is deeper (no relation to Kyo) than that. And nope, in just three minutes the story barely begins and WHAM we are already shown how the protagonist is uber powerful and the lead female is useless and in constant need of his help (it wasn’t like that with Kyo). So he comes here, he goes there, and he meets lots of weird guys he has to fight. Expected. Ok, maybe the action parts will be good. And boy, could they be any worse in battle choreography? The transition from one scene to another is completely random and anything could happen just because the scriptwriter said so and not because it followed some sort of actual strategy. They can be fighting for half an hour just to protect or kidnap Miss Pacifism (her name is not important because she is female in a male-oriented show, so I will be using nicknames) without any luck, and then a simple guy can just waltz in, grab her under their very noses, and move calmly away while they are spacing out. You also barely see the fighters move; they use the typical frozen images with a few simple visual effects to make you think they move. Adding to that the background music which is usually a random tune playing regardless of what is going on in the plot, and the directing which is completely lazy. Stuff blow up and people get killed and you feel absolutely nothing compared to, let’s say, Rurouni Kenshin. Meaning, the aesthetics are completely basic to the point of not caring to look at the screen.
Let’s move to the characters. For starters they all feel like filler characters from Naruto, which is bad because Naruto is gay, fillers suck, and a cast should feel special and not a rehash of a now decadent shounen. So what do we have here? Ah yes, Saizo, the protagonist who is repulsive right away for being constantly bored with his life. I mean, seriously, the only thing he is doing when not fighting is sleeping or running away scared from girls. How is he supposed to be macho if he can’t stand a few boobs? He must be gay (thus this really is like Naruto). And is this a manly samurai action series or a shitty harem? It sure doesn’t feel like the former if it has such a wuss main hero. If it was, he should have been constantly horny, molesting and raping anything that catches his eye (that is, everything), just like all normal men did in the good old chauvinistic feudal times. Kyo from SDK was one of them. But then again this is not really a manly show about gar super samurai from the actual Sengoku era but a lukewarm show with poser idiots who loosely plagiarize historical events, and who are hardly as cool as Kyo or the original historical Sanada. If the animators didn’t want to show rape or something that immoral, they could just make him not care in the least, like in the case of Katanagatari. The chemistry between Shichika and Togame was very unorthodox and thus memorable, but here it is totally boooring because it feels like yet another show aimed at boys whose balls haven’t dropped yet. I mean he is already bored out of his mind, so why is not being bored of girls that hard to think of? Because it wouldn’t be funny? IT WOULD BE FIFTY TIMES FUNNIER; HAREM LEADS ARE THE ONES WHO ARE NOT FUNNY!
Furthermore, are all these warrior dudes supposed to be manly, talking big in the middle of the fight while doing all sorts of acrobats and magician tricks? Well if they are so powerful then why are they owned whenever Miss Useless just gets fed up and intervenes? She is all “Stop fighting, hurting people is bad hurr durr” attitude and I just want to slash her in half just for that. This is an action show you stupid bitch, take your pacifism elsewhere. But then again she can do anything she likes because she is Miss Sunshine and the rest are a bunch of idiots who can’t just say “Shut up you broad, you only exist so you’ll be kidnapped every half an hour and we are the ones busting out butts trying to save you every time. We are the strong ones here so close that trap of yours and let us do what we know best.”
But they never do that and instead constantly try to protect Miss Kidnap Target Practice. So you never consider them to be that strong, or dedicated to their cause, or even good at what they are doing. Seriously, they are pathetic in their job since they always get ambushed in the most simple and obvious way possible. What kind of elite ninjas get ambushed twice a day? Even a baby can fool these idiots. And it’s not like they do a smart comeback to win every time they fall for it. No sir, it always gets resulted with some random super attack they had in store but never use from the very start even if it has no set back. Hell, even Miss Molest-Me-Now has her own superpower, which works anytime the scriptwriter feels like it and not every time she or Saizo are in danger.
You can’t even like the characters for their looks, since they all look like whores and gigolos. Seriously, they are all supposed to be sexy and with cool clothes, and then a baby appears and lures them to a trap without even trying. So much for character appeal. Especially for Miss Braindead, who gets completely fascinated with Saizo, although he constantly ignores her and runs away. HOW STUPID IS SHE?
The directing is terrible even in non-action scenes. The way everything works in this show is making your I.Q. drop to that of a lizard. Everybody is constantly unable to see someone standing exactly next to him, just because he was out of screen or wasn’t talking. But when the scriptwriter feels like it, he can jump in-screen to do or say something and everybody is acting all surprised. WOW, WHERE DID HE COME FROM? He was standing right next to you, you idiots. And then it’s the whole lousy way they try to make things more exciting. There is this scene where that stupid bimbo is completely scared of snakes and points at the place the snake is. So for reasons unexplained she also comes along with that wuss Saizo to find the snake. WHY IS SHE DOING THAT IF SHE IS TERRIFIED? And then they find the snake and guess what. She faints from fear. OF COURSE SHE WOULD; SHE IS TERRIFIED OF SNAKES! And wait a second, if many were ordered to find the snake, why didn’t they come along as backup? WHY DID THEY GO ALONE? And then guess what, the snake blows up in their faces, causing a small nuclear explosion. They are just fine for some impossible to imagine reason and nobody else in the valley heard of such a big bang. This is just a small example of how ridiculous the whole thing is.
So, after all this mess, why is the anime even called Brave 10? You mostly see what Saizo does and it’s not divided to ten side stories. The show could have easily be called Brave 1. Plus, why is he even called brave if he gets scared of a few boobs? The show should be called Wuss 1. Plus, he is a bored moron, so it should be called Bored Moron Wuss 1. And there is an even greater fail in all this mess. Despite all that I said so far about the show and the numerous comparisons to Naruto, this anime is not tagged as shounen (for boys) but seinen (for adults). HOW THE DEVIL IS THIS GAY SHOW SEINEN? Where’s the sex and the gorish splatter? Why is this placed on the same level as Berserk and above the far more violent, erotic, and GAR SDK? It doesn’t even have moeblobs in a high school, which is also what counts as seinen these days.
This show is a total fail! It is clearly more oriented towards little kids, chicks who like pretty gays, and people with really low expectations. Basic story, boring battles, lousy directing, gay characters, and lame resolutions.
