This was...not what I expected.
I had really high hopes for this show at the beginning of the season, when I was really impressed by the first episode. Unfortunately, all the potential that I saw never materialized. Despite thinking that this show wouldn't go down the generic path, it did exactly that. That isn't enough to make me dislike the show (it's not the trope, it's how it's used), but the presentation is so confused that I'm not really sure what to make of it at the end. The pacing is horrible; the majority of the show is spent assembling the main cast with the conflict thrown on at the very end. It almost feels like the show was initially made with more episodes in mind, but by the final episode it's clear that its really just laziness since it opts for a reset ending. The show mistakes time onscreen for character development, since despite having a pretty large cast and taking its time to get them all together we hardly see any characters beyond the ones we're initially introduced to, and they never break out of their stereotypes. There's the tsundere male ninja lead, the shrine maiden who has to be constantly rescued, the yandere of ambiguous gender and sexuality...the list goes on. The political intrigue plot also ended up being nonexistant, instead deciding to make vauge references to Japanese history and what will happen in the future with some historical figures thrown in here and there. Date Masamune's portrayal in this was awesome, but frankly the show could've gone on without him.
Instead of the Sengoku Era ninja samurai fighting plot that the show advertised itself as, this anime ends up being a random cross between Hakuouki and Fushigi Yuugi, and not a good one either. Apparently the shrine maiden is the reincarnation of a barely explained goddess of death, so ten warriors of the elements have to be gathered to cancel out her power. The second part is also barely explained and seems to have been thought up after the characters were created so the logic is tenuous at best (wouldn't the water element and the ice element essentially be the same thing?). Combine this with a barely explained evil ninja organization (at least, I think that's what they are) with wacky powers straight out of Basilisk and that's our show, ladies and gentlemen! For all my complaining though, I have to admit that I don't hate this show; I did get attached to the main couple since apparently I'm a sucker for romance in all its forms. However, that's the only thing that I can say that I enjoyed about this anime now that I've finished it. I honestly wanted to like this show; it had all the elements there for me to love it, yet it just didn't come together that way. In the end, I'm indifferent about it. It wasn't the worst show that I watched this season, but if you missed it you weren't missing much. If you really really like ninjas and really really really like ninjas who also happen to be bishounen, then maybe this is your show. Otherwise, there is almost nothing here. The show left itself wide open for a sequel, but even if it does get one I'm not interested. I would accept a spin-off about the pirate guy and his panther, though.
Images from Crunchyroll.com.
So I finished Brave 10 myself and yeah it was fairly mediocre, but I probably didn't watch it for the same reasons. This anime is an adaptation of a manga. Perhaps the manga isn't as mediocre. Furthermore, the manga is loosely based on the Sanada Ten Braves which has some historical value. The historical references are fairly clear if you know the history behind Yukimura Sanada's struggle with the politics at the time. He eventually ends up siding with Toyotomi clan against the Tokugawa and so ends up fighting against Data Masamune in the Battle of Sekigahara which might explain why Masamune is in this series.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, they tried to use these figures to create a fairly predictable and sometime irritatingly cliched, supernatural story based on Taoism. The only strength this show had was that the characters were fairly interesting but unfortunately remained mostly undeveloped at the end of the story.
What also annoyed me was Hattori Hanzo's portrayal. Sure he was probably a very skilled and ruthless assassin, but he was also very loyal to Tokugawa. I let the fact that he should have been already dead slide, but I can't really let go of the fact that they made him entirely selfish in the show.
While I don't know too much about the time period, I did expect this show to be on the more historical side of things since before it aired it was advertising itself as a Sanada Braves story. Instead, it ended up a supernatural story like you mentioned. There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but it felt silly for them to hold onto the historical figures when it was clear that it wasn't what the show wanted to be. Oh well. Maybe it does make more sense in the manga. Thanks for filling in some of the blanks about the history for me though!
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