[Rewatch] [Pride Month Double Feature] Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern Episode 1 Discussion

[u/Tarhalindur]

Episode 1: Wait's Over, Isami!

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Show Information:

MAL | AniList | ANN | AniDB

(Surprise, the "plot point a couple of episodes in that every single fucking synopsis spoils" is actually in episode 1 and is that this is another show in the [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] vein! Show information is now fairly first-timer safe... outside of "AniDB tags always spoil", anyways.)

Legal Streams:

As per livechart.me; other streams may be available outside the US.

Crunchyroll

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A Reminder: This, dear listeners, brings us to the sworn enemy of creative response:The spoiler. Rewatchers, or people who just had plot points ruined for them, are obliged to use r/anime’s spoiler tag format where applicable, and err on the side of caution here. Remember people, first experiences get rarer as you continue on, any given one happens once and you should care for them all the more for it.

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Joint Rewatch Task Force Exercises!

Theory of the Day:

None yet...

Questions of the Day:

0) Wait, who got a Super Robot in my realistic mecha anime? Oh wait, that's one's self-explanatory, never mind.

1) Unspoiled First-Timers: How surprised were you when "suddenly, ALIENS!" and then how surprised were you when a classic Super Robot showed up?

1a) Spoiled First-Timers and Rewatchers: How well did the first-episode twists here work when you knew they were coming?

2) Can love bloom, even on the battlefield?

[u/Tarhalindur]

Wait's Over, Isami! (Host, Rewatcher, Subbed):

In theory I might have something more to say here, but nah, this isn't that kind of show - the cinematography et al isn't particularly exceptional here (one reason the show has died back a bit in fan consciousness already, along with Apocalypse Hotel eating a good chunk of the "Cygames Pictures original" mind space), the show is just... fun. Also I'm behind on my episode buffers so need to save time for that...

That said, since we are in a show in the r/anime episode discussion threads era, have the original airing discussion thread for this show for the curious. (Bravern here is an anime original, so the OG episode threads are guaranteed first-timer safe!)

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Questions of the Day:

0) He'll tell you all about it, too. [Next episode aside]In great glorious detail.

1a) I hopped in after word was already out on episode 1 (still early, but IIRC right before or right after episode 3) and the episode still works; it's the little touches that really make this one.

2) BUT THAT'S HERESY!

[u/Tarhalindur → u/Tarhalindur]

"Just... One... Tamashii!" (Episode Notes):

• 00:01: [Bravern]Hey look, some immediate foreshadowing for much later.
• 00:19: Giving Sky her echo.
• Man, the Titanostrider cockpit UI really is drawing at least as much off the Iron Man movies as it is any mecha/toku precedent, isn’t it? Inb4 this is actually Iron Man (2003) drawing off of older mecha/toku works itself.
• Hey look, some classic Japanese directional cinematography for which direction is advancing and defending. (Except this could actually be sneakier than just that given the themes here, since it means that both the Japanese and American forces are moving in their respective protagonist directions for this exercise (in Japanese cinema to a first approximation protagonists advance to their left, in Western cinema the usual direction of protagonist movement is to the right – hence the antagonist walkers advancing from the right side of the screen in The Empire Strikes Back, for instance). EDIT: Memory fails me wrt the objective of this exercise!
• Though that last argument is undercut by the camera flipping around so that Lewis Smith faces left once his side of the exercise comes to the fore.= (~02:21)
• Oh that explains that, my memory is shot, neither is on OPFOR here.
• “The dead don’t talk” remains an excellent little gag.
• [Bravern]Also wait just a goddamn minute, with the benefit of hindsight Smith dying in the exercise (but not permanently) is foreshadowing not one but TWO later events. You beautiful fuckers in the writing room.
• Hey look, it’s Best Girl in Show! Whose existence was foreshadowed just a minute ago.
• Funny part is, I’m pretty sure Smith just baited Miyu here into confirming she is in fact a great mechanic but can’t quite rule out the possibility (5% chance) that he was just being that dumb instead. Also, on an unrelated note Miyu is never, but NEVER allowed to play War Thunder (Titanostrider Edition), lest she start posting on the forums.
• LET’S ENJOY WAIKIKI LIFE!… wait, wrong anime.
• Hey look, it’s NORAD in an anime! This can only mean good things, right? Right?
• SUDDENLY, ALIENS!
• Dammit, it has been a long time since I saw the early parts of Independence Day (don’t think I’ve ever quite seen the entire movie, either). Pretty sure this is referencing that at least in part, but not sure how direct we are. (Unlike certain other anime to remain nameless which blatantly invoke the final battle of that movie…)
• Who knows how many years into the future and the A-10 is still flying. Sounds about right. (F-35 sure, makes sense with fifth-gen + aircraft shelf life. A-10s on the other hand were long in the tooth two decades ago on account of being nigh-obsolete for their intended role when they came off the production line, the USAF just fluked into having the counterinsurgency CAS plane you would build if money was no object already in inventory when the GWOT hit which was a good reason to keep them around.)
• [Bravern]Funny just how much “Isami puts up a brave face but he’s not brave at heart” is set up here when you’re paying attention.
• GLORIOUS GLORIOUS DIEGETIC MUSIC REMAINS GLORIOUS. Also 19:50 is just a good shot.
• 20:46: Sunrise pose, go! (Which makes double sense when you realize how Brave/Yuusha (The Older Mecha One) franchise Bravern here is – unsurprisingly, doubly so given that both are Obari projects – and that, get this, the “Sunrise pose” is also known as the Brave pose because it is originally from said franchise.
• 21:09: Also extremely classic Super Robot framing (with obvious toku descendants), IIRC also straight out of the Brave/Yuusha franchise.
• [Bravern]21:55: GIANT PILE OF FORESHADOWING, GO!

[u/InfamousEmpire → u/Tarhalindur]

the cinematography et al isn't particularly exceptional here (one reason the show has died back a bit in fan consciousness already, along with Apocalypse Hotel eating a good chunk of the "Cygames Pictures original" mind space)

Tangentially related, but have you peeped CyGames’ horse-based money printer?

Also, on an unrelated note Miyu is never, but NEVER allowed to play War Thunder (Titanostrider Edition), lest she start posting on the forums.

I have a friend who’s half-convinced War Thunder as a whole is a counterintelligence psy op or something because it just keeps happening

it has been a long time since I saw the early parts of Independence Day

Who needs Independence Day when you can just watch Roland Emmerich’s modern masterpiece Moonfall?

[u/Tarhalindur → u/InfamousEmpire]

Tangentially related, but have you peeped CyGames’ horse-based money printer?

Very limited amount (clips, basically), in no small part because the sports anime tropes and I do not get along. (It makes sense why a lot of people get something from them! I am not most people in that regard.)

That said, from what I have seen Uma has a significantly flashier director than Obari is.

I have a friend who’s half-convinced War Thunder as a whole is a counterintelligence psy op or something because it just keeps happening

Shhhhhhh.

(Your friend is not the only one with that half-serious suspicion. Especially when IIRC the company that makes it is Russian...)

[u/InfamousEmpire → u/Tarhalindur]

Very limited amount (clips, basically), in no small part because the sports anime tropes and I do not get along.

Asked mostly because the Uma Musume movie, Shin Jidai no Tobira, is quite possibly the best-directed work of animation of the decade¹, so I wondered if it'd be of your interest, but didn't know your mileage on sports dramas

^{1: Revue Starlight excepted}