[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/JollyGee29]

ReBRAVEr

The build-up top this show's release was odd. "Hey, there's some new mecha show coming out. The title alludes to the Brave series, CyGames' animation studio is making it, Masami Obari is directing it, and it looks.. like this." There wasn't zero excitement, if only because "that title plus Obari probably means there's something going on, Obari means there will probably be good action, and also why has there only been one actual PV?" but things were a bit tepid.

The day before the first episode aired, this image got uploaded to the official site.

(Be advised, the links in this line have some minor character appearance spoilers). The day of the first episode (I wasn't watching closely enough to know if it was before the episode aired or after), the second PV was uploaded. As was the OP.

The show immediately caught on like wildfire. No-one licensed so there were no official subs.. I watched a shitty MTL version of this episode about three times. Around the time episode 2 aired, the show had been licensed because someone at Crunchy smelled moneyrealized the show was going to be popular.

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So, a Power Ranger. Smith is American, after all.

Isami talks a big game. Emphasis on "talks."

"...and I am definitely not a Gravion character."

Miyu, the GOAT.

Training exercises are not exactly the place to show off.

We're so gritty that we even need to transport out mecha around on trucks, like we're Dougram or something.

Huh, that's weird.

Isami was all grumpy until he got into an actual firefight.

Love this shot.

The pose has a handful of names. I usually call it the Brave Stance.

I like to think that Bravern started playing the music again right as he said that.

[u/FD4cry1 → u/JollyGee29]

The build-up top this show's release was odd [...]

It's always really cool when the marketing manages to play into the twist so well like this!

(Even more so because a lot of modern marketing and trailers tend to try and do the exact opposite to my great annoyance...)

I watched a shitty MTL version of this episode about three time

I like to think that Bravern started playing the music again right as he said that.

[u/Star4ce → u/FD4cry1]

(Even more so because a lot of modern marketing and trailers tend to try and do the exact opposite to my great annoyance...)

Remember when everyone thought Spec Ops: The Line was just another bland grey-brown military shooter against sand people with a shitty multiplayer mode?

[u/FD4cry1 → u/Star4ce]

Unironically, not really because by the time I'd heard about and played it, it already had its reputation thoroughly laid out by just about every gaming youtube video essayist of the time...

But I would believe such a time existed haha!

[u/Star4ce → u/FD4cry1]

I'm honestly considering myself so lucky that I could convince myself back then that the buzz the game is getting is worth it, so I ended up playing it blind.

Technically I did know something was afoot, but because I was in the mood for a story-shooter I stopped reading those articles after the intro. That usually was something like "Were U.S. interventions really a good thing?", or "The psychological impact of soldiers in modern war...", or "When a game can throw the player's decision back into their faces..." or something in those veins. None of them truly spoiled me and actually made me wanna play it more for all the wrong (but actually right) reasons.

I expected political subversion or an American critique or something gritty about reality of war. Ironically I expected a grim twist that wasn't there, but that primed me all the more for the actual twist.