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Brave Witches
Episode 9

by Theron Martin,

How would you rate episode 9 of
Brave Witches ?
Community score: 3.9

Naoe has gotten as much attention as anyone in the secondary role throughout the series so far, but this episode marks the first time that she has been the focal point character. This is both welcome and overdue, although I must also acknowledge that this was the right timing for it. After all, I don't think her behavior here would have been quite as effective or convincing if it wasn't for what Krupinski did last episode.

First, the historical perspective: Naoe is based on the Japanese fighter pilot Naoshi Kanno. Not a lot is available on him in English, but he was nicknamed “Bulldog,” which manifests in this anime as Naoe's familiar, and was known to be skillful but rebellious (which is definitely in line with Naoe's personality). In an odd coincidence, an alternate anime depiction of him pops up in a couple of episodes of the concurrently-airing Drifters.

In this anime form Naoe has been the resident tsundere and hothead, but the former doesn't come into play here. Instead Naoe is angry that Krupinski had to protect her last episode and clearly looks up to her as a stronger pilot. While this initially results in a renewed gung-ho approach for her, in a pleasing broadening of her character, she gets shaken when Sasha also has to step in to protect her due to her own recklessness and then gets hurt in the process – and interestingly, it seems to grate on her even more that no one, not even Sasha, is getting on her case about it. This suggests that, for all her bravado, she is uncomfortable being protected and definitely doesn't like having to rely on others. She gets further shaken in the next battle against the episode's featured Neuroi when Nipa has to step in to protect her when she gets distracted, only this time the combination of that and having to protect Hikari on a mission that seems reckless (i.e., to touch the Neuroi to activate Hikari's ability to see its core) uncharacteristically gives her pause and disrupts her confidence. This seems natural and appropriate, given that she's the kind of character entirely driven by her conviction that she can do things herself, and that Hikari is the one who has to talk her out of it so the mission can be completed seems quite fitting.

For all of that, though, the juiciest meat of the episode is its final scene. The episode ends with Takami waking up and asking about Hikari, and the Next Episode preview suggests that she is actively going to be back in the picture. The consequences of this should be very interesting to see. Another intriguing revelation briefly brought up this episode is why we never see the 502's commander, Gundula Rall, out on missions even though she's shown that way in the opener: apparently she's still recovering from an unspecified injury.

On another note, I have generally praised the battle animation of this series, but this time around it looked like the Witches were sometimes being animated in CG form during the more elaborate fight scenes. I am unclear if the series has always been doing this and I just never noticed before or if this is just a shortcut taken for this episode. Either way, it makes the characters look even more unnatural if you do notice it.

Rating: B+

Brave Witches is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.


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