Brave Witches

Episode 4

After taking a week off due to the production reportedly falling behind schedule, Brave Witches is back in business. The extra time spent to get things looking right really shows too, as this may be the cleanest-looking episode yet. Either that or the extra time was spent working in a few more crotch shots, which seem more conspicuous than normal in this episode. After all, there's nothing like having the camera focus from floor level on the behinds of two bloomer-clad female officers when it comes to killing the seriousness of a scene with their superiors.

Snark aside, the entire focus of this episode is on determining whether or not Hikari is fit to continue flying with the 502nd. Her magic power is simply not strong enough, so is there a way she can work around that deficiency when effort stamina alone aren't enough? The standard procedure for anime like this is usually for the protagonist to be given some sort of nearly-impossible task and figure out a clever way to fulfill it, which is almost exactly what happens here. We even get the standard scenes where a character who has been antagonistic towards the protagonist (in this case Naoe) ends up egging the heroine on in her own tsundere-like fashion while a more sympathetic character observes. Seeing instructor Rossman give Hikari advice isn't a full break from predictability, as this is a less common but hardly unknown component to such scenarios, but the way it happens feels at least a little fresher. The suggestions she gives Hikari, about more narrowly focusing her mana so it can be more effective, come more as a revelation of an alternate way to make a potential asset useful than just trying to encourage Hikari. While that may seem like a trivial difference, it matters significantly in terms of maintaining the consistency of Rossman's character. She's not so much unsympathetic as practical.

The only other thing that the episode does – beyond progressing Naoe further down the path to being a fan-favorite character – is to establish why Hikari was able to see the core of the Neuroi in her first fight but not in her second: she has to make physical contact to use the ability. Given how risky that is, she's naturally forbidden to use it, but somehow I think that order will go by the wayside in the near future. Also, if she has to focus her magic in her legs to use Chidori correctly, what will that mean for her ability to throw up defensive shields? That hasn't been dealt with yet, but I have to think it will be a factor at some point.

Overall, this episode comes across as an obligatory step in a standard shonen action plot progression. At least there's still the “no pants” thing to set this series apart.

Rating: B-

Brave Witches is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.