Brave Witches

Episode 6

In the carousel of featured characters that the series seems to be rotating through, the turn has now come for Orussian Flight Lieutenant Aleksandra “Sasha” Pokryshkin and Flight Sergeant Nikka “Nipa” Edvardine Katjainen. Of the two, Sasha serves as the focal point character, with Nipa mostly playing off her. Meanwhile Hikari is the tag-along observer once again.

The research behind the series and the degree to which the writing adapts characteristics of its cast's namesakes continues to impress. Sasha is based off of Alexander Pokryshkin, one of the most decorated Soviet aces of WWII. He earned the nickname “Engineer” at a young age and started his career as a plane mechanic, so having Sasha be the 502's resident mechanical expert makes total sense. He was known for keeping meticulous notebooks about battle scenarios he participated in, so Sasha essentially having photographic memory as her magical ability is also a sensible interpretation. He was also known for being an innovative strategist and eventually achieved a high rank, so Sasha being the 502's field leader is an appropriate choice too. Nipa is based on Nils Katajainen, a Finnish ace who also went by the nickname Nipa during WWII. Nipa's penchant for damaging her Striker units and her self-healing ability are both derived from Nils's reputation for crashing planes but escaping with only minor injuries. He did eventually suffer combat injuries that required four months of hospitalization, so it will be interesting to see if that somehow gets adapted too.

The foe this time is another new Neuroi variant: a shape-changing spotter paired with a long-range, ground-based artillery unit. Both Neuroi present unique challenges for the Witches, since the latter can burrow and the former can disguise itself as almost anything in the city. The character-focused part of the episode deals partly with Sasha's frustrations with close friend Nipa but mostly with Sasha's own early experiences in the now-deserted city, which she doesn't remember at first despite their defining importance and her magical ability. Plays for sentimentality like this are a staple element of the franchise, and the particular thrust of this scenario is similar to those used in many other series, but for all of that familiarity, this one works surprisingly well. Its simple, direct, and well-timed approach fits with the mission at hand rather than detracting from it, and the scene doesn't overplay its light but evident emotional appeal. Helping this along is Sasha's character design, which falls on the soft and approachable side, even if this does hurt her credibility as a field leader. Some of the series' most effective use of musical score also provides a nice complement, and the animation doesn't falter despite some fairly complicated flying scenes.

Overall, this is a very solid episode, arguably the series' best to date. It also may help push Sasha – a character who hasn't gotten much attention up to this point – higher on the list of fan-favorite characters. If the series keeps up with episodes of this quality, I may even be able to overlook its paper-thin overarching plot or the way it's pushed its protagonist to the side for two straight episodes now.

Rating: B+

Brave Witches is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.