Brave Witches

Episode 7

For the last few episodes, Brave Witches has been cycling through the 502nd's members for feature treatment while keeping Hikari in the background. This episode, it takes a temporary break from that to celebrate the holidays – in this case the Saturnus Festival, which encompasses Christmas and seems to be about equivalent to the old holiday of Yule. (The name almost certainly derives from the Roman festival Saturnalia, which was also celebrated at about the same time of year.) Brave Witches then combines the practically obligatory holiday episode with the practically obligatory “protagonist gets sick” episode for efficiency's sake.

Even though the story is throwing out some extremely trite anime clichés, the events of this episode aren't quite as simple as the above makes it sound. Weak as it is, there is actual story progression going on here, and both the events of last episode and one ongoing aspect of Hikari's nature plays into it. While I don't think it's been specifically mentioned before in this series, the magic of a witch also protects her from disease, so the fact that Hikari's magic is weaker actually makes her susceptible to getting sick if she pushes her endurance too hard. Compounding the problems on the holiday celebration side is how short the 502nd is on supplies due to supply lines getting cut off and the destruction of their supply warehouses. It's increasingly seeming like the Neuroi are following a more deliberate plan against the 502nd than they ever did against the 501st. (Perhaps because they actually learned some lessons after fighting the 501st?) After all, denying an opponent supplies and then attacking when they are weakened is an age-old battle tactic at the heart of siege warfare.

Even though a token Neuroi attack eventually comes (with yet another new variety that seems specifically designed for combating flyer-equipped Witches), the balance of the episode is mostly on the light side. The whole business with the laughing mushrooms is at least vaguely amusing, especially once it's revealed that even the commander got involved, as is Krupinski's scary story about the fox woman and how it may or may not refer to Rossman. The opening scene with sledding across the frozen river is pure fun, but established franchise fans will get the biggest kick out of not only seeing a couple of guest appearances from Strike Witches but also seeing them in Christmas-themed outfits. The one issue I have concerns the behavior of Naoe, Nipa, and Hikari while sledding. They complain about it being very cold, but surely it's at least that cold when they're flying in combat at any real altitude, right? If initiating their magic power is what protects them from the cold, then why not be in that state all the time when outdoors?

The sentimentality of the holiday aspect works, I guess, but aside from the guest appearances, this is a pretty unremarkable episode.

Rating: B-

Brave Witches is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.