#guess who watched bravern

[acilykos-art]

They make me miserable (I love them)

[renard-dartigue]

UM HELLO!? BANG BRAVE BANG BRAVERN!? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!? WHAT ARE YOU DOIN???

WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOIN???

[the-faxx-macheen]

GAGAPIIIIII

Quick someone teach Lulu to dab before Lewis gets back as a super cool amnesiac anti-hero

[ayy-junipei]

Why You Should Watch Bang Brave Bang Bravern

An essay by Junipei while they wait for they friends to come online so we can watch episode 3. Some spoilers for episode 1-2 I guess

Reason 1 - It be Nefarious

Ok so let me tell you how I came to actually watch this show. I have a friend who does one of those seasonal anime review podcast things and I was basically helping man go through the bottom of the barrel. Things that were either going to be cute for an episode before its gimmick ran into the ground or just straight up trash. I was the emotional support Juni.

So we boot up Bang Brave Bang Bravern knowing only that it's a generic mecha show with a fucked up name and a bromance thrown in for fun. That's what we thought

THAT'S WHAT WE THOUGHT

We thought things were getting interesting when the aliens showed up. Ok it's not just a gritty anime it's a Pacific Rim Top Gun thing, ok, that's more interesting than what we thought, that's fine.

AND THEN BRAVERN SHOWS UP.

AND WE REALISE THIS ISN'T JUST A GRITTY REALISTIC MECHA. IT GOT COLLIDED WITH A FUCKIN SUPER ROBOT SHOW FROM THE 70s.

I have not had my jaw this dropped since episode 1 of Code Geass. We were played like fiddles bro.

So we watch episode 2, wondering where the hell its going to go from there. IT GOES TO-

Reason 2 - Robot Gay Hell

As a person who enjoys human sized people kissing 10ft tall death machines, I have been starved my entire life. I take what I can get.

So imagine my surprise when the show sets up that Bravern is head over heels in love with his pilot Isami. So much so that he refuses to let anyone else get in that cockpit. Wahey!

It has mostly been played for a joke, that's the one single downside. That's not very sustainable. BUT I am very curious to see where it goes. This leads into-

Reason 3 - Something is UP my Dudes

If the carefully planned bait and switch says anything, it's that the show has a lot more planned up it sleeve. And you see that in allmost every scene. Bravern and the one-dimensional aliens creates a massive tonal dissonance with the original part of the show.

You see, the realistic gritty mecha bit is still playing out like a realistic gritty mecha. Our boy Isami gets waterboarded by the CIA for any info he has on Bravern. Things don't magically get better after Bravern saves the main cast, the Earth is going to shit real fast.

So if you think of Bravern and the aliens in the context of the more realistic part of the show, shit is mighty sus. Are you really going to take man's word that he's a hero here to defeat the bad guys?

It could turn darker, it could turn spicy, or it could sustain the show past the "gimmick turns stale real quick" problem anime has these days.

If you've made it this far good job soldier, now get out there and make me some gott damnged robot yaoi. I HAVE STARVED FOR 20 YEARS FOR THIS CONTENT. GIVE IT- GIVE IT OT ME NOW

[chipsncookies]

Superbia is a pacifist samurai (also Superbia appreciation post 💖)

Apparently Obari confirmed Superbia is a pacifist

I rewatched ep 2 and it's true, Superbia mostly fights by kicking and incapacitating the TS, cutting their limbs but avoiding the cockpit.

He did try to shoot some nail? beam twice but failed

At the end of the fight every TS pilot who fought Superbia survived. It's true Bravern saved them, but Superbia had plenty of chances to kill them earlier, and he chose not to

The purple guys are less discerning though and just shoots down the helicopters. Rip heli pilots 😭

Regarding the samurai theme, i noticed that in Superbia's scenes he often has samurai music playing. Heck, his fight with bravern is basically a samurai duel

Adding on to this, in ep 7 we also learn he does zen meditation 😭 maybe this is why he's unfazed by the waterboarding lolol (on top of well... Him being a robot). He also asked his enemy's name (Bravern) in an old-fashioned samurai way.

So the samurai theme is pretty well established, even though i completely missed it on first watch

Also, please look at his info from the official site

I love that they just copied the info box from the humans lol 🤣 Despite representing Pride, he's down to earth and respects his enemies. Idk what 'to promote' means but he hates despicable things, and he wants a honorable death. This shows when even though he's desperate, he didn't force Lulu to come back to him and let her go after he realised she has a soul of her own.

He also doesn't look down on humans, he gave Lewis a chance to ride him even though they didn't end up being compatible. I guess this is why he became an ally fairly quickly!

These are details I've never noticed before, but after rewatching I've come to appreciate 🥹💖😭 i love Superbia so much!!!

[hanamiyama-basketball-club]

So I was skimming the first episode of Bravern looking for something else entirely and ended up massively overthinking this scene in the bar instead, and I made a Tumblr to massively overthink things so here we are.

Now, I feel like there's a lot of stuff in Bravern left unsaid or up to (multiple possible) interpretations, which I guess is sort of how all of media works but somehow Bravern has turned on some kind of 101 lit brain that my mathematician ass does not usually have so bear with me here. And so the narrative I'm going to present here isn't an argument really. It's just a "wouldn't it be nice". This is the story I like to imagine in this scene. I call it A Tale of Two Wingmen.

We start out with Isami and Hibiki at the bar chatting about the war games exercise. (They seem to be the only ones at the bar rather than at a table, and don't have food; I like that Hibiki at least has a flower on her drink.) It seems clear that they're friends, probably a somewhat mismatched pair since Isami is in his dress uniform and Hibiki is out of uniform.

Isami has just started talking about the other TS that charged ahead with him when who should walk in the bar but the pilot in question with his friend Ryoma (soon to be RIP):

(I can't hear the dialogue for them tbh so I'm a little confused by the subtitles - it looks in the animation like it's Smith saying he didn't drink enough, but the phrasing makes it sound like it's Ryoma saying that. Whatever. Minor point.)

And then he sees Isami and stops suddenly, dramatically enough to get Ryoma's attention.

And heads straight for Isami (seemingly without saying anything to Ryoma, lol)

Hibiki actually spots him first, or at least reacts to him first.

Smith invites himself into the conversation:

Hibiki watches him a little warily at first and seems annoyed when he starts thumping Isami on the shoulder.

(I have a fondness for this whole interaction tbh because like Smith I am an American that reckons I can get through any social situation just by being really talkative, friendly, and complaining about authority figures. And like Smith I have often totally misjudged how to befriend people now that I'm in another country. "Mildly annoying American" is apparently louder and more negative than any Brit judging by the reactions I get, and I can only imagine the American-Japanese culture clash is worse.)

But once Smith starts praising Isami (and agreeing with the argument Hibiki was making), Hibiki seems to warm up to him:

By the time Smith starts challenging Isami to a duel, she's leaning in and grinning over her cocktail.

Ryoma also seems to be watching this conversation from across the room:

Isami needles Smith in a line that definitely isn't foreshadowing at all, and Hibiki whistles which is also very cute

Smith heads out once he has the agreement to the duel, Hibiki grinning after him

Hibiki seems deeply amused by this whole situation and entertained by Smith's laser focus on Isami (and maybe a little surprised that Isami hasn't seemed to retain as much about Smith as Smith has about him)

On the way out Smith bumps fists with Ryoma, who's also left the conversation he was in.

(Yes, they did introduce themselves; no, Isami does not seem to remember this, which is very funny considering what's going to happen tomorrow.)

So what's the narrative I'm enjoying from this scene? Basically, if you imagine that both of these friends know that their main character buddy is gay, it becomes kind of adorable. (Well, it's kind of adorable anyway, but an added layer of adorable.)

Ryoma is the guy who's been hearing all evening about this cool Japanese pilot and the way he maneuvered his TS even though they say they're not as good as the M2s, and he seems kinda shy but do you think he'd maybe go for a duel? You know, first you fight, then you team up? So he's maybe a little surprised when Smith wanders off mid-conversation, but he knows what's up. Once he hears that his bro has successfully secured the not-a-date he was hoping for, he's got to give him a celebratory fistbump.

Hibiki clearly knows Isami well, and I'm guessing that she has never known him to actually date anyone. Possibly he's never explicitly come out to her; I doubt he'd be generally out (even if that was a good idea in any military, which I imagine is rare), or that he'd talk about his personal life to most people even if he was straight. But I imagine that Hibiki teases him in a friendly way about it and, as someone who's familiar with Isami's impenetrable shell, is kind of interested to see what kind of romantic partner could possibly get through that. Kind of obnoxious but well meaning hunk shows up out of nowhere clearly hung up on Isami? This is either a love story in the making or something to tease Isami about at the bar for years, and either way she is in.

Or maybe she just thinks it's funny that he has a loud American obsessed with him now. That was my read at first, and is probably the most likely.

But if you imagine an Isami who is gay, then it's nice to think that he has somebody that he can, if not talk to about it directly, at least knows. (Obviously bisexuality exists and the above still more or less applies if he's bi rather than gay, but I personally imagine Isami as the type who has gone well I'm only interested in men so conveniently I can just put all of romance in the box of Sounds Hard, Not Doing That.)

Also considering how she reacts to Honoka I think Hibiki just thinks it's funny if anyone has a crush on Isami which is a fun relationship for a male and female best friend to have.

[houkagokappa]

I'm in a weird mood to watch anything, but I had to watch the finale of Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern before the twitter spoilers got to me.

It was a fun series, made with a lot of love, but I have to bring up this one tweet I've been unable to forget ever since I saw it back in February, of how much potential this show would have to keep going for what seems like forever (like they did in the 90's), with all sorts of silly episodic adventures. While I loved watching it, I can't let go of that idea.

I'm genuinely so sad modern series, especially original series, are so short-lived. Suisei no Majo got 24 episodes compared to the 50-something other Gundam series seem to get. Ikuhara's shows have gone from 3-cours to 2-cours to 1-cour to 1-cour minus an episode compared to the last. And while there are amazing 1-cour series out there, these shows I mentioned all have large casts with complex characters who would benefit from more screen time and some down time as well. Bang Bravern had to rush a lot of things, and while it's not a huge complaint of mine, I guess I'm leaving this series thinking "wow that was entertaining, but can you imagine what more it could've been?"

[seraphim-seeker]

Hey Guess who just watch Ep.9 of Bravern and wants to Strangle Someone

I. CANNOT. ANYMORE!!!

[sphnyspinspin]

GUESS WHO JUST WATCHED BRAVERN?

—->THIS GUYYYYYYYYYYYY

AND HOLY MOLY WAS IT GAY—

Like I ABSOLUTELY thought that it just going to be that one scene—OH BOY WAS I WRONG OH MY GOD!

It’s actually pretty good so far… which isn’t saying much since there’s only two episodes…

Also, pleeease watch the end credit scene in episode two, then you’ll know exactly what I mean.

[unhinged-comics-scree]

⁺˚⋆｡°✩₊ Weekly Bravern Madness Post ₊✩°｡⋆˚⁺

Episode 11 Spoilers ahead, naturally

I'm actually on my second watch since we found out our water heater is leaking so that was a whole thing so not quite first impressions but that's literally me screencapping every scene and screaming so probably better this way

Okay important things about me to consider for my lens as I go through this

I think Isami is so so so cute. I'll probably make a cute Isami screencaps post as a separate thing. His gap moe is so cute. I love his stern face. I think Smith is great too but I love the focus reshifting to Isami. Anyway. He's so cute

In terms of Smith as Bravern I guess I view it as the reverse too? I don't really know how to explain it but I guess in Japanese there's tags for Smith + Isami (Sumiisa) and Bravern + Isami (Braisa?) and in my head it's all Sumiisa. Like he may look like a giant robot but he's still Smith, if that makes sense.

Second watch bonuses: realizing why she reacts this way at his mention ;-;

Right away, I guess I got my beach episode! I love that Isami and Lulu have Bravern brand summer clothes. I hope they come out as merch. It comes up rarely eg. the boxing shoes from ep 5 have the (Burn?) Bravern specific emblem on them and I just think it's so cute. Like yeah Bravern probably printed them just for these instances and I wish we got enough show to see it in action.

I actually got so emotional at the end of episode 9 when the OP starts playing without the lyrics and this showing up with the ED music is phenomenal. Extra delicious that it starts with part of the full version of the ED that's not in the normal ending.

I also love this because the other two emotional moments where it's like, starting something but not completing it are the after boxing scene and when Isami is crying into Lewis' shirt (okay this can easily be assumed to fill out as "I wanted the two of us to save the world together" but what else did you want to do with hiiiiim). The shipper mind wants to fill it in with some love confession and then!!!

After the like, back and forth name stuff (which parallels the Lulu + Superbia fusion) I was like, pre-emptively bracing for some kind of goofy baiting/played for laughs thing but no he goes for it!!

I actually have a collection of any instance of Isami with any amount of coloring on his cheeks and I've been lamenting that the only full blush moments are when he gets the asian flush drinking but aaaaah so cute. Also he looks so young here! He's 24 he should be falling in love!

Also I'm like, actually really impressed about this scene technically because It's just a really good looking turnaround animation. With Bravern he's 3D so whatever but isami looks good from every angle!

The artist who adds the extra effects like bloom and color tweaks on scenes occasionally tweets out their before and afters and I really hope we get this scene where they point out they added plush, kissable lips onto Bravern.

I reblogged a post about it but I do really love that Isami isn't like, disgusted or pushing him away or anything. Not even grateful Lulu interrupted it. Maybe he's actually disappointed she interrupted.

I know it sets ups the symbolic washing away of it but in case there was any ambiguity to the nature of this love:

There's some discussion across japanese twitter about how you're not supposed to do some line in the middle but based on some cursory stuff I'm not sure how common that thought process is. Also Bravern isn't that much of a pro in Japanese culture (even a lot of JP twitter was confused at his proud "This is OMIAI!").

If you aren't involved in Twitter, a comment people like to point out is that they specifically hired a Food Coordinator for this episode lol. I took a bunch of caps of it but between this and Isami's "we need to eat to be strong enough to save everyone" talk I need to do my Dunmeshi + Bravern food as strength and love post.

Anyway I'm obsessed with the fact that Bravern doesn't need to eat but actually has a mouth which reminds me of this tweet my sister brought to me

Naturally, his mouth is for kissing, Among other things.

Okay honestly the food bit is so weird I was kind of worried the entire first half of the episode turns out to be a dream sequence.

I need to set this as my desktop background or something. I think it's really cute that they added/implied that Isami and Bravern are now a cutesy couple rather than Isami being all weird about the love confession.

THIS! Is the point in the post I realize that watching while typing these up leads to me just doing a play by play which isn't really much of anything. I promise the rest of the post isn't just as long even though we're only halfway through the episode.

(Hey, timeskip OP here. This might be a lie)

Lulu + Superbia symbol! It's cute and has a really nice mix of being similar but opposite in it's own way.

I am obsessed with Segnitas being too lazy to fight and honestly I think he's so cute. The interrupting the fusion is kinda expected for a a show with every bit being in universe but it's still a good gag. I'm glad he is around to make commentary until his true death.

I kind of expected the Bravern + Superbia fight to be an episode 2 thing but I guess we won't have the time for that given the end of this episode. Triple shoutout to my Wednesday post by having the "You can get fulfillment from living!", seeing a callback to Lulu's kick and basically having an awesome fight.

Okay ending time. I have a lot of thoughts but one of the ones as I was watching was just.. He can't eat but he can bleed (and cry)? Actually considering that he explodes it's probably oil or something. Like obvs he isn't going to explode into purple triangles like everyone else but oofda. I am all sorts of sad about this but one thing that gets me is that Bravern doesn't even die fighting! It was a stealth attack!

There's some theories that Isami has a change of heart too fast and this might be another time loop, which I think would be on brand but man his reaction to Bravern dying is too much there's at least no way it's because of a Bravern dying bad end. Actually, I wonder if the damage to Bravern's core is worse than we can tell? Lulu bad end looks way worse though. Or maybe hypothetical Isami time travel route is -> they don't fight Superbia -> defeat one more death drive -> Superbia realizes he doesn't get his warrior death -> he takes on the last Deathdrive 1v1, dies -> remaining DD dies somehow but Superbia is still gone -> Isami goes back to save him for Lulu (they can't risk double time looping her?) -> doesn't ever experience Bravern dying so this is new and terrible.

In this case, Ira is acting unpredictably specifically because they do the no-kill route with Superbia. He's evidently super disgusted and I wonder if it's because its the peaceful resolution between the two? Otherwise I'm curious why else. Actually in general I'm curious why everyone is so personal with Bravern but I think we've all been asking that.

I think some people mentioned it on Twitter but Lulu very casually mentions her time travel lived experiences so it would be weird if they didn't know Bravern himself enabled it. Like I mentioned in my other post. He literally can't take on two giant mechs without Bravern and he knows for sure Superbia can't take on someone.

It's interesting that Bravern has different final words in this timeline than Lulu bad end but he also probably never had that stargazing scene in that route. Actually, you know what, I think Lulu bad end he does know it's Lulu because I don't think Isami was there for the specific curry scene we saw. He's still crying, naked in Bravern during that. Unless he just talks about Japanese curry all the time where we don't see.

Smith's last words are specifically "Brave Bang" (yuuki bakuhatsu) vs Bravern's "Brave Burn" and I'm basically Pepe Silvia-ing it up trying to figure out what it means. It's not really a direct confession about being Smith (because he's still a coward in that regard) but maybe it's a secret move/activation considering the moves are in English?

I think any kind of extra finale speculation requires its own post but that's my thoughts!

hm. Sorry. Maybe I should get into writing fanfic so you at least get something out of this

[xyzzysqrl]

Someone sent me this ask game, so I guess I'll pass it on:

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! (If you want to)

SO.

Nobody reblogs things from me, so I give you (tumblr) permission - If you wanna do this, do it, say I put you up to it. The world cannot stop you.

FIVE THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY (by Xyzzifer K.Q. Sqrlmoggington)

Video games

The video game industry is poop from a butt, but video games themselves are better, more accessible, and there's MORE of them than ever before in human history. Roughly eight hundred billion video games a minute are uploaded to stores, slapped on free web pages, or just materializing out of the aether onto people's hard drives and they're all amazing and they keep happening.

Nothing can stop this from happening. Even if there's an industry-wide AAA-gaming crash, indies will continue making games as they have for ages. It is unstoppable, it is wonderful.

Streaming

Hi I stream video games. So this is closely tied to the previous entry but it's my list so I'm doin' the thing anyway. I've been streaming since roughly two years ago and it feels good+cool to do so. I get to open a video window, play a video game, and just dump the entire contents of my brain on anyone watching. Sometimes they prompt me with stuff to ramble on about. It's the best. The one downside is that I do it every night except Monday so I have very little blogging energy anymore. S'fine I don't mind. Lately I've been playing Islets (a really gorgeous Metroidvania) and Star Ocean Second Story R (a remake of a favorite, incredibly breakable JRPG from my young days).

Anime

Have you heard of anime? It's straight from Japan, totally unexpected, not kids stuff. I love a lot of anime. Frieren is last season's darling, sure, but it's also extremely heartfelt and earnest in a way that a lot of more cynical shows would not dare to touch. A giant robot will always make my soul soar, so shows like Gaogaigar or last season's Bravern sparkle to me. I've been watching Back Arrow lately, it's about a dude everybody calls "Baka Yaro" (or "idiot asshole") and his quest to leave a sealed-off world for something better. It's vibrant and energetic and heartbreaking and fun. Love anime dearly.

Food

I'm eating a grilled cheese right now. It's good. Way too much cheese for any practical purpose. As it should be.

Just living day to day really

There's a lot in the world to be miserable about. But I get up every day and I go find out what's happening in the world and invariably I read that somewhere, something cool is happening and it kinda balances out the bullshit. I am 40 or 50 years old and I do not need to be concerned about everything horrid happening in the world, but I try to concern myself at least a little with the good things happening.

This is not a cheap cop-out because I'm half-awake and can't think of another entry shush.

[quetzalpapalotl]

Bravern spoilers I guess

You know the #1 thing I've wanted these past weeks was for Lulu to ride Superbia because they are my faves, but I didn't expect them to keep the same romantic coding they have for Isami and Bravern so idk what to feel about that.

I feel bad bc I don't like Bravern as much as everyone does and it's very rare that all my friends are watching the same anime as I do but I just... don't care that much about Isami and Smith lmao. Don't get me wrong, it is a very good anime, the robots are so sexy, I'm so happy that Obari gets to go full fanboy and they're letting him put as much gay shit as he wants (maybe they'll let him make it explicitly gay, who knows), the ways it's in conversation with the superobo genre are fascinating... but I'm not even that into superobo. We all figured the Smith spoiler from ep 1 and my main motivation was seeing how that turned out and then Lulu and Superbia which now... turned like this.

I don't dislike it, I just wish I liked it more.

Well at least everyone is now also into dunmeshi so that's great