10 out of 10 for Brave 10

Written by laurena1 on January 23, 2012 at 5:22 PM

I am a skeptic when it comes to any anime that have the names Sanada, Tokugawa, and Sarutobi (yep their Japan history's greatest heroes) in them. The name Hanatarou Hanzou reminds me more of the Hanzou from Hyakka Rouran's Samurai Girls. When I read the synopsis I thought "Oh great, now all they need is Yagyuu Juubei then the set would be complete". But as it turns out there was no need for such sarcasm. Sure we see signs of Naruto (kawarimi - switching justu), Souzai's familiar looking blade (come on doesn't that remind you of Zangetsu a little?) and then we have a little taste of the best tragedy to have ever hit the screen, Basilisk (I say Iga, you say...? IIIIIIIGAAAAAAAAA). And yet ladies and gentlemen of the press, Brave 10 is nothing but original in the unique way it employs these heroic characters (not girls with boobs and swords and lesbianic behaviour but actual dudes strutting their stuff as not shinobi but NINJA!!!). I am not sorry I gave Brave 10 a try - in just one episode I found myself wishing that there were four instead of three episodes already. The opening and ending themes sound extremely OLD HAT (reminiscent of a certain spirit detective and some of their abilities simply reek Saint Seiya) but the animation and character representation is flawless. I have come to enjoy this anime because of the way in which it cultivates in a most excellent way, characters from the time of Edo. I cannot wait for the rest of the episodes to come along - it can only get better :)