As we move on to episode 8 of Brave10, the story will soon be at the end as we get to see the 10th member of Sanada’s Braves revealed here. After a good start the series started dropping off in quality, but has it began to start picking up again?
To be honest the episode started out pretty awesome with Masamune Date being told to go and kill Yukimura Sanada, and then an ambush is set in place to trap Yukimura and his braves. When put in that position, obviously it meant getting to see some actual fighting which is clearly Brave10’s strong point. Unfortunately though the battle didn’t last long as it was only the henchmen of Masamune who really attempted to fight, and thus were made easy work of by Saizo and Yamanosuke (with a helpful assist from the newest recruit Benmaru).
Just as things were looking bad though, we see the return of Kakei who is riding aboard a pirate ship along with another man – Jinpachi – who helps chase off Masamune and his lackeys, saving Sanada in the process. That’s unfortunately as good as the episode got though, as it seemed like they were more willing to spend the majority of the episode with Yukimura and the braves all aboard the pirate ship drinking sake and just generally having a good time. At the end we at least find out that Jinpachi will be helping Yukimura for a while, and thus is essentially a member of the braves now, taking the number up to the full 10.
I like Jinpachi even if only because his lightning attack seems pretty badass and his attitude is pretty cool. Aside from that, we also get to see Saizo finally accept that he is willing to work for Yukimura and not just for himself anymore. Of course initially Saizo was known as a cold blooded killer with no time for anyone but himself, but now it seems he has finally had a change of heart afterall. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as such, if Saizo remains pretty arrogant and confidant in his abilities as well as still having a ruthless streak to him, then he is fine. If this ends up changing him in to a generic good guy though it will be very disappointing considering he is the main reason for watching the Anime in the first place.
As a whole episode 8 was ok, a lot of time was wasted unnecessarily in my view and would have been better spent on something else, but because I enjoyed the brief battle at the start of the episode I am willing to forgive it to some extent. Brave10 has been stuck in a rut though for the past few episodes and this is no exception, hopefully with it coming to an end soon however they will allow it to go out with a bang in the coming weeks.
Posted by Tokyo Mao 
Tokyo Gazette 