Brave 10

I was really attracted to this anime firstly because I came across this loud picture and was overwhelmed by the weapons and stances of these warriors, it felt like the word !!!ACTION-PACKED!!! was screaming into my face. 

Secondly, I really like samurai and ninja animes *cries at the thought of Hakuouki*. Of course, the art too was attractive, everyone was well-drawn and good looking hoho.

But this has a little twist. It's a story about how Yukimura (Guy on the left with the large-ass fan), leader of a clan brought about 10 warriors, each with different elements, together to fight and prevent an impending powerful force (you'll be surprised at what it is).

Throughout the series, you'll see the encounters of the different warriors and how they're being pieced together, although Yukimura already had 4 warriors with him when the anime started off.  

From left to right, their names and respective elements: Saizo (Light), Isanami (Darkness), Sasuke (Grass), Rokuro (Water), Ana (Ice), Kakei (Metal), Kamanosuke (Wind), Seikai (Earth), Benmaru (Fire) and Jinpachi (Lightning)

In the first 8 episodes, it is mostly about their daily lives and certain problems they encounter while on missions. The directors progresses it in such a way that the meeting of new characters are very natural and gradual (you don't have all other 6 warriors popping out together).

Episodes 9-12 were the battle between Iga's League of Five and the Sanada Warriors *drools at the thrilling fight scenes*

They also had humour inserted into most episodes (EPISODE 6 WAS HILARIOUS) alongside the massive amount of fighting and battles in between which would keep you entertained, though it might be exaggerated at times, but having elements as powers was already non-human in the first place. 

Saizo and Sasuke in the hot springs, they never really got along. And Yukimura was initially eating as well but ran away before Saizo could scold him hahahaha

Watch Episode 6 and you'll know why Sekai is so overprotective of Isanami hahahah

HAHA Rokuro and Yukimura

Humour aside, I typically like the battles between Hanzo (most bad-ass villian and main antagonist of the story, and also leader of the Iga's League of Five) and Saizo. Largely because unlike other character battles that involve a whole lot of elemental powers, these two are mainly fighting with swords. Plus Hanzo is a dual wielding swordsman (NINJA WITH TWO SWORDS MMM YES THAT'S THE WAY).

At first I thought Hanzo looked pretty cool...

Until he took off his mask which was hiding his preposterous hairstyle...

@_____@

The fight between Saizo and Kamanosuke when they first met was interesting as well: 

That explosion though hahahaha

And that brings me to this: Don't be surprised, because my favourite character is KAMANOSUKE ヽ(*⌒∇⌒*)ﾉ

He is easily mistaken for a girl (EVERYONE THINKS HE IS), but he'll angrily deny and insist that he's a male every time someone asks. There was a time Yukimura wanted to confirm if he really had it:

Too much femininity, even Jinpachi wanted to hook him up.

"Whoa, what a tough girl." HAHAHA

He even ended up as this:

It was hilarious, watch to find out!

Kamanosuke seems to be gay, although he is not aware of it. He finds himself running away from Saizo after Saizo pet him on his head and felt something pleasant in his heart (Episode 6). It was really funny! 

But that aside, he has a very masochistic behavior and absolutely love getting wounded in a battle (He even begged Saizo to finish him off after losing the battle and was terribly... excited). 

The voice actor of Kamanosuke has a really unique voice as well, sounds very nasal (Sorry Motoki Takagi!), but at the same time it was very fitting for this character. An interesting personality that bolsters the humour for this anime ヾ(。◕ฺ∀◕ฺ)ノ

Also, if there were minor things I could change about in this anime, it would be:

1. Rokuro's pants

I feel EXTREMELY disturbed at how the sides are sliding off to expose his hips and it makes me feel very UNCOMFORTABLE (I have this undying urge to pull up the sides and tuck it with a belt).

2. Isanami's hair

The back of her hair reminds me of... 

ALL THE TIME. Not that it's anything bad, it's quite funny actually hahaha.

All in all, it was a pretty good anime that has that togetherness, with each character having distinct personalities, although I think it'll be best if there was more development but given only 12 episodes it's understandable. 

It may be a cliched story, but I like how the main gist of the story was continuously emphasised even in the beginning, and they did so by fusing it together with the portrayal of their frantic daily lives that were equally important in character development. This also makes sure that it doesn't get too boring for the viewers. 

This was one of the animes that I had finished off in a few hours and wished they had another season. But it's clearly unlikely it would happen because of the significant low viewer count.

Let's just hope they'll come up with an OVA some time soon.

I rate this a 7.5/10 (ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ