(CR) Brave Witches

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

I don't think there will be a "next attempt." They have to succeed now or they will have a lot of trouble.

Also, I really don't get the hate on Takami. She's not doing this to upstage her sister or anything like that. She was just trying to protect her. Sure, it might not be the best way to do it, but that's more on the writers than on Takami herself as far as I'm concerned.

Technically everything is on the writers though . People can do bad things with the best of intentions. Takami has good intentions. That doesn't mean her actions are likable or even correct.

Her first move to keep Hikari out of danger made no sense. If Hikari won't listen to anyone then her sister being a jerk isn't going to do anything either. Hikari has enough rationality to realize she's in a military and can be told to leave. Her stance during her testing phase wasn't "I won't go and you can't make me." It was doing all she could within the opportunity given to her. So all of this was completely pointless. If the higher-ups supported it then Hikari had to go.

And in the end Takami is both being incredibly naive and frustrating. Yeah she can make this deal and get Hikari moved to another base. She's still in Europe and they are still at war. She can always be transferred again. Takami is a valuable witch, not the ruler of a nation. If this plan works she might get some pull, but not sure how far that is really going to go.

And in the end she is stepping on and putting down her sister. Hikari isn't a witch with the same skills and abilities as Takami. But she is a witch and someone who has been fighting with her life on the line as part of the 502. Takami may think she's able to acknowledge it, but if she really acknowledged her sister then she'd respect her wishes. It's somewhat understandable because of the coma she was in, but it doesn't change the end result. She's hurting her sister because Takami feels she knows best. Keeping Hikari safe and out of the danger zone on the trip there was rational. Hikari didn't have the skills, knowledge or experience to fly into that fight. Right now she does have enough of those things to at least be respected.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Technically everything is on the writers though

No, I meant that her attitude looked like a writing fuck up to me because she seemed out of character.

[RX-78GP04G Gerbera]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Technically everything is on the writers though . People can do bad things with the best of intentions. Takami has good intentions. That doesn't mean her actions are likable or even correct.

Her first move to keep Hikari out of danger made no sense. If Hikari won't listen to anyone then her sister being a jerk isn't going to do anything either. Hikari has enough rationality to realize she's in a military and can be told to leave. Her stance during her testing phase wasn't "I won't go and you can't make me." It was doing all she could within the opportunity given to her. So all of this was completely pointless. If the higher-ups supported it then Hikari had to go.

And in the end Takami is both being incredibly naive and frustrating. Yeah she can make this deal and get Hikari moved to another base. She's still in Europe and they are still at war. She can always be transferred again. Takami is a valuable witch, not the ruler of a nation. If this plan works she might get some pull, but not sure how far that is really going to go.

And in the end she is stepping on and putting down her sister. Hikari isn't a witch with the same skills and abilities as Takami. But she is a witch and someone who has been fighting with her life on the line as part of the 502. Takami may think she's able to acknowledge it, but if she really acknowledged her sister then she'd respect her wishes. It's somewhat understandable because of the coma she was in, but it doesn't change the end result. She's hurting her sister because Takami feels she knows best. Keeping Hikari safe and out of the danger zone on the trip there was rational. Hikari didn't have the skills, knowledge or experience to fly into that fight. Right now she does have enough of those things to at least be respected.

Even when the operation does succeeds, I doubt it would give Takami that much clout, especially if the bigwigs from Strike Witches were any indication. At best, some of them merely tolerated the 501st and the Witches in general simply because they were literally the only effective defense the Earth had against the Neuroi, but as soon as they got out the Warlock, they wasted no time in getting the 501st disbanded, and had the Warlock not gone berserk the way it did, there's no doubt they would try to get it mass produced and mothball all the Witch squadrons everywhere.

As for Takami, the only slight excuse I can see is that her injury and coma had a profound effect on her that she understandably doesn't want others to know about, and so she wants to make sure it doesn't happen to Hikari. Otherwise, yeah, she was the one who kept encouraging Hikari all this time and so should respect her wishes and hard work, so Takami is either now looking like a hypocrite or she never truly believed in Hikari and was merely saying all those supportive things early on with the thought that Hikari would never actually make it to any major battlefield.

[Infinite Zenith]

My copy of the Brave Witches soundtrack arrived recently, and it's been a good listen.

[Ernietheracefan]

Originally Posted by Infinite Zenith

My copy of the Brave Witches soundtrack arrived recently, and it's been a good listen.

Both of them..?

[Infinite Zenith]

As far as I know, there's only one so far.

[Ernietheracefan]

I mean the ED & the OST..

BTW, is this just me or Eila is more friendly to Hikari..?

[Infinite Zenith]

Forgot about the ED, but I can be patient about that one. The OST is what I was excited about

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Technically everything is on the writers though . People can do bad things with the best of intentions. Takami has good intentions. That doesn't mean her actions are likable or even correct.

Her first move to keep Hikari out of danger made no sense. If Hikari won't listen to anyone then her sister being a jerk isn't going to do anything either. Hikari has enough rationality to realize she's in a military and can be told to leave. Her stance during her testing phase wasn't "I won't go and you can't make me." It was doing all she could within the opportunity given to her. So all of this was completely pointless. If the higher-ups supported it then Hikari had to go.

And in the end Takami is both being incredibly naive and frustrating. Yeah she can make this deal and get Hikari moved to another base. She's still in Europe and they are still at war. She can always be transferred again. Takami is a valuable witch, not the ruler of a nation. If this plan works she might get some pull, but not sure how far that is really going to go.

Yes, but in the short term it got Hikari away from a nasty fight, so there's that.

And in the end she is stepping on and putting down her sister. Hikari isn't a witch with the same skills and abilities as Takami. But she is a witch and someone who has been fighting with her life on the line as part of the 502. Takami may think she's able to acknowledge it, but if she really acknowledged her sister then she'd respect her wishes. It's somewhat understandable because of the coma she was in, but it doesn't change the end result. She's hurting her sister because Takami feels she knows best. Keeping Hikari safe and out of the danger zone on the trip there was rational. Hikari didn't have the skills, knowledge or experience to fly into that fight. Right now she does have enough of those things to at least be respected.

True. But even with all that, I don't know that Takami and Hikari should fight together. As it is, I wouldn't trust Takami to not be overly concerned with her sister and mess up in some way as a result.

[Infinite Zenith]

From the official Brave Witches Twitter account, it seems there will be a thirteenth episode, set for screening in 2017.

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[Ernietheracefan]

Originally Posted by Infinite Zenith

From the official Brave Witches Twitter account, it seems there will be a thirteenth episode, set for screening in 2017.

Images

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The new year has come earlier than expected..

[Flower]

It is mentioned at the end of episode 12 as well....

That being said ... gotta admit that I thought the final showdown was pretty well done, especially liked the finishing touch with the nail in the coffin. Very fitting and a nice surprise, though making sense in retrospect. (Trying not to spoil here.)

As a whole the Brave Witches season was better than I anticipated it would be. Enjoyable characters, the consistent "variations of a central theme" that made it itself and yet placed it in a clearly perceivable context.

In many ways I think it effectively opened the door from Strike Witches to the larger World Witches setting with some carefull handling on the part of the studio and staff. It was not perfect by any means but overall it was a very good addition to the franchise!

I woul probably give it a 7.75-8.0/10

P.S. On an entirely personal level I still miss Yoshioka, so it was a treat to have her (and some of the other SW) have cameos.

[Gravitas Free Zone]

That five-second Aurora Juutilainen cameo was... interesting.

[Vaans]

That charm came in handy. Hikari definitely became stronger.

I enjoyed the series. But I prefer the 501st. They're more interesting characters than the Brave witches. Takami honest with her feelings and tells her how she is proud of Hikari. But I still don't like her on what she did thou.

Hoping for more Witches series getting animated. Maybe a 2nd season perhaps.

Ja ne.

[Master_Yoma]

Hikari really putting her sister to shame there with that crazy plan with the whole Naoe punching that Neuroi those 2 really make the best team

7/10 Hopefuly there will be another season

[RX-78GP04G Gerbera]

Auroraaaaaaaaaaa!!!

It'd be neat if perhaps her group could be the next World Witches Series to get animated.

[Ernietheracefan]

I'll give this 8.5/10 because that was enjoyable, even than Izetta..

Best episode: 5, 7.
Best wife: Georgette..

[Random Wanderer]

This was a good final episode. Hikari has become stronger, but in ways that make sense based on the training she's received. She'll never be one who stuns onlookers with her amazing powers, but her friendliness, her determination, and her ability to figure out solutions using what power she has have earned her her place here with the 502nd. Also, she can now join the super-elite club of witches who have managed to land a killing blow on a Neuroi hive. Currently there are only two members, including her.

I would say that the weakest point in the series was Takami's behavior in episode 10. All it really managed to accomplish was to villify her character in the eyes of many viewers, and it was completely unnecessary. Arranging for Hikari to be transferred out "for her protection," along with associated drama, could have been accomplished without Takami needing to act like a jerk about it. And I have trouble believing that that's the choice the girl we saw in the first two episodes would have made.

Despite that, I enjoyed this series. Choosing to move away from most of the overt fanservice and focus more on the characters, the world, and the war, was a good choice, in my opinion. Not that I object to fanservice inherently, but Strike Witches became somewhat infamous for it's fanservice in a way that turned some people away from the series, while it's the deeper parts of the series that appealed to me, and kept me interested in it.

Of course, maybe sales numbers will show that they should have just kept appealing to the lowest common denominator, I don't know. But I mostly like the way this series turned out.

[Jimmy C]

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

Also, she can now join the super-elite club of witches who have managed to land a killing blow on a Neuroi hive. Currently there are only two members, including her.

About that, Yoshika's confirmed hive kill is in S2, which takes place after BW chronologically. So, Hikari gets to be the first with a confirmed hive kill ever.
The situation is S1 was complicated, so we can't say if Yoshika killed the hive by breaking the core in Akagi.

[Infinite Zenith]

With a Liberator pistol, no less. That's roughly equivalent to killing someone in Battlefield 1 with the Kolibri pistol, so in my books, Hikari's kill is cooler than Yoshika's