Brave10 Episode 3

Something here seems a bit out of place in this anime. What could it be…

hint: it’s the sniper rifle.

Juubei Kakei – One more of the Ten Braves, a samurai serving under Sanada. His strict moral code doesn’t go very well with Isanami’s pursuit of Saizou, as one might expect. Sent to investigate the Izumo shrine with Isanami and Saizou, the latter two’s interactions (well… it’s all Isanami) provoke some interesting reactions from him. Though to be honest, his expectations aren’t much different from an ordinary person’s views today. Only in anime will you find girls willing to jump into a guy’s bed (quite unfortunately). His most unique feature, though, is his choice of weapon – what seems to be a fully functional modern rifle. I think there were firearms back then, though I’m highly doubtful of whether they had the capability of rapid fire without manual reloading. Well, this isn’t a documentary – I guess it probably came from the same place as the giant exploding snakes.

At one point, Juubei brings up a good question:

Hmm. It’s tough to say. At the rate at which Isanami needs to get rescued by Saizou (so far, an average of two times an episode), she won’t be doing any fighting soon. But, as Saizou recalls, she does have that mysterious power, which perhaps some event will trigger her control over. So maybe she might be a participant, rather than a prize, of a battle sometime. In my opinion, I think she’s never gonna fight – I think it opposes her image and personality too much. Her power, though, will almost certainly be a key plot device. I wouldn’t be surprised if what Tokugawa Ieyasu was looking for was Isanami’s mystical hairband.

Finally, we get to Yuri Kamazuke. A question for discussion: is this person male or female?

Originally I was pretty much positive he was male, what with him saying that pretending to be a woman was hard, and because females generally don’t get the deranged-sadistic-murderer roles. But when Saizou decides not to kill Yuri he says something or other about killing a girl, and he doesn’t really deny it, so now I’m confused. It doesn’t help that Yuri has a rather androgynous body. Anyway, it’s not so important. What is more important is his/her battle with Saizou, which is brief but very awesome. Actually, the fights in this anime so far have been generally short but well-choreographed, very enjoyable overall.

Yuri’s remark that Saizou is similar to him/her, and may have killed even more people, hints at a dark past of Saizou. And damn, he could definitely play the villain with that murderous red gleam in his eyes. Yuri brings up the fact that someone as skilled as Saizou shouldn’t be going around saving Isanami all day – which ironically is what Saizou’s done since they’ve met. Since they met, though, Saizou’s been changing to a good guy, and Isanami proves it again by stopping him from finishing Yuri off. The alternative to finishing him off, though, is leaving him there, wounded, bleeding, and dying – which may not necessarily be the better situation for Yuri. Actually, though, he’s definitely going to survive, since judging by the OP and ED Yuri becomes one of the ten Braves.

I think he’s gonna have to change his personality a bit first, unless Sanada Yukimura isn’t picky about the insane sadistic killers.