Brave Bang Bravern!

Episode 8

Episode 8 of Brave Bang Bravern! asks the bravest question: what if you had to make love to a giant sentient robot villainess to save your friends?

For some, perhaps this is a conundrum. For myself, well…

So obviously Bravern is great this week. It does what it has done previously, which is do a bit of solid character work, toss in some fun jokes, have fun with a good mix of real and super robot action, and of course, be unbelievably thirsty. I think the formula is still working just fine, though those of you in the audience who are here specifically to see the fellahs press their red-hot piloting passion against one another may find yourselves disappointed. However, for a certain demographic - namely the “Okay, but what if a giant robot was a masochist evil woman who mates before she kills?” fans out there - it's a home run.

All I'm saying is, if I wrote a story where the hero was a kind-hearted himbo who was super into tokusatsu and could only save his friends by dramatically sacrificing himself to a mecha milf's pathos in a fit of death-by-zaksnu-zaksnu, they'd say I was being pandered with my self-insert fanfic. Thankfully, someone else wrote this for sickos people like myself to enjoy.

The action is good this week too. The fluidity isn't quite there at times which is a letdown, particularly with the super robots. The villains and Bravern all look a bit stilted, which is a shame. It doesn't take away much, but it is more noticeable this week. It works in favor of the more real robot grunt mecha since you would imagine they are stiffer in their movements. Knuth teleporting Hiro around to replay his final moments over and over was that special kind of villainy we love to see, and Smith's surprising delivery of p…athos to Knuth was cool too. I only wish the sacrifice felt a bit more impactful - after all the hot and heavy double entendres in the run-up to his dramatic death(?), it was hard to be sad at the moment.

Rating:

Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

Brave Bang Bravern! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.