(12 episodes)
What’s it about ?
Adaptation of a heroic-fantasy (with slightly Atzec flavour) light novel series.
Characters
The titular Braves of the Six Flowers are the chosen heroes of the world to fight the Demon Lord resurfacing every few hundred years. Since its agents have been resurfacing as of late and assassinating potential Braves, it’s high time to gather a new set. So the most major kingdom has organized a big ceremonial tournament to select some of them. The semi-finals are what really matters, since whoever wins is bound to lose against…
Nashetania, First Princess of the Kingdom, who’s so badass she got seeded directly to the finals. She’s an obvious lock for being one of the new Braves ; her powers involve something not too dissimilar to Unlimited Blade Works. And for some reason she’s wearing bunny ears.
Adlet, “Strongest Man in the World” (or so he claims) crashes the semifinals from nowhere and easily takes out dozens of guards, as well as both semifinalists. While he is strong, he mostly wins because he cheats like a mad bastard, using neat little gadgets to take out his opponents by surprise. Eh, whatever works, really.
While he’s immediately thrown in jail afterwards (and then into an oubliette), he’s convinced he’ll be selected as a Brave down the line. So he’s just bidding his time and keeping in shape. He also gets a visit from a “maid” (with the cunning disguise of not wearing bunny ears), which is the occasion to provide much background about the setting and the origins of the Braves. Frankly, I’m amazed he’s got no clue who he’s talking to.
Eventually the Demon Lord starts manifesting openly, and both Nashetania & Adlet mystically get their Brave tattoos. She immediately frees him from his oubliette (ignoring the objections from her entourage), and they both head to the legendary rendezvous point to meet the 4 other Braves. Whom I’m presume we’ll meet in the next few episodes ; we’re shown glimpses of them from the OP & ED.
Production Values
Quite good, although there’s some obvious CG graphics for the landscape long shots. I quite like the different artstyle for the mythical flashbacks.
On the other hand, there’s no escaping that Nashetania’s outfit is bizarrely fanservicey and looks completely out of place, even considering the very PC-esque designs for the other Braves. Oh, well ; at least the camera isn’t stuck in pervert mode.
Overall Impression
This was actually quite entertaining ; it’s a generic heroic-fantasy premise, but executed well-enough (especially the Atzec-like stylings) to feel somewhat fresh. Adlet & Nashetania are quite charismatic, although I’m slightly worried by the way she lets him take the lead at the end. (Surely she has more experience and knowledge about all this ?)
It depends a bit on whether the other Braves are entertaining or annoying, but I’m at least giving it a second episode.
