For quite a while I have lamented over the fact Brave10 started out pretty strongly only to falter in recent times, but now my faith has been renewed after watching this episode. Finally after long episodes with trips to hotsprings and other such nonsense that did little (if anything) to further the plot, we see Brave10 throw up a surprise and take a darker tone.

We finally see Yukimura’s group of Braves together in this episode and he explains about why he has gathered them all in the first place, and what roles they have etc. It doesn’t really make any difference to the viewer, all apart from Isanami being said to be the dark half of the Yin-Yang while Saizo is the light. Saizo questions Yukimura’s comment instantly, but he is told that it is indeed the case. We also find out that Isanami has dark powers from the underworld that are controlled by her emotions and the emotions of people around her. We also find out that the hairpin she wears isn’t the source of her power at all, but instead is keeping everyone safe from her dangerous and evil powers. Saizo, Yukimura and Jinpachi are the only ones in the room discussing the matter, but as we see at the end of the episode, Isanami had overheard their conversation and stands outside in a state of shock.

Oh, and we also discover that Anastasia has in fact been a spy this whole time, and so wasn’t really working for Yukimura. She attacks Rokuro while he is sleeping and tries to steal his magical eye, but before she gets the chance to (and after a brief struggle between the two) Rokuro destroys his own eye so that it’s secrets and powers won’t fall in to an enemy’s hands. Sasuke does appear when he hears the commotion, but doesn’t stop Anastasia as he hesitates at the last second and is instead caught by her ice magic. As more people gather, she flees. Later, she is met in a forest by Saizo. She warns him to turn back so she won’t have to kill him, but Saizo doesn’t listen and they end up fighting anyway. Anastasia is taken by surprise as Saizo is quicker than Sasuke was, and Saizo quickly defeats her.

However, when he has her pinned down and is trying to get some information out of her, she freezes the nearby lake and uses the distraction to escape, although later we find out Saizo had let her go on purpose as confirmed when he is telling Yukimura about what happened.

But yes, that’s basically the episode content, and it was pretty damn awesome. I wasn’t expecting Anastasia to turn / reveal she was never a real ally of the Braves, and so it was a nice surprise. It also shows that everything isn’t always how it seems, and that in the world of shinobi you can never be too sure of anyone or anything. It makes a refreshing change to see something like this in Brave10, as inner turmoil within the group hasn’t really been much of a problem before now, so seeing how they will deal with Anastasia and whoever she is working for shall be good to watch.

Also interesting is how Isanami is going to react and what she is going to do now she knows the truth about herself and her powers. I can imagine her powers going crazy or her being super depressed or something for a while, only for the “light” Saizo to calm her down and reassure her that everything is ok. Saizo still remains the best character, but admittedly I have grown to like Yukimura and Rokuro quite a lot recently, and now there could even be some hope for Isanami depending on how the story plays out. With all that said, it’s great to see Brave10 back in top form with this brilliant episode, and I am hoping it can continue now until the end.

To be honest the episode started out pretty awesome with Masamune Date being told to go and kill Yukimura Sanada, and then an ambush is set in place to trap Yukimura and his braves. When put in that position, obviously it meant getting to see some actual fighting which is clearly Brave10′s strong point. Unfortunately though the battle didn’t last long as it was only the henchmen of Masamune who really attempted to fight, and thus were made easy work of by Saizo and Yamanosuke (with a helpful assist from the newest recruit Benmaru).

Just as things were looking bad though, we see the return of Kakei who is riding aboard a pirate ship along with another man – Jinpachi – who helps chase off Masamune and his lackeys, saving Sanada in the process. That’s unfortunately as good as the episode got though, as it seemed like they were more willing to spend the majority of the episode with Yukimura and the braves all aboard the pirate ship drinking sake and just generally having a good time. At the end we at least find out that Jinpachi will be helping Yukimura for a while, and thus is essentially a member of the braves now, taking the number up to the full 10.

I like Jinpachi even if only because his lightning attack seems pretty badass and his attitude is pretty cool. Aside from that, we also get to see Saizo finally accept that he is willing to work for Yukimura and not just for himself anymore. Of course initially Saizo was known as a cold blooded killer with no time for anyone but himself, but now it seems he has finally had a change of heart afterall. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as such, if Saizo remains pretty arrogant and confidant in his abilities as well as still having a ruthless streak to him, then he is fine. If this ends up changing him in to a generic good guy though it will be very disappointing considering he is the main reason for watching the Anime in the first place.

As a whole episode 8 was ok, a lot of time was wasted unnecessarily in my view and would have been better spent on something else, but because I enjoyed the brief battle at the start of the episode I am willing to forgive it to some extent. Brave10 has been stuck in a rut though for the past few episodes and this is no exception, hopefully with it coming to an end soon however they will allow it to go out with a bang in the coming weeks.

Last week ended with Isanami being kidnapped, but this episode began rather nicely by briefly showing a part of Saizo’s past. A fellow shinobi (and friend perhaps) of his was going to leave their village to serve his new master, but shortly afterwards he was killed and discarded like trash by some other men, as Saizo witnessed the whole incident but could do nothing to help. It was nice because it shows how and why Saizo began to regard the whole serving a master thing as beneath him, and it also showed why he is willing to kill people without hesitation.

After Saizo wakes up from his dream he gets up and tells Kakei that he is leaving and going alone from now on, to which Kakei only comments that he must have overestimated Saizo and that he would have to report it. Back in Ueda, Sasuke recieves the report about the kidnapping of Isanami, so when Sanada sees the message he orders both Sasuke and Anastasia to go and bring back all his men at any cost, so they both head out to do just that. Afterwards, we get to see Isanami with her kidnappers and in the process find out more about why they wanted her, or more precisely, her hairpin in the first place.

We find out more about it when Masamune tells a brief story about the thing in Isanami’s hairpin, a treasure known as Kushi-Mitama. Kushi-Mitama  is one of four treasures known as the Mitamas, and were originally created by men seeking great power without requesting the help of the gods. Masamune then goes on to proclaim that he will collect all four of the treasures and make himself god of the world so that he can revolutionize it in his own way. Meanwhile, after earlier dealing with an attack on their way to free Isanami, Sasuke and Anastasia arrive to save Isanami. Sasuke is the first to see where she was being held prisoner and told her he had come to save her, only to be told by Isanami that she didn’t want to be saved and have to go back to Ueda as she blamed herself for the people around her getting hurt and in trouble.  Sasuke reluctantly leaves, but a bit later Anastasia visits Isanami, and after a few stern words of advice, convinces Isanami she has to go back to Ueda and start fighting for herself as Sanada had clearly shown faith in her.

As the evening arrives everyone who originally went out from Ueda returns, but despite Isanami’s warm greeting for Saizo he ignores her and eventually even tells her to shut up. Saizo is later seen laying on the roof, but is soon attacked by Sasuke. Sasuke and Saizo have a brief fight in which Saizo seems to be clearly outmatched, all the while Sasuke telling Saizo that he was weak but that he refused to accept that. Whereas Sasuke acknowledges his weaknesses and thus hones his strengths to make up for it, Saizo instead just ignores his weaknesses altogether and pretends they don’t exist, hence being weak.

Saizo of course gets angry and the brief scrap lasts a little longer before it is broken up by the arrival of Sanada. Saizo is then faced with the question of whether he wants to remain weak as Sasuke said, or else grow stronger so that he can better protect people and things.

A little later Saizo and Kakei give their report to Sanada about what happened, though tell him thanks to everything that went on they can’t remember what the mysterious writing was they encountered. Upon hearing this, Sanada obscures Saizo’s head from the view of everyone else, and gets his assistant / guard Rokuro to use his mysterious power that allows him to drain information from something using one of his eyes and remembering it perfectly. With Rokuro now knowing exactly what Saizo saw, he writes it out so that Sanada can see for himself, though nobody other than Rokuro or Sanada knows how he was capable of obtaining the information.

As Saizo and the others are dismissed, Sanada and Rokuro remain behind and are left concerned about what the writing meant. Elsewhere, Masamune decides he is going to go to Ueda himself to get back Isanami and the power of her Kushi-Mitama.

That’s how the episode ended. It was decent enough, the backstory part for Saizo at the beginning was pretty awesome and definitely the highlight of the episode for me personally, and the Sasuke vs Saizo encounter wasn’t bad towards the end even if it wasn’t a serious battle. I think the reason I didn’t enjoy it quite as much was because of a lack of battles, as that is what makes Brave10 fun to watch. While the story is ok, it’s definitely for the fights that Brave10 will gain most of its viewers. So overall a decent episode, but sadly not as good as the previous four, something which can hopefully be set right in the next episode.