Scum of the Brave 1×18 and 1×19 Review: “Braves in Danger” and “A Brave’s Motivation”

Scum of the Brave anime season 1 episode 18, titled ‘Braves in Danger’, and episode 19, titled ‘A Brave’s Motivation’, offered a lot of action as Yashiro and the girls faced unbeatable odds.

With Yashiro and the young trio being chased by Seki and Tomoe at the end of episode 17, with Drit waiting right around the corner to jump on our heroes, ‘Braves in Danger’ was all about Yashiro driving the car away from their pursuers. At the same time, Jogamine, Sarah, and Indo did what they could to fend off incoming attacks. Not only that, but the girls were running on a single dose of E3 each, which meant they had about an hour of power-up before they reverted to their base forms.

I enjoyed how the car chase scene allowed the girls to showcase different skills while operating in limited circumstances. With Yashiro behind the wheel, Sarah was responsible for reporting the appearance of new enemies while also keeping track of the foes they were already being chased by. Indo, being the better fighter of the three, was tasked with countering Drit while maintaining a balancing act on cars, and Jogamine was to stay ready to offer support where needed.

Having Indo face off against Drit made sense. It allowed Indo another chance to prove herself against a foe who had recently taken her by surprise. Due to Yashiro wanting Indo to change her fighting style and not rely too much on her teleportation Ether ability to attack enemies from behind, it was cool to see Indo try a battle style that wasn’t overly predictable. Even though she got some good hits in, Indo wasn’t able to defeat Drit in ‘Braves in Danger’, but I’m quite sure she will manage to be okay in the upcoming episodes, especially with how Yashiro handed his only dose of E3 to her. Yashiro couldn’t fight alongside Indo, but he ensured she had an escape route if required.

As for Jogamine, it was time for her to be on the offensive. Yashiro understood he could never encourage Jogamine to go for the kill. So, having her switch from her go-to single-handed sword and shield to a double-handed sword made sense. Even if Jogamine didn’t murder her enemies, the double-handed sword would still make her attack more instead of always blocking and dodging. Jogamine’s reaction to being handed Yashiro’s sword was hilarious. Expected, but still hilarious. No matter how much Jogamine annoyed Yashiro due to her bright personality, it’s obvious he saw a bit of himself in her.

Sarah also managed to show a bit of growth when she used her katana to slice off Drit’s claws through the windshield. It was such a clean cut that even Yashiro was impressed. Sarah had impressive skills as a Brave. She just needed to be more confident. However, Yashiro was concerned about Sarah confusing her anxiety with confidence and making a mistake during a life-and-death situation.

Not a lot happened in ‘Braves in Danger’, plot-wise, but the focus on action made up for it. The pacing did stay true to the title because even though Yashiro and the girls were trying to fight their enemies, you could tell that things weren’t necessarily going their way. The reveal that the mutated dogs had been coralling our leads towards a giant robot was a nice surprise. Yashiro and the girls were fighting against a smart opponent!

Yashiro trusting Jogamine to catch him after they all jumped from the car showed how much he had grown to trust the girls. They still annoyed him. But Yashiro trusted them with his life, especially when he didn’t have any E3 to use on himself.

‘A Brave’s Motivation’ followed Yashiro, Sarah, and Jogamine running against time to get to Ed’s bar. Again, the episode continued the pacing where you could tell that our heroes weren’t going to complete their objective. A whole lot wasn’t going how Yashiro had expected. However, it was nice to see how he tried to keep the morale up by lying to Sarah and Jogamine about how close they were to Ed’s bar. Not only that, but Yashiro also lied about how Joe knew of their location and would appear soon to offer some backup. My heart! I mean, I would have told similar lies when looking after my young students who were about to lose the effects of E3.

With Tomoe and Seki catching up to Yashiro, Sarah, and Jogamine, it was interesting to witness Yashiro being on the sidelines while Jogamine and Sarah faced such powerful foes. I could be wrong, but I think ‘A Brave’s Motivation’ was the first time we saw what a fight between E3 users would look like to a bystander. Even though Yashiro wanted to offer some support to his students, arming himself with a handgun, all he could see was a blur of clashing swords. That particular moment did a lot to let viewers know just how fast E3 users operated. Frankly, I would have preferred to have seen such a moment in earlier episodes. But hey, I’m glad I finally got a better idea of how much E3 boosted users the next time the anime featured a fight sequence.

I’m not saying that Sarah and Jogamine wouldn’t have been able to defeat Tomoe and Seki, but their defeat was guaranteed when Levy appeared. The Coffin Court of Storms wanted Yashiro. And her minions were okay with seriously injuring Sarah and Jogamine to get to him.

We learned more about Seki’s motivation for using E3. Apparantly, he had hit rock bottom while working in corporate. Using E3 gave him a way to regain control, including the power to kill people he didn’t like. Tomoe had sided with the Coffin Court of Storm due to her love of fighting. Levy was in a similar boat. Basically, E3 had given numerous people a way to feel powerful and be in charge of their lives. Levy also threw some shade at Yashiro. He might judge people like Levy for being brutes. But deep down, Yashiro also enjoyed the rush of E3 and had killed opponents even when killing wasn’t necessary.

With Yashiro being captured, episodes 18 and 19 followed the narrative structure of heroes being hit by defeat before regrouping and entering the final battle. So, yeah, I’m excited to see how Indo, Jogamine, and Sarah will rescue Yashiro before facing the Coffin Court of Storms as a team.

Did you watch Scum of the Brave anime season 1 episodes 18 and 19? What did you think of them?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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