Scum of the Brave 1×20 and 1×21 Review: “A Brave’s Rescue” and “A Brave’s Pride”

Scum of the Brave anime season 1 episode 20, titled ‘A Brave’s Rescue’, and episode 21, titled ‘A Brave’s Pride’, shared more information about what might be going on in the world of the Demon Lords as Yashiro and the girls tracked down the Coffin Court.

Even though Yashiro, Jogamine, and Sara got captured by Levi and her minions in episode 19, it was clear that they were going to break out, especially because Indo was still out there. I wasn’t sure if Indo would be able to defeat Drit, but I was sure Indo would play a role in releasing Yashiro and the girls.

‘A Brave’s Rescue’ opened with Yashiro talking to Seki and deducing what Coffin Court was planning. From all of the information that Yashiro had gathered over the past handful of episodes, he was pretty sure that Coffin Count going into hiding and causing the rest of the Demon Lords to start a territorial battle was intentional. The only thing that Yashiro side-eyed was Coffin Court deciding to work with the Half-Dragon organization.

There was no way that Coffin Court would willingly team up with Half-Dragon. So, according to Yashiro, Coffin Court was likely planning some kind of betrayal. Similarly, it wouldn’t surprise Yashiro if Half-Dragon was also prepping to betray Coffin Court once the dust settled from the civil war across the city.

After sitting through episodes with a lot of action, I liked how ‘A Brave’s Rescue’ took a bit of a breather to showcase what Yashiro had been thinking. He’s a smart cookie, after all, even if most of his interactions with his students are played for comedic relief. I really enjoyed how Yashiro got under Seki’s skin, knowing well enough that Seki had been forbidden to kill or maim Yashiro. Even without E3, Yashiro kept an air of confidence.

The rescue mission was announced with Joe blowing up walls and people (I’ll get to that part in a bit) while Sara and Indo looked for Yashiro. While I would have appreciated seeing more of Indo’s battle with Drit, I understood why it occurred off-screen because the narrative was building toward Indo’s victory against her formidable foe in episode 21. Having Indo lose a finger during her off-screen battle was a good way of raising the stakes.

As Yashiro put it, while Indo was more powerful than Drit, she was vulnerable because of the predictability of her attacks and Drit’s faster reflexes and healing factor due to being compatible with E4. Indo would need to come up with a new strategy if she wanted to win.

Joe’s Ether Ability was revealed to be quite threatening. For Joe, everything had a bomb attached to it. All Joe needed to do was cut the wire and make the thing explode. It didn’t matter whether something was organic or inorganic; Joe could blow it up. Hence, his ability to make people explode. Gross. But also, OP.

From what I could understand, a person’s Ether Ability could experience a change in how it’s activated depending on a person’s mind. For example, if Joe really wanted to, he would think about triggering the bombs with a snap or some other action. However, Joe preferred using a sword to cut through the wires that only he could see to initiate the explosions.

The big battle in ‘A Brave’s Rescue’ was between Yashiro and Twin Pincers. Sara and Indo took on his minions to demonstrate their growth. Yashiro noticed how Indo had gotten better at not teleporting until the very last second to confuse her foe, while Sara had gotten better at blocking attacks and waiting for the right opportunity to land a critical hit.

As for Yashiro vs Twin Pincers, I liked how Yashiro also showed his growth. He had learned from his previous altercation with Twin Pincers, and this time around, Yashiro was ready for his hands to be controlled by Twin Pincers once their swords locked together.

‘A Brave’s Pride’ had Yashiro interrogate Twin Pincers about Coffin Court working with Half-Dragon, as well as who was responsible for Ishino’s death. According to Twin Pincers, the Coffin Court’s so-called alliance with Half-Dragon was temporary. She was biding her time to reappear to take her rightful place as the most powerful Demon Lord soon enough. I mean, it was an okay motivation to have, but I’m still waiting for a scene or two that showcased Coffin Court’s strategic mind instead of being constantly told about her prowess through other characters.

Talking about who killed Ishino, Twin Pincers had no idea he was Yashiro’s friend. Also, Coffin Court didn’t have a habit of killing powerful Braves. She was more into recruiting them. So, apparantly, Half-Dragon was responsible for Ishino’s murder.

Hmmm. I don’t know. With how things have panned out and the amount of strings being pulled from the shadows, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s revealed that Inshino faked his death and was somehow involved with Half-Dragon.

Even though Yashiro was ready to execute Twin Pincers, it was obvious Jogamine wouldn’t allow that. I liked how Jogamine threw Yashiro’s words back at him. According to Yashiro, murdering Demon Lords wasn’t going to improve the current situation. They needed to get to the root cause. So, following that logic, Jogamine deduced that killing Twin Pincers was unnecessary. Jogamine is so annoying. I love it!

The major battle in ‘A Brave’s Pride’ was a three-on-three with the trio going up against Drit, Seki, and Tomoe while Yashiro and Levi stood back to watch the fight unfold.

I enjoyed Indo’s rematch with Drit. Indo figured out she didn’t need to be close to Drit to hurt him. Simply passing her dagger-wielding arms through her portals was enough to damage him from afar and then slice his head off. I was as impressed as Yashiro by Indo leveling up her Ether Ability in such a manner. There might be weaknesses associated with such a fighting style. For example, someone pulling Indo’s arm through the portal. But the advantages outweighed the cons. At least, in Indo vs Drit.

As for Sara, she kept her cool against Seki. We got a flashback to how a young Sara trained with her father after using E3. The immediate activation of her Ether Ability and sensing her father’s power played a role in her freezing up against higher-level opponents. Not only that, her father had deliberately broken young Sara’s arm to deter her from pursuing becoming a Brave.

Sara’s motivation behind becoming a Brave was similar to Jogamine’s goal. Sara didn’t like being pushed around, and she wanted to become a Brave who was better than, as Yashiro put it, scum. It was an okay motivation to have. Nothing exceptional. But then again, I think Sara’s personal journey has always been about overcoming her fear and believing in her strength during battles instead of being the best Brave to ever exist!

I felt bad for Jogamine when Yashiro had no advice to share during her fight with Tomoe. Like, dude, come on! At least, try to be a bit considerate, especially during a life-and-death situation. Hopefully, Jogamine will manage to impress Yashiro while facing off against Tomoe. He’s been trying to get her to become more aggressive.

With only a couple more episodes to go for the first season of Scum of the Brave, I’m looking forward to Yashiro and the trio catching up to Coffin Court and learning more about Half-Dragon.

Did you watch Scum of the Brave anime season 1 episodes 20 and 21? 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.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary