Brave 10 is a medieval fantasy anime, originated from the similarly named manga. It follows the lives of those that would be known as Sanada Ten Braves, ten loyal ninjas serving under Sanada Yukimura, although rather than going for historical route, they go for a more mystic-based approach.The main protagonist is an Iga ninja named Saizou, who meets an Izumo priestess called Isanami on the run from the ninjas who destroyed her temple and protects her on her short journey to Sanada Yukimura's castle. Sanada Yukimura is a powerful warlord in the Sengoku era. Sanada wants to gather 10 warriors, a party unrivaled in skill and power, to set his still secret plan into action...The author, Kairi Shimotsuki, is well known for her Boys' Love Genre work, but she has also worked on the Sengoku Basara franchise and this series clearly follows the latter. Very much so, though with a heavy, Darker and EdgierSeinen slant.
Anachronism Stew: For some reason, Isanami is at the center of most anachronisms, what with her biker shorts, ballet moves and lollipops.
Assassin Outclassin: How Anastasia ended up working for Sanada Yukimura. Or so she told Saizou. She's actually The Mole for Hanzo.
Attack Reflector: One of Saizo's many techniques, seen in the first episode against Isanami pursuers.
Attempted Rape: Happens a few times in the manga, to Juuzo, Isanami and Anastasia to be precise.
Ax Crazy: Kamanosuke Yuri tells Isanami he's a bandit for the chance of people resisting being held up. Becomes more of a Blood Knight later after joining the team.
Back for the Finale: Hanzo vanished and practically unheard of after Kamanosuke joining, but he'll be back in the episode after Anastasia betraying the team, turns out He's Just Hiding. This is also the focus of his Episode 11 preview. Oukatsuisn't so lucky, though.
Bare Your Midriff: Anastasia's bodice doesn't cover much of her torso. Also Rokuro and Kamanosuke.
Big Breasts, Big Deal: Being a practical woman, Anastasia would rather be small breasted.
Big Damn Heroes: In the manga, Juuzou arrives just in time to drive Hanzo out. Kamanosuke does the same later. And Seikai, Sasuke and Kamanosuke later as they face Benmaru's Death Course. Sort of a habit
Blood Lust: In Kamanosuke's strange Ho Yay way, he says he wants to see Saizou cut and bleeding.
Blood on These Hands: While trapped with Isanami after the fight with the giant snake, Saizou tells Isanami he's just a killer and cannot be anybody's shining knight.
Blood-Splattered Innocents: During the second ninja attempt in the first episode, Isanami's face gets bloodied by a dying ninja.
Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: While Saizo is complaining about the other braves goofing off images show Sasuke hanging out with his animals, Anastasia sitting by a river and Kamanosuke threatening a villager.
Broken Bird: Anastasia is tough, self-reliant and cold, and chafes at the safety of Yukimura's castle. Don't expect her to defrost easily. Though if her fight with Jinpachi is any indication, it could be nearer than we thought.
She got better and stops being a villainess, but she still is in an Ice Queen, not giving in to Jinpachi's sexual advances.
Calling Your Attacks: Saizou, Seikai, Anastasia, Hanzo, Kaio can't apparently use their techniques without informing everyone of their names. The rest of the Braves are more discreet.
Cold Sniper: Juuzo. Not exactly cold, but very proper.
Combat Pragmatist: When Isanami isn't around to stop them the ninja side of the team delivers coup de graces and does whatever it takes to win the fights. They are not samurai, after all.
Compressed Adaptation: After the first episode of the anime, which covers slightly past the first chapter of the manga, the anime races through the source material, covering over 120 pages worth of manga each episode: most of the cut material featured Those Two Bad Guys, who were left out of the anime adaptation and are pretty much nothing but comic relief. See Pragmatic Adaptation.
Cool Big Sis: Anastasia becomes Isanami's sister figure after she rescues her from Date. With a hint of Good Bad Girl in the way she flirts with Yukimura and Saizou.
Crater Power: When Isanami uses her power she is left standing in a shallow crater.
Crossdressing Voice: Young Seikai is actually voiced by a female. It's a wonder how his vocal evolved that his current voice is done by a male, and a non-androgynous voice at that.
Cry Into Chest: Isanami breaks down on Saizou after Yukimura refuses to help her early in the story.
Dark and Troubled Past: Anastasia saw her family dead in Japan and have been left alone since little, and while looking for the last heirloom of her family, there came Hanzo holding it and blackmails her to join, shaping her into a cold hearted woman. This is also why 'family' was some sort of Berserk Button for her and what made her hate the rest of the Braves.
Designated Girl Fight: Averted Trope! Anastasia doesn't get paired with a female opponent until the second attack on Ueda castle, and never again after that.
Determinator: Saizo, of course. Dude has been slashed and bleeding how many times against Hanzo, and he's still standing up and fighting rather than being down for count.
Distressed Damsel: Isanami is continuously being pursued and kidnapped. Get her distressed enough at your own peril, though, and...
Dragon with an Agenda: Unfortunately for Ieyasu, Hanzo has his own plans for capturing Isanami, and pretty much cares less about the upcoming Tokugawa vs Toyotomi clash, his team would be the one ruling from the shadow... or so he claims.
Dragon Lady: Oukatsu; open kimono, humongous cleavage, hidden blade, snake powers. Succeeded by Kaio, her sister.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: Kamanosuke has to do very little to look feminine something he used to ambush people during her times as a bandit. Although maybe it's just that she looks masculine, as seen in the Lotus-Eater Machine..
The Dulcinea Effect: The first time he saves Isanami was just self-defense. And the second time, too. And the third...
Epiphany Comeback: During his fight with renegade Iga ninja Goemon, Saizou is thoroughly beaten until Goemon tells him he's no longer an Iga ninja. Saizou realizes he should think like a one of Yukimura Braves. Cue fight reversal.
Eyepatch of Power: Rokurou hides his right eye until he loses it to Anastasia in episode nine .
Face Heel Turn: Anastasia is actually working for Hanzo.
Heel Face Turn: Or Neutral Turn. Once Hanzo is dead, Ana already claimed that she can't come back to Yukimura for being a traitor. The good thing is, Jinpachi is there to offer her a place to stay, and he doesn't seem to be interested in staying in Ueda all the time.
Faux Affably Evil: Hanzo is 100% evil, but he's quite a polite talker in describing on how much he's killing people. Also exemplified in his monologue for Episode 11 preview.
Five-Bad Band: Five Iga Ninjas. Subject to change depending on the last reveal:
Flat Character: Unfortunately, most of Hanzo's five (including Hanzo himself) has very little background and look like they're just in for simple megalomania, aside of Anastasia, who's shown to have Dark and Troubled Past and had other goal unlike them
Flechette Storm: A trademark of Hanzo that can be seen in the opening.
Forced Into Evil: Zig-zagged. Turns out, the reason why Anastasia joined Hanzo was because Hanzo was holding her family heirloom that she's been searching since little. However, given enough time she spent with Hanzo, she turned into a cold-hearted Broken BirdIce Queen who's just as bad as Hanzo is. But, even Jinpachi could see her slowly being defrosted despite her insisting otherwise.
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Saizou need Sasuke to give him a pep talk after being thouroughly beaten by Hanzo during their first fight (or getting Isanami captured by Masamune in the anime).
Heroic Sacrifice: Nearly attempted by Rokuro, who revealed that the prophecy was about having the ten braves sacrifice their lives to stop Izanami no Mikoto. Saizo will have none of that shit.
In particular, Hanzo probably got it the worst. At most, Ieyasu is depicted as an incompetent Smug Snake (which is lampshaded by Masamune). Hanzo goes beyond being 'loyal' to Ieyasu into having probably different goals than Ieyasu and being much more sadistic and quite making his way to Hero Killer.
Though there could be some good justification on this. 'Hattori Hanzo' is a title passed down through Iga ninja leaders, this Hanzo may not be the same with the same Hanzo that escorted Ieyasu through Iga after Nobunaga's death (Hattori Masanari). In fact, there is a Hanzo that is really mean even to his own kinsmen.
I Call It Vera: Saizo's sword is called Maribouchou and Juuzo's gun Saaya.
I Have You Now, My Pretty: Equal opportunities for getting abused (as Juuzo can attest during his fight with Oukatsu), but Anastasia gets most, even in her introduction (manga only).
An Ice Person: Anastasia can turn water to ice with her Iga techniques, and she also prides herself on being cold in other senses of the word as she shows when she betrays the team.
It's All My Fault: Isanami come to this conclusion after the second fight with Hanzo and briefly gives up. She's then goaded by Hanzo during the fight against the Five into another breakdown that pulls out her Superpowered Evil Side.
Living Emotional Crutch: Saizo for Isanami. After watching her home being burned to the ground and almost everyone she knew being killed, she adopts Saizou as "her light".
The Load: Isanami's role in the team is just being there to be protected.
Long Lost Relative: Seikai is Isanami's elder adoptive brother. Sort of.
Morality Pet: Isanami for Saizo. Were not for her intercession, Kamanosuke wouldn't have lived to join the Braves. And in turn, Kamanosuke behaves while Saizou is around.
Ms. Fanservice: Anastasia. Her outfit is already revealing, and she's prone to not wearing it.
Only In It For The Hottie: Jinpachi agreed to help Juuzou and eventually join Yukimura on the fact that there's one certain busty blonde named Anastasia in Yukimura's entourage. And kinda true too. Once he's done redeeming Anastasia, he just stops sticking with the Braves.
The Power of the Void: Isanami's power is darkness that rusts and rots everything it touches into dust.
Pragmatic Adaptation: Because of time constraints, in the anime some characters dissappear and others take their roles in some arcs, some fights and events are cut and some villains are somewhat weakened. And because of Moral Guardians, a general helping of Bleached Underpants.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Saizo almost does this after being curb-stomped by Hanzo and fearing he Can't Catch Up. The anime replaces this with Saizo doing it after Masamune captures Isanami.
Sequel Hook: Yes, Izanami is calmed down, and Hanzo and his five except Anastasia are dead. However, there's still Masamune and Ieyasu (whose casualties are probably just missing out Hanzo), all ready to wage war.
Shaggy Dog Story: It turns out, the heirloom Anastasia is looking for which was in Hanzo's hand was fake.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: If you're a history maniac, you'll know. No matter how badass the Braves got, they're destined to die with Yukimura during the Siege of Osaka.
Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes: Kamanosuke and Anastasia are not really heroes, they simply are in the side of good - Kamanosuke in fact is the Token Evil Team Mate. Saizou is in the other hand your average bad boy with rough habits but goodie instincts awakened by Isanami.
Standard Female Grab Area: Anastasia puzzlingly lets some joke villains almost rape her during her first appearance in the series just because they caught her by her wrist?!
Stock Ninja Weaponry: Knives, poisons, throwing daggers... the usual. Not many throwing stars, though.
Survivors Guilt: Isanami is weighed down by the destruction of her temple (being her adoptive family, too), but she rarely lets on it, like when she did to Saizou after believing Yukimura wouldn't help her.
Taking the Bullet: The Head Priest of Izumo to save Isanami at the opening of the series.
Terse Talker: Sasuke finds easier to talk with animals than with people.
Those Two Bad Guys: Ichimaru and Niko, fairly ineffective ninja villains and comic relief who first appeared attempting to rape Anastasia during her introduction. They are absent from the anime adaptation except for a brief cameo in episode five.
Trash Talk: Hanzo teases Saizou continously on the gap between his fame and his actual skill during their first fight.
Trauma Conga Line: This is actually an omnipresent presence in-story too, according to Yukimura. Any time Isanami fell into some trauma or sadness, the power of Izanami spreads out and kills everything nearby, and Kushimitama is only surpressing the power. And making matters worse, Isanami overheard this while trying to recover from the trauma of Ana's betrayal. Nice job being a Mr. Exposition in the wrong time, Yukimura
Unwanted Rescue: Isanami gets scared of being fought over, claims It's All My Fault and just gives up and resigns herself to being a prisoner of Date.
Unwilling Suspension: Isanami gets to hang over a precipice courtesy of Kamanosuke before he joins the Braves, and Anastasia gets hung up upside down while prisoner of Date.
Villainous Breakdown: Hanzo learns the hard way how to control darkness with darkness.
Villainous Crossdresser: Goemon. Since his whole family was targeted to be exterminated, he had to disguise himself as a girl. Also, Kamanosuke Yuri would use this to trick people while he was a bandit.
Wham Episode: Hoo boy, episode 9. What would be a good night sleep went downhill when Ana is revealed as The Mole for someone who's presumed to be Hanzo, goes on to cripple Rokurou (and forced him to sacrifice an important information on his eye) and Sasuke, and Yukimura reveals the reason why he wanted to gather the Brave 10... Surpress the power of Japanese Death Goddess Izanami... incarnated into Isanami. And she overheard that too.
Warrior Therapist: Hanzo uses her Survivor Guilt against Isanami and Jinpachi guesses his opponent isn't actually above it all against Anastasia.
What Is This Thing You Call Love?: Kamanosuke doesn't get what love/affection is and it confuses him, so he approximates it to what he likes most: killing. His relationship with Saizou is colored by this.
With My Hands Tied: Anastasia can easily clean a room full of guards with her hands tied and hanging upside down.
World of Badass: Everyone kicks ass in this series. Only Isanami is an exception, and not quite since she is a God in Human Form.
Would Hit a Girl: Ninjas are professional killers , after all, and they don't hesitate in hitting female opponents or even old women as Hanzo did during his attack on Ueda.
Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Juuzo, not being a ninja and a pretty old fashioned gentleman, won't fight women. That doesn't prevent women from fighting him as seen in episode four.
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