Girls Bravo

Summary: >

Yukinari had so many bad experiences with girls, he breaks out in a rash if he even touches them, and it's now considered an allergy. Thus the last place Yukinari would want to visit is a world comprised of nearly all women, yet that's where he ends up. There he a cheerful but dense girl named Miharu who doesn't trigger his allergy. The two return to earth along with a pair of girls tasked with watching over them.

With rich playboy Fukuyama taking an interest in the girls, along with his witchcraft wielding sister taking an interest in Yukinari: things are never dull.

Thoughts: >

I knew I'd have to keep an open mind for this one, but I was unprepared for a title so brazen with fan service that boobs came out 5 seconds into it. In episode two, a girl actually performs fellatio on a banana (how this wasn't censored I'll never know). Many harem titles try to hide what they are, or at least try something making it seem less like a fan service extravaganza. Not Girls Bravo. This series lacks all modesty and defiantly slaps you in the face with fan service in a way that kinda demands respect. It never develops any level of intelligence in it's humor or story, but at least it's candid about being fluff, and doesn't try to be much more than that.

[+] character talk

So what does Girls Bravo deliver? Believe it or not there is one thing this series excels at: costume fetishes. The first episode starts with the defaults, and second covers school outfits. Episode 4 covered French maids, nurse and Shinto priestess in one shot. By the end, no costume left to the imagination (even the live snake as an outfit). For any girl avoiding costume fetish perversions, the semi-antagonist Kazuharu Fukuyama can only be described as a villain of diabolical proportions. His schemes aren't just perverse, they also all revolve around costumes. It's strange that Kirei (the girl who fulfills "the childhood friend", "the one with big boobs" and "the loud mouth violent one") goes along with this, even as the only character displaying signs of intelligence. Sometimes she comes up with these costume ideas herself!

It makes a few feeble attempts at drama, but what can you really expect from a title like this? Like a kindergartner trying to solve a quantum mechanics equation, you just pat them on the head and say "haha, good luck with that!". Most of season 1 (11 episodes) is pathetic when it tries to step out of the comedy aspect, and even the comedy is typically lacking. Season 2 has subtle changes. The series embraces its lack of substance, accepts it's costume fetish niche, and has more fun being itself. Some episodes in season 2 progress to where I'd ask myself "Is this really going to go there? Really?!" (this is Japan, of COURSE it will... and then some). No title that has strip mahjong takes itself seriously, but it is somewhat entertaining. As both seasons are currently packaged together, taken as a whole; Girls Bravo starts out with no direction and the content is dull, but later it evolves into humor that's still mindless but more fun. It does however slump at the end with an attempt at "serious stuff".

Overall Girls Bravo is just another harem title, and a pretty dumb one at that. It does however differentiate itself by the excessive costume fetish material. In fact if you replace "bravo" with "costume fetish" in the title of each episode, the titles not only become more amusing, but strangely accurate. To give credit where it was due, and this is embarrassing to admit; I actually did occasionally laugh. I wouldn't say that's a beaming recommendation considering all I've said about it, but it's watchable if you have a very high tolerance for fluff.

Screen Caps: >