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I am hardpressed to find any one anime I can call a 10/10 masterpiece, but here we are, at Manaria Friends, a series of short episodes featuring the intimate relationship between two girls, one a half-dragon princess Grea, and the other a genius magician human princess Anne, and how their relationship deepens with each story.

First, story is simple: it's two girls and the yuri-vibes about them. If you aren't into this sort of quiet, but adorable relationship, you're probably a mainstream only otaku. The time spent delaying this project and improving it was well earned. Manaria Friends is a short and simple anime of ... 10 episodes, but that doesn't disservice its main characters, it simplifies things as we get to see them grow closer throughout the seasons while working on the premise that we're getting to simply see two good friends get along with each other, rather than some cliche world-saving plot and brooding protagonists.

Art is fantastic, and a significant improvement over the initial concept art that was released under a different anime studio. I shudder to think what a generic disappointment Manaria Friends would've been if Cygames didn't see fit to revamp the entire anime development and change staff entirely to its own CygamesPictures in-house studio. Who understands their characters better than their own creators after all? The facial expressions are a real clincher and show off expressiveness better than most, conveying even the most subtle emotion of a character.

Sound is the next most intimate part of this anime, after the Anne x Grea romantic vibes, and the soundtrack will be what remains in your head after you're done watching. The music itself complements the scenes and is an emotional cue for what to feel or expect from them. It's a quality of emotional music with a touch of subtlety and care I haven't felt from many other anime. It's almost too good to be true.

Characters are excellent here. Characterization is top notch for a mere 10 episodes that are only about 15 minutes long each. The characters Anne and Grea are the main spotlight of this anime and watching over them growing increasingly intimate over time will make you want to protect their happiness like a parent watching their children get along with each other.

Overall, every single aspect of this anime was perfect to me. I ended up buying the entire Bluray set to eternalize this anime in my memory, because Grea and Anne deserve each other, and totally need a sequel. I have rewatched this anime multiple times now, in between intervals, and it still holds up as strong as when I first watched it.

Impressively, this is CygamesPictures' very first full animated series, making the love and care put into it admirable. I have no doubts or regrets calling Manaria Friends a masterpiece in animation.

This OVA special is particularly disappointing if you expected it to focus on Hikari and the rest of the Brave Witches 502nd Squadron.

Nope, instead, this OVA is actually a bonus episode of Strike Witches disguising itself with the Brave Witches title, featuring Eila and Sanya, the popular pairing from the original Strike Witches anime. The rest of the "main cast" take a backseat this episode.

Technically this episode takes place between roughly around episodes 7 and 8, but I don't think it would work watching it in chronological order, because this standalone episode disrupts the flow of Brave Witches' primary story.

While I am a ... fan of the various spinoff media of the World Witches franchise, I am admittedly not a Sanya x Eila fan, or a Strike Witches fan for that matter, given my own criticisms of the original anime.
As such, I had my expectations crushed when I found out this more for older Strike Witches fans. Regardless, I did enjoy seeing Hikari fantasizing about Takami in a romantic way, as has been hinted on her borderline idolization of her sister in the main story, though seeing Eila get jealous of Sanya's many admirers does get old.

However, someone who hasn't viewed Strike Witches before can still successfully watch this bonus episode and see it as characterization for Sanya and Eila, who in Brave Witches, are supporting characters that only cameo a couple of times, and from there go to watch the original series that they're main characters in. So it's a win-win situation for new Witches fans and business wise.

To say Brave Witches is a rehash of Strike Witches is to be willfully ignorant of the fact that Brave Witches is an improved version of the pantsless magical girl franchise.

Brave Witches is what Strike Witches could be if it bothered to emphasize characterization over fanservice, and the results are more than satisfactory.

Brave Witches succeeds where its predecessor fails, in that its not a slow burner in giving you emotional investment in its main cast and protagonist, Hikari, who is the complete opposite of the previous Strike Witches' protagonist Yoshika.

In the world of witches and magic, Yoshika starts out as a overpowered ... witch whose Gigantic overpowered magical shield and healing abilities make her a natural genius talent wise; she isn't particularly challenged by the Neuroi enemies because of her strong powers, and thus doesn't make for that interesting a character to develop.

On the other hand, Hikari is a witch who can barely generate a shield effectively enough to block enemy attacks, let alone make a big one. It's made clear early on that Hikari is crippled with inherently low magic, and thus has to improvise her fighting style in that she has to choose between her shield or her flying, both which require magic to run on. Hikari thus has to focus all her magic on maintaining her Striker Unit (flying device) and instead has to learn how to dodge attacks in a way that would make Strike Witches' Eila proud. On top of that, she has an elder sister Takami who DOES have amazing magical abilities and is a decorated war hero.

From the very start, Hikari, because of her average abilities, is the underdog. No one really expects any amazing feats from her because of it, and the fact her elder sister is far more talented too. But Hikari doesn't see her sister as someone she feels inferior to, rather, she looks up to Takami as her inspiration for joining the war in the first place.

The greatest thing about Brave Witches' protagonist is that she doesn't have a genius father or amazingly overpowered magical abilities like Strike Witches' Yoshika does, it's that Hikari makes do with what little she does have in hard work and effort, and it shows.

Hikari's initial induction into the Brave Witches squadron is not even intentional like it is with her predecessor, it's all by accident and whim of the Takami's higher up in the squad who pities Hikari after her sister is put out of action after a battle.
The underdog position Hikari has to deal with is fleshed out well by her interactions with other squadron members like Kanno, who doesn't particularly warm up to her or take well to the inferior sister taking over for Takami, even in name. Hikari spends the first episodes training in order to prove to her flight instructor that she is fit for combat, even if she's not as good as Takami.

I've never liked a Witches franchise protagonist as much as I have Hikari, because despite being the underdog in a world that is against her, she doesn't give up until she can prove she's not just talk.

Brave Witches isn't 100% perfect however, as the semi-finale episode forces Hikari to prove herself the better Witch against her sister, and the writers throw a curveball at viewers expecting Hikari to overcome her sister in cliche shonen battle anime style, by having her realistically fail and is a subverting genre twist that so surprising it makes it feel like Hikari's protagonist position has been usurped. Despite the unexpected however, the finale more than makes up for the subversion and Hikari's training pays off, leaving me wanting for a Brave Witches Season 2. Another thing I could find fault with is the lack of characterization for Gundala Rall, the Brave Witches' squadron leader, who only comes off as a stiff but caring military type. If there ever is a sequel, I would like to see some backstory for her.

Art is much better than it was back in the Strike Witches first season, and the soundtrack is memorable for the ages, with each track being used for a specific mood or scene.
Overall, this was even more enjoyable than even the emotional Strike Witches The Movie.

And to be clear, this series can stand completely on its own without comparisons to Strike Witches, and is a good entry point for anyone new to the World Witches franchise who desires good characterization over excessive fanservice.

To summarize: this anime isn't very good. I particularly find fault in the protagonist Riri's naivety, to the point it's annoying. In cliche bishojo naivety, Riri follows her Onee-sama foil Yuyu in the path of a Lily, another bishojo-with-weapons warrior fighting against unknown enemies, like Madoka Magica, Brave Witches, or Toji no Miko.

Unfortunately, unlike its superior brethren above, Assault Lily does not do anything to differentiate itself from the pack. It spends the first four episodes hanging worn tropes like teasing a "secretly" overpowered-protagonist, showing fanservice bathtowel scenes, and not fleshing out its protagonist outside of her interactions with her idol Yuyu. Riri is ... obsessed with Yuyu to the point her interactions with other characters feel more like stepping stones to get closer to Yuyu rather than actual supporting characters to help her bring out more personality.

That's not to say Riri is apathetic, she cares about Yuyu's wellbeing, but she's just so narrowmindedly naive to the core, she essentially denies herself of any characterization, to the point she's just a walking trope of a naive female protagonist (e.g. Yoshika of Strike Witches season 1).
her pursuit of her heroine foil.
But other than her unnatural Yuyu obsession (which other characters also point out once, but is overshadowed), Riri has no redeeming traits to her naiviety that borders on ego (that is pointed out once in the anime and then ignored after), and like most other naive protagonists, she finds a way to justify her want to help Yuyu even if it means prying into old wounds.

Riri's initial relationship with the quiet, cynical and brooding Yuyu has her naivety challenged by Yuyu herself, who wants to "teach" the naive Riri about how cruel the world really is, but by episode 4, this foreshadowing loses its chance to appear as Riri is quickly established as the calming Beauty to Yuyu's inner revenge-filled Beast, but the buildup to that moment is neither emotionally investing for the viewer, nor is it memorable.
This anime would be a great modern day military retelling of the whole Yuri genre's Onee-sama trope if it wasn't for the lack of depth in anyone except Yuyu herself, whose personality has turned from kind to cool girl from past trauma,in a Akemi Homura style of events.

A weekly TV show needs to be interesting in its first half to have people care about it as much as its director(s) does, but if the director doesn't flesh out the characters properly, no one will care what happens to them next week. To be fair, dramatic twists are typically executed in the latter half of an anime, but in order to keep an audience interested in watching a TV show on a weekly basis, even a anime like Assault Lily must have something that an audience can get invested in at the beginning. Like yuri-baiting or the cleavage fanservice for example, which the first half of this show has plenty of, though it isn't anything more than casual fanservice.
Sound and Art are rated high because the chara design is beautiful, and the opening song memorable (it's played by Raise a Suilen of Bang Dream). The rest of the soundtrack however is forgettable.

Overall, I disliked the protagonist's naiviety bordering on ego, and the lack of any characterization for anyone except her foil Yuyu. Assault Lily has the potential to be a bishojo-with-weapons interpretation of the classic onee-sama Yuri school genre (Maria sama ga Miteru, Strawberry Panic), but its lack of characterization and story hooks in the early half of the episodes wastes said story opportunities in favor of fanservice, fight scenes, and too many characters to remember or care about.


Even hardcore fans of the genre might be hard-pressed to find a reason to watch Assault Lily for its characterization OR plot, as there is very little of it in the first four episodes. Overall, Assault Lily has potential to shine on paper, but in execution it's inferior to its fellow bishojo anime.