Brave Witches is the story of Karibuchi Hikari who joins the 502nd Joint Wing hoping to meet the expectations of her older sister and become a greatly skilled witch. It is a sequel and spinoff to the Strike Witches anime series and the second anime in the World Witches series. When I started Episode 1 Id expected a direct clone of Strike Witches. Due to the similarities in some characters I didnt expect to like Brave Witches much at all. However one concurrent theme used between characters in Brave Witches had me like it a slight bit above Strike Witches. I found Brave Witches to be its own underlying story about meeting the expectations of someone who is more skilled than oneself. Our main character Hikari aims to be like her older sister Takami. However living in the shadow of Takami Hikari finds herself being treated as the much lesser and weaker sibling. Hikaris story arc is hinted from Episode 1 and is explored more thorougly throughout the Brave Witches anime. Yoshika had a similar character arc in Strike Witches although it was more of an internal struggle where Yoshika wanted to have powerful magic like her mother and grandmother. Hikari constantly fights to be as strong and skilled as Takami centering around both an internal and external struggle. By using Takami to tell the expectations narrative it gives some of the best developmental moments for World Witches series characters by far. Hikari goes through the challenge of trying to be like her sister although she slowly learns that to grow her skills she must distance herself from meeting Takamis expectations attempting to do what Takami does and to accept and be herself. Kanno another character with a major story arc in Brave Witches has become one of my favorite characters in the World Witches series. Kanno along with Hikari have brought the most interesting character arcs Ive seen in Strike Witches yet. Kanno at first loathed Hikari. She simply saw Hikari as the total opposite younger sister of Takami No skill outside of stamina. However being exposed to Hikaris unwavering will to improve her skill and that Hikaris undergoing a similar struggle of wanting to become stronger Kanno opens up much more and becomes more relaxed around Hikari. Outside of her character arc I enjoy Kannos personality as she has a slight rebellious nature. This is characterized by her dressing style foulmouth and her fighting style. Oh man Kannos fighting style is awesome. She uses her fists rather than just firearms. Hikari and Kanno definitely get the most screentime as Kannos story arc closes around Episode 10. Though because of the focus these characters get the rest of the 502nd Joint Wing get little to no screentime. This is to the point that I dont even remember most of their names save for Sasha and Krupinski both of which have miniature story arcs. Furthermore the art is a lot more pleasing than the 20072014 period of Strike Witches. It seems that the art style and animation for the World Witches series improves with every new release. I dont have any problems with fanservice but when compared to Strike Witches it has been severely toned down. Though in Brave Witches the toned down fanservice has its benefits mainly in action scenes where we get extravagant shots of a characters attack. Speaking of World Witches Sanya and Eila two characters of Strike Witches had little screentime in Operation Victory Arrow and The Movie. So the two receive spotlight for half an episode and an OVA effectively a crossover between Strike Witches and Brave Witches. In terms of sound there are some repetitive songs in the animes soundtrack. They are not bothersome nor memorable. The soundtrack is serviceable. The opening song however is amazing. It elicits emotion and describes how it would feel if an anime came back after several years which for Strike Witches to Brave Witches was 6+ years not counting the movie and OVA. The visuals in the opening arent spectacular. Once again they are serviceable. It gives you everything you need to know including Hikaris story arc and the Brave Witches in action. The song itself carries the opening being so good that there is not a single episode that I skipped it. The ending song is alright. Overall I found the underlying themes of attempting to meet the expectations of someone that overshadows you and the attachment the Brave Witches grew for Hikari incredibly moving. I cant wait to see the Brave and Strike girls return in 2020 with Road to Berlin