Girls Bravo (Vol 1 of 8)
Overall Rating: 
Publisher: Geneon Entertainment
Running Time: 100 min
MSRP: $24.95
Ratio: 1.33:1
Region: 1
Release Date: 6/21/2005
Let me start by saying that the amount of nudity and sexual suggestions make this harem anime a 17+ title that’s not for kids. The girls are constantly taking off their clothes, exposing their overly large breasts, which bounce all over the place, and when they’re not nude, their clothes are falling or being ripped off, their breasts are being fondled by a school perv, or they are bent over for an unobstructed panty shot. Yes, there is fan service galore.
The story starts with Yukinari, the wimpy pushover who gets physically sick whenever girls come near him, meaning he breaks out into a rash and he usually faints (though usually someone has hit him by that point). He’s been living mainly by himself since his father got a new job, though his ultra-violent childhood acquaintance, Kirie, periodically stops over to use his shower.
One day, he arrives home from school and walks in on Kirie, who pounds the crap out of him for intruding. Yukinari falls backwards into the tub and is promptly sucked into a water portal leading him to the neighboring world, Seiran. When he comes to, he finds himself in the large bathtub and a bubbly, pink haired girl named Miharu gushing about how happy she is to see him. Apparently, she’s been watching him from her bathtub for awhile now and is very excited to meet him in person.
Anyway, after a brief stint on Seiran, a planet where 90% of the inhabitants are female, Yukinari is able to escape all female pursuers and morph back to Earth, where he finds Miharu has tagged along. Now stuck with no way of returning, Miharu settles in and begins her life on Earth.
In addition to these 3 characters, we meet the Fukayama siblings, who are rich eccentrics. Lisa, a practitioner of black magic, becomes convinced that Yukinari is her soulmate while her brother, Kazuharu, is the school’s top perv. Whenever he sees Kirie, he rushes over to her and thrusts his hands up her shirt to fondle her breasts. When Miharu appears on the scene, he pulls his weight to get her into school and soon, the episodes fall into routine with lots of gags surrounding these 5 characters.
What really puts this anime over the top is a racy scene in episode 2 where Miharu discovers bananas and indulges her taste buds as she fondles, licks and sucks this tasty fruit. I’m not sure why they needed this scene – to show that Miharu’s not as sweet and innocent as she seems? Or she has an oral fixation? I guess the humor was lost on me.
Anyway, there are 4 episodes on this disc.
1 – Bravo from the Bathtub!
Yukinari arrives home to find Kirie in his bathroom. After taking a pounding, he falls into the bathtub and is morphed to Seiren where he meets Miharu and the crazy women of the planet who are desperate for husbands. Narrowly escaping, he and Miharu morph back to Earth.
2 – Bravo at School!
After hearing about the tasty curry bread they sell at school, Miharu head out over to buy some. Along the way, she is first sidetracked by her first taste of bananas but soon finds her way to school, only to be kidnapped by Kazuharu, who develops a major crush on her.
3 – Cooking is Bravo!
After hearing her horoscope, Lisa meets Yukinari on her way to school and is immediately convinced he is her soulmate. She then sends her two bodyguards to kidnap him and ties him up in an outrageous black magic matrimonial ceremony.
4 – Bravo in the Mansion
When Miharu goes missing, Yukinari and Kirie head to the Fukayama mansion to find her. There, only Kirie is invited inside, where she finds all sorts of perversions in room after room. Yukinari, meanwhile, decides to scope the premises, a large labyrinth, in hopes of sneaking inside.
Overall, Girls Bravo is ecchi harem anime taken to the extreme. I was pretty skeptical after the first 2 episodes but found the introduction of Lisa, the black magician with 2 bodyguard assassins ridiculously funny. The quirkiness that she and her brother bring to the anime make it watchable, but there’s really nothing new here that breaks from standard clichés. If you’re ok with harem anime with lots of fan service and little plot, pick this one up.
Audio/Visual:
My Rating:
I listened to this one mainly in the English dub and occasionally flipped to the Japanese sub. The dialog is clear in both and I thought the dub did a good job of matching the Japanese tone and feel.
The video is a combination of styles – some scenes are bright with vivid colors while others are softer. Like the anime’s contents, the video has an over-the-top exaggerated feel – with the girls in supersized proportions and the anime going chibi with the exaggerated facial expressions and gushing nose bleeds during the beat-em-up violence scenes. The character designs are fairly plain – each girl has big eyes and a different color hair to make them easily recognizable.
Packaging:
My Rating: 
The front cover features the anime’s five main girls in scant bikinis snuggling with each other in very shallow water. The background is the blue tile pool floor with the pink and yellow logo sitting at the bottom. The back uses the blue tile checkerboard background and includes a summary, some screen shots, and the episodes, dvd features and extras arranged nicely. Inside, the insert mimics the cover art while the back lists the episode titles and provides release dates for the next volumes.
The menu has a kawaii picture of Miharu just above the menu options. She occasionally blinks as bubbles pop around her – some of them showing video clips form the series. The main drawback is the short looping j-pop song that cuts out awkwardly and restarts. It’s very noticeable and gets annoying very quickly.
Extras:
My Rating:
There aren’t many extras on this – a clean opening, the original Japanese opening, some line art, and the usual previews and dvd credits.
Category: DVD Reviews
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