YMMV / Bang Brave Bang Bravern!

• Awesome Music:
  • The opening, "Babanto-Suisan! Bang Bravern" by Kenichi Suzumura, manages to capture the awesomeness and hotbloodness of super robot anime not seen since the 2000s. How awesome is the song? It manages to usurp "IDOL" by YOASOBI in some charts., as surmised by this comment:
    Now that's how you know this series isn't f**king around with it's quality when it's OP somehow passes THE BIGGEST MAINSTREAM ANIME SONG OF LAST YEAR!!
• Common Knowledge: It's assumed by a portion of the viewers that this is a new installment in the Brave series. It's being produced by Cygames rather than Sunrise, and while the naming is intentionally similar, the Japanese title uses "Yuuki" (勇気) instead of the franchise's "Yuusha" (勇者)
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Cunus is among the most popular Death Drives apart from Superbia due to her cool Time-Space powers, crazy yandere personality, being the catalyst that prevented the Death Drives from reviving and the one who not only caused the death of Smith, but also being the cause for Smith becoming Bravern, as well as technically being Bravern due her body (And Mind?) being used as part of Bravern's body.
• Epileptic Trees: Several fans are under the impression that Bravern may actually be a version of Smith from the future that has travelled back in time - he seemingly knows who Isami is on sight and is familiar with him, and is even able to identify that Lulu's name is Lulu even though she had been speaking a language that might as well have been gibberish to anyone on Earth.
  • Given that Knuth rather explicitly refers to her battle with Smith as "making love," some believe that Bravern is the result of this. It may be possible that given Kunuth has similar space manipulation to Bravern's "Brave The Summons" and also can control time that Bravern is the result of Smith's consciousness taking over her body and the remaining parts of his newly acquired advanced Titanostrider to replace the damage parts of Kunuth.
    • If look into Obari's past work, given he's referencing his prior works a lot, it could be possible that the Bravern/Orgun comparison is more likely as Detonator Orgun has a similar idea of the titular mecha actually being a cybernetic human who has some relation to one of the characters. If wanna go further, compare the color scheme of Kunuth to Orgun, next compare Bravern to Tekkaman Blade's colors. Orgun and Blade are a remake of the original Ultraman-esque Space Knight Tekkaman, much like how Bravern has similarities to Smith Toku show. now remember that Smith's team he dubbed Brave Knights, like the OG Tekkaman and the organization name in Tekkaman Blade.
    • Also, this idea is similar to how Ryukooh/Koryuoh in Super Robot Wars were the result of the Choujinki assimilating the a Grungust's parts to form itself. Obari having worked on SRW Inspector makes this more likely.
    • Proven correct in episode 9 with Smith merging with Kunus
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Very quickly developed one with Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, due to both being mecha titles that have homosexual overtones. GWitch fans have referred to Bravern as the "mecha BL" to go with their "mecha yuri." The reveal that Bravern is a time-displaced Smith has drawn comparisons to Ericht's situation as Aerial. The added hilarity is that Guel and Smith are both voiced by Yohei Azakami.
  • A couple of Gundam SEED Destiny fans are also present, as Bravern shares his voice with Shinn Asuka. Likely helped with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom releasing during Bravern's cour. There are many edits of Shinn interacting with Bravern, whether it's talking or piloting him.
  • Fans both in Japan and overseas have small overlap with Transformers fans, since Bravern looks a lot like a Cybertronian.
  • With fans of the Brave Series, due to Bravern being a Spiritual Successor to it.
  • Of Detonator Orgun/Tekkaman Blade due to similar backgrounds to Orgun/Blade to Bravern.
  • To Super Robot Wars due to the similar combination of Super Robots and Real Robots being in both, rather than exclusively one or the other. Also because Isami, Smith and Lulu play a similar role to Kyosuke, Excellen and Alfimi.
• I Knew It!:
  • Some of the mecha fandom weren't as taken aback by the series being revealed to actually be a Brave series inspired work, feeling it was a Captain Obvious Reveal given the over the top title that included the word Brave in it, and the fact that Obari is the director. Cygames also has a history of Bait-and-Switch advertising with shows like Zombie Land Saga and Akiba Maid War.
  • Episode 9 confirmed an oft-speculated theory since the beginning of the show: Bravern is Smith from the future.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: While ‘sucks’ is harsher than most would describe it, the biggest complaint most had about the show was its short length. With only 12 episodes, the plot moves very quickly and leaves little time to dwell on things before moving to the next story beat, and characters outside of the main four (Isami, Bravern, Lewis, and Lulu) are left very underutilized as a result of their limited screen time.
• LGBT Fanbase: While the show has quickly attracted a sizeable fujoshi following thanks to its Fanservice and Ho Yay, it didn't take long for gay male viewers to latch on to the series as well. The ending theme where the male leads sing in unison (while shirtless and displaying their muscular bodies) as they tenderly lock their fingers together, making the whole song come across as a Manly Gay ballad definitively helped. Within the show itself, there is Bravern's unabashed infatuation with Isami and Lewis going out of his way to gently comfort Isami after the latter gets Interrogated for Nothing. On top of that, a number of secondary male characters piqued the viewers interest due to their rugged Silver Fox designs.
• Memetic Molester: Bravern is often turned into a Stalker with a Crush towards Isami in fanworks due to his insistence that only Isami can pilot him, his incredibly innuendo-laden speech about his and Isami’s ‘special relationship’ in episode 2, and the scene where Isami’s clothes melt off while inside Bravern’s cockpit for seemingly no reason. Combined with Isami’s initial refusal to pilot Bravern, even trembling in fear at one point when Bravern finds him, it gives the impression of Isami being a victim of an obsessive stalker.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Smith is Bravern^ExplanationA lot of fans have speculated that Bravern is in fact Smith from the future. Confirmed in EP 9.
  • “Poor Isami”/Isami needs therapy^ExplanationA lot of people started to feel bad (albeit often exaggeratedly) for Isami after the sheer number of traumatizing events he goes through in the early episodes. To wit, he watches as many of his allies are killed by the invading aliens, then Bravern comes out of the sky and forces Isami to pilot him, leaving him confused and terrified, and then his reward for saving the day is to get interrogated and waterboarded by the CIA. And the cherry on top is having his clothes melt off while in Bravern’s cockpit, and he spends a majority of the next episode in a Troubled Fetal Position while inside Bravern. ‘Poor Isami’ was even trending on JP Twitter after the release of episode 2!
  • Sometimes a love triangle is two guys and a giant mecha^ExplanationUsed to jokingly describe the dynamic between Isami, Smith, and Bravern in the early episodes due to Bravern wanting Isami to pilot him (while refusing to let Smith pilot because it’s ’physiologically impossible’), Isami doesn’t want to pilot Bravern while coming to befriend and rely on Smith, and Smith really wants to pilot Bravern himself. The ‘love triangle’ becomes Hilarious in Hindsight with the reveal that Bravern is Smith from the future, meaning Smith wanted to pilot himself.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Some viewers assume this is the first work to feature a Super Robot in a Real Robot setting. While it may be the first to work this premise into a First-Episode Twist, works like Space Runaway Ideon, Dancouga, Gunbuster, and Platinum Ordian have done similar setups. Not to mention the Super Robot Wars franchise, which is built upon crossing over mecha titles of both genres. Ironically enough, this show is the exact reversal of Dai-Guard (A Real Robot in a Super Robot setting).
  • It's believed by some that this is the first Brave style series in decades since Gaogaigar. However, there have been new Brave installments in the 2010's/2020's. The first is a sequel to Gaogaigar and Betterman, the cancelled Project Z, later renamed King of Kings: GaoGaiGar vs. Betterman, that was revived back in the 2016(Web Novel)/2018(Manga). Also the parody gag manga, Isekai Yuusha G-Shine that was released in 2020. Then there is the manga Brave Universe Sword Grader in 2023. There's also the Brave style series like Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion and the Tomica Super Robot series which have mecha designs and setups similar to the Brave series.
• Signature Scene: Bravern's, e-hem, passionate re-telling of his and Isami's first fight together in episode 2 is often used to demonstrate the sheer abundance of Ho Yay in the series, as well as Bravern's extreme Single-Target Sexuality.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • To the Brave Series, with the "Brave" in the title, the sentient mecha, and logo designs being similar.
    • Speaking of which, it's this to the first installment, Brave Exkaiser, right down to almost looking like Exkaiser's design. its sword, and even the later Burn Dragon is patterned after Exkaiser's Dragon Jet.
  • To Gravion and Dancouga given Bravern's design is very Gravion-esque, and his sword is drawn like Dancouga's Dancouken. Not to mention all three series involve Masami Obari.
  • To Super Robot Wars: Original Generation, which also has a setting involving both a Real Robot war and alien invasion, and the characters have Super Robots on their team. Isami and Smith's eccentric American and stoic Japanese dual protagonists setup feels similar to Kyosuke Nanbu and Excellen Browning.
  • To Detonator Orgun, another series that was previously directed by Masami Obari. Like Orgun, the basic premise revolves around Earth being invaded by a race of cybernetic aliens whose weaponry far outstrips humanity's own, with their only meaningful opposition a similar machine piloted by a reluctant protagonist whom he shares a mysterious connection with.
  • To Shin Mazinger Zero in that it involves one of the characters traveling back in time to assist the main hero, all while sharing an intense loyalty and dedication to them.

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