GIRLS BRAVO (EPISODE 1 and 24) (2004-05)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological*

I think I gave Mario Kaneda's 2001-05 harem manga GIRLS BRAVO pretty good props when I gave its first episode an entry in my mythcomics list. At the same time, I also mentioned that the remainder of the manga episodes were just unremarkable slapstick antics with ample fanservice added. About the only noteworthy thing about the manga's conclusion is that dorky lead male Yukinari more or less pledges his troth to the otherworldly ditz-girl Miharu. But this isn't any sort of sacrifice, because in contrast to the majority of other harem comedies, Yukinari isn't being ceaselessly pursued by most of the women in his orbit. There's just one crazy girl chasing him, but Yukinari has no interest in her, or in his childhood friend Kirie, whose feelings toward him are left ambivalent. 

The last three manga episodes have a "hurry up and finish" quality. Even though Miharu and two other natives from her dimension of "Seiren" have been staying at Yukinari's house for months and months, suddenly Miharu's bitchy sister Maharu claims that none of the Seiren natives can stay on Earth because it burns up too much expensive power. Maharu also summons her sibling back so that Miharu can get married to a ruling noble. 

After Miharu's gone, Yukinari finally grows a pair and, with the help of his coterie, follows the girl to Seiren and pulls a "Graduate" by interrupting the wedding. Strangely, though, it's Yukinari's licentious classmate Fukuyama who comes off best, beating down the evil noble while making a chivalrous defense about men protecting women-- even though, as I mentioned before, Fukuyama has always dedicated his rich boy's existence to groping as many pretty women as possible. After foiling the wedding, everyone goes back to Earth with no further problems about power-usage, at least in my translation, and things return to their regular state of chaos. Whether high schooler Yukinari will eventually marry Miharu, his ideal girl, is left unanswered. 

Now, years ago I watched the 24 episodes of the anime's two seasons, and there's not much more to say about most of the TV episodes than there is about the manga chapters. The initial TV episode, "Bravo from the Bathtub," is a close rendering of "Act One" of the manga, and in this case, I think the adaptation maintains the same mythic concrescence as the original comic. However, the last episodes, culminating with Episode 24, "Final Bravo," improves on the manga and creates a better myth-tale than creator Kaneda did.

This time, Miharu isn't yanked back to her homeworld for a marriage, but because she has a special power that Hijiri, the female ruler of Seiren, wants to manipulate. In addition, a super-psychic named Yukina is an obverse of Yukinari, being allergic to men, and she and Hijiri plot to turn Siren into an all-female world. In the big climax, all of Yukinari's friends have a role to play in the rescue, with Kirie getting an extended fight-scene against Hijiri. Yukinari, not being a fighter, manages to talk Yukina out of her plans by drawing upon his own experience as an outcast. 

As in the manga, Yukinari pledges his love to Miharu, yet once all the cast members go back to Earth, the protagonist now he has Yukina pursuing him as well as Fukuyama's crazy sister. But the biggest difference in the denouement is in the disposition of Yukinari's childhood friend/defender Kirie. Given that the second season of the anime came out after the conclusion of the manga, it may be that some fans complained about the tsundere Kirie not getting any action. The script for "Final" suggests that she might have a thing for Fukuyama, despite his history of stalking her and other women. In any case, the final episode gives Kirie as many pursuers as Yukinari has, as she ends up being chased by Fukuyama, Hijiri and a female guard named Kosame. (There's a lot more lesbian humor in the anime than in the manga, incidentally.) 

Both manga and anime are mostly pleasant confections along the lines of America's ARCHIE comics, albeit with more fanservice. But so far I've yet to find a really concrescent ARCHIE story in any medium, while between them the manga and anime of GIRLS BRAVO managed a score of three-- which isn't bad for a harem comedy that's not particularly well-remembered.