Yashiro, a man in a striking orange trenchcoat, wanders under the streetlights of Tokyo, heading to a card game. He shivers at the thought of the money he has lost already and the cost of food, rent, and taxes these days. But his night is about to get more complicated: Suddenly, a bloodied high school girl falls to the ground in the middle of the street. Chasing her, a gang member with a gun appears in the shadows. The girl urges Yashiro to run, but he doesn’t: Instead, he distracts the assassin with his talk, injects himself with a bright liquid, and makes short work of the other guy. The girl, Jougamine, heals herself instantly: We’re in the Tokyo of the future, and the discovery of “ether,” a substance that enhances the human potential for magic, has led to the rise of criminal Dark Lords in the seedy underworld of the Japanese cities—as well as to the Brave, the superheroes who fight them. Jougamine is a Brave, and so is Yashiro, but they could not be more different. She is an A-student in a Brave academy in Shibuya who takes pride in her profession. He thinks of his kind as “the worst.” But Jougamine is not done with Yashiro: Tonight, her group got overconfident, and one of her friends was kidnapped by the Dark Lord they were fighting. Yashiro doesn’t really want to help, but the idealistic, strict, stubborn girl insists…

This was an extremely enjoyable first episode! The idea of Dark Lords and superpowered individuals battling it out in the Tokyo underworld is an evocative one, and the noir touches are much appreciated. I loved the “Wanted” signs, the seedy bars, what we see of the power system, and the implications that swords and guns are used in equal measure. The Dark Lord looks threatening and impressive. But what really got me invested in the story was the contrast between the personalities of Jougamine and Yashiro, and their different outlooks on what it means to be a Brave. The idealist vs. the world-weary, the rule-follower vs. the instinctive player, the one who keeps the heroic ideal intact vs. the one whose morality has grayed with the years, the teenager vs. the twenty-something: I think that there’s potential here for a cool, mutually enriching, buddy cop-style story, and I’m here for it. The secondary characters look fun, and if the show is sometimes more bloody than I’d like, so far the fights look vibrant and interesting. 2026 starts strong: This is my favorite show of the season so far, and I can’t wait for next week!

Scum of the Brave can be streamed at Crunchyroll.