Brave Animated Series

Lore & Background

The series is set in a RPG fantasy video game-like world where a group of heroes, called Braves, aim to stop the evil forces of the Demon Kingdom. However, they soon realize they are not on the right side of justice. The plot follows a Newbie Brave who discovers that the Braves are actually bloodthirsty warmongers seeking to eradicate the demon race for experience points, leading him to unite with the demon kingdom. The series satirizes RPG game tropes and fantasy media, critiquing the roles of heroes and villains and human nature.

The voice cast includes Tseng Yun Fan as Main Brave and Sick Demon, Sun Ke Fang as Dragon Brave, Fu Pin Cheng as Morewant, and many others. The first season consists of six episodes, adapted from the first 260 chapters of the original comic, with a writing period of about half a year. The second season was released on August 23, 2025, on the official PTS XS YouTube channel, following a teaser campaign in April and May 2025.

Reader's Guide

Brave Animated Series holds significance as a Taiwanese production that successfully adapted a popular comic into an animated format, winning the Best Animated Series Award at the 57th Golden Bell Awards. Its satirical approach to RPG and fantasy conventions, where the supposed heroes are revealed as the aggressors, offers a critical commentary on narrative tropes and moral ambiguity. The series also demonstrates the growing capacity of Taiwanese animation, with a budget of TWD44.2 million for the first season and production spanning 2–3 years. Its distribution journey—from a delayed pandemic premiere on Public Television Service and streaming on MyVideo, Line TV, and Netflix, to a 2024 removal from Netflix and subsequent official YouTube uploads—reflects the evolving landscape of digital content. The second season's release in 2025 further cemented its ongoing relevance.

Did You Know?

• The series was delayed from its original June 13, 2021 premiere date to July 4, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In 2024, the series was removed from Netflix after the contract between Netflix and the show's producers ended; full episodes were later uploaded officially on YouTube.
• The soundtrack, composed by WeiFan Chang, drew inspiration from the sounds of 80s and 90s video game consoles, including the Game Boy Advance.

Satirizing the Hero's Journey

Brave Animated Series takes the familiar scaffolding of role-playing games and fantasy epics and turns it inside out. Set in a world where Humans, Demons, and Dragons have been locked in perpetual conflict, the story follows a group of warriors known as Braves whose stated mission is to slay the grand demon king Morewant and restore peace. The twist arrives when a rookie among them discovers that the demons are far from the evil beings propaganda paints them to be, while the Braves are revealed to be ruthless warmongers motivated less by justice than by the experience points they earn for wiping out an entire race. Rather than continuing down the expected path, this Newbie Brave chooses to ally with the Demon Kingdom to stop the very army he once served. The result is a sharp satire that interrogates the moral assumptions baked into gaming culture and fantasy storytelling, questioning who gets to define good and evil and what victory truly costs.

From Comic Pages to Global Screens

The series originated as a comic book franchise by Yellow Book before being adapted into animation by Big Cat Studio in partnership with Aries Creative and Public Television Service. Its broadcast debut on PTS was originally slated for June 13, 2021, but the ongoing pandemic pushed the premiere to July 4 of that year. Beyond its television slot, the show found a digital audience on Taiwanese platforms MyVideo and Line TV, and it also secured an international streaming home on Netflix. That global arrangement, however, proved temporary. In 2024, the contractual agreement between Netflix and the show's producers expired, and the series was pulled from the platform. In its place, full episodes were officially uploaded to YouTube, giving fans a new central hub for the show. The second season followed on August 23, 2025, landing on the same YouTube channel and continuing the story for audiences who had grown accustomed to the series' new home.

Critical Acclaim and Industry Recognition

Critics responded warmly to Brave Animated Series, singling out its narrative structure, animation quality, and comedic timing as standout elements. The show's ability to balance absurdist humor with genuinely pointed commentary on power dynamics and moral relativism earned it a reputation as a fresh voice in the fantasy genre. That critical goodwill translated into a major industry honor: the first season was awarded the Best Animated Series prize at the 57th Golden Bell Awards, one of the most prestigious recognition ceremonies in the Taiwanese entertainment landscape. This win placed a relatively new animated property alongside established television and film works, underscoring how seriously the awards body regarded the series' craft. For a show that had already navigated a pandemic-delayed launch and a streaming-platform departure, the Golden Bell nod served as a validation that its satirical ambitions and production values resonated well beyond its initial audience, cementing its place in the broader conversation about what animated storytelling can achieve.

A Cast of Unconventional Heroes and Villains

The voice cast of Brave Animated Series brings an extraordinary range of characters to life, many of whom defy conventional fantasy archetypes. Tseng Yun Fan voices both the Newbie Main Brave and the manic Sick Demon, one of the four general demon kings, while Fu Pin Cheng portrays Morewant, a demon king who must constantly pay rent on his own tower. Sun Ke Fang lends her voice to Dragon Brave, a human-dragon hybrid coerced into service to protect her parents, whose father is voiced by Niu Kai Yang and whose mother, the Blue Dragon, is voiced by Xu Shu Bin. The ensemble further includes a goblin, a slime, and a warrior bunny forming an unlikely trio, a narcissistic superstar brave whose rapier doubles as a microphone, and a vampire demon king who moonlights as a psychologist. Multiple actors double up on roles, and the roster spans anthropomorphic creatures, hybrids, and fully original characters, creating a world where no single faction holds a monopoly on complexity.

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