Ranked #410

Break Blade 2: Ketsubetsu no Michi

"It's just when I look at them, I can't help but go soft on them"

The first movie in the Broken Blade franchise was an interesting, albeit flawed start to this weird mixture of magic and mechs, its story was baggy, its characters were typical and the only things it really had going for it where its excellent art and great voice talent, so the question that was on my mind when I went into Broken Blade 2: Ketsubetsu no Michi is, does it get better?

First, let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. The story still doesn't explain anything about magic or why being this un-sorcerer is so important, granted you only get them like what once in a millennium? Oh great, big whoop, next your going to tell me that your going to start adding prophecies to the story and then its going to be a complete turn off. In fact, the whole magical element seems to be downplayed in Ketsubetsu no Michi considerably turning it into a more stereotypical mech which is a crying shame considering it was such an intriguing prospect.

So with that issue out of the way, let's get onto the good stuff. With the magic element now downplayed I was left wondering now what? Well for a start, the story is a considerable improvement over Kakusei no Toki, character development seems to be the call of the day here and it shows. Zess particularly is a more fleshed out character, and is the one character I can empathise the most with here, his reasoning for being so soft on the women in his squadron isn't a stupidly convoluted one, nor is it that simple and I won't spoil it for you here. Suffice to say, I was very satisfied by Zess here.

The pacing of the story seems to be going up as well, with a lot more emphasis here on Rygart going out to fight in his Golem, I mean sure this is a mech anime so giant robot fights are inevitable, but this is not just a case of "Good mech here, bad mech here now fight to the death" Rygart genuinely tries to avoid the conflict and not because he's a coward, again his reasoning makes sense and Rygart too is much more likeable here. His best scene being the tense showdown he has with Zess during the halfway point.

The first Broken Blade was definitely one that knew how to impress with its art and Production I.G pull through again for Ketsubetsu no Michi. The one glaring flaw in the first movie has been completely removed here, and with that you would think that Broken Blade 2 should be an absolute stunner...not quite. Its unfortunate but the great art here doesn't pack as much of an impact as Kakusei no Toki. Granted its still an absolutely great looking movie; but now that you get used to Broken Blade's art style completely that's all it is, there's no clever uses of CG here, it's just a great looking movie and while that is definitely not a bad thing, there has to be more to do than just making a movie look great.

The excellent voice talent from the first movie also makes a great return and Souichirou Hoshi and Hiroshi Kamiya impress yet again as Rygart and Zess. Although with the exception of Kenichi Ogata and Yuko Kaida, the rest of the supporting cast doesn't manage to impress as much as the leads which is a shame considering the talent on offer here but perhaps that's the point. If the main goal of Ketsubetsu no Michi is to develop the two leads then it does, and it does it well. At no point here does either Souichirou Hoshi's performance or Hiroshi Kamiya's feel forced or unrealistic, it all sounds natural which is how it should do.

Again the music in the films doesn't really impress, although the outstanding opening theme "Fate" by KOKIA is marvellous to listen too, really capturing the feel of the movies and impressively showcasing her talent. Granted it may not appeal to everyone, and it certainly won't be the one that most people sing along too, but its great nonetheless.

As you've probably figured out by this review, Ketsubetsu no Michi is all about character development here and there isn't really anything else about them to say. They are a definite improvement over the archetypes that were set up in the first movie which is great, you can definitely feel more for the two main leads more than anyone else and grounds them a lot more than they were in the first movie.

To sum it up then, Broken Blade 2 is a definite improvement over its predecessor, although its not quite there yet; there are still some problems that it needs to address and I'm still waiting on that magic explanation, issues aside its definitely finding a soft spot with me.

Roll on Broken Blade 3. read more

Here in the second movie of Break Blade (2/6) we get to learn more about the people in Break Blade, or well mostly of Zess and his team. We get flashbacks, plot development and much more. And just like its predecessor it is about friendship, war and everything in-between those. It starts nicely with some fights while it was good I don’t think it was good enough, or I mean it could had been better, The way they showed the fight was actually pretty uncommon if you ask me.

The sound is just like that of the predecessor, it’s fine. I do like the OST but could have been better of course, but it didn’t suck so I guess that’s fine. Wish there had been more new songs or sounds, they pretty much only reused the same sounds used in movie 1, but I guess that’s what to expect since it’s so short. The voice actors is better than before, they managed to capture that quirky of the characters, really making the expressions of the characters more meaningful.

I’m looking forward to see more of both supporting and main characters since they’re all interesting, and I really hope we get to see more of Sigyn and Rygart, love involved? Who knows, I hope so that would be something awesome. It’s good to see Rygart decide what he wants to do. And I hope this plays well.

Art and animation is something I kind of shouldn’t talk about since it’s unchanged from the first movie, or I didn’t see any change. It’s really good looking, mecchas look good and the characters too. It really makes you feel like you’re out there in the sand watching them fight right beside you. I still wish the mecchas looked a bit flashier though. It still is one of the good points of this movie.

While it wasn’t as good as it could had been, or as good as I expected it was really good, better than the first and I really hope that the following upcoming movies will be even better and better by each movie seen, they probably will since now we will know more about the characters, their personality, what they think about wars, and why they are involved, their relations and such things. I really think this will be all about the 4 friends and their friendship, rather than just about the mecchas.

If there are any tips you can give me I’d be glad to receive them. If you recognize bad style, wrong use of idioms, spelling and grammar etc, please send me a comment telling me what I can do different in the future. read more