Break Blade

Titles do not usually hold much - if any - meaning. But in the case of Broken Blade, which is better known in Engrish as 'Break Blade' (BB), the title refers to the broken blades visible on the head and back of Rygart's (the lead & pilot) robot. The titular broken blades also - symbolically - link into Rygart's character. One of the two things they symbolise is how broken as a person he is in Break Blade's universe due to his "unsorcerer" (can not manipulate quartz / use technology) limitations. The other is how mentally broken he becomes as he goes from being pacifistic ... to the extent he refuses to fight back when hit to killing in a war. What they SHOULD NOT also be able to symbolise is how its adaptation is so hopelessly broken that it is better to skip it ALMOST entirely. Never before has an anime title been quite so depressingly accurate...

A blank TV slot in 2014 for twelve episodes? Easy money wanted? THE SOLUTION: Copy & paste six OVA-movies from 2010-2011; splitting the 50 minute episodes into 20x2. To hell with there being no time to correct the anime original rushing / alterations from the movies that required a remake in the first place, much less fit in all of the content from the movies. JUST DO IT!... Insanity is said to be repeating the same actions and expecting different results. And the sad thing is, I would prefer this series to be an act of insanity. Or outright stupidity, even. Better that than laziness driven by greed.

Before anything else, let me make this clear: I, Aion, like BB. *A LOT*. In the same way that Evangelion stands out from the 'mecha' (neither Eva or BB are strictly MECHANICAL) crowd by being almost anti-mecha due to its psychological breakdown / post-traumatic stress disorder approach to piloting, so too does BB. It is not a series where a teenage boy has always dreamed of piloting a walking war machine and then learns some harsh lessons about war along the way. Instead, it is a series where an unwilling young adult, lacking in discipline and mental strength, as well as natural talent, forces himself to fight when he has no desire to do so. What follows the battles is never triumph; it is despair. The lead, Rygart, had been a farmer before discovering that only he - a social outcast due to a rare inability to manipulate quartz in world where 99.9% of people can - can control an ancient robot. The very reason he is an outcast with no loyalty to his nation proves to be the reason he ends up fighting in a war for his nation. A tragic irony that illustrates just what type of series BB is--a series that refuses to glorify or paint an heroic gloss over war. And I would not have it any other way... which is why it is a pity I can not say the same for this anime!

::Manga vs. Movies vs. TV::

Now, stay with me as I *TRY* to make sense of this for those in the dark, with as few spoilers as possible:

There is a fan favourite bishie-psycho character called Girge. He is CRITICAL to the eventual mental breakdown AND growth of Rygart; post-anime especially. In the movies, the best part of the series - a Girge 1 vs. 6 fight - was cut. Worse yet, what occurred immediately after was also cut. This created numerous issues with the series going forward, including even the end of anime fight, and not just in terms of how the fight played out (kicking intelligence vs. swinging shuriken). The meaning was changed to such an extent that the fight ends in the manga with people cheering for Rygart as he laughs in an insane manner... to silence and Rygart passing out in the movies. Other, even more problematic issues include the movies COMPLETELY removing the Krishna-Orlando political intrigue, as well as turning a LENGTHY siege where Krishna tried to hold out in their capital into a nonsensical last stand where Athens' army LITERALLY ran in a straight line and jumped over the walls in one attack. An elaborate faux betrayal 'lure them in' strategy was removed in favour of a time-saving CHARGE! and Rygart swinging a gigantic weapon around like an angry monkey. And, NATURALLY, the Orlando content is important if there is any hope for a sequel. Orlando did not even arrive to help! Practically everything from (roughly) ch35-51/52 in the manga got cut and/or butchered; dialogue replaced with rushed stupidity.

So, now we come to this 'TV version', some 3-4 YEARS after the movies, with the promise of putting right past mistakes. The 12 episode length should have been a warning. There was ZERO new content in episodes 1-9. Everything copy & pasted from the movies. NOTHING to identify the TV version as its own entity. Not even touch-ups or remixed music. Episode nine (where things NEEDED to start changing) ended with Rygart moronically charging after Girge during an ambush, just as he did in the movies. Even the fate of Rygart's village in the same episode was not altered. Episode ten *DID* add THE Girge fight.... however, episode nine had made it made it clear that any changes would be entirely superficial. And this proved to be the case: all that was added was the fight and a THIRD CANON event (in episode 11) that held no value whatsoever without changing the circumstances surrounding those events. You see, in the manga Girge and Rygart are captured immediately after the fight. And what plays out in this scene will forever haunt Rygart. In both the movie and TV versions, Rygart falls off a cliff and never learns what happens. The animation studio went for an easy fix, not wanting to fully re-animate, and failed to even paint over the cracks. A facepalm worthy accomplishment, for sure.

EVERYTHING else in the 'TV version' played out the same as in the clusterfuck movies 5-6's 'sprint to the end; THE HELL WITH DETAILS--CUT!' finale. Not surprising since more episodes and TOTALLY re-animating everything from Rygart's return to his village (ep9/movie5 onwards) was required, but still... Rygart relied on brute strength / luck in the climatic battle via swinging a yo-yo of doom, followed by his believed-to-be-dead-in-the-anime little brother JUST HAPPENING to walk up to him at the end, immediately after the climatic battle at the end of a war (not at all forced). Then, bizarrely, Rygart does what I assume was supposed to be the insane laughter from the manga; it coming across more like relief than a psychotic release due to the timing. And as a parting shot, the show even managed to rub salt in at the last by ending with 'Goodbye!' instead of 'See you again in season 2!'. I can not wait for the third attempt at a BB anime that MIGHT actually adapt the manga so there can be a sodding sequel. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

::Other Complaints::

-- Rygart's Characterisation:
In the manga Rygart still does actions that can be described as stupid, but he also saves the people from his village AND learns enough from Girge to fight in the final battle using skill rather than brute force. In both anime, he disobeys orders to go save his village - failing to save anyone - and he fights brainlessly in the final battle--leaving viewers with the impression he risked lives without saving any and remained useless. There is no sense of 'Wow, he saved lives!' or 'HE IS GETTING BETTER!', and this leads to people hating the character, which is unfortunate given that he is one of the more interesting characters due to his struggles and how he starts to go off the deep end later.

-- The Girge Fight
The best part of the manga, which was skipped in the movies. It was added to the TV version. It is the ONE positive to come out of... this. But I was not impressed, OF COURSE. With no budget whatsoever having been spent in the 9.5 episodes that came before, I expected the entire budget to be dumped into this one fight. Maybe with a new epic piece of music to distinguish it from the rest of the action. Instead, I just got speed-lines and re-used music. So, rather than a reward for enduring, it came across more like a final insult. "We will spend ten minutes on the scene, dutifully, but we will treat it like just another scene." That is how it made me feel. And, maybe because of nostalgia and/or the disappointment, I felt NONE of the manga tingles I recall from when I read the fight in the manga and was left in awe... even though action is the weakest aspect of the manga due to it being hard to follow. It just left me indifferent.

-- The Opening: Junction Heart
Almost anyone that has heard the movie opening by Kokia (Fate) and watched the visuals it is paired with ends up emotionally moved. The song is beautiful, granted, but the real reason for this is that it gives an insight into what sort of series BB is, with an anti-war vibe given by the direction and the music giving a sense that the human condition is going to come under examination in the show. Junction Heart, on the other hand, as you might expect with such a generic name / HEART is... well, generic. The song is vaguely uplifting / exciting average action anime fair, while the visuals consist entirely of facial close-ups from the re-used OVA, a 'zoom through characters' part re-used from the Kokia opening... and brief bits from the ONE new fight scene. It is THAT lazy. And the ending 'animation'? One massive page of character stills panned from left to right. Not even worth mentioning. NO EFFORT.

-- 50-to-40 Scene Removal / Shortening
Honestly, this did not bother me TOO MUCH. But it was always a background issue. A second adaptation should never offer LESS; even more so when simply copying & pasting from the first adaptation. The earliest example I noticed was when Rygart talked to Narvi and they cut the dialogue from the scene; just briefly showing them interacting. That was the strategy: cut as many corners as humanly possible in order to make it fit. The one episode where it was really noticeable was the one where Rygart trained and Girge was introduced. It jumped around so much that it was confusing to see what happened to General True when it switched to him, having cut the first part. Many others commented on this particular episode.

::Closing::

Just to be CRYSTAL clear, this is NOT a 'purist hates anime adaptation; RAGE' review. How can it be when I rated the movies 8-8-8-7-7-6 and this 'TV version' is a slightly abridged version of those same movies? No, what this is is a 'Break Blade fan HATES anime inexplicably COPYING a flawed adaptation, which required a remake, 3-4 years later for an easy cash-grab' review. People new to BB, much like myself when I watched the movies, regard the series highly and will see my score as being 110% unfair. But they are not seeing the full picture: they did not watch this same content years ago, then read the manga and - after getting their hopes up - wait years to see logic defied by having the same mistakes repeated anew, with only 10-15 minutes of new content. Not re-drawn, not re-animated, not re-scored: just ONE fight and meaningless death added. Hopefully this is the first and last time I get to experience a 'second adaptation' (/having an editor copy from the OVA) that fits in even less content whilst not fixing any of the problems created by the first adaptation. It hurts my brain just thinking about the pointlessness. It is as if the animation studio were so incompetent that they attempted to fix the problems without having read the manga. That is the only conclusion I can draw from the way the scene in ep11 was... executed. And I can not decide if that is more offensive than simply copy & pasting the movies.

When an anime is low budget, creativity is often used to mask it. Break Blade 2014 had neither money nor effort applied to it. It is a recap movie delayed so long that no-one cares; when there is no hope of a sequel--a recap movie presented as a TV series that deceives those unaware of the movies. Watch the movies, YouTube the Girge fight and read the manga. Do not even bother with this. It looks pretty for a TV series, it has an epic yet emotional soundtrack... and yet, these positives belong to the original version: not this recap. STAY AWAY... especially if you go into it having watched the movies. Only those new to BB could get anything out of this, and even then it is better to just watch the movies since at least then you are not watching an abridged version of an abridged version!

Break Blade is one of those animes with a lot of potential. Unfortunately this is just a "12er" (only 12 episodes), and this is just not enough to develop a deep story and profound characters.

The strongest part of this anime however is, without a doubt, the art, animation and sound. It is just incredible. The highest quality you´ll probably ever see in a mecha anime. A lot of details, colours, special effects. The mechs are a 100% hand-drawn, yet they still look better than any other made with CGI.

The way the producers used the art in combination ... with the sound of moving and clashing metal gives a (more) realistic feeling of super big and heavy machines moving and batteling...

...and this brings me to the next point, which makes me give this anime a straight 10/10: the batteling of the mechs. mother of god. i´ve seen gundam animes and what not, but this is just over the top deluxe mecha fighting like any boy or man dreams of. the fighting is so intense at one point that watching an entire episode seems like just 5 minutes passed. The enjoyment is fantastic

so... this is why you should definetly watch Break Blade if you like mecha animes. It won´t give you a super story and super characters like other ones, but it will blow you out of your socks with the animation and the mechs battleling the shit out each other.

-peace- °_°V

Broken Blade it is then.Well in my opinion the specific anime is the most underrated of the past spring season.I will be more specific below.

Story:7--Its not nuclear science thats for sure but it solid nontheless.The 3 main protagonists(Zess rhygart and Hord) are connected with a deep friendship coming along the way from the past.The people of this continet(Cruzon) use quartz to move mechas except Rhygart, who gets to operate an ancient golem(aka mecha).Unexpectedly Rygart and Zess will confront each other in the battlefield serving different countries(even though rygart isnt a soldier)

Art:9. The art is simply fantastic.As a fun of mecha animes, i am a harsh ... judge when it comes to art and battle implementation between mechas.Well in terms of meele battle this definitly one of the best animes with mechas around,they are just awesome and so fun to watch.

Sound 7:Decent sound and music soundtracks.The quartz weapons sound kinda strange though, but in general quite satisfied with the outcome

Character 8:I love the Characters,Rygart the protagonist its not the usuall super duper talent who gets to operate a machine for first time and starts to nail the battlefield.Nevertheless he is decent and it takes long time to get used to it, not to mention even at the important battles he doesnt manage to make the difference(something i really like personally). The character development of the other persons is very well balanced and solid aswell, and everyone gets some respective time.My fav is Baldr commander

Enjoyment 8. I have been enjoying the specific anime very much, maybe cause i really love that type of anime, but beyond thats its an anime worths seeing

Overall 8. I DEFINITLY reccomend the anime to mehca lovers, beyond thats its still a very good anime to watch, with decent plot and anime development, i kinda beileve the 7.57 its a bit harsh i think it deserves better, in my eyes its the second best anime after Mahouka rettousei this spring season, but thats a personall opinion!

Break Blade (Broken Blade ; ブレイクブレイド ) Is a TV adaptation of manga with the same title. Before TV series there was series of movies, and the thing is both of them are the same thing. It really is hard to point out difference between those two, more so TV series is fundamentally chopped movie without any will of redeeming ending for manga fans.

Art and animation is really enjoyable, combined with battle music can easily stun viewer. Manga is easily the best mecha comic you can read, and so Movie/TV series could become one of the best mecha production - Movie ended differently because ... it overtook manga release, that was understandable at that time(manga release was and still is painfully slow). BUT TV series never bothered with straightening it up, like they never gave a f*ck.

If i had to evaluate TV/Movie (they are the same thing, just different opening/ending) then yes its strong 7/10 cuz of cheap ass rip off (for my personal score 9 out of 10 for a 1-3 parts of movie).

Do not believe anime viewers only - go and read manga, its probably THE best mecha manga you can get.

This show, whether by bad editing of the movies or budget constraints or failure to adapt the source material faithfully; is one of the most disappointing Mecha anime I have ever seen. Break Blade's promising premise coupled with it's intriguing introduction only makes the following trope-filled, messy remainder of the show hurt more by contrast. The great visual work, animation and fight choreography (for the mecha at least) coupled with the work of Yoshihisa Hirano for the soundtrack keeps the viewer excited and intrigued during a good deal of scenes, I will admit. However the story and characters do not manage to uphold ... this standard.

The setting, while intriguing initially; falls apart as the world is "fleshed out," or in Break Blade's case, a lack thereof. The core element of the BB's universe, the quartz control, is barely explained, and characters rattle off statistics as if even they don't fully understand how it works. One minute the cords containing the quartz within the golems are the most integral part, the next the strength of the quartz within the weapons is most important, and then near the show's end the quality of the quartz is now the key element.

This effect extends beyond the quartz control; elements such as how pulse guns obtain their power (is it the size of the bolts or the strength of the pilot?) or what the best way to do battle in a golem is (are numbers really that important when a couple of strong golems can wipe out an army?) are boiled down to the infuriating anime trope of "____ technique or weapon is effective when the plot finds it convenient" Sometimes bolts can destroy a golem in one hit, and sometimes the BBs armor can shrug bolts off as if they were anti-personnel rounds. It doesn't matter as long as the viewer sees the bad guys killing a lot of good guys so they know they're bad.

But hey, maybe that stuff doesn't matter. It's a Mecha anime, right? You don't have to think about it logically! However, if you stop thinking about the cool things like how the golems work while you watch Break Blade, you now have to think about the characters and their motivation.

BB doesn't have bad characters at first. Upon starting the show, you're introduced a pretty cool, airhead MC, a chill king with a cute owl and serious ace rival-type. The only annoying one is Lee really at the beginning, and upon finishing the show, I would've preferred 10 versions of Lee over what we got towards the end. Spoiler warning if you still plan on watching the show. Just know I wouldn't recommend it for the following reasons; so keep reading if you don't care too much.

I guess I'll start with Rygart, who has an interesting set up for character building where he could be learning about the reality of war and how impractical it is to let your enemy live; contrasting with his upbringing and the teachings of his father. But after his first "kill" he spends a day brooding but is then fine with killing any soldier afterwards (as long as it isn't Zess). His character's growth could have made for a neat message about how impractical it is to not take lives in war (a refreshing idea in this genre) but that idea gets completely thrown out the window when a 12 year old successfully takes out an entire troop without killing a single person (all the while filled with rage and propaganda-feuled hatred) The only other element to the character of our hero is that he is Zess' friend, so there could at least be a dynamic between the two where they are both misunderstood yet forced to fight, but no, Zess gets injured in like the 3rd episode and doesn't return in the show WHATSOEVER until the veery end. There are no cuts to him back home at all in the show, and all the characters (except for Cleo, but we'll get to her) simultaneously forget about Zess' existence. And that's pretty much it for our MAIN CHARACTER. There are a few weak attempts to show emotion in Rygart through his little brother and Girge for some reason, but they all feel awkward and out of place. Hell, the guy gets more pissed when Girge makes fun of him then when he sees his entire village where he grew up slaughtered.

Speaking of Girge, I'll go over him quickly. He is brought in somewhat late to the cast and he is introduced as this insane loose cannon; but the only crazy thing about him is how crazy overpowered he is; for no explained reason. Again, because the "plot finds it convenient" Girge gets the ability to damage named character's golems, and as such he ends up fighting more often than our main character and singlehandedly kicks every antagonist's ass in; only to be killed off immediately after for again; no reason, as if he was a filler character meant to patch up some plot holes and give an excuse for more cool robot fights. The entire cast goes from hating him to liking him, he has a tacked-on side plot with the Baldr, and the only crazy thing he does is to pretend to be scared.

Now I could go over every 2-dimensional villain or frustratingly incompetent ally, but I'll just cut the fat and skip to the top 3 worst characters in Break Blade. Here they are:

#3: Nike: Pointless fanservice character. Let's make a little girl who's somehow stronger than most of these trained soldiers and give her a custom mech with a cheesy "kill-off named characters you're supposed to care about" function. Oh and lets also make her crazy but not ever elaborate on that. Don't forget headpats!

#2 CLEO: We spent more time talking about how this 12-year-old has big boobs than we did talking about anything else. Did you get that she's 12? We also threw in a bunch of other elements because we weren't sure what to do with her character past the boob part. Well let's make her a clutz, and let's make her not fond of killing, but let's also make her a newty- I mean a natural born pilot who can learn how to pilot the super hard robot in a day (for some reason). She also is really good friends with Lee so that'll create some drama when Rygart "kills" her, but wait, that would mess with her side that doesn't like killing; so let's just have her brood for a bit but then get over her best friend's death. Oh and everyone's off fighting a war so someone needs to keep the queen company so let's spend a lot of time outlining a completely unbelievable scenario so we can get the underage girl to sit in lingerie with our other fanservice character. Who cares that the idea of a Queen bringing a POW to live in her bedroom with her is absolutely baffling, even for anime (I won't even get into the scene where "Cleo escapes" I'd be here all night) we need the Queen to show her boobs somehow!

#1 Sigyn: What a mess of a character. You have the romance elements, which are fine, although like most things in BB, just sort of established; not explained. Like neither her nor her hubby wear their rings, but why is that? Is is just because everyone knows she loves Rygart? Why does she even love Rygart so much? Whatever that part isn't the worst anyway. You've got the fanservice of course. It's not particularly engaging or sexy; it just feels outrageous and out of place. If you actually expect me to believe this Queen goes to bed in a see-through silk vest and panties while she has a POW in her room you must think I'm pretty stupid or you just don't give a damn. With BB it's most likely both. But then Sigyn is also a scientist and engineer? It's not exactly made clear. She can do this so they don't have to have another character to be the "tech explainer." Isn't handy how she made the Rygart a weapon to use to defeat the final boss right before the fight? Our Queenie sure is smart! Except for the POW thing and her multiple attempts to do something stupid where her aides have to stop her. The reason Sigyn is #1 on this list is because she is boring. She is sort of cute in some scenes but she isn't written well enough to be likeable, or bad enough to be funny.

And that's pretty much it for the characters. No one really stands out that much and weirdly most of the established "main characters" are swept aside when the story actually starts to progress. The erratic actions and unclear motives of everyone in Break Blade makes the viewer feel confused and disconnected.

To wrap it up, Break Blade is a unique type of bad anime. One that is hard to hate. It tried something new (sort of) and had uniqueness and skill in it; but not in the right places. It exists as an example of how art and sound direction can't carry an anime. No matter how hard I tried to invest myself into the fights in the later parts of BB, I couldn't get as excited as I did in the beginning; where I felt some tether to BB's setting and characters. As that withered away, so did my tether to the show as a whole. It's sad that the whole show had to suffer on the part of the poor story and character direction; but it was there and caused Break Blade to be an unenjoyable show to watch. I would not rewatch this show; even for laughs; and I would not recommend to watch this show fully. Maybe if the setting or designs appeal to you; watch the first 5 episodes and drop it before it disappoints you and leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

TL;DR: Skip this one; but if the you like the designs or just love medieval Mecha, look up "Break Blade fight compilation" and you won't miss much. (or just watch Escaflowne / Panzer World Galient)

There are two types of people who'll watch this anime. Those who are new to Break Blade and those who aren't. This review will be more oriented to the latter.

This is the alternative canon, to the alternative canon. So you fans of the manga hoping this was to follow the manga much closer than the movies had-- be the true adaptation, you'll be disappointed, it does change a few scenes to be more similar to the manga, but they're few and far in between. Overall it's 92% of the movies, if one wished to express it as a percentage.

So this'll be a short ... review, since there's little to cover that wasn't in the movies. The most important question is whether or not it's worth watching. Simply put: no. Unless you could go for re-watching the movies but desire the differences.

The OP was changed from the rather nice one in the movies, sung by Faylan for one that's more so average J-Pop. A minor complaint if anything.

Despite the televised format the animation is still very much the same (don't know why it wouldn't be, but worth noting I suppose), which is quite gorgeous. Both the visual quality and the fluidity of the Golems, namely.

The same goes for the OST. Which is still nice, but there's no new additions aside from the OP and ED.

All in all, there's little reason to justify watching this unless you're looking to re-watch the movies. It's still the movies, with a few improvements.

Review to self:

Plot: the plot progression was so slow and almost tiring to watch. Nothing out of your ordinary mecha style story line. It would have been much better if it ended with zess reuniting but I guess there's probably another continuation somewhere on the Internet. There's so little detail about other nations apart from the fact that MC is going to war because his friends nation allowed another nation to pass through them to invade their neighbours. Shallow plot leaves more to be desired

Art and design honestly loved the quality added in this anime, animation was so smooth with characters being finely created. I ... would not have noticed the difference in this series (2014) and a series made within the last year based on art style and design. That being said many parts of the series were a single frame being panned or zoomed in, I guess it meant they had to focus quality on certain scenes more than others. Overall amazing art and design

Character development: dense character palette, personalities were decent but nearly none of the characters developed, not even MC. They were all rather slow if at all, definitely space to improve with character development.

Enjoyment: this was a neat watch for a 12 episode series condensed into 6 episodes at 50m each. Felt that there were parts missing like the high school back story all the main characters referred to, since opening ep 1 just shows MC near death in the desert.

Overall: not really worth the watch if other shows are lined up, I'm glad to have finally watched this series after putting it off for so long though. One more anime under my belt

Before I begin I would like to clarify the fact that this review is regarding the (hopefully first) 12 episodes of this anime. In terms of potential I truly believe this anime has immense potential in the long run.

For what it manages to accomplish in 12 episodes this anime is amazing, but that in and of itself is the issue. 12 episodes isn't really long enough for the story to develop and advance enough. Although you may binge watch the series in one go because the story is interesting enough for that there will be an unfilled void once you finish it. There are a ... lot of unanswered questions, and it is all just left up in the air.

WAIT! Before you go I would like to point out it is still definitely worth a watch, if not for the story and characters which may seem underdeveloped then for the art. Yes, the art! If you have read any of my other reviews you know that I have a hard time critiquing art. Well here it is, the art is awesome...
It is hand drawn, but looks better than the majority of the cgi I have seen. Combine awesome art with a plot about mechs and we are a go. The battle scenes are great, and make the anime worth a watch.

This anime is for those interested in an adequate story with a lot potential, that has amazing hand drawn art. It is an action and military based anime with a relatively serious mood. Honestly it does exceptionally well in the limited time allotted to it.

This is a drop of fresh blood in sea of little stale mecha anime genre. Although is lacking in some aspects, it's overall a rather good watch. This review will be with spoilers, and sorry for my not so good English :)



Story-8

The story is not too complicated, yet not too simple, one could say that it's just there to motivate characters to fight each other. Powerful country/aliens invades the weaker nation/race, something used quite a lot in mecha genre, not so much to talk about there, but as a whole it fits very good in the world of Break blade.

Art- 10

Art is amazing, ... animation is gorgeous, fights are animated very well, I must point out awesome design of mechas (golems ). Not much more to say here :)

Sound-8

The sound ( especially OST ) was done better in movie adaptation of Break blade, on the other hand seiyuu had done great job again here. I must also add that some of the sound effects sounded muted.

Character -9

Biggest problem is that some characters personalization was done better then the other. Girghe, Zess,Borcuse and Sigyn were done quite good, where the others, not so much. I gave 9 cause Girghe had been quite unique char. which I've liked the most :)

Enjoyment -9

As I've said. it's quite good watch. Battles are awesome, story is fine and easy to follow, animation is great, as is the voice acting (I think of original Japanese VO ).

Overall-9

As I usually say, every form of art can pull some strings in someone, and inspire him/her to do something, so I encourage you to watch as much animes as you can, but your impression is only your own, cause the art is in eye of the observer.As of Break Blade, could have been overall 10, if they've done some things better. I gotta say that I personally like Break blade, for it's originality in mecha genre, for the fact that they put pilot's skills above raw power of MCs mecha, for the fact I was in love with Kokia's Fate song from movie adaptation. You should watch it, it's that kind of anime that u can love or hate, it's on you to decide :)

Break Blade (TV) was a rushed anime, I believe it would of been better to not rush it and aim for a second season. But overall it was a good anime rushed but it was entertaining, the graphics were very detailed which made it good the characters backgrounds were also interesting though it was a shame what happened to the characters.I .The anime I would expect a second season but it does not seem likely due to the manga, but otherwise the anime is well made good story line over all I think it would be a 7 or 8 out of 10 good ... must watch anime. It is a good anime that I enjoyed due to all the fights and the pinches the main character was in enjoyable anime for teens.

The animation quality and detailing this anime got is a very rare gem, and its from 2014. The effort the animation team put on this is incredible for that time. Its been 7 years and the quality is so good.

The detailing the reactions the physics of every fighting move, even when they get shot or falls down the animation and particle detailing is way too high than most of the other mecha anime out there.

Its still underrated and not so popular among the new generations but daym this is one hell of an anime. I just fell in love with the effects and physics ... and the work they put in this anime so this is a masterpiece for me. Though there should have been a 2nd season for it but I guess I will watch the alternative ver to find out if it goes on from this point or not.

But if the animation team ever stumble upon this comment then I truly thank you for the effort you guys put in this animation.

Well to start off with break blade is a 12 episode anime. So just know that they will be a lot of unanswered questions, underdevelopment of a lot of things but trust me its worth a watch.

story 8/10 - Story was good, if you like mecha in general and the whole 2 sides fighting each other then you will enjoy it

art 10/10 - Don't let the first few episodes fool you the art is great and the fact that the mechas are hand drawn is honestly the best thing about the whole show. Also, they are some amazing fights

sound 9/10- From the ... voice acting to the mecha fights you will get immersed into each fight. Lol, just bear in mind they is a lot of shouting

characters 5/10- It's a 12 episode anime so really only the main character gets any real development if any

Overall I'd say break blade is like a diamond in the rough. It could have been something great if only it was given more episodes and a lot more work was done on it. However, i will say I got really invested in the story and that if you love the whole mecha genre in general and you want something interesting to sink your teeth into then give break blade a try.

overall i give it a 8/10

BTW I just finished watching the anime, so I might go and read the manga

The premise is about a war amongst nations for the control of natural resources. It is also about several personal dramas around pilots and aristocrats and their interactions during these times. In theory this could have been a great epic of strife, ambition and tragedy around the needs of nations forced down the path of violence and destruction. In practice though it is hardly as interesting.

The most obvious reason is the action. The whole thing looks like a dull Gundam rip-off, where the pilots keep monologing and explaining everything to the viewer instead of just letting us get it, minus the big explosions and the ... poser mechas. It focuses too much on skirmishes and duels with simplistic field tactics that doesn’t make you feel you are watching a continent-wide war. What you mostly see is big robots punching or firing at each other with invisible fragment bullets, the gunshots of which are almost as if they use a silencer and the damage they inflict is a simple dent. Even hand-to-hand battles are simplistic to the point you don’t even feel you are watching mecha action but some b-grade armored dudes brawling. Heck, the mechas themselves are made of crystals and not metal and you feel they are big chunks of rock. They are in fact called golems that mostly act as armors. It’s dull to look at.

The only time the action becomes interesting is when the elites of the war are having showdowns. All of a sudden the top pilots can use weird superpowers and a bit more strategy which makes everything look better. The rest of the time is as a whole boring action-wise and I never understood why they even need entire armies when it’s just the elites doing all the work and deciding the outcome of the war. Couldn’t they just have a tournament or something? It would spare them the thousands of deaths as well as the waste of resources.

So the action is mostly a miss but what about the sociopolitical angle? Nation A invades nation B and must win before nation C decides to aid B against A. And that is all the politics you get in this show. In fact, nation C doesn’t even matter since everything was decided by the duels of a handful of pilots; so we might as well screw the tens of thousands of troops that were sent to die in this so-called war. Don’t go expecting any complicating mind games and unexpected plot twists because you won’t find any; the whole story is straightforward and simple enough even for elementary kids to follow. There are several scenes where generals and kings chat about their next move and it ends up being dead time as all you hear them say is how cool their few elite pilots are and how they alone can win the war. I believe this was done deliberately so the kids would be amazed and buy the plamo kits easier.

Let’s proceed to the drama part; maybe that will be good… Nope; it is again weak. One guy is worried about becoming a heartless killer, another girl gets captured and has duty clashing with morality and… um, that’s all of it actually. What, you expected more? Sure, there are about two dozen different characters in this anime that affect the plot in some way, yet besides the generic shonen lead blondie, the rest have a very weak presence in the story. They all talk and they act and nothing seems important to remember because they are all typical shonen archetypes that solve their differences with good old fashion SMACK THEM DOWN. And since the action is mostly boring not even that works in the show’s favor. I hardly understand their motives, like why the blonde queen is sleeping with the big busted loli who tried to kill her, or why is there a woman that looks like a kid, or why did the megane dude surrendered and allowed to be killed in battle when he owned everyone during the fights. And who the heck is the opposing elite general? I don’t know anything about him other than he is an ass with good fighting skills. What is going on here and why should I care? This is all paper thin.

The production values are far better than your average anime, but the mechas move rather crudely and fight simplistically, while half the backgrounds are barren wastelands with rocks. There isn’t much variety in locations or uniforms either. The only thing I visually remember is that blond queen who gets naked every 15 minutes, just so the viewer can stay awake through the uneventful scenes.

As a whole it is a wasted world of multiple nations at war and of supposed political games that even my 10 year old nephew can understand. There is very little to see or expect in this series, and frankly I don’t understand praise it got for its supposed amazing story and wonderful animation. An average Gundam series has ten times more exiting action, an average shonen series has far more interesting characters, and the story can be described in three lines of text. Character interactions are basic and in effects throw in the bin the whole setting.

If you have watched any actual good war epics, I don’t recommend it. If you have seen shows with good mecha action, I don’t recommend it. Heck, the average viewer would find it hard to stay awake through the dull plot or the simple fact it is a mecha show. Don’t believe a single person who claims this is some sort of masterpiece when it fails to be good even among its contemporaries.