Blue Archive the Animation

Kivotos is a federal megalopolis comprising thousands of schools and is led by the General Student Council (GSC), which acts as its governing body. Ironically, despite being an academy city, Kivotos is rife with gun violence, and all students wield firearms as part of their everyday lives.

As if the crisis in Kivotos was not enough, the GSC president is nowhere to be found. Fortunately, before her sudden disappearance, the GSC president enlisted the help of Sensei—a teacher who is most likely the only one in Kivotos—to support students in their time of need. Sensei's first course of action is to assist Abydos High School, a once prestigious academy now with merely five students in attendance. These remaining students are doing everything they can to pay their academy's crippling debt of almost one billion yen.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Takanashi, Hoshino Main

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Sunaookami, Shiroko Main

Ogura, Yui Japanese

Sensei Main

Sakata, Shougo Japanese

Kuromi, Serika Main

Ohashi, Ayaka Japanese

Izayoi, Nonomi Main

Miura, Chiyuki Japanese

Okusora, Ayane Main

Harada, Sayaka Japanese

Sorasaki, Hina Supporting

Hirohashi, Ryou Japanese

Onikata, Kayoko Supporting

Fujii, Yukiyo Japanese

Rikuhachima, Aru Supporting

Kondou, Reina Japanese

Hayase, Yuuka Supporting

Haruka, Ran Japanese

Ueki, Tatsuya Producer

Inaba, Yuri Assistant Producer

Yamagishi, Daigo Director, Series Composition

Naya, Ryousuke Sound Director

Reviews

Jun 24, 2024

eleven_exists

Recommended

I'd love to call this an anime made for fans of the game and not for the average viewer, but honestly half the time I was watching this it didn't even feel like that. That being said, if you like the game, sure, give it a shot.

The weakest volume getting the weakest adaptation definitely suits, and if there's ever another season I feel like it would look much better than this due to the overall better quality of the story and fights. The visuals were alright, nothing amazing but nothing horrendous. The lineart for characters was pretty thick/blurry rather than the thin and crisp style ... I'd grown used to in the PV trailers. Compositing/lighting was pretty good and didn't seem too flat.

Overall animation was pretty clunky and rigid, however some fight scenes (especially in the second half) started to move towards being more fluid. but even then non-fight animation was either non-existent or just... meh. You can definitely tell which cuts were done first, for example a certain cut in a scene in episode 11 (NOT what you're thinking of...) was really fluid compared to the rest of the scene, most likely because it was done at the beginning of production.

The opening and ending sequence really shows what the studio/s are capable of though, as the visuals are amazing and everything feels more like the PVs. The jump between those and the main show is quite jarring, lol.

I'm no expert in guns so I can't comment if the sfx were realistic or not, but overall the sound design was your average anime sfx. Nothing bad but you're not watching the next Yasumasa Koyama or Rei Ueno show. Voice acting was good too.

I liked all the cameos we got! It was nice to see characters that weren't a part of this volume be included in a scene or two.

Characters designs felt a bit off for a couple characters. I think Yuuka's was a bit weird-looking, but since she was a cameo and not a main character I didn't mind too much since she only had like 1 scene lol

There was a lot cut, such and worldbuilding and stuff, so whilst the main story flowed alright, it still felt a bit weird at times. Again, this didn't seen like it was intended to be viewed by an audience that hasn't played the game, so cutting out parts that fans like is a weird choice. I do get the episode limitations and all of that though.

Overall, I wouldn't watch this if you haven't played the game. And if you have played the game, I would only watch this if you LOVE the Foreclosure Task Force volume or just have some free time. I would still recommend this to Blue Archive players, but not excessively.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 23, 2024

slavemaster_1991

Mixed Feelings

Blue archive is a rather strange anime. First things first: I have never played the source game, but I have some experience both with games like that and their adaptations. So, what does this anime have?

Pros:
Visuals. Unlike most promotional anime, this one looks pretty solid. Not only do the characters themselves look good, but the backgrounds are nice, and even the action is properly animated.
Sound. OP/ED are chill, VAs did a really good job, I have nothing to complain about here.
Characters. They are distinct, they have their own personalities, even though there isn’t much time to get some development - those are still entertaining. I ... will mention that the villains are somewhat meh, but considering those are some game bosses to go through - I didn’t expect them to be good in the first place.

Cons.
Worldbuilding. Where is it? Cause I didn’t find any. 12 whole episodes ended and I still have no clue why the girls have halos, why are they armed, how they are just knocked back after catching a slug from a shotgun to the face, why is there a mix of humans, those halo-girls, some humanlike dogs and robots living in the city in the first place - none of those things is explained. While for a gacha game that has dozens of chapters, events and a lore on the wiki this situation is not a problem, for a short 12 episode anime it is - cause through the whole thing I was confused about the world and this confusion didn’t really go away.

Mixed:
Story. How do I put it? If this anime wants to be an action - this amount of story is not enough, as there isn’t much story to begin with. However in my opinion this is more of a “cute girls doing cute things” show, and for that type of anime story isn’t really required, so I am willing to give Blue Archive a pass and not judge it for lacking a good story.
Fighting scenes. While the animation is good, the structure of the fights is strange. In most fights there are basically 2 stages: nothing happens, heroes are pinned down, enemies are shooting at walls for whatever reason, and after that the main cast says something like “we can win/I have a plan” - and the real combat begins. The second part looks cool and is well animated, but I still wanted to mention the existence of the first part, cause it does feel strange.

Overall: if you have played the game - I can bet that you will like it, cause you already know the world and will not have questions that I had. If you haven’t played the game - your enjoyment will depend on your ability to ignore the holes in the worldbuilding and the story. As for me - I enjoyed the show. It was cute, it was nice and it was fun to watch, even though I still don’t know what the hell is going on in their universe.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 9, 2024

Allsaints112

Not Recommended

This anime is not great. It leaves you with more questions than answers and it doesn't explain itself or progress at all well.

From the very beginning you will have questions that are never answered such as why is everyone fighting? That basic question is never truly answered apart from the debt they're in.

why is a school being targeted and why are the adults allowing kids to run around with guns? This question is Never answered.

Within the first episode you witness someone get shot in the head by a gun with live rounds. They end up getting up and walking away without a scratch. This ... is another question that the anime never answeres and makes all the fighting feel pointless.

There are civilians that are being dragged into the fighting with building exploding and cars being shot at and another question is who pays for the damages and why hasn't the civilians come together to put an end to this? This is never answered as the civilians are nonchalant about it walking around in the background while the students are shooting at one another.

This anime shows moments that are supposedly touching which involves the meeting of two of the students and clearly it's made to be sad however we as the viewer get no information or backstory on why it is sad and so these scenes become weightless and nothing of importance as we get no explanation or flashbacks to connect to.

The characters do not have personality. Within the game this anime is based on you play as sensai the adult shown in the anime and you become close to the students and learn what they like and dislike like any other game and you are able to share one to one moments with each character however with this anime we don't get that. We are instantly thrown into a fight in the first episode and we get no real time to connect with any of the characters and learn why they do and why they feel how they feel. We are told that alot of students don't trust adults however the anime never goes into detail as to why. It is a big part of the anime as it takes up a majority of dialogue in the anime but we never find out why they distrust the adults.

Another question that I found never answered was the halos. It is shown that they disappear once the students are asleep and appear when they wake and there is a reference to the halo within the anime but it doesn't tell the viewer what the purpose is that they provide. This is another important question as all the students have a different version of halo and the teacher and enemies have none. So why do the students have halos?

This anime is lackluster as the story is simply the prologue in the game. The anime doesn't tell us why the teacher came to the school or why every other student from other schools knows him. He comes into the anime with everyone knowing him but us as a viewer know nothing.

There are some positives for this anime however. We do get some waifus and we do get some comedy which I found lands rather well. We have some iconic moments from the game such as the masks and bank but apart from the comedy the anime does fall apart and fail rather sad as it's difficult to connect to characters you know nothing about and have little personality.

I found the side character had more personality than the main cast.

The intro is rather interesting as it opens with the character covered in blood to which makes you think ohh this may be interesting however after that point at no point is blood spilt. People get shot in the head from point blank range and end up without a scratch.

Disappointed as I was rather hyped for this anime as I enjoy the game.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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