Break Blade Movie 1: Kakusei no Toki

Well I was pretty surprised to know that Break Blade got a movie! Talk about being out of date. I've read the manga and quite liked it, though in the manga, mecha battle scenes aren't drawn very well, it gets kinda confusing. So I was pretty excited to watch the movie, to see what the mecha battles will be. And this movie really doesn't disappoint me in anyway.

Story: 7
Kinda typical story, a boy who can't use any magic in world where everyone can use magic, but somehow can activated a Golem that no other person managed to activate. Even if it's typical, I think it's ... played quite well. This is only the first movie so I can't say much about the plot, but I've read the manga so basically I know the story further than what this movie has shown, and I'll say that if the next movies continue to follow the manga, it will turn out to be good.

Art: 9
This is where I was struck the most. The animation is pretty good, the mecha battles are done pretty well. Though the mechas movements aren't nearly as fluid as Gundams, but I think it's done on purpose, since the Golem technology in this show isn't very advanced as how it is in other mecha shows. (This was not said in the movie, but it was said in the manga.) Designs for the mechas are interesting. They're not as flashy as other mecha shows, yet they're designed pretty well. As a mecha maniac I liked the designs of the mechas here. Character designs are average, though I quite liked it. At least there's no excess of moe/bishoujo/bishounen (they do exist, though at an acceptable dose.) Overall a good art, both in animation and design department.

Sounds: 8
For me, sound is divided into 3 parts: Musics, SFX, and Voice Acting. Music is nice, this movie has good opening and ending songs, and good musics throughout the movie. SFX are nice as well, they are made to be quite 'real'. Like, the sound of impact of a pressure gun is not as strong as the sound of impact in other mecha shows, since pressure guns are generally weak after all. I'm no pro at voice acting, but at least there's no annoying voice acting like those overly moe/shy character voice which is quite prevalent nowadays.

Character: 7
Sadly, there's only 50 minutes to this movie. Which means that there's not much character developments. Some cliched yet interesting characters are used, it's not really a problem for me since a cliche can be interesting when played well. Though not much character development, this first movie gives a good base to expand in the next movies. Let's just hope they do expand it well.

Enjoyment: 9
Pretty enjoyable for me. Cliche story that is played quite well to make it still interesting for me. Good animation, interesting mecha designs, and a fair character designs. Nice music, SFX, and VA. Characters that even though haven't developed much, already has good base to expand. Other than those, I liked the setting of the world in this movie. The world is full of magic users, so magic is generally used in everyday life. Even so, magic here isn't really that almighty like in many magic based story. There's no ultra powerful destruction magic or time controlling magic. Here, most of the things that magic can do are common things that can be done in real life. Moving vehicle, shooting pressure guns etc. This is what makes the setting interesting for me. Also, there's not really any awesome weapons here. The only weapons are the weak pressure guns, or the standard melee weapons. Though some may think this is a minus point, I liked it. I got kinda tired from all those high-tech, high destructive capability weapons in many mecha shows nowadays. This makes the world in which technologies are not very advanced and weapons are generally weak much more interesting.

Overall: 8
I want to give 8.5, since this is better than 8, but doesn't really achieve 9. But there's no 8.5 score here so I'll just give 8.
A pretty good show for me. Though I think this is kinda underrated, since not many people seems to give much attention this show. This show is pretty interesting in many ways that even surprised me. Before watching I thought I'm gonna give this a 6 or 7, but after watching, I changed my mind and give better score. Though, I still need to wait whether the next movies will also be good or not. Let's just wait and see then.

Just finished watching it and I liked it.

Story-7,it's not uncommon,still in the Gundam form- a guy that appears incapable of doing something or common suddenly manages to fight a robot different from the others in order to protect his friends.-Despite that,the story is structurated well,though i still believe 50 minutes isn't enough,especially for the first part,in order to introduce us well to the characters.But for now we do have a presentation to the main character,Rygart Arrow,and a small idea about the other characters.

Art-10,because it is Production I.G. and XEBEC we are talking about,and it looks well for me,as a mecha-fighting anime.The surroundings,canyon and desert ... really seem to bring out that feeling of isolation and arid grounds.

Sound-10- because it is Kokia that does the opening,with another amazing and beautiful song,and Faylan's ending is also nice and more action-like.

Characters-8.It is hard to grasp the characters for now.But i do have a general idea concerning Arrow,Sigyn and Hodr.I like that Arrow is the more realistic,peaceful type.He has accepted his image in the world as a '' un-magic user'' and tries to maintain peace.I am curious about how he will face the problem of ''fighting'' his old friend.He seems rather innocent somehow [which makes him cute*giggles*].It is more than obvious that ,although Sigyn is married,there is something between them [ and not only friendship...i dare to say xD]

Enjoyment-10- it was very dinamic for a first part episode/ova/movie..and things didn't seem to progress too slow...but not too fast either,although it is because of this,that i wanted more than 50 minutes of it.

Overall-10, for a first.I really enjoyed it,as a mecha-action,it didn't let me down at all.But,you will have to watch it to see for yourself.

Coming from common knowledge of mecha animes, Break Blade 1 doesn't go that far from reintroducing different viewers to what is really appreciated as a great genre of anime.

To start things off, I could say that BB1 is something very typical of an action/military that contains a hero. It's cliche, as some of the reviews had already said. However, I admired how it was implemented well. There's great character development which helps the movement of the story. Rygart, who I can describe as an unconventional hero since he lacks the ability that all of the people around him possess, shines out. His lack of power ... is what makes him that distinct from the other pilots, as well as his own Golem that only he can control. Given this foundation for the story, BB1 leaves us hanging for what Rygart can do as an unconventional pilot in a city that seems like on the brink of losing the ongoing war.

The art in BB1 is very detailed and stunning. The sound and animation are also top-on since they make the mecha battles and normal scenes very engaging and exciting. The caliber of the art and sound all contribute to the enjoyment of the movie as one. Some scenes which seem ordinary and normal are all elevated to somewhat a grander level because of the voice acting alongside the art.

I didn't expect for the protagonist to have close connections with royalty since we are used to stories having heroes serving the king out of duty and responsibility. In BB1, we see Rygart serving in the army not only because of his duty, but because of the idea of friendship behind the war. This must be the first time I experienced this type of story which is very refreshing to watch and experience.

I am quite excited to watch the remaining five movies after BB1. It serves as a great teaser or introduction which is very effective in making the viewers crave for some more mecha action and perhaps a romance story out of the blue.

This review will cover the all 6 films, thus meaning that this review will be an overall review of all the films, got it? :)

The very first moment I watched this series, I knew right away that I'd be in for a great ride, and if you're into the mecha, shounen and military action genreas, then Broken (Brake) Blade is the anime for you and you won't be disappointed.

I give the overall story a 7. Why? Here comes why.
The story had a great start, however, I think that it seriously lacked some elements that would make the story better. The story is pretty chronological, so ... the films don't jump between the past and present, besides some important flashbacks. We get some information about the main characters and their background, but I think the story would have scored higher if the viewer was fed with more information about the characters, the different nations, the different mechas. And I'm quite sure, and many will probably agree, that the anime would be much better and probably have higher ratings if one or two more films were made, as the anime ends too soon, or has an ending which is leaves a few questions unanswered.

Art gets a 10.

Great art. From the landscape, the charahcters, the cities, mechas and other various stuff makes the whole thing great. The landscape, where many of the epic battles are fought, is just great. Although it's a bit desert like, it's quite realistic with a lot of small and canyon like cracks to open plains. One thing about the character art is that all the crachters are... ehm.. normal. Yeah, Normal would be a fitting word, no anorexic looking charahters, they just fit and blend in perfectly. If we go to the mechas we see some epic machines in some epic battles. Just the way we see how these machines get battered, beaten, broken and torn is just epic.

Sound gets a 9.

In many animes the background music is more or less constantly on, thus no one really cares for it, or pays attention to it for that matter. This one is an exception. The background music in epic when it's turned on, and the epic music goes along with the epic battles. Simple as that. And the opening for the films was great. I also quite like how we hear the sounds of the different weapons, mechas and other transportation vehicles. Then comes the voice acting... Overall it was okay. Most of the characters had fitting voices and had the right intensity for the intense moments and the dramatic tune for the dramatic scenes. Except the main character which through out the whole show had the same dull voice.

Characters get a 6.
I don't think that I've ever given an anime less than 7 for their characters. Sad that this was the one who got less that 7. And the reason is the lack of character development. Althoguh the series just span over 6 films/episodes, we should have seen some considerably development from the main character Rygart, and I really think that there were some character who were more or less left out. I'd like too see some of the supportive character develop into something better. It isn't worth more than 6.

Enjoyment gets a 10.
And the reason for this is the "epicness". I genuinely enjoyed all the battles that were fought. This anime really is in the top when it comes to giving the viewer some great battle scenes. There is some minor humor, but the true enjoyment come from the many battles.

Overall I give the anime 8.
It's not the worst one neither the best. What gives it this high average is the art and enjoyment. If the makers of the anime would have put more time into the story and character development, we would have an anime which could compete with other major mecha anime.

Break Blade? I still think someone translated it wrong.

When the movie starts, the first thing anyone would notice is the mecha battle. Basically their way of saying, “Ya, that’s right, this is a mecha show.” Honestly, I tend not to expect too much from mechas, simply because most are not that good. At best I expect to give this show an 8 overall, but I hope it will give me a reason to give it more.

The first thing I want to talk about is the art, because it’s the first thing you see. Right away you will notice that the budget for this series ... is way higher than your normal anime, but not as high as 5 cm per second. The animation is very fluid and high def. The fluid animation becomes really prominent when they start throwing cool camera angles and pan overs across the screen. One visual affect that I don’t normally like is the use of CG. Most times the CG is weird and pops out of the animation, but Break Blade seems to have done it right. For instance, the running water out of the faucet was actually very pleasant to look at. As far as visual effects and animation, this movie gets a 9/10.

The second thing you will notice is the sound. The music plays a major role in this film. It’s used to convey a characters feelings and basically sets the mood for the show. One plus I will have to give the makers was the use of an opening and ending song. The opening song was used to set the mood. What it did for me was give me a since of great struggle in the road ahead. The ending song was very similar to the opening, except it was there to remind me of what was ahead. Besides the music, there are sound effects and voice acting. The voice acting was very solid and the voices went well with their characters. As far as I could tell, there were no sync errors. The sound effects would have to be my favorite part of all. One might say, “who cares about sound effects?” My response would be, “Me and anyone who cares to watch good shows.” The sound effects in this show are ridiculously natural. Every animation had sound to go with it and the sounds felt right. It was almost to the point of full immersion, like I was right up there in the action. For this movie I will have to give the sound a 10/10.

The most important part of any show is the story. One thing that someone looks for in a show is how it sets itself apart from other shows. Well, Break Blade gives a nice change of pace when it explains the setup. Basically, the main character is a “non-sorcerer” or someone that can’t use magic. The reason for giving you this term would mean that everyone else in the world has the ability to use magic. The form of magic in this world is the ability to manipulate crystals. Because of the ability to manipulate crystals is possessed by everyone except the main character, all technology in this civilization is based around crystals. Here is where it starts to get unfortunate. While this show has a different setup, it also starts to align itself with other mechas more and more. Who would have thought, main character who is trying to find his place in the world happens to come upon a mecha that is completely different than all the others in the world and one that only he can use. Believe me, I think I’ve seen this story line six times now. While being cliche, the producers did execute it correctly. Since this is only one part of the six part series, my hopes are that it does not end the same as the other mechas with the same story line. It would have been cooler if all the mechas were the same and the main character figures out that he just has different magic than everyone else. So far the story gets a 6/10. Five points for the cool setup and one point for the generic story line.

My favorite part of any show would be all the different characters and how they interact with each other. Unfortunately, with a cliche story there a lot of cliche characters. In other words, you can tell which role each character is suppose to be. This is true for most of the supporting characters. Fortunately, the main character and his friends seem to be some what different, as is their interactions with each other. I would have to say that the character designs are very nice and easily distinguishable from other shows. Meh, this feels like a 7/10.

As far as enjoyment goes, I really did enjoy watching this first movie. While knowing where the story might go, it still had it’s differences. Which is important, because if it was just another boring gundam, I would drop it. The really good animation and sounds kept me very immersed, while the characters intrigued me with their interaction. Even though I was bugged with the story, everything else was good enough for me to enjoy the film as a whole. I’ll give enjoyment and 8/10.

All the points added up would give this movie an 8, which is about where I would put it. You may not care for the story too much, but everything else is still worth your time.

Note: My thoughts in this review cover the entirety of the Broken Blade movie series instead of one specific movie, just to give folks a heads up.

Broken Blade explores a young farmer named Rygalt Arrow who finds himself becoming entangled in a war between two kingdoms when he finds himself capable of piloting an ancient mecha named Delphine that others in the kingdom of Krisna are incapable of doing. Throughout the span of six movies, Broken Blade features Rygalt reuniting with the rulers of Krisna, Sigyn and Hodr, who were old friends of his from military school and adjusting to life as a soldier when ... he agrees to join the Krisna military. He comes to learn that another friend from military school, Zess, is fighting on the enemy's behalf.

Broken Blade has a nice number of the common cliches of a mecha anime you can expect of the genre such as the unwilling hero, the powerful mecha being the last hope for the struggling side and some merciless and violent soldiers that both kingdoms put on the battlefield out of desperation to save their hides. Despite this though, the series proved to be an engaging one thanks to Rygalt's past connections to Sigyn, Zess and Hodr, on top of adjusting to being a soldier. Broken Blade offers a solid amount of fleshing out on the four exploring their past ties together and actually making the bond feel legitimate, with some hints dropped that Sigyn might have had an interest in Rygalt during their military school days. Rygalt also gets a reasonable amount of development for his character as he starts off unwilling to get involved in the war at first until seeing the realities of it lead him to become involved in Krisna's military. The movies also took some time to explore its world as it delved into what led to the start of the conflict between the two kingdoms, the corrupt activities brewing in Athens and the "magic" technology that is part of everyday convenience for those among both kingdoms.

Visually, Broken Blade has a solid presentation with nicely detailed mecha and character designs, vast shots of scenery, vivid colors and nicely choreographed battle scenes. While there are occasional shortcuts with animation such as speed stripes and still shots, the series still did a solid job making action scenes engaging through clever use of cinematography to simulate movement and not make the movie seem like it was on a tight budget.

For all the praises I have to give Broken Blade though, it does have its glaring flaws. The movie's most engaging and promising focus, the hostility among friends Zess and Rygalt, only occurs for the title's first half before it gets cast aside when Zess' role in the storyline gets reduced with Rygalt and Krisna forces dealing with General Borcuse. While Borcuse does make for a somewhat interesting antagonist for the second half with his formidable mecha abilities and battle knowledge, he doesn't get much in the way of depth and his storyline developments aren't as interesting compared to the more personal rivalry involving Rygalt and Zess. The movie series also lacks a proper conclusion as the war between Athens and Krisna goes on, Zess is about to return to battle and there is uncertainty over what Rygalt will do from here on out.

Despite its flaws and conventional elements though, Broken Blade was still a solid watch for me with its solid characterization on Rygalt and his three close friends and the title having its engaging action sequences. This is certainly worth a look if you are a fan of mecha anime.

First of all I want to clarify that I’m writing this review after watching Movie 1. I have no clue how the story will develop. Maybe I’ll throw my final conclusions at the page of the last one. Who knows.

Also, I apologize for every single spelling mistake I make in this post. I’m not really good at English.

So. I think an ideal word to describe this series is ‘simple’. But not in a negative way. If something is simple, yet catches your attention, it means there must be something good about it. I have a hard time paying attention to video’s that exceed 20 minutes, ... so I decided I would watch a part of this movie, to see if it was interesting or not. Before I knew it, it was over. It didn’t felt as if I watched such a long episode. The story was very interesting, imo. Yet, there are several reasons why I use the word ‘simple’.

First of all, let’s talk about Rygart Arrow, the main character. He’s 25 years old (god bless every 18+ mc in anime) and is one of the only people that can’t use magic. Yes. It’s an averted trope. Whereas most anime throw mc’s at your face that happened to be able to unlock some kind of badass power, Rygart is the only one who can’t. Indeed, the story is about a ‘normal’ main. It’s something refreshing to see. I won’t say I never bumped into this trope before, but it is definitely nicer than the most special of special snowflake mc, that happened to be the chosen one and saves the world even though they’re less than 18 years old and have no experience in life or whatsoever. Yet, you could argue about how ‘unique’ the plot actually is.
But oh well, since I’m only at the first part, I can’t tell how the story will develop, but making the main this ‘normal’ compared to the other characters, could eventually push the story towards the ‘special snowflake’ trope. If he’s the only normal character, he’s still the ‘only’ one, making him more special than the others. But I guess we’ll see once I continue watching.

So. Simple series. What do I mean by that except for the fact that Rygart is ‘normal’. Well. The story isn’t all too complex. In my opinion, it was ideal. I don’t really like to watch anime movies, as the pacing is often odd. It’s either as fast as a mad bull running through an arena or as slow as Windows 8 doing a ‘minor update’. The pacing in Broken Blade, was great though. The conversations don’t feel too long and stretched, yet it’s not all too hard to understand what’s going on and everything is clear and well-explained. It’s an interesting storyline, yet, it’s not too confusing. And this is something that counts for pretty much everything in the series. The character designs aren’t all too complex or outstanding, but they aren’t boring either. And in fact, I didn’t mind the lack of music. Sometimes, the silence created a special, idk how to say it, ‘aura’. And the songs that played were nice. Some of them felt like ‘typical’ background songs, others were just very beautiful.
Honestly I loved how ‘classical’ orientated the music was. You could easily play some of these songs at a classical concert and nobody would note it was supposed to be music for a movie.

What I found rather disturbing in the beginning, was how Rygart happened to be best friends with the king and queen themselves. I thought he was supposed to be as simple as possible, making him childhood friends with them, didn’t seem right. But after thinking this through, I realized the purpose of this relationship actually is supporting the series it ‘simple’ vibe. It’d be really hard and unrealistic to come up with some kind of story to how King Hodr found out about Rygart, how they need to gain each other’s trust, Zess’ part of the story and the relationship between Sigyn and Rygart (I cover that one later on). Making the four of them friends, made the story better, in my opinion and I’m curious to see how things will develop in the sequel.

Okay. So about Sigyn. Honestly, I’m not all too keen on the RygartxSigyn hints the first movie gave us. She’s married to Rygart’s best friend. It’d be highly disturbing to see her cheating on him for no good reason. And no ‘Rygart is my true love’, isn’t a good reason to me. As I enjoyed the plot for so far, I really hope they won’t ruin the series for me with some half-assed love triangle.

As last but not least. The art. The freaking art. It’s beautiful. The animation is really well done, even the mecha fights were great. The bots had interesting designs as well. Not too weird, yet not too similar to the other ones I already saw.

Overall I think this was a really enjoyable movie and I’m really looking forward to the next part!

This is going to be a Fast and Dirty review for the whole six OVA series.

Break Blade is a mecha OVA series that doesn't really offer anything new to the veteran anime viewers. We have a medieval-fantasy setting with mecha-golems. Everyone has the ability to use magic except for one young man who can't. Their peaceful nation is attacked by a powerful foreign power. At the knick of time they find a mysterious ancient mecha-golem, and guess what, only the boy without the magic powers can pilot it. We have an unlikely hero, reluctant to participate in battle, who is forced to do so in ... order to protect the people he cares about.

However, even though everything seems like standard fare at first glance, the anime has some interesting ideas to offer. The mecha-golems look and fight more like stone giants with clubs, than metallic robots with guns. The way the various battles are portrayed is refreshing and enjoyable. The addition of some pretty good music along with the detailed and fluid animation contributes even more to the pleasing audio-visual outcome.

The story is adequate. As Ive already mentioned it's nothing spectacular, but it's nothing cringe-worthy either. The characters are mostly likable and they manage to get some exposition along the way. A bit of internal conflict, a hint of romance and a lot of intense skirmishes. Since the anime is based on an ongoing manga, the story is not concluded with the sixth OVA, but thankfully we get an ending since the story-arc is completed by the end of the final OVA.

All and all it was a rather unexpectedly enjoyable OVA series that manages to be more than the sum of its parts. I would certainly like to see the rest of the manga to get transfered on the screen.

Story 6
Art 8
Sound 8
Character 7
Enjoyment 7

This will be a review about the whole 6 OVAS.


Story 7/10
Once again we are faced with a somewhat generic Story. In a world where everyone is able to control quartz (and they call it magic) there is a boy who was born without this ability, yet he comes across a special kind of golem (the mechas of this world) which only he can controll and will soon be a key piece in a war between two nations.
Despite beeing quite generic I found the story to be entretaining and at the end of every OVA I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen in ... the next one.
I'd recomment aproaching this as a "watch for fun" kind of story rather than something that will blow you away.

Art 9/10
Not bad though as far as characters design goes they are also on the generic side. I liked the design for the golems and also the kind of wepons they used, they seemed to stay true to their name (Golems) rather than just beeing another bunch of generic mechas.
The animation is fluid and looks great in HD, the battle scenes are frequent and exciting..


Sound 10/10
Great voice acting and an outstanding sountrack that uses some great original scores and also some great licensed scores.

Characters 6/10.
With a generic story it was obvious there would also be some generic characters. The easy life boy who comes into war but tries not to kill anyone at first until he is forced to do so to protect his life, the childhood friends who years later find themselves on oposite armies during the war, the cold and calculating bad guy, etc. They are all to be found here, yet they still manage to be likable.
The only thing that really bothered me is the fact that some characters seem to get a lot of focus on the first 2 chapters but then are completely forgotten for the rest of the OVAS.


Enjoyment 9/10
It may be a somewhat generic story with a bunch of somewhat generic characters, but it's still a very enjoyable OVA copilation.
The fighting scenes are great and really well animated and there seems to be a good balance between Story and Action yet the focus remains on the action. By the end of each OVA you don't really care if the story is generic but you are rather excited to see the next one.


Overall 8/10

It's not a masterpiece, but I think it was well worth my time. The final OVA was a bit underwhelming with too much of the story left unexplained and a feeling that the overall story was far from over (which makes sanse if you consider the manga this is based on is still not finished) and the final battle could have been a bit more epic and it just didn't feel as good as some of the other battles.
Still, this are some really great OVAS I found by chance and I find them to be great for anyone looking for som fun and well animation mecha show.

This review covers all six movies.

A long term key animator turned director by the name of Habara Nobuyoshi was the main guy heading up the mech adventure manga adaptation into a total of six movies up to chapter 50 of the manga. Break Blade or otherwise known as Broken Blade came from a joint effort by Production I.G. and Xebec. This is an anime about mech battles being a major focus for kingdoms and nations either to take over or protect their lands. There was a 12 episode anime tv series, but the adaptation was shortened and overall not very well received. The six movie ... adaptation here does follow the source material closely up until movie six as to have the story end at a good juncture within the plot.

Our setting is on a continent called Cruzon where war has broken out between two nations called Krisna and Athens with many smaller nations around them. The main resource for power is a type of quartz mineral in which has a multitude of uses including how humans have evolved to use this quartz as a form of magic. Rygart Arrow is a rare instance of a person unable to use quartz, but as fate would have it, is the only one able to pilot an extremely powerful ancient mech/golem to fight against the powerful enemy force of Athens. With close friends on both sides of the battlefield, he ends up siding with his friends the King and Queen of Krisna and battles ensue for survival.

A short description of this show would be well animated mech battles with a fairly bland setting, a basic story line, and plain characters. The mech battles are no doubt the high point and focus of the show with the military tactics and fallout over the battles being second. Each mech action scene has fantastic sound effects, good fight choreography, and significant weight behind each weapon strike. There is also a few scenes where a new pilot or a new mech jumps into the fray and slaughters everything in sight while not feeling totally out of place such as in many Gundam and other mech shows. Where the show also shines is the impact each battle has on the pilot and the cast of characters. The mechs armor and body structure deteriorates with weaponry, takes damage accordingly, and the strain of battle affects our pilots mentally and physically. Even the main character Rygart’s super powered ancient mech stays within the lines of physical limitations and the laws of physics.

These movies are however as generic as they get. The setting as mentioned before is generic fantasy with repeated valley and desert landscape battles. Even the characters are very uninteresting never developing outside of their generic archetypes. There is even a young prodigy girl pilot from Athens that is seemingly only there to have over sized breasts and “fan service” moments. At the half way point across the six movies, more characters are brought in the spice up the war. However, time is taken away from developing the main cast to focus on this new threat where the audience can clearly see what will happen. Rygart is the hero and will overcome the odds 101. Even the motivation behind the war on both sides is not very believable and this forces the viewer to accept a very high amount of suspension of disbelief.

Overall, Break Blade is an experience that would probably only be enjoyable for seasoned mech anime fans. Even then, the story, setting, and characters are hardly breaking any ground. Luckily, the battles are most of the anime and is quite exciting. The ending is not so bad considering the manga continues onward. Decent anime for mech fans, but not recommended for anyone else unfortunately.

This is a review solely for the Break Blade movie series, as the movie veers off in it's own direction to wrap up the story.

Overall, it's a great movie series to watch. It's movie length allows you to take in a good amount of information without consuming too much time or dragging out. Unfortunately, the manga series goes on for quite a while, so the movie doesn't cover the entire manga. Which makes for an unexplained ending and shortcuts throughout the movies.

Nonetheless, the animation is great, and the voice acting fits the characters well. But like all superhero mecha anime's, the 'soldiers' are always meaningless ... in combat, and sometimes act as placeholders to simply push a character through a plot. (I.E. the character "Dan").

There are a lot of important characters in the series, and without trying to spoil anything, it's worth noting that a lot of characters with solid personalities end up suffering the 'consequences of war'. I personally enjoyed the character development, as well as the complexities between their relationships as the movies go on.

If you like the underdog rising up to glory type of anime, you will definitely enjoy break blade.

*Note: This is a review of all six films.*

tl;dr: A mecha anime with great action and characters with a lot of depth but very slow development.

Break Blade is a mecha anime, though unlike most it’s fantasy rather than sci-fi. It’s set in a world where most everyone has the ability to magically manipulate quartz and bend it to their will using what is dubbed sorcery. This allows especially skilled sorcerers to pilot enormous mechs known as Golems. However, the protagonist Rygart is one of the exceptionally rare few who can’t use sorcery at all. This would normally mean that he has no place on the ... battlefield at all, but fate has different plans for him when, right in the middle of his home country Krisna being invaded, he discovers that he’s the only one that can pilot an ancient and especially powerful Golem dubbed the Delphine.

Character wise it’s somewhat hard to grasp what this anime is trying to do and where it’s trying to go. Rygart is the epitome of this. He very much embodies the mecha trope of a character who isn’t special at all but has a special role simply because they’re able to pilot a mech. It differs from how the trope is normally used in that this is portrayed as a burden he’s suffering rather than an advantage. He starts off as the type of pacifist that naively tries to save the enemy in the middle of a war, though when that backfires he seems to drop his ideals entirely. However, this isn’t really what I would dub character growth. It’s more like it breaks him, and as the anime progresses further events continue to break him further. And at the end of the anime, despite him now being a capable fighter, he seems to be completely broken mentally. To be honest, I have no clue what’s going on in his head or where his character arc could go.

The rest of the cast also has a lot of complications that are pretty unique and thus it’s hard to predict where the story will take them. For example, the main heroine, Sigyn, seems to be in love with Rygart and Rygart seems to be in love with her. However Sigyn is already married to Hodr, who is not only one of Sigyn’s best friends, but also his king. Then there’s Zess, who despite being really close friends of Rygart, Sigyn, and Hodr, is a key figure in the invading Athenian army. He seemed to be fighting for the sake of as peaceful a resolution to things as possible, but as things progress it isn’t clear at all how he fits into things. There’s also an Athenian character that was fed a lot of propaganda about how all Krisnan’s are evil but after getting captured seems to have discovered this isn’t the case, though what they’ll do with that information remains to be seen. There are also characters that don’t really seem to make much sense, neither their personalities nor their backgrounds, so it feels like the writing is building up to doing something that will better flesh them out. But then they die off before that and you’re left to wonder what was going on with them.

Now to be clear, that characters and their arcs being difficult to understand isn’t a demerit. If the lack of clarity was simply due to bad writing then that would be an issue but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Rather, it seems to be trying to portray characters with depth, but in a story that isn’t very character oriented. The overarching plot is much more centered around the world building surrounding the conflict between Krisnan and Athena and the realities of the gap in military might between them. It doesn’t try to continually push fleshing out it’s characters or advancing their character arcs in meaningful ways. The writing seems to try to avoid explicitly conveying characters motivations or thoughts through directly showing what they’re thinking, but rather tries to convey who they are through their actions and interactions. This results in characters feeling much more nebulous and mysterious, but also feels more natural. This makes the pacing a bit strange, because despite so much happening most things don’t really seem to be progressing as much as they should, but all in all it seems to work well enough. The anime ends after a major battle at a point where absolutely nothing is resolved, but all in all it feels like a solid place to end on considering it ends on one of the rare in your face character beats.

The art and animation were very good. The mecha action and designs especially were pretty impressive. The character designs were decent outside of a couple that especially stood out as especially good. The OP and ED were both pretty different from the typical anime OP/ED and though I can’t say I like the music in and of itself, it fit very well. The soundtrack was also quite epic and worked great, especially during the major battles.