Too bad I did this review since it finished aired in the end of 2013. I'm late to the party. Speaking of which, I am going to review "Blazeblue: Alter Memory" a video game adaptation by the name BlazBlue. I guess you all have heard the reviews saying that the game adaptation "Blazblue: Alter Memory" is a train wreck. Let's not beat around the bush here, anime is crap.
Before I say what this anime is, I haven't played the Blazblue game. This is a critique on the anime itself.
The anime was directed by Hideki Tachibana who so far never directed any good anime. He was also responsible for Higurashi Kira, the OVA which completely butchered the characters and using a lot of perverted humor which is unfunny.
STORY (3):
The story takes place in year 2199, where Humanity waits for the dawn of the new century where a series of devastating magical warfare ends. It is up to Ragna the Bloodedge to save the day and basically that's all there is.
You don't go into this anime for a deep story. You just go into this anime to see awesome action scenes. The problem is the story is all over the place. There was a fight between Hakumen and Ragna in the beginning of episode 2 and suddenly we jump to the scene where Ragna rescues Noel Vermillion. In episode 4, we see Hakumen being tied up by Kokonoe. How did that even happen? We never see Haukmen in episode 3 but here he is tied up in episode 4?
The dialogues were hilariously bad. Just like Hakumen say "Before my powers, your measly powers are insignificant". Hakumen just never say how Ragna can improve. The most entertaining part of the show is during the duel between Ragna and Hakumen.
Some of the episodes are filler including episode 5 where Taokaka brings Ragna, Noel and Faye-Ling to the hot springs. There's no need for that. Anyway, let's move on to the animation.
ART (2):
The animation is blur and not pleasing to see. Maybe the budget is too low. But the animation will not affect the overall grade.
SOUND (5):
The opening and ending are ok. The opening had this rock and roll feeling just like I had with "No pain, No game" by Nano. The opening is "Blaz Blue" by Faylan.
The ending is "Reincarnation Blue" by Aira Yuuki.
CHARACTER (1):
Haha. Oh boy the characters.
All the time, Ragna puts on this angry stern look. He is always never happy. He's either sad or he's hurt. I didn't care for his character. He is overreacting.
Noel Vermillion is your typical damsel in distress and not to mention she always cry easily when things go wrong. Even when she is crying "Baka", she didn't put into any emotion.
Taokaka's personality reminds me of Neko Arc. Not to mention Jubei's personality reminds me of Neko Arc Chaos. Neko Arcs are the characters from Carnival Phantasm who are hosts for the show. Taokaka is cheerful while Jubei is serious. Except that Taokaka is more annoying than compared to the Neko Arc.
Jubei was an interesting character but he didn't have enough screen time or anything to work with.
Hazama's personality reminds me of Hisoka from Hunter x Hunter. However, Hisoka is more threatening than compared to Hazama.
The rest of the cast were all like emo and never show signs of happiness. Especially Rachel Alucard & Kokonoe.
The only character I rooted for was Lambda-11. However, her character was thrown out of the anime in the later episodes. Thank you for doing that.
There was no character development.
CONCLUSION (2):
This anime tried to compress into 13 episode but failed to make the story progress properly. There are some scene that jump from one scene to another without explaining. And we have the ending that was anti-climactic, some characters just become enemies for no reason. Just like one minute they liked one another and the next time was like "You're a terrible person".
I wasn't expecting much from this anime since people already gave it a low rating. The story and characters are handled poorly. But there are at least some decent action scenes.
Overall, Blazblue Alter Memory is just a mindless action game adaptation that was poorly adapted. I didn't expect anything good from this anime. i just wanted to examine on what made this anime a poor game adaptation.
I am not hard on this anime just because I like good video games. I am hard on this anime because I like good anime. Unfortunately, BlazBlue Alter Memory didn't do that.
And so I give this anime a 2 out of 10. If you want a better experience, play the Blazblue games. If you want to watch this anime, watch it with a group of friends and rip on this anime. It will definitely be an enjoyable time.
