This is a spoiler free review.
*Story*
The story is basically a survival-monster-apocalypse kinda story with giant bug like aliens called "Blue". It centers around Yuji, a guy who is cryogenically frozen for 20 years and eventually wakes up in a living nightmare.
The story itself does have a rather large scale of both a space colony and the entirety earth. It is quite intriguing and they do explore this setting thoroughly enough. They explore the living conditions and resentment of the people abandoned on earth and also the technologically advanced people in space and how each of their living conditions influences the basic nature of the population. There's also political disputes eventually, nothing too complicated, but it's interesting enough.
The pacing is on the slow side, but it's not that noticeable since it's pretty consistent and it never sidetracks.
I think it's safe to say that this anime's central theme is what sets us apart from beasts it is conveyed through the main 2 main characters' relationship and Marline's attempt to become more human and Yuji's descent into becoming a beast. And the general juxtaposition between the "ground crawling" humans on earth and the people who lost their humanity on "second earth".
On the other hand, I'm not too fond of the whole 'humanity is a disease' message that it seems to fall into, and it's not even particularly subtle either. But I normally don't rate based on an anime's message, even if I don't like it.
A more practical problem with the story however, is that at some point it disregards some cool ideas that it introduced earlier regarding the evolution of the aliens and in the second half it establishes new plot points and twists that are a bit odd (and maybe even jarring). I can't spoil it, but let's just say that it introduces super robot elements in to a story that was initially established as a more grounded "real robot" anime.
It does end in a conclusive way, but the ending also comes off as odd and it's related to the above issue. It does sort of make sense more or less, but something about it just seems off.
Another problem is that the story is very one-note.. It's pretty much a non-stop misery train in which we move from one tragedy to the next (with some glimmers of hope here and there). So this might be one of the reasons this series is not well received by many. And I think that's a legitimate reason since many people watch anime for escapism. Needless to say, this setting is not the ideal place to escape to...
Overall, the story presents its themes very, is well paced and has just enough variety to it. Though I begrudgingly admit that it's not perfect and it's not for everybody.
*Characters*
The main characters consist of a "cooldere", Marline and a male lead, Yuji, who's kind of an average joe. The series' main focus is on their relationship. They both have great chemistry. Their back-stories are a bit lacking and vague, but both of them develop a great deal throughout the series and believe me when I say this is the heart and soul of it.
They give a lot of attention to how these characters react to the situations they're in and I think that's done quite well and in a relatively realistic manner.
Even the sexual relationships this series contains is handled very maturely and nothing seems too fanservicy.
The problem is that these two characters get almost all of the focus and the rest of the cast feel kinda like cannon fodder or people who just happened to get in the way. Some characters are killed off pretty quickly and we don't get much of a chance to know them.
In the second half of the series more characters emerge and they're certianly more interesting than the older ones that we killed off. Not much depth, but they serve their purpose.
The characters in general aren't fun to watch either since they seem depressed and have nihilistic tendencies. So don’t expect them to be too relatable or likable.
They generally create an unpleasant atmosphere that's certainly not for everybody.
Overall, the characterization is pretty damn good, especially for the main two characters. Everything is handled very seriously and maturely, but don't expect this to be the most memorable or colorful cast out there, because it's not. The main girl, Marline is a well rounded and fantastic character though.
*Art*
The character designs are nothing that special, but are very much to my liking since they're very mature looking, none of them look like blobs and all of the characters are adults.
The surroundings are very well done and have a ton of destroyed buildings and alien nests that still look very creepy and quite detailed..
Mecha designs are nothing too memorable, but are still quite interesting since they look more like tanks with limbs than anything else. The animation is fairly decent, but the mechs movements are pretty limited which also means that there isn't all that much choreography in the battles. The battles are still very intense though, since you do feel like the characters really are in danger and there's a minimal amount of plot armor. Besides, it's very gory and creepy. The alien designs are creepy as hell and have a decent enough amount of variety to them.
Overall the visuals hold up quite well. It's nothing outstanding for its time and not much stands out about it artistically, but it's still quite good.
*Sound*
You have a very nice rock song as the opening and a more depressing song as the ending (a very memorable song, by the way). The soundtrack in general is great and mostly very creepy, but I did notice that it sounds like it's almost muted sometimes so maybe it could've been used a little better.
The (Japanese) voice acting sounds mature enough to fit the atmosphere the series is going for and each voice fits quite well with the characters. The sound effects are also used effectively and in a creepy way.
The sound is pretty amazing overall.
*Overall* 7/10
It's both enjoyable and unpleasant at the same time.
Blue Gender does have its drawbacks and it's certainly not for everybody.
But all in all, it's a solid cult classic that's definitely worth checking out.
