BlazBlue Alter Memory

Title:BlazBlue Alter Memory
Overall:Avoid
Keywords: , , , , , ,
Notables: KAKIHARA Tetsuya
KONDOU Kanako
R1 License - FUNimation
SUGITA Tomokazu
UEDA Kana
In the year 2199, humanity eagerly waits for the dawn of the new century, following the end of a series of devastating magic wars. When the world's most wanted man, Ragna the Bloodedge (also known as the Grim Reaper) make a move to destroy society, a group of ragtag fighters come together to stop him.
(Synopsis courtesy of ANN)

[TV series, 2013, 12+ episodes, 23 min; based on a ↗franchise with seven fighting games, two novels, and four manga (of which two are ongoing as of 2013)]
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Avoid 7 6 7 5 3 3 Ggultra2764 [series:2808#1552]
This one was a mess. Obviously with this being based on a fighting video game series, Blazblue seemingly assumes you've played its source material and could care less if you're a series newcomer having trouble following what is going on. Having not played the game myself, I would fall under the latter problem unless I took the time to look up info on characters and events throughout the series. To try making things short and sweet from what I dug up, Blazblue's plot revolves around the manipulation of time and space through several different groups to trigger varying events with our lead Ragna the Bloodedge among them as he tries seeking answers over events that took place from a tragic past he suffered from years earlier. This anime series attempts to compress 12-hours of gameplay storyline covering Blazblue's first two games into a 12-episode TV series. This leads to the series becoming rather incoherent with following events as they progress thanks to its fast pacing. On top of the differing series terminology baffling those unfamiliar with the series, many characters within this series get little to no fleshing out in this mess of a series due to its rather quick pace as a good chunk of the game's cast only exist to fill time for the anime. Characters that do get their moments of depth still follow two-dimensional character archetypes that make them rather hard to care for. Adding more to the horribleness of this title is that the series ends inconclusively as the motives of Terumi and several accomplices he gains are unclear and still at large. Unless you're a diehard Blazblue fan, definitely avoid this one.

Last updated Tuesday, April 28 2015. Created Tuesday, April 28 2015.
Unevaluated Stretch [series:2808#628]
(Two episodes watched):

While this show makes little sense to me, I can't deny that I like the spirit it has. Witty dialogue and unpredictable situations summoned a number of laughs from me. Basically, this is a WTF show about a guy being tormented by arguably crazy people ("Damn rabbit! What the hell was that for!"). The impression I got of who's the good guy was different than that which is implied by the synopsis above. Both Ragna's costume and his situation reminded me of Vash from Trigun. Strange things happen, like an android girl who loves a man--and tries to kill him. I never did have much of an idea of what the hell was going on; but perhaps while the longterm plot remained a mystery, the personalities of the wacky characters remained within grasp. Smart-mouthed characters need to make some sense, otherwise the confusion would cancel out a good deal of the humor; fortunately, somehow they do. Since not much of an explanation of the plot was forthcoming, I wondered if this might be a remake or sequel to some previous series which viewers were expected to have already watched (or a video game which they had played). It may be that I never will get much of a grip on the main plot, and the novelty of the characters will wear off, thus rendering the show not worth watching; but for now BlazBlue amuses me, and I'm willing to keep watching.

Episode two reinforced my feeling that things won't go well unless I get a solid grip on the plot, and so far I haven't. While the amusing antics of episode one had been fun at the time, little remained in my memory around two weeks later, presumably since I hadn't been able to make sense of what was going on or grasp the basic premise of this show. I doubt if nice jokes, dialogue and some surprises alone would be enough to keep me entertained if the premise remains a mystery. And of course it's hard to get the jokes when you don't really know what's going on. Lots of strange characters with supernatural abilities seem to be observing what's going on with Ragna and commenting on it, but I haven't a clue what the significance of their cryptic comments are, and when I'm like that I'll never remember the important ones.

My favorite line (so far): "Oh azure grimoire that dwells in my right arm, erase the jinx on anime shows based on fighting games!"

Last updated Friday, November 01 2013. Created Saturday, October 19 2013.

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