[New (debatable)][April 2014] Broken Blade

Summary: In a world where everybody has the ability to control quartz, machinery and (of course) Mechas are all made of quartz. But there are very few who couldn't, called "unsorcerers". One of these unsorcerers, Rygart Arrow unknowingly became the key to survival of the Kingdom of Krisna.

First Impression: Um, there isn't a "first" impression consider this isn't actually new. They literally cut up the original six-episode movies, which is about one hour each, into 12 episodes, slap on some inferior opening and ending theme songs (seriously, the original Broken Blade theme songs are of my all time favorite anime songs. Track 14 in my Anime Music Jukebox top right corner of the blog, if you are curious, Fate by KOKIA) to make a TV series out of it.

Personal Opinion: Broken Blade is probably my most favorite Mecha anime of all time.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Mecha animes, because one, they're a logically flawed concept: it's really hard to argue Mecha is the most efficient form of ultimate combat machinery because of physics, aerodynamic, and many other factors; and two, it seems all Mecha story involves some pilot who by screaming and stomping on the paddle harder could suddenly make the Mecha to push harder, fly faster, and lift more.

Broken Blade, however does not have these common pitfalls Mecha animes generally all have--there are actual legitimate reasons for why Mecha is used and why pilot pushing harder could actually make the Mecha push harder. It's one of the very few Mecha animes that actually makes logical sense.

On top of that, it is just a very well made anime that managed to blends action, plot, and interesting characters all together.

If you have seen Broken Blade movies, then there's nothing new to be seen here. If you haven't seen Broken Blade movies, you could either wait out 12 week to see the TV series, or just grab the movies (which have a lot better theme songs) and watch those. Either way, Broken Blade is probably one of the best Mecha animes ever made. You shouldn't miss it.

P.S. I'm only taking a quick peek back here because I had some free time, Zetro is still in charge here. I still don't know when I'll have free time to return to anime yet...

[Ended][Movie] Broken Blade

After almost a year, with the release of the 6th installment of the series, we finally reached the conclusion of this high jumping mecha saga. While this concludes the major conflict introduced in the beginning, it's nowhere near the end. There are quite a few loose ends left.

Personally, I'm not a fan of mecha anime, mostly due to the fact majority of them tend to overemphasize on slow-mo mecha battle and cut corners on the actual plot. In my opinion, there are two types of mecha animes: animes about mecha, and animes have mecha in them. Broken Blade is definitely the latter. While there are no lack of slow-mo mecha battles (in fact, I think they slightly over did some of the slow-mo scenes, but they're still in acceptable range), this is not an anime about the hunk of moving metal, or how someone could get their hands on them. There are many complex inner working parts of the plot, and mecha is merely a tool.

The setting of the story is somewhat unique, at least among the all mecha animes. For one, it has gotten away from the mecha being a externally powered mechanical device and went with mecha being powered purely by the driver. The one that isn't powered by the driver in the story actually being call the freak of nature.

As I said earlier, the story is nowhere near complete. There are so many underplots that were introduced but not resolved. Most importantly, the war is nowhere near ending. This 6 movies only completed the first major battle.

I think this series (of movies) achieved a relatively good balance between advancing plots and fulfilling mecha fans lusts for some metal on metal action.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 90 (multiple climax)

Comedy: N/A

Action: 88 (Slow-mo mecha battles)

Art/Animation: 85 (Typical)

Sound/Music: 93 (Love the theme song)

Character: 91 (well developed)

Plot: 89 (Interesting)

Ending: 87 (At a stop point)

Re-watch value: 75 - May still get some more detail out of it

Overall: 88 - One of the better mecha animes

Recommendation:  Whether you're a big fan of metal on metal action, so long that you don't have a hatred against mecha, you would find this series enjoyable.

[Movie] Broken Blade 5

This is the second to the last installment of the Broken Blade movies series. There are quite some predictable moves throughout the movie. On top of that, there are way, way, way too much mecha slow-mos. Along with lengthy in-combat conversations, I think this movies has the shortest in-story time span. Lots of time you know what's going to happen, you're merely just waiting for the inevitable to appear on the screen. In my opinion, that's a little too frustrating.

As for the story, it starts to slowly tie up all the loose ends of many different threads, in reverse order, meaning that the events that introduced later in the story are being resolved first. While it's nice to see the end to some of them, nevertheless, it makes me feel that the last two episode (3 and 4) are some major waste of time because most things introduced in them gets resolved here in episode 5 and are unlikely to have any major impacts to what is to come in the movie 6 finale.

Episode 5 ended in a major cliffhanger. Even with several conflicts already resolved, it still seems there are a lot need to be finished off in the final installment. Generally, big screen releases are better at actually ending a story than TV series. So hopefully, we can see this slow-mo filled crystal mecha saga wraps nicely.

[Movie] Broken Blade 4

I've been long suspecting that there is a side thread aside from the main one, (yes, of course it involves Rygart, and no, I'm not going to spoil it for you :), this episode finally had a quick touch and go. I'm actually quite interested in how it develops. But I somehow don't think it will resolve by the end of the series.

Aside from that, I think this episode advances the plot a bit more than the previous two. The movie ends in a cliffhanger, but if you ask me, it's much better than an anticlimactic one. Unless they decide to introduce even more new characters, it seems that all pieces of the game at this point is set. All we need to wait for is how they will resolve the main conflict (and the side thread :).

Having said that, however, I do hope they don't make it to a cookie-cutter ending. Because with two episodes still left to go, I'm already seeing lots of signs that indicates the ending is likely to be one of those very typical "truth and resolution" one. Being predictable is always boring.

Since the last installment (episode 6) of Broken Blade is scheduled to hit theaters in Japan on March 26th, I wonder how or whether the natural disaster occurred recently would affect that. Let's just hope for the best, for both Japan and animes.

[Movie] Broken Blade 3

After a much longer wait (about 3 month longer between 2 and 3 than 1 and 2), we finally get to see the next episode of this 6 parts movie series.

This episode, is really more or less the same with previous two. Even though the plot does move forward a little bit, more time is spent on fancy mecha acrobatics slow-mo's. At this point, it literally feels like they take one piece of important information at a time, wrap it around with three layers mecha battle to produce a 45 minutes long movie. But at least we get to see the real reason behind the war in this episode.

[Movie] Broken Blade 2

Fortunately, after that highly anticlimactic ending of the the first movie, we didn't have to wait too long before the second movie came out. This second movie, however, seems to have completely shifted its focus to try to make this anime a "typical" mecha anime by adding the emphasis on mecha technology advancement, pursuit of the "better" mecha, and the worst of all, the screaming slow-mo final strike. I really don't understand why people still find these things entertaining when same stuff have been done countless times in every single mecha anime.

Other things that worth to note, is that because the first movie ended in such a highly anticlimactic manner, in order to keep the plot flowing, the climax of this movie actually occurs at the beginning of this movie. And it's especially apparent when the second half of this second movie is almost nothing but still images with conversations. I wonder, why instead of a single hour and a half movie, they decide to make two forty minutes movie?

I have to say, this second movie of Broken Blade is quite a disappointment. But if you're a fan of huge mecha battles, you still might enjoy it. Otherwise, this is mediocre at best.

[Movie] Broken Blade

In a world that everybody possesses the "magic" ability to operate quartz, quartz machine are used everywhere from day-to-day work to giant military mecha (yes, it's a mecha anime). The story revolves around a guy who couldn't use this "magic" ability that happens to be caught in a war between two countries.

Being a mecha anime, it has the typical short falls (or at least that's what I call them) such as over emphasizing technical advancement of mechas, super slow-mo mecha battles, and other typical things mechaa animes tend to have that we could all live without. At least the story does not revolve around how someone is trying to get their hands on a more bad-ass mecha like so many Gundam animes do.

I think my biggest complain about this anime is being too short--the story didn't even finish starting up, not to mention the movie ended right around where you think the climax is coming up. Do they really spend that much money on mecha CG animation that there isn't even enough to write a decent length story?

Overall, however, I think it's a decent enough anime even for a mecha--they just need to finish making it.

Score: 81