When Blassreiter first started, it was met with a lot of doubts, which is of course natural after Gonzo’s escapades with the infamous Dragonaut. Blassreiter looked like it would be the same bloody thing again. But as it turns out, the creators pretty much managed to nail down a very entertaining action-series. I am very picky when it comes to action-scenes, but the ones from Blassreiter left me very impressed.
You do need to get used to the fact that the fights are entirely done in 3D CG. If you’re one of those people that hate CG with passion, then you’re not going to like this series. However, because the fights make optimal use of this CG, the creators are able to do things that would never be possible with just 2D animation. CG means that there are no still frames, constant and smooth movement, and complex camera movement. Blassreiter takes this, and produces some of the best 3D fight scenes of the entire year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up labelling it as the best action-series of 2008. The camera-movements, combined with the character-movements result into a number of absolutely beautiful fight scenes.
Action-scenes are one thing, but I personally can’t enjoy a good action scene unless I care about the characters. That’s where Gonzo screwed up with Afro Samurai, because the characters and plot were utterly retarded. Thankfully, they avoid the same mistake here. The first half of the series has a very creative storyline, which goes away from the tried and true formula. The second half is more straightforward, but to make up for it the characters develop, and you’ll end up caring about them in a strange manly genuine fashion. The two complement each other pretty interestingly.
Blassreiter is not without its major flaws, though. Especially in the first half, it tends to be a bit too melodramatic for its own good, to the point of a few scenes that are just way too emo. Especially bullying subplot is just too extreme to be taken serious. This series is just too emo while trying to build up. The results are pretty awesome, but I can imagine how you’d not want to watch an angsting teen over and over.
There’s also the fact that the 3D-scenes don’t try at all to blend in with the 2D art, which will take some time to get used to. Overall, it’s been an interesting series, despite its questionable start. I recommend it if you’re looking for an action-series. This series has the three ingredients for awesome fight scenes: excellent choreography, sympathetic characters and a great soundtrack. I can’t recall having seen any series that made as much of an optimal use of the capabilities of 3D animation.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 |
| Characters: | 9/10 |
| Production-Values: | 9/10 |
| Setting: | 8/10 |
Time to think of going back and giving this a chance, I suppose…just not right now.Not in the mood for angst.
I will get back to this show one day…it wasn’t that I didn’t like the first 3 episodes, but rather that I was more interested in Tower of Druaga at the time.
Well, I guess this is one of the under-rated show in this season, I think it ‘s been done pretty well. Even some should-be cheesy scenes can make me cry, it’s great at building up the tension , I must say. One of the show on Good-GONZO side.
LOL, you rate Blassreiter higher than R2 ? You’re deranged, LOL !
But i’m already used to your “unique” tastes.
Blassreiter wasn’t half bad. The CG admittedly looked rubbish, but when it started moving it looked pretty good. The same can be said for Macross Frontier, Macross Zero, and VOTOMS: Pailsen Files – static shots are often rubbish while the action tends to look impressive.
“LOL, you rate Blassreiter higher than R2 ? You’re deranged, LOL ! But i’m already used to your “unique” tastes. ”
Judging by his criteria, I’m guessing he’s rating this by ‘Quality’ rather than ‘How much I Enjoyed it’ like the rest of the Anime community likes to do. Of course the two are linked, but I found Geass to be kind of like a stoner film – extremely flawed but extremely entertaining. By no means was it a ‘classic’ or a ‘great’ show, but it was entertaining the majority of the time.
But I digress. Yes, Blassreiter is done by GONZO however its probably the most underrated show of the year. I’m shocked of the quality of this show too considering their trail of failure as of late.
Solid show with some glaring inconsistencies that really bothered me.
– Bullying was WAY overdone. They should have handled that in a different manner to convey the same emotions.
– WTF is with the inconsistency in technology? Too archaic/futuristic at the same time. Especially during flashbacks and with the 3 knights in the end. A generation ahead in technology? My ass you are.
– Plot holes. I don’t know if anyone remembers and I don’t want to spoil anything but the desert scene and how he saved her and the horse later shown later on.
– Snow.
– Killing off characters is fine, but all that build up just to throw them away needlessly and keep 2 of the worst ones alive?
– cheese in a bad way.
I don’t mean to be so negative here. I enjoyed it overall and I was interested just to see what would happen next, but some things in the show bothered me a little much.
I fell in love with the characters in Blassreiter, and was quite upset that out of around 15 main characters, 2 survive. But I think the character development makes up for it.
I agree about the emo thing. Gerd and Malek killed me with how negative they were. And then Joseph’s past… I seriously wanted to tell the writers to lighten it up.
The thing that bugs me THE MOST. Snow. Where in the hell did she come from, and did she even have a point?! The past scene where Joseph’s holding her when he gives her some of his blood is never really explained. She just kind of pops up and dies.
But otherwise I love this series. It did take a few episodes to warm up to, but the characters and action made up for it. Not to mention the awesome music!
Yes. This show was super emo. Aside from that i loved it 🙂
people seem to be mad about snow as i found it priceless. yes she popped out of nowhere only to get owned… brutaly owned by joseph. It was the funniest thing in that show to me.
Gotta love hermans voice actor to. GERDO!!! lol