hugh.stoltenberg - 2015-07-10 22:36:20

Tries to be loyal to the game's storyline, but ends up adding too much fanservice and filler scenes. and the animation is very stiff

The ost is fantastic since it's from the original game, and they hired the game's seiyuus, but asides from that, the anime is pretty much borderline

lilyan.olson - 2015-03-07 23:29:33

hyatt.willie - 2014-11-28 07:25:47

Yes you can say this is not really that good but it has the potential to be something great cause in the game the story keeps getting better and that what really maters is that at a point we can all love the series. It only flaws was it was 12 episode if it was more it could went with each character route and that make it really better for people to understand more and like the character a lot it a great series overall.

botsford.sam - 2014-03-29 08:09:53

I personally entered into the BlazBlue series with the "Continuum Shift Extend" game. With Chronophantasma approaching fast, and having only gotten through the Calamity Trigger portion of Continuum Shift Extend and Ragna's share of the story (some other YouTube clips included), I decided to use this anime to catch me up. And to be fair, the pacing felt okay. I'm sure loyalists though will call it rushed, but I didn't notice it... Much.

For starters, this anime summarizes the entirety of Calamity Trigger in two episodes, and it surprisingly works. Removing all the filler of Calamity Trigger, the anime uses the first game as a tool to set up its premise, which is mainly that of Continuum Shift. And it just drops off the other bits of Calamity Trigger here and there throughout Continuum Shift as necessary. This works, but admittedly character introductions for anyone who isn't a main can be very abrupt - all the meanwhile characters will talk about them as if they knew they existed the whole time.

Last time I checked, Ragna wasn't even supposed to immediately know who Arakune is.

The games are only better in this regard, as though they were also abrupt, you were at least told someone was coming and you'd learn a bit about them. Basically the games are a bit better at delivering character backstory to you. Story exposition also falls a bit at the start when the anime skips over an important opening narration, and you're basically given no information throughout the whole anime until episode 11.

All the meanwhile, the staff still has the guts to include imagery of said narration in the opening credits.

However, after comparing some scenes post anime, I can safely say the anime does overall do a better job with handling its story. Direction properly achieves a better mood for every scene and the story does receive some better explanations, but it takes a long time to get those explanations. Some people will not have the kind of extensive patience it takes to get to such a point. It is only natural to get frustrated with a story that starts in the middle of everything, with characters already aware of their surroundings. No matter how much or little they know, they know more than you do. Granted this could have been helped tremendously if the series didn't have its own dictionary for things and concepts we already understand. I'd give some examples, but they might spoil.

Thankfully for this series, I was patient, as it had interesting ideas at least. Concepts like destiny and time travel are played up well enough to keep you interested; all the meanwhile you are guessing who's up to what. You'll want answers since the series keeps teasing you with the same questions. This is a strength and a weakness. With no initial exposition, some won't care, while others just might because they'll consider the universe complex. I'm on the positive side, but I won't dismiss the effort it took to stick around. By the end of it, it ends up being rather impressive how the series could take a particular overused anime concept and approach it rather uniquely.

"BlazBlue: Alter Memory" does have strong writing. The story is really good, and the characters support it well. Strangely enough, this series even made me give a damn about a yandere for once, and I hate the yandere archetype. Although, on the other hand, I found Noel incredibly annoying. The show calls her out for being stupid multiple times, but at least she doesn't make any plot changing dumb decisions; simply a lot of her jokes fall flat.

We get it, you're stupid, but this is getting excessive.

It mainly is just the plot and a few good characters alone who have to carry this series. Especially when technical presentation isn't going to do it for them either. TeamKG and Hoods Entertainment produced Alter Memory for us, and they did a subpar job on the animation. The weapons and powers themselves can look extremely good, but not even the fight scenes as a whole are done well. The standard gun shot or sword swing ranges from bad to average. It was clear that the game mechanics came first in regards of what needed to look good, with whatever money they had. But to its credit, the "game mechanics" never felt out of place. Most video game anime I've seen still tend to feel like a video game. They do a bad job at writing around a lot of systems for the new medium, but BlazBlue does really well. Everything about this series still does feel like it belongs in an anime, not a 2D fighting game.

The soundtrack is primarily just comprised of tracks from within the game series, and they're pretty good. I wouldn't download or buy them personally, but someone might; they're cool and they work. Not to say the same for Chronophantasma, the soundtrack for that game is freaking great. XD However, I did end up loving the ED song instantly. The song was smooth and had a really nice beat to it that just couldn't not catch my ear.

All in all, Alter Memory does just enough right to make up for its wrongs, of which we're probably just production and time issues. So I'll give it a pass and say to check it out.

nettie.pouros - 2014-01-01 21:39:47

(NOTE: This is more a rant than a review, but read on if you feel inclined)

Ah, BlazBlue. The series that has always caused me so much confusion throughout the years. With the following this series has, I can never really tell if the story is utter shit or secretly brilliant in ways my mortal mind could never hope to understand. Being the cynical asshole I am, I’ll take the first option. First off, a word of warning: If you haven’t played any of the games, this anime will be nigh-incomprehensible for you. Events are compressed and many, many details are left unexplained, not even mentioning the fact that it really only follows the main Ragna plot and ditches most everything else.

Really though, my problem with the games was that if you need 20 different concurrent timelines to tell your story, then you are just over-complicating shit for the sake of making people think you’re smart. Not that everything is bad, the BlazBlue universe is filled with a colorful and distinctive cast of characters with vivid personalities, who are constantly hampered by the messy plot progression. Nothing is ever done in a simple or linear fashion, everything has to be done from six different viewpoints and have an entire glossary of unexplained terms thrown in. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration but honestly I’ve played through both currently released games and watched this anime and I’m still baffled as to what the Azure really is, or what seithr is, or what the fuck the tama-gaka-hara or whatever the fuck it’s called is.

The problem with the plot is all the characters already know everything about their world so they never explain it properly. You know what this series needed? A fish-out-of-water character, or maybe someone with amnesia or maybe just a fucking narrator or SOMEONE to help ease us into this fucked-up world. Someone who could explain or have things explained to them so that we the audience understand. And I’m starting to think anyone who claims to REALLY understand BlazBlue’s plot is either trolling people or has spent every second of their lives since the series’ emergence putting together a massive flowchart.

So yeah, that’s the plot.

The characters are and have always been pretty entertaining which to me is the saving grace here. Ragna’s temper, Jin’s psychosis, Noel’s clumsiness, Rachel’s snide sarcasm, Terumi’s trolling, Bang’s JUSTICE, etc. There are some characters I really like seeing interact with one another and it can just be great fun. Of course, then the plot has to happen but for a little while you’ll atleast be entertained. Now the problem the anime runs into is trying to cram the series’ large cast into 12 episodes, which it completely botches. Yeah, everyone makes it in but many character do absolutely nothing substantial on-screen so it’s just there to satisfy the fans of the games. The point is: this series needed more episodes to do the story justice. I think sort of a Higurashi-style progression would’ve worked best, going through each route/timeline individually and showing how everything fits together. But there’s no way they could’ve done that in one cour. So I’m honestly kind of baffled why they decided to make this anime if they couldn’t do it right.

The music is great though, a BlazBlue staple if ever there was one. The OP and ED are both fantastic and the battle tracks are stellar as always. The animation is average to above-average depending on the scene. The final episode was clearly running low on funds however, as I counted more off-model frames there than anywhere else. The fight scenes are pretty well done, but then again it’s based off a FIGHTING GAME. Why wouldn’t they be?

Tuesday nights this season, I would watch this show after Tokyo Ravens and honestly most nights I wasn’t having fun with BlazBlue. It was kind of a chore for me to sit through sometimes. There’s a lot of individual moments in this anime that I thought were entertaining or well-done but as a whole it falls apart rather quickly. I couldn’t imagine trying to marathon through this though.

Kinda wish I could alter my memory to make this anime seem better in retrospect. Sadly I lack such an ability.

Rewatch Value: No (On a Yes/Maybe/No scale)

braun.owen - 2013-12-25 22:30:30

Aside for a couple of good fight scenes there is nothing in this anime that stands out really. the story is a big what the fuck, maybe in the game they make sense but there a lot of thing that in the anime that are just kinda there and things happens because plot. The characters don't make me care about, not a single one of them. the only thing i really really like is the opening tough but, like a said, it have a couple of good fight scenes and that's all. A really big "meeh" for me.