njones - 2014-10-17 02:56:28

Generally I avoid watching Mecha anime, since I don't particularly like the story that tends to happen from them or just robot fights in general. The synopsis for this anime drew me in and even though I had initially thought it would be like something else, overall it was quite interesting. Well I guess I spoiled my overall verdict in the intro bits but the more important bits are coming up.

Story:

Our protagonist, Rygart Arrow is born in this world as an "unsorceror." In this world, oil does not exist and everything in this world moves with the power of quartz and more specifically the ability to move quartz with their will. As an unsorcerer, Rygart is unable to move quartz on his own and is put in a difficult position in life. When his friend from school, the current king, decides to summon him to investigate something he is thrown into a world of war, politics and an unusual case of rivalry among classmates.

Even though I read "mecha" in the tags, I thought he would get like an exoskeleton or something and there would be a technology vs magic battle but that is not what happens. I can't say it's a standard mecha story since I don't watch it that often but it feels like if you just changed "unsorcerer" to "random unskilled boy" then you would have the same sort of story for a typical shounen anime with mecha added in. I keep not wanting to write "typical shounen" but really that's all I can describe it as even though there's supposed to be some magical property to him being non-magical. It's not a bad association but I guess for someone like myself who doesn't watch mecha it seems odd.

Animation & Sound:Note: I am simplifying scoring on these sections.  

1 - if I noticed it was bad

2.5 - if I thought it was fine

5 - if I noticed it was good 

As I am not an expert on animation as a whole I can only give you my overall feelings which is not conducive for a 1-5 scale. I will be scoring the sound in the same way because I am more focused on the story and overall enjoyment in my scoring. 

Characters:

So Rygart Arrow as the main character has a very important part in the story as expected but in my own opinion the anime falls flat if you dislike him as a character. That being the case I feel that they tried to make him the total opposite of everyone else to make him feel more likeable if that makes any sense. Normally the main character is the eccentric one I think, like his dream is to be the best of something or he is always super positive and sees always the good. It feels like the ones who are the eccentrics are the surrounding people and he is the only grounded one. In any case, Rygart is a fine character he deals with all the situations he is in rather normally and is an interesting person to have to follow as his person grows over the course of the show.

There are other characters but I really only wanted to write about Rygart because he is the only one who stands out. Sure Rygart's friends have a role but it is very minor comparatively. If you took them out there would be very little change to the overall story I feel which is why I said before that the enjoyment of the anime relies on liking Rygart as a character.

So Break Blade as a whole was fairly enjoyable, I really liked how even though there wasn't the whole magic vs technology theme like I expected it sort of was there. Rygart being unable to use quartz technology makes him unable to use firearms based around them, so he has to fight using a giant sword. While I may not be a robot fighting lover, I do love my swords. All the battles also felt satisfying to watch, they seemed very gritty and genuine if that makes any sense. 

While watching it was enjoyable, it doesn't make me want to watch any more of the genre mostly in part to my dislike of the genre as a whole. With all that said I still do think it is a solid show and would recommend it to those maybe new to the genre or those trying to get back into the genre. It has a very "non-mecha, yet mecha" feel to it. 

minnie15 - 2014-07-16 13:31:38

Thunder's Review nr.7: Broken Blade

I did not watched original Broken Blade movie series,neither did I read the manga. Still I invested my time in this anime as aweekly show I was coming back to every now and then and as such it was worthit. Watching huge robots fighting in quite big scale war is something hard todislike but what more Broken Blade have to offer beside good action scenes? Well... not much. 

The Story  

The premise is typical chosen one piloting the special mecha and saving world/country scenario but reversed which in the end doesn't change anything. As un-sorcerer who can't manipulate quartz crystals as anyone else Rygert, our main protagonist is the only one that can pilot mecha build by the "ancients" for some reason (never explained). Of course the country our protagonist is fighting for is on disadvantage being invaded by much stronger kingdom. It's just as generic and unoriginal as it sounds, still it would still be at least decent mecha story if show would take some time exploring its themes. Consequences of war and such things as hate between nations are hinted upon but never expanded upon. Everything is happening and is resolved quickly and in usual manner, it plays out as a one big mecha stereotype kind of show. From one cliche moment to another, all the way through. Yet, if there's one thing this shows plot achieved it's laying out stage for great battles, sometimes of a big scale. The feel of big scale war and country's fate on the line is achieved. We are shown many people evacuating and are informed of progress each site is doing thanks to showing the fight from both sides perspective. 

Biggest issue the story in Broken Blade have is definitely its length and lack of real ending. Of course main reason for that being still on-going source material in form of manga. Thus whole show feels like thing promoting source material which isn't, so to speak most satisfying viewing experience.

The Animation

And here comes the biggest selling point of the whole show. Gorgeously looking mechas clashing with each others in both close and long ranged combat using all sort of weapons, from press guns shooting hard metal rods to big swords, shields and axes. Combat is always very well choreographed and some fights really got me hyped. Mechas looks different from the ones from other shows and they look fresh. Art style of characters feel closer to generic because of stereotype kind of look, you can guess which personality they have just by seeing how they look. Backgrounds are great, it's mostly same thing; deserts and stones but they still look pretty, semi realistic. 

The Sound

Soundtrack is composed from decent and sometimes more than decent pieces of classical music, but there is nothing outstanding in it. My favorite piece of it would be song called "Heroes", here's the sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfa2QLV3MaA&list=PLBDF7A5DCF865C2D4&index=1

The other noteworthy thing are sound effects, sound of firing press gun and clash of swords always got me exited and more drawn in the fight. 

The characters Main Protagonist of a whole series starts out as your typical nice guy pacifist that won't even step on an ant but then as the story progresses accepts necessity of fighting. Sounds familiar? Oh, and he have a rival that was his childhood friend. Does that sounds familiar too? Yup, expect the expectable. The main villain will be stereotypically bad and have one soft spot we will forget about until it is over. There will be an angry girl (women in this case) that beat crap of everyone as only solution. There will be our typical comedic relief in disrespectful manner for women. Big breast everyone! And occasional panty shot because who doesn't lay mostly naked in oversuxualized underwear when reading a book?

Well, all those are small fries, what really pisses me off are decisions some of the characters made. For example, when you take a war prisoner what do you do with her if you are a queen? a) question her to get some information. b) Invite her to live in your room and become friends, even after she fled and almost killed your best friend! Seriously, b) really happened. 

Good things are standard and simple development of the main character(at least it exist) , nice merit in form of mature cast (almost only adults) and little backstory of certain characters. Of course as in every mecha show, all characters have their own way and philosophy but it's always simplistic in this case and it's just not enough to make up for the rest. 

The Enjoyment

Beside many facepalms I had to repeat throughout  the course of the series I enjoyed  this show quite a lot. Thanks to a lot of great action and the simple fact that this show feels slightly different from the crowd of other anime thanks to its look. I usually go in for a good story and characters but I made this one exception.

The Verdict

I had hard time scoring Broken Blade, personally I found it enjoyable but objectively it's nothing outstanding just generic mecha show with a lack of ending and pretty visuals. So it will be completely average 5. I still recommend to watch it for the action and nothing more. 

rowe.kianna - 2014-06-30 00:31:23

For those of you who do not know- this series is a remake of a movie series in 2010, which is why this is the TV series. This was remade to add scenes from the manga that were not in the original. 

The original movie series was better in my own opinion because the TV series had to delete scenes to add the new ones, and the soundtrack and animation of the original was better.  Don't waste your time with this, I recommend watching the original for the better opening and better pacing with longer episodes. Watch episode 10 of the TV series to find the one additional scene.