×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
BlazBlue Alter Memory (TV).


Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4  Next

Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 12:23 pm Reply with quote


BlazBlue Alter Memory (TV)

Genres: action, drama, fantasy, mystery, psychological, science fiction
Themes: bounty hunters, special abilities

Plot Summary: 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.
----------------------------------

Episode 1
I haven't played the games before but I thought the first episode was decent enough. The OP song is alright and the action too. There were some brief violent moments as well as action in the beginning and later on in the second half. I am curious about spoiler[Ragna and his past] though if the series is going to show it.

I did hear that spoiler[OST is similar to the games] from somewhere so pleased to hear that. But yeah, not bad for a first episode. Dat cliffhanger.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
WhiteHairGirls



Joined: 27 Apr 2011
Posts: 4713
Location: New York City
PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 4:15 pm Reply with quote
Not sure what is going on, but based on the title and that girl's reaction it looks like spoiler[amnesia] is going to be in play.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
publicenemy333



Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Posts: 563
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 7:11 pm Reply with quote
WhiteHairGirls wrote:
Not sure what is going on, but based on the title and that girl's reaction it looks like spoiler[amnesia] is going to be in play.


It's actually spoiler[a repeating pattern of time loops]

As someone is a fan of these games, this is pretty sloppy for people unfamiliar. Hell, I'm a fan and the games lore confuses me sometimes, but so far there is little to no world building at all so far.

I wanna like it more than I do, and I'm sticking with it so far because I am a fan. But its gonna have to improve vastly from this point on. You can just make a show based on something else have just expect people to already know it, you need to treat it like people are seeing it for the first time (cause chances are a lot of people are)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Bango



Joined: 06 Jul 2013
Posts: 1122
PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 8:35 pm Reply with quote
I had a lot of points to make while watching this but they all flew out the window at that amazingly AWESOME next ep preview. LOL. Truer words were never spoken. Blaze strong, Blazblue, and please remove the curse.

This is actually my first time hearing the japanese voices (assuming they just got the game's cast) and I admit I like the english voices better. That's rare.

For the show itself it's presented very well with good art, music, pacing and a pretty nice fight. Judging by the ending credits we get the extended cast too (including somebody very "new"), which is good. This is made extra good because they didn't try to cram everyone into the first episode, a mistake many fighting game animes do.

Similar to Neptune last season I worry about about people who aren't already a fan and if they'll enjoy this but I think it'll be more accessible than Neptune was, and that had plenty of new fans.

If you are new to the series then I suggest being patient with the story. It will confuse you. It confuses everybody. But for the games at least the payoff is fantastic and the anime seems to be handling it at an intelligent pace instead of just drowning us in disjointed fights and massively wordy info dumps.

As for the games, like with Guilty Gear before it, it's one of the very few where I enjoy playing as numerous characters. Almost the whole cast, in fact. My main is probably Makoto but that might change when chronophantasma comes out in english. Unlikely though because it'll be really hard to top the awesomeness.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Raftina



Joined: 15 Mar 2011
Posts: 3282
PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 9:55 pm Reply with quote
I like the English voice better as well. Especially v-13, Noel, and Jin's English voices, out of the ones we've seen this episode.

Blazblue seems like it'd be a good candidate for breaking the fighting game curse-the story is told as a relatively cohesive VN that integrates fighting game conventions into the storytelling--, but I'm nervous about it because of how it started--already we saw people describing it as too confusing for people who didn't play the games.\

But hey, the anime not being nearly as hideously off-model as the in game animated cutscenes was definitely encouraging. Hopefully it wasn't first episode syndrome.

Does the credit list the extended cast? The pacing felt like it'd only cover Calamity Trigger, but with BB's story, it's easy enough to abridge segments. I want to see spoiler[Tsubaki] in glorious animated form.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Bango



Joined: 06 Jul 2013
Posts: 1122
PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 10:08 pm Reply with quote
I was just going by the character panorama that goes on during the end credits. We see everyone except the new chronophantsma additions. Surprisingly the panorama includes... let's just say the NOL Imperator.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Clarste



Joined: 06 Feb 2012
Posts: 424
PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 10:22 pm Reply with quote
Raftina wrote:
but I'm nervous about it because of how it started--already we saw people describing it as too confusing for people who didn't play the games.\


And the games weren't confusing at first? It's designed for you to go through the various loops and slowly put the pieces together.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Raftina



Joined: 15 Mar 2011
Posts: 3282
PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 10:25 pm Reply with quote
The games were targeted toward a fighting game audience, who are used to having jumbled messes with each character's story modes being inconsistent with each other. You also get to jump around to a degree, which reinforces that notion. I suspect people will be harsher on the confusion when it's in a non-interactive linear narrative like an anime.

Bango wrote:
I was just going by the character panorama that goes on during the end credits. We see everyone except the new chronophantsma additions

So that means I missed my chance to use spoiler[Tsubaki] as my first Blazblue character in the character guessing game? Q_Q Oh well. People probably would've complained about the choice anyway.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13223
PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 11:17 pm Reply with quote
I did pick up the first game but I never got that far and I haven't touched it in ages. Fighting games really aren't my thing, so I was actually hoping for an anime for some time.

Mostly because Noel is hot.

First ep was okay, though I felt the fight animation was kinda eh. Hopefully that'll improve as we go. Still, I think you jinxed the whole thing in the preview there, Ragna...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Raftina



Joined: 15 Mar 2011
Posts: 3282
PostPosted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 11:59 pm Reply with quote
Sorry, but λ looks much nicer than Noel.

Though when you take personality into account, Tsubaki is the best.

First episode animation looking meh tends to suggest that the rest won't be very good either, because of the "concentrating budget on the first and last episode" budgeting curve. But maybe that would discourage the animators from continuously trying to reproduce the fighting game moves with a mediocre budget--the fight between spoiler[Ragna and Jin] was not the most impressive reproduction of the game's moves, to say the least.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Bango



Joined: 06 Jul 2013
Posts: 1122
PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 12:08 am Reply with quote
Ooooh! Ooooh! Are we gonna argue over hottest girl in this topic? I vote Makoto then. Funny how Litchi is supposed to be "the hot one" but I never see her mentioned much in these votes. I theorize that it's because she's "miscellaneously" hot, whereas the others are hot for specific appeal reasons.

As for the fight scene, I thought they did pretty good with what they had. Recreating fighting game moves too faithfully in an anime is, IMO, a mistake that gets made too often. You need to make slight changes to compensate for extra effect that would slow down the action in a fighting game. Though for fight scenes I'm most looking forward to anyone fighting Noel, Hakumen or Bang, just because I think they'll at least be entertaining... for very different reasons.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 3:57 am Reply with quote
The only remotely memorable thing in this ep. for me was the green-haired Ichimaru Gin lookalike. He seems kinda interesting, but that won't be enough to make me continue watching this...the 'plot' went right over my head, but i guess i'm simply not the target audience since i haven't played any of the games.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13223
PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 6:06 am Reply with quote
Raftina wrote:
Sorry, but λ looks much nicer than Noel.


Yeah, dunno who that is. If they're not in Calamity Trigger I have no frame of reference.

Bango wrote:
Funny how Litchi is supposed to be "the hot one" but I never see her mentioned much in these votes. I theorize that it's because she's "miscellaneously" hot, whereas the others are hot for specific appeal reasons.


I think it's a case of "trying too hard." If you try to force too much sexiness in it can become a turn off. Subtlety is where it's at.

Oh, and a Rachel is fine too~
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
Bango



Joined: 06 Jul 2013
Posts: 1122
PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 9:11 am Reply with quote
Actually, in the games most of the actual info comes in omake segments (Teach Me Ms Litchi) and I expect those or the gag reels will become BD extras.

I respect λ-11 (Lambda 11) as a mecha musume but I'd favour Nu in this particular department. Nu also won major bonus points with me for her gag reel exchanges with Ragna having my favourite line which wasn't replaced until Platinum's gag reel.

Rachel was actually the first character I picked so I have a soft spot for her. Also she has a cool swimsuit. Speaking of the petite corner Kokonoe could be pretty hot if she calmed the hell down some.

I rank characters like this for the relevant departments:
Hottest appearance - Makoto
Hottest personality - Tsubaki (though I'm told CP will change my opinion)
Coolest design - Noel
Favourite scenes - Tie between Tager and Platinum
Best english voice acting/casting - Rachel
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
publicenemy333



Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Posts: 563
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 10:15 am Reply with quote
Bango wrote:
Actually, in the games most of the actual info comes in omake segments (Teach Me Ms Litchi) and I expect those or the gag reels will become BD extras.



Thats one thing to do in a game, but if they do that for a TV series to explain its world without any world building in the actual show itself, thats unacceptable. I mean, yeah, I'm a fan of the game and kinda know the world. But even without any world building in this show itself, not only is it bad (I mean REALLY bad) for non-fans, it makes it boring for me cause now I feel like this world has no life of its own. Even characters were introduced with you just 'expecting' to know who they are, therefore, the characters in this feel boring too.

For fans or not, you cant make adaptations like this with viewers just expected to know. If this were like a spin off movie or OVA, then maybe, but not what is supposed to be an adaptive, standalone series.

Again, these are just first impressions, and I'm hoping it improves from here and I'll stick with it for awhile.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4  Next
Page 1 of 4

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group