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Blue Reflection Ray (TV).




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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 11:44 am Reply with quote


Blue Reflection Ray (TV)

Genres: magic
Themes: school

Plot Summary: This is a story of connecting shining emotions.

Joy, sadness, anger. Feelings are a power, invisible to the eye, that every person possesses. Sometimes this power is even capable of changing the world.

Hiori Hirahara always has a positive attitude and can't leave people in trouble alone. Ruki Hanari is socially awkward, she wants to get along well with others, but she doesn't know how to go about it.

How will the meeting of these two wildly different girls change not only them, but the world itself?
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15462
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Apr 10, 2021 4:18 am Reply with quote
Episode 1

This would seem to be a really unfortunate start, purely in terms of animation. It is normal for a series to put its best foot first, so to start off with an episode that looked like it was really pushing how little it could get away without animating, is going to raise eyebrows.

And I am saying unfortunate because a lot else of the episode really got my attention. I really enjoyed the presentation of Ruki's social awkwardness, and being myself on the autism spectrum I would say she early on seems like the kind I would suspect the same. I would rather it be something inherent rather than finding out there is some other reason that she has trouble connecting with others.
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Kabuby 77



Joined: 11 Apr 2021
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 4:15 am Reply with quote
Regarding animation, I also think they tried to do something that was beyond their capabilities. Not a good start.
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camseyeview140



Joined: 26 Jan 2021
Posts: 211
PostPosted: Sun Apr 25, 2021 9:07 pm Reply with quote
This show seems to love dragging its own heels and not really being an action show. It also doesn't do a good job at explaining its world or combat gimmicks well.
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bonbonsrus



Joined: 15 Oct 2003
Posts: 1537
Location: Michigan, USA
PostPosted: Sun Apr 25, 2021 10:18 pm Reply with quote
camseyeview140 wrote:
This show seems to love dragging its own heels and not really being an action show. It also doesn't do a good job at explaining its world or combat gimmicks well.

Gosh, I'm glad it's not just me! I was just thinking the last episode "maybe I just haven't been paying hard enough attention to care or know what's going on" but then I still couldn't pay more attention, it's just draggggggging for me. And the over all quiet tone of the whole show frankly doesn't help me either, I mentally check out as nothing is really keeping me interested.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15462
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:02 am Reply with quote
I was really waiting for the main girl to just transform already and have the fight, rather than it kept dragging.
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camseyeview140



Joined: 26 Jan 2021
Posts: 211
PostPosted: Mon Apr 26, 2021 7:03 am Reply with quote
the powers are also really dull. Everyone so far has the same swords. Nothing different. They also really want to make the long haired girl a protagonist, but hell if I care about her when the story easily wants to focus on the others more.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15462
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat May 15, 2021 12:18 am Reply with quote
Episode 6

Wow, this episode had a lot of stuff around abuse, especially child abuse, but also stuff particular to young women along with mental health like bipolar disorder. The Niina girl being taken away by her bipolar mother, who couldn't really look after her, leaving her at home with nothing but wet tissues to eat, before getting killed after bringing a strange man home, and then as a teenage runaway was saved by another girl who presumably was one before just disappearing one day because of the female pimp. It was quite something to sit through.

The episode also had some choking and lesbian fondling, but it was kind of being done masochist girl who is pretty into the whole thing. I really don't know what to think of that.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15462
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Sep 24, 2021 8:59 pm Reply with quote
Episode 24 (finale)

Well, it finished, putting a big bow on everything. But jeez it could get melodramatic. Like the last time I wrote, it had more elements of showing child abuse, showing why characters were bad, and then sort of redeeming them towards the end, but I am not sure how well it landed. The show could be kind of dull.

Probably the most interesting thing to actually talk the series would probably be its queer/Sapphic elements, while the show was one of those were there seems to only be women/girls in it. Probably not too good at it, especially early on where despite the sort of hints in the 'friendship' of the main characters, where their whole power is about sharing feelings with each other. Most of the Sapphic elements came from the villains, who generally fit forms of aggressive lesbians and the kouhai oneesama characterisation, which at least from my point of view came off a bit regressive, like it was using lesbianism as villainy. It perhaps changed it a bit when it introduced 2 girls that it heavily implied are a couple, for some reason not being able to just come out and say it, which was good because they were good. But then they kind of just suddenly became villains, the reason being because they care about each other so much, which was a bit shocking.

The whole little and big sister like yuri couplings, kind of also get confusing when you have a couple of real sisters, which almost felt like it might have been saying which was stronger, real sisters or someone whose feelings are probably more romantic. And I am sure I could bring up in some way how the reveal of the real villain was that she had a twin sister who looked like her, while really the whole plot with them is kind of messed up the more you think about it. But really, outside of the one couple a lot of it feels like a lot of baiting.

Looking a the rest of the show, it kind of just got boring, perhaps some element of not great animation trying to carry most of the show, and I don't think that the style really clicked with me. It probably had some moments, such as how I was a sucker for the whole music box bits, I can be a sucker for some diegetic music like that from something that can carry such implications of themes like innocence.

My rating is going to be Not really good (4/10), but not a total waste of time.
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