Blue Drop: Tenshi-tachi no Gikyoku

Blue drop is hard to put into words. One moment you think you're watching a slice of life school drama, the next moment you feel like watching some sci-fi space/water action show. When these two things intermingle badly it feels like you're trying to watch two different shows at once. Story (Decent) Having said that though, you will notice it will lean towards one or the other toward the end. It's basically a story about a sole survivor of a tradgic incident who has no recollection of her past or the incident. When she joins an all girls school, she happens to discover things about herpast. ...And the wheel begins to start turning. The story starts out fine but then it starts to branch out to other stories involving other characters, and with the lack of episodes, it "sorta" gets a little overwhelming. But not to a point where you get lost completely, but to a point where you might have to pause and think about what happened before hand why certain decisions are made. Its not really a thinking mans anime but more of an attention to detail kind of anime. Either good or bad, is your decision I found it to be alright. But what helped me to watch this show was that it was an all-girls school. Art (Poor) The art style is kind of below average in my opinion. Although there is a large variation (but mostly cute) cast of girls. They're all drawn pretty weak. Almost reminds me of a late 1990's anime. Not much time is given to fully understand the technology and reasoning behind what is going on but for the most part makes the action scenes fairly decent albeit very short. If there was anything good out of the art department, that would have to be the paintings of the "spaceships" They're very detailed and show a large amount of time was taken to create them. Too bad they look like ridiculously inefficient machines. But one can't think too much on the Blue Drop universe, since a lot of details are left out. I will say one thing, for a slice of life school anime, the battles are pretty epic. Sound (Fair) The sound and music is average as well. Nothing spectacular. Aside from the girls talking and the orchestra pulling the strings to the viewers heart, nothing really stands out. Even the sound effects for the battles all sound like they came straight out of a final fantasy game. The electronic voices all voices sound perfect for this show, they didn't sound annoying like most war animes manage to do on a normal basis. The school girls voices all sound spot on as well, but they're typical. Just stereotypical voice casting but it was all done very well. Characters (Mediocre) The characters are neither memorable nor are they forgettable. With a drama, of course theres a love story involved, its incomplete. Well not incomplete but rather you wouldn't expect it to go the way it went. But when there was drama, it was pretty good and heart moving. But like i said, with so much going on in this show it kind of beats itself up on making this a well thought out show. If this show as at least a whole season longer, or if they explained things better, or at the VERY least put more than two people to run such a gigantic warship maybe I could have grown to love it. I'll even admit I was almost moved to tears in this show, and almost enjoyed all the characters, if there was a little more polish to this show it would have gotten higher points. Unfortunately my score stands, this is one of the few shows I want to score higher but just can't.

Blue Drop ~Tenshi-tachi no Gikoyku~ (The Angels Play) is the adaption to the manga Blue Drop (which I haven't read). One of my friends sent me a link to it, and I decided to check it out which I'm grateful for. The greatest assets in this anime is the art. The art is superbly smooth and well done, details couldn't have been more and everything just looks so realistic. Already from the beginning you can see it, the beauty in the art. It is sparkling and dazzling and leaves a taste of wanting more. The storyline can be a bit hard to understand first, it's morelike a Slice of Life in the beginning. Introduction to the environment, all the characters and lots of new stuff appearing all the time. But despite that, it all goes in a very smooth and calm pace which leaves plenty of room for one to enjoy. Characters are rich and engaging, they interact with each other a lot and are very detailed. Their personalities are flawless and make good spots for humor in their own way when making mistakes. The OP and ED are both made by same artist, Suara and are very good. The OP leaves a trace of sadness and beauty, and the ED gives a calm feeling. But the rest of the soundtrack aren't that astounding but it fits well into the scenes. In my own opinion, there ain't many drama animes that has this mix of emotions in it. Happiness that makes them laugh until the fall asleep, hate that constructs an aura around you strong enough for others to feel and sadness so deep that the body they live in feels like a vessel for hell. Emotions in this anime are really bunched up in a mix that makes you taste all the flavors one by one strongly. For those who like Slice of Life's and drama, here is a perfect anime for you. I strongly recommend this, from the very bottom of my otakuheart.

This animé actually has few true "plot twists" that would surprise anyone who has seen more than a few animés. But mysteries aren't everything in storytelling, what distinguishes a good story is when you know what is coming but you're still biting your nails and hoping that it does, or doesn't, happen. And this is what this animé managed to do, at least to me. There are two parts to this animé as has been said, the high school/romance part and the sci-fi part. For those hoping for quick-ass action, avoid this title, battles are few and generally quickly over with, they often serve to increasethe tension on the characters and not to be the main events. A bonus point however for more realistic sci-fi in terms of equipments and weapons... given the more serious approach of the material, I was afraid when seeing some calling the animé as part of the "mecha" genre of seeing mecha as such as Gundam and the like. As to the second part, this is what sucked me in. The characters may be based on typical character types found in animé, but they get a chance to be fleshed out well so that you find them sympathetic and grow to like them. At the end of the story, you're really rooting for the main characters and feeling for them. As some say, this animé is slow-paced, but this slow pace I believe allows characters to grow a bit beyond their mold and truly become alive, as relationships don't develop overnight nor do the developments seem forced. This is truly an animé more for the emotional side, at which it succeeds... However on the rational side, it fails a bit. There's a lot of questions that go unanswered or sci-fi aspects that go only slightly explored. It's ultimately the sci-fi bit that gets a bit forced at times to make way for the relationships bit. And for those interested about the ramifications of an all-female species and concerned about a coherent fleshing out of it, you will be disappointed. Same thing with the intentions of the main vilain, whose actions often seem illogical. It seems the sci-fi context is almost only used as a reason to put the characters into relation and to justify the drama surrounding them, and for little else. The ending rubbed me in the wrong way too, it succeeds emotionally (again) but fails rationally (if it wasn't a spoiler-free zone, oh, the questions I would ask!). In short, a very good tale for the shoujo-ai fans and for those looking for drama, but best avoided if your main interest is science-fiction and you don't care much for romance and relationships.

Blue Drop is one of those anime series that are good but could have used a bit more work to make them great. When it first aired, I was looking forward to this series since I'm a bit of a shoujo-ai-fan (as 80% of male anime fans) so I gave it a shot. Here are my thoughts after finishing it: Story The story is interesting and original, thus I gave it an 8. I would have graded it higher but there are some parts that for a shoujo-ai/sci-fi anime, it just don't add up. There were times when I would have wished a more sci-fi story thanthe slice-of-life they're showing. Basically half the anime is about the (almost) normal life of Mari and Hagino. The drama is there, of course, and I admit I didn't see the ending coming but most of the story I could read along. The original idea was good yet the content were a bit bland for me. Still, it gets an 8. Art Well, the art is Blue Drop's strong-point. I really like the way it's drawn though I can't say I like all of it, it's normal for every person to like/dislike some things. I gave it a straight 9 for the awesome design and concept of the alien ships, especially Blue, that looks like one kick-ass battleship from modern times with a bit of a whale DNA. Even the battle scenes between ships were impressive compared to other anime series I've seen. I wished the character design would have been a bit more special since some of the characters really look like grabbed from the bookshelf and added another color of eyes and a lock of hair. The only character that looked out of the ordinary was the dorm leader. Sound Nothing much to say about this, as usual. The OP and ED are sung by Suara (lovely voice) and they fit the anime in my opinion. They're really worth listening to once in a while. As for the background music, it fit the scenes but it was pretty average. Nowadays the producers don't spend so much time creating quality, touching BGM. Anyway ... Character Apart from the art (mentioned earlier), I liked the characters. Sure, their personalities seem to mix here and there with other anime characters but I have no complaints, pretty well done. The one thing that annoyed me was that the whole action happened on Earth, yet we see only 3-4 males through the entire show. I know it's SHOUJO-ai but I would have liked to see a bit more male activity along the way, could have added some flavor to both the characters and the story. Final Thoughts Even though it wasn't the greatest shoujo-ai I've seen, I enjoyed it. I has it's good parts and it has it's bad parts but who am I to judge it. It's not a waste of time but don't expect anything too special. Off to fight some hot aliens ... IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZERZ! Final Overall Grade: 7.5, rounded up to 8.

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