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Blue Gender (Vol. 1)

Blue Gender (Vol. 1)

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $22.46
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Those crazy Japanese anime guys...
Review: They have done it again. Not only do you get a gratingly annoying lead character who does nothing more than whine throughout this whole DVD, but you also have the (dis)pleasure of seeing giant alien bugs with especially sexual mouths that resemble the female nether-region. Try watching this one for more than two minutes without wanting to smack the TV and/or go watch some porn. Other than that, it can be pretty good.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Series ( contains spoilers)
Review: This series deserves more credit than it has received.

First off, the voice acting is excellent. As they explain on the DVD, the voice acting is done by the actors who voiced out both young Trunks (Marlene in BG) and future Trunks (Yuji in BG). They also tell you that they recorded all of the scenes at late hours in the night when no one was there and all of the lights were turned off- to give them even more of a weirded out feeling.

The subtitles also match up to the acting, which is excellent to see. I get really tired of the subtitles being totally different from the speech- it gets ridiculous.

The animation is nothing spectacular. For a new series, and with things like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun out there, you would expect some better animation. It doesn't detract, but for those of you who have seen the other series, you can see how much potential it has to be excellent with great animation.

The story is well done. I actually haven't seen much anything like it. The 'mysterious alien race' has been done before; however the awakening that Yuji received after hibernating an illness off is a new touch that I like. I think its good having a character that pretty much relates exactly to the audience- learning as he goes. We see everything he learns about what happened, and that is great to see. Narratives work well to explain things in anime, and it's good to see that Blue Gender fit it into the plot so well.

The action is superb. Cowboy Bebop has better hand to hand fighting scenes, but the mech combat in Blue Gender is the best of its kind I've seen in anime. Much like Gasaraki (another great one), they use the 'mecha' armors more like tools in battle than suits like armor. Sort of like walking tanks that are very difficult to control. Also: none of the mechs are the same, which shadows Gundam Wing. But in GW, each gundam had his own uniqee weapon, but they didnt look far off from eachother. In BG, one mech has a large cannon, and another uses these huge arms to smash things. That one also needs two pilots, one for the arms (a cool touch). The basic fighting physics and everything are realistic, including ALL OF THE BLOOD. (pretty gore scenes-faces through windows and heads bashed against walls of vans...)

The characters are okay thus far. Off the top of my head I don't remember their names...The only complaint I can see with the characters is that they teach Yuji a little too quickly how to pilot the mechs. It almost seems that they just wanted the 'relating-to-a-teen-audience character' to just hurry up and get into the mech...Although its reasonably important that he learns how to pilot it: at one point Marlene feels he shouldn't know anything, and an hour later it seems she wants him to pilot their most valuable asset....just too quick of a transition.

All in all this anime really delivers. It gives you a cold, dead feeling of a destroyed world like few others do. Robotech rebuilt all of their cities in like 1 episode, so the desolate Earth was never explored. In BG, you see a modern city totally taken over by the blue, and no one, absolutely no one is there. I love it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Annoyingly average
Review: This was a disappointment.

The aliens have taken over the Earth, and what's left of mankind lives in space orbit, making occasional forrays to Earth to begin its reclamation.

The aliens and mecha are nothing special (the mecha remind me of good old Votoms), and the animation is lackluster.

But the killer is the "hero", a timecapsule survivor who is so busy emoting his horror at discovering Earth was trashed that all he does is scream loudly and annoyingly (in your choice of languages) with wide eyes through the whole three episodes. After awhile you just have to hit the STOP button to be rid of it.

The plot may have promise, but I'm not planning to put up with any more screaming to find out.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This Is cool.
Review: Well, it was a good anime, however the violence of the blues are silly. It's kinda the same thing happening over and over again. Half the characters are dead by the third episode. It's obvious that Yuji likes Marlene, and his best friend is gonna be Joey. Their voices are very low, but the violence is very loud, so I'd stick to the subtitles. On the other hand, they barely talk. What's positive about this show? Well, I like Marlene and Yuji is cute...that's about it. Plus, Yuji needs to get a life. He screams WAY too much. He screamed at least 3 times. (once per episode)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Mecha & Aliens Collide
Review: When i first got this on pre-order i was skeptical if I was doing the right thing. Well I am definatly glad a bought it. I prefer the dark, morbid, bloody plot over most things. And believe me this is filled with it. it is kinda confusing at first, but I listened closely and instantly fell in love with it. The dubbed version isn't far off from the subtitled and the voices match perfectly, for most the characters.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Slow, but promising
Review: When I saw the adds for this anime, it looked like a good hit! I never heard anything like it before and it sounded like it could be good. When i finally got it and watched the first episode, i was pretty disapointed. Dont get me wrong, it was bpretty good, but it just wasnt AS GOOD as I expected.

After about a week, i got the courage to watch the other episodes on the DVD, and i was much impressed on how it picked up. While still not up to my expectations, the series got better with every episodes and i dared to preorder the next volume just to see what is goin to happen.

Check this out if you have the money to do so, it definetly shows promise.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Annoying but Promising...
Review: With BLue Gender we are thrust into a post-apocoliptic future where man has been driven off Earth by a new type of vicious species that can eat anything organic (like humans) or in-organic. These hige insect like creatures have taken over the planet. The story begins with an apparent rescue mission of some survivors who were placed into cryo-sleep before the disastor. Things go wrong from there. The story is very promising but has a few flaws that may or may not drive you crazy. For example, the main character Kaido is a coward, and an annoying one at that. Character development is minimal and at times uninteresting. Otherwise, a very promising anime if a few things are improved with the next disc.


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