Individual pieces of human emotion usually take form as flowers known as "Fragments." The select few who possess strong enough Fragments can become "Reflectors," beings who equip specialized rings that allow them to connect their thoughts, memories, and emotions to those whose feelings waver. There are two types of Reflectors—those who wear blue rings to protect those falling into depravity by preserving their Fragments, and those who wear red rings to prevent negative emotions by stealing the Fragments of those who begin to develop severe woe.
Despite wanting to socialize with people around her, transfer student Ruka Hanari's shy and introverted personality always gets in her way. In a chance encounter, however, she bumps into a woman who happens to drop a blue ring as she hurries away. Unable to return it, Ruka brings it back with her to her dorm. There, she meets the outgoing Hiori Hirahara, who also has a blue ring. They find themselves in several conflicts against red Reflectors, slowly realizing the true power of the rings that they hold.
Now striving to become Reflectors themselves, Ruka and Hiori must learn to work together and become stronger so that they can save not only the people around them, but also themselves from the emotions that hold them back.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
AnimeEnjoyer420
Recommendation: A strong mahou shoujo series if you can get past the terrible animation. The anime is standalone, it's neither an adaptation nor a sequel to the video game Blue Reflection, and features only a handful of characters from the game. Story: A pair of magical girls called Reflectors, Ruka and Hiori, fight to protect other girls from a group of predatory Reflectors that try to steal their Fragments (analogous to a person's emotions or soul, they become emotionally dead and zombie like, and later fall into a coma without it). The story takes some wild turns (which I won't spoil) building off thatpremise, and ends up in a radically different place than where it starts. It's certainly never boring, though occasionally it gets a bit too convoluted or abstract to follow exactly what's happening. Tone wise, it's squarely in the camp of "dark mahou shoujo", though it isn't excessive about it. It deals with some very heavy issues though, including child abuse, abandonment, suicide, self-harm and teenage prostitution. Listing all those off in a row makes it sound more depressing than it actually is though. The series doesn't wallow in despair or revel in the suffering of its characters. It's actually a pretty positive series overall, even a bit corny.
Audio/Visual: This show has a phenomenal OST, it adds so much to the series. Battles feel more epic, tragic moments hit harder, and moments of triumph give you chills. It is everything you would want from a soundtrack. The VA work is solid but not notable for the most part.
Then, we have the elephant in the room. Frankly speaking, this show looks awful. It isn't even the often-lampooned character designs, those simply have a shoujo manga look that's different than what you'd expect but not bad in and of itself. The animation is absolutely atrocious though. Characters are frequently off model, have eyes pointing in different directions, and have some of the most poorly drawn hands you'll ever see in anime. Aside from the battle scenes, which actually have some cool effects at times, and the nice, unique looking backgrounds of the Leap Range and the Common, there is almost nothing positive you can say about the series visually. It's a major letdown that a series this good was failed by its animation so horrendously
Characters: This series has excellent character writing and a wide variety of interesting characters with unique personalities. Ruka's character progression is very well done in particular, as she goes from a shy girl with no friends to a crucial voice of reason and motivator of the group. Hiori's initially generic "genki girl" attitude is also memorably subverted during the second cour. The side characters are complex and each have their own roles to play, and no one is extraneous. With so many things stacked against this series (the low budget, video game adaptation, etc...) it's kind of a miracle that it ended up being good, and the excellent characters are the main reason for that.
As a final note, this series has a lot of content warnings associated with it, as mentioned above, but there is a particularly extreme sequence of child abuse in episode 22 that most viewers will probably find troubling, especially those that are sensitive to that issue.
VentusBrawler
Blue Reflection Ray is an anime spinoff for the PS4/PC game Blue Reflection released in 2017. From my understanding none of the main characters (Yuzu and Lime are recurring side characters) and plot points carry over from the game, so it definitely qualifies as a spinoff that uses the concepts from the in-game universe but nothing else. So it should be fine watching this without playing the game. Disclaimer that I actually haven't played Blue Reflection, so someone who actually has can correct me on this because their opinion will be more valid than mine. Getting into reviewing the actual anime, you have already probablynoticed my score is very high for this show. This doesn't mean that this show is some hidden gem of an underrated masterpiece that I think literally everyone should be able to enjoy, far from it. The rating reflects (haha this guy is funny) my bias that comes from how I interpreted the narrative and plot points of the show. The singular reason why I personally enjoyed Blue Reflection Ray so much is because this show is the closest thing we have to a Kingdom Hearts anime adaptation. Let's go over the similarities between Blue Reflection Ray and the Kingdom Hearts series.
-main characters that fight with weapons and powers that are the manifestation of their emotions? check.
-the main conflict of the narrative centers on opposing ideologies on how feelings and emotions should influence relationships with others? check.
-over the top light/darkness motifs that really hammer home how edgy this is? check.
-a grand collective entity of emotions that holds absolute authority over all emotional power? (The Common = Kingdom Hearts) check.
-emotions being used as a resource or catalyst to reach this grand collective entity of emotions? (Fragments = Hearts) check.
-memories being altered, influenced, or erased by being tied to emotions? check.
-the side characters and antagonists are much more interesting and fleshed out than the happy-go-lucky main character who is a walking plot device? check.
-very slow and seemingly nonsensical story that only makes sense as the narrative approaches its conclusion? check.
This very biased framework was the foundation for how I went about watching this show, and is probably the only reason why I didn't drop it after a few episodes. Blue Reflection Ray as a standalone show isn't very impressive. The art, while unique and fluid, is really inconsistent and looks unappealing to the average 2021 seasonal anime consumer; though, I do give props to them for continuing to draw out every scene regardless and not using some ugly ass CG to fill in the gaps. The soundtrack was good but not outstanding compared to shows with higher production value. The characters I thought were really good, but unfortunately the two weakest characters by far are the two main heroines Hiori and Ruka who we are stuck with for like the first few episodes. Only after a while are we properly introduced to the much more interesting antagonists, and Momo and Miyako become more involved in the main narrative. The strength of the cast in this show is their chemistry together and how they organically come to rely on each other like a very big family, but this also does not occur until the second half of the show. There are a lot of yuri undertones in the show, but there is a whole mountain of shows better for that, so people who are here just for lesbians will likely be disappointed. Blue Reflection Ray is a show that takes a long time to ramp up and can appear as slow to most anime consumers. The narrative also doesn't make much sense which can be frustrating for most anime consumers as well.
The thing with Kingdom Hearts is that while it is quite popular, it's a very flawed series. The writer for Kingdom Hearts, Tetsuya Nomura, oftentimes writes stories that are so far-fetched that we can only imagine what he smoked before working on the script. And Kingdom Hearts fans have come to just simply tolerate or even embrace how ridiculous and nonsensical the franchise is. So when watching Blue Reflection Ray, a lot of the downsides of the show like the very slow pacing, the beginning of the show not making any sense, and the two main characters not being nearly as interesting as the other characters, were less like flaws to me than they were features of the show due to its uncanny resemblance to Kingdom Hearts. To get to the heart of things (haha this guy is funny you should really check out his other reviews), that is the main reason why I enjoyed Blue Reflection Ray so much, flaws and all. I ate up Hiori's monologues about feelings and how precious they are, just like I ate up Sora yelling "Kingdom Hearts is light!" as the light engulfed Ansem. I had blind belief (okay I believe you) that the nonsensical narrative at the start of the show would all come full circle so I could see the whole picture, just like I had blind belief that understanding the story of the Kingdom Hearts mobile game would fill in the all the plot holes in Nomura's writing. I got hyped over every fight scene where the characters were talking about the weight of their feelings while literally hitting each other with their feelings. I embraced the ridiculous flawed nature of Blue Reflection Ray because it was flawed in just the same way as the Kingdom Hearts series, and I had a blast every single episode.
So what does this mean for you as the reader? Most likely, nothing. This review isn't here to change your opinion. If you didn't like Blue Reflection Ray, then it means you probably will hate Kingdom Hearts as well. However, if you are an avid Kingdom Hearts fan, then I'd very much so recommend giving Blue Reflection Ray a watch. Vice versa, if you liked watching Blue Reflection Ray, then you would probably really enjoy playing through the Kingdom Hearts series. Thanks for reading.
KANLen09
You know what I hate about game adaptations? It's not the final product that's the anime itself, but the production staff, or more precisely anybody who has the cheek to say that they can prolong these works to something like a 2-cour show (meaning 24 to 26 episodes). Please Japan, even if you won't listen to the Western fans that we absolutely DO NOT NEED shows like this, at least please consider that making a show is not cheap at all, and you can make-do with another show that will serve your budget better and have a better audience reach. I've never even heard of BlueReflection the video game itself, but based off of Metacritic scores for the original 2017 game, it's "mixed to average reviews", but the same could not be said for the anime adaptation, which is a spin-off of the main series. And boy oh boy, I suffered through this hellhole just to make this review to tell you the TL;DR that this show is already doomed for failure from the start. And if the anime Blu-Ray release was cancelled mid-way through the show's life, you know that the message to completely skip this show is warranted, even if it's for "various reasons" (it's clear that it wasn't popular, geddit?).
To be clear, magical girl series are a dime a dozen. We've seen this with Madoka Magica, Assault Lily and many others like it, but not all of them hold the distinction of being a rip-off imitation of (especially) Madoka Magica and one of my favourite recent underrated masterpiece shows of the modern age, Granbelm. There's just something about Blue Reflection Ray that kinda divulges from the whole Mahou Shoujo formula, but yet have no staying power because of waning interests that "nothing else is going for it". Look, like some people who can recognize that this show is good for them, it's that it tried to be emotionally mature with its setting, and it's a decent start and ending all things considered, I'll give it that. But to pad it out in the span of 6 months, man, does this become so tiring and boring to look at. If it was a game that I cared about, I'd not mind if it was that long if the story and plot had some substance to it, but Blue Reflection Ray, unless you played the game before, as an anime-only, your interest is as good as "Dropped" after the 3-episode rule.
The plot is so barebones; the characters feel like one-toned characters (especially the main female MC Hiori Hirahara because she's just a walking plot device and nothing more); this is kinda the best of the worst that J.C.Staff (that stands for Just Crap Stuff) could muster without much effort and all; and the music really is the only aspect I'll call decent from reputable music artistes like EXiNA, Eir Aoi and ACCAMER (especially the 1st Cour OST set I really vibe to it a lot, that set was really good).
I am not disappointed, it's kinda to be expected when Japan tries to pump out game adaptations to its own audience, and got the short end of the stick when even the anime fails to capitalize and influence people to the relevant IPs. For the rest of the world, you can pretty much just skip this one, there're other noteworthy Mahou Shoujo shows that will make your time investment a lot better than this turd.
SanaeK10
I do feel that this show has gotten kinda of a bad rap, especially by people who write 1/10 reviews for attention and publish them the moment a show ends in Japan before subs are even out. But Blue Reflection Ray has been a rather captivating, if flawed experience that actually made me interested in the greater franchise. Full disclosure, I never played the original game, and without knowing the show is actually a sequel to the game's events and it fully expecting you to understand the plot of the first game, I didn't have a good time the first time through. After reading and watchinga quick synopsis though, I began to appreciate the show more. The animation is lousy, and unlike Sonny Boy it doesn't have much of a cinematic flair to it to compensate for it. But perhaps because of that, I ended up appreciating the plot and characters a lot more.
The show does feel quite aimless in the first half, up until the 10th or so episode I wasn't actively engaged; but come the second half, the show starts becoming a lot more focused in the story it's trying to tell, and by then I was hooked until the very end. Up to the point where I'm even seriously considering to get Tie to see where it all continues. Hiori and Ruka are really cute as leads and I do like the charm their social awkwardness adds to the show. I will say that the show does have one of my personal pet peeves, with abuse victims being main antagonists. It's not depicted that well here too, with it basically giving a lousy justification to Shino's actions. But aside from that, the core cast is still likable enough through and through.
It is a shame the Blu Rays were cancelled for this. I think maybe giving the show more polish can help in its presentation, but hey at the very least, the show did its job in convincing at least one other person out there in the world to give the series a proper shot.
6/10
Justykanna
When I found Blue Reflection Ray, I watched an episode or two and decided it wasn't for me. This was well before I sunk my teeth into multiple magical girl shows such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Yuki Yuna is a Hero. With Crunchyroll announcing that an English dub was coming out almost a whole year after it's initial release, I decided to give it another go! Minor trigger warning: This show does contain an instance of self harm and suicide, so please be wary of this, should you decide to watch. They're not really shoved in your face, but they arepresent, regardless.
Story: The main story line here is that everyone has a physical flower, deep within them that contain their human emotions, known as Fragments. These emotions include the strong ones such as grief, anger and sadness. Reflectors are those that have very strong Fragments, which allow them to equip special rings, that allow them to fight for those that cannot. When any person experiences extremely strong emotions, they attract the attention of any of the Reflectors. Then, one of two things can happen. Those that hold the blue rings calms the souls of those individuals who feel erratic. There is also an organization who posses red rings, who seek to steal those Fragments. Once lost, humans who have had their Fragment taken away become emotionless, and steadily mentally degrade until they fall into a coma. Blue Reflection Ray seeks to show us what happens when our group of blue Reflectors, headed by Hiori and Ruka, seek to calm the world's emotions, and stop the red reflectors, by any means necessary.
The story itself doesn't break any barriers with regards to creativity. However, they do execute on the story, quite well. The first few episodes have us following around our main pair on learning how to be reflectors, and to fight with the powers given to them by their rings. Much of the story will continuously use the words 'feelings', and it does admittedly sound somewhat awkward after a few times. However, this does allow the audience the chance to know what's going on all the time. This eventually transitions quite nicely to the point where our Reflectors start helping every day school girls who are feeling deep sadness within themselves, usually caused by an external force. While this is going on, they must fend off the Red Reflector group at the same time, and it creates multiple moments of tension that I really enjoyed. Some of the girls that they attempt to help actually have pretty solid backstories too, and it gave me an extra reason why you cheer for Hiori and Ruka to succeed.
As you get through the story, you'd steadily introduced to the world on a more macro level, almost like how your world opens up in a video game as you get through more and more of it. This is another really strong step in the storytelling that I enjoyed. As your understanding of the world starts to expand, you are introduced to more characters with more meaning to our main couple, and many of them have solid backstories behind them to. In fact, they take pretty significant screen time to go over a few of them, and again, it makes us care what happens to them.
As you start to unravel the main story that our girls are fighting for, you shortly realize how the organization that runs the Red Reflectors goes about their business. A lot of the central themes almost flows like a more mature version of Sailor Moon, and the way that their bosses, Mio and Shino, go about their business keeps you guessing. Magical girl anime have a very fantasy-like storyline, so trying to guess where they go next is always a fool's errand, but I do believe they leave you with enough that you're not yanking your hair out at trying to piece it all together.
The ending this story ultimately goes for isn't one of excessive flair or creativity itself, but regardless, it was a really nice way to end a story that I enjoyed a lot more than seemingly much of the community did. This isn't to say there weren't a few bumps along the way, as the script, at least with the English version, did start to sound a little more repetitive than I would have liked. There are also moments when there's a bit more down moments as well - times when there's just information, without it being either strong, or shown to us. These are minor problems at worst though. (8/10)
Characters: Ruka Hanari is the first character that we start to meet. She seems pretty quiet and has a hard time reaching out to others, so her mother worries for her when she needs to move into a dorm at school. For a series that had characters with very deep backstories, Ruka really didn't have much more going for her. I get that she has a hard time connecting with others, and that her thing is that she wants to be a little more people-oriented, but they didn't do more with her character than that. It's not say that she didn't break out of her shell during her time as a Reflector - she clearly did. But she lacked something else to make us care more about her. Hiori Hirahara, however, has much more going for her. Not far in, Ruka realizes that Hiori is her roommate, and they quickly get acquainted. Opposite to Ruka, Hiori is a very happy individual and quick to make friends, while having very strong morals to boot. Her backstory connects quite well with her sister, Mio, who we meet a few episodes in, and the connection these two have, as well as their story before the events of this series, were extremely well told. It connects really well with the themes of this series.
There are some real winners for our side cast as well. Miyako Shirakaba is a pretty regular human being at the start, and when she joined up with our main couple early on, I didn't think she was going to add much, just because she seemingly doesn't possess any strong character traits. I was wrong. She basically pushes the story along as much as she can, while not directly solving the Fragment problem herself. She's strictly behind the scenes, but adds so much that Hiori and crew simply didn't. Momo Tanabe is a more senior Reflector that helps us get the story going at the start. Her role starts to diminish as the series goes on, but for the screen time she has, she's another strong character. Yuri, Ryoka and Ameru join in about halfway through, and they were nice adds, though I'd argue Yuri had less of an effect on the story than the other two.
As far as the Red Reflectors go, I mostly enjoyed their stories and why they were seeking the Fragments. Some of them have really strong backstories, and they really do the job quite well. Shino's backstory is simply horrifying, and what makes it worse is that it's not even a fantasty-like story - it COULD be real. Hate her all you want - but wait until the end. Mio and Nino are more involved in the plot as the story goes on, and while their story isn't as deep, it's still a solid inclusion. There was one that, unfortunately, doesn't seem to have much in the way of motivation, and she more-or-less acted as a faceless puppet. They do try to rush in a few characters like Ryoko and Yuri that they add in a little too weirdly for my liking, but it can't all be flawless. The group as a whole had a pretty straight forward motivation themselves, and fleshing that out as the series went on, was also a strength. (9/10)
Art: The obvious area that Blue Reflection Ray suffers is the subpar animation. The style looks very flat and lacks much in the way of polish and finish. Action sequences were okay at best, which is really unfortunate when you consider the powers that the rings give our cast. Even though this magical girl series didn't have excessive fighting scenes, like a few others, cleaner, more realistic action scenes would have gone a long way. That's pretty disappointing for a large studio like J.C. Staff, and it makes me think that they tried to mirror what the games were looking like, way too much. (4/10)
Sound: One thing that didn't disappoint was the sound though. I quite enjoyed the OST, though you could tell the quantity of tracks for a double cour feature was starting to run short in quick order. Both OPs and EDs were quite strong, with DiViNE by ExiNA likely being the strongest of the bunch. VO work was top notch here too, likely in part to the ADR Director, Peter Hawkinson. Two VOs who are well known for upbeat, always-happy characters are Brianna Knickerbocker (Ruka) and Sarah Williams (Yuri). Neither of their characters were that, however they were both fantastic here, especially the former. I did not expect that out of Knickerbocker. Kayli Mills (Hiori), Erica Mendez (Momo) and Katelyn Barr (Nina) were also exceptional here, with this being only my second experience with Barr voicing a character. I couldn't really pinpoint any problems within the VOs, because up and down the roster, it was exceptional. (10/10)
Overall Enjoyment: Blue Reflection Ray was a very strong series within the genre, one I especially didn't expect when I saw how poorly it was being received. There are clearly some points that are weak such as the subpar animation and Ruka's lack of backstory but past these, you have a very strong series. My understanding is that the ending leads into one of the games, so if you want more Reflectors, that might be a route worth exploring. However, I'm very glad I gave this another shot! (8/10)
ren0080
This anime feels like there's no passion put into it. Just about everything is lacking. From the plot, to the characters, to the animation... It's pretty much just a half-baked made anime. I won't even be surprised if this anime was made by a bunch of high school students as a side-project. I feel like there's something that happened while watching this anime, but I don't remember. I sometimes think to myself whether I actually watched this anime everyweek since the only things I remember from this anime is "Onee-sama" or "Onee-chan" or pretty much just yuri-bait. Well, even though I said all of these things, thereare some things that I liked from this anime. The music is good. Oh wait, that's only one thing lmao
Welp, overall, it's okay. Probably? lol
(3.2/10)
OneFaintingRobin
I tend to stay away from the MAL page of show's I'm in the middle of. I don't like seeing ratings until I've seen a whole work and have come to my own conclusions about its quality. This might be the lowest rated show (in terms of its site-wide rating) that I've reviewed, and I find that absolutely baffling. Because I found this so, so surprising, and while it's far from perfect, I think it's so much better than its rating suggests. Getting the bad out of the way, I imagine a lot of the low rating is its animation which is, to be clear, definitelyrough. I think I see what they were going for with the art style, and I really like the watercolour stylisation that a lot of its characters and settings has. But, to be really generous, the actual character animation is... it's not great. Things tend to improve a little in action scenes, but even then, JC Staff is capable of far better than this (I'm a particularly big fan of "A Certain Scientific Railgun", and this is nowhere close). My opinions on the animation sort of align with what I wrote about "Farewell, My Dear Cramer", it's a similar state to that.
But, if you can get past that, there is an awful lot to love about this show.
When we see 'dark' Magical Girl shows, they seem to pretty consistently swing towards being edgy, violent, and depressing. What's refreshing about this is that, with this show, we've got a Magical Girl show that doesn't just want to be edgy nonsense, but to actually tell a darker, slightly more thematically interesting story than its kids show roots. Here, that means a fairly interesting, if imperfect, exploration of what it means to feel, of the importance of feelings, positive or negative, and does so through an emotionally resonant story, with a conclusion that feels like it holds to those ideas. It's not perfect, of course; a couple of the more specific aspects of mental health it explores could perhaps have done with a little tweaking, and while it does work surprisingly well, the main antagonist's backstory, when we learn it, is utterly buck-wild, and is the only time where the show does slip a little into those edgy places. It just about makes it work, but it also feels a little dissonant with the rest of the story. The show's full of tragic stories, sure, but they largely tend to feel mostly grounded and believable, which this last story just doesn't quite manage to.
The characters tend to be where the show hits its stride the most. It's a reasonably big cast, that grows a lot over the course, but pretty much all of them manage to feel well-crafted and get at least some development over the course of the show. That development really is the core of the story, which makes sense given the thematic emphasis on characters' emotions, so watching different characters come to term with their pasts and embrace the feelings that make them who they are has a lot of weight to it. The two core protagonists, Hiori and Ruka, naturally get a lot of this, although Hiori probably fits most closely into the main protagonist role; a good choice, in my opinion. While Ruka definitely has a lot interesting about her, and is definitely an invaluable part of the show, it's Hiori has both the go-getting, optimistic attitude to make you root for her and the more complex emotional life needed to make her the central part of a story like this. Outside of those two, the cast is interesting and likeable, with only one or two important characters feeling a little left behind where development is concerned. It's a very character-driven show, so those characters need to be ones you care about, and this does the job well.
Overall, despite the rough animation, I really did enjoy this show a lot. I liked the characters, found the world-building compelling enough to keep my attention, and found the whole thing really thematically interesting, pulling just enough twists to keep me on my toes, and ultimately giving me an ending I can't be dissatisfied with. Definitely more successes than failures, at least in my book.
AprilDruid
This has to be one of the worst series I've watched in a good while. I'd have dropped it, but I thought "It'll improve!", in fact the first handful of episodes were pretty good, visually it stood out from other magical girl shows and it seemed like this would be a hit. It just falls into mediocrity however, leaving you to not care about the plot or characters ultimately. I'll give them credit where it's clearly due. They try to present an emotionally mature story, but they fail to that, rather this "emotionally mature story" is just boring. Evil Magical Girls is a tropenot done very often and I had so hoped this would have been interesting, but instead it just leads me to wonder how anyone thought this series needed to happen.
Animation wise it looks like they cheaped out after the first handful of episodes. What started as an interesting look at the genre I enjoy so much, has ended becoming one of the worst looking shows of the season I feel. Maybe I need to have played the games to know what's going on, maybe I just need to pay more attention, but one thing is certain, this is just boring.
If you're wondering "Is this worth my time?" it's not, it's incredibly skippable and you would be better off doing such. Go watch Precure or something, if you want magical girl, or the new season of Magia Record, at least you won't wind up disappointed by what you watched.
Upon viewing the finale, I've asked myself "Why did I watch this awful series?" And I don't know. The animation didn't hold up, it looked sloppy at many points. The characters themselves had no real motivations, they were just there to have depressing things happen. There's no payoff, there's no villain, it's just all sadness. Maybe the game is better, but I don't even know if this has anything to do with the game. It ultimately doesn't matter, as if this is what's meant to represent the game, I'll avoid it at all costs.
WolfTK01
Blue Reflection Ray Review. You should watch this Anime. A fascinating show. The surface story is a well designed and plotted magical girl show where the protagonists try to protect other girls' negative feelings from being "consumed" by the antagonists for their own use. But the show subverts anime tropes to create a sense of foreboding, and the way the show plays with the characters' perception of reality makes the viewer question everything they see. The theme of hundreds of girls and women living with social anxiety, depression, imposter syndrome and other mental health problems is a dark commentary on the mores and structures in modern society.And personalities, the way they act. Plus they can transform. The way they interact with the main Reflectors reminds me of how Haruka and Michiru would act around the main Sailor Guardian members. And they feel like the outer Senshi of the Reflector group. This Magical girl Anime and video game series gives me strong Sailor Moon vibes more than any other Magical girl series. Even Ruka Hanari looks similar in character design to Sailor Mars Rei Heino.
You should watch it if you haven't yet. The music is beautiful, the characters are lovable. It has a great well fleshed out storyline. The Anime is based on a video game series, that has really fun gameplay. Also the storyline is very enjoyable. I recommend em to everyone who is into Anime. Or just wants a fun Magical Girl Anime to watch. The transformations are similar to Sailor Moon and Madoka Magica in a way. Some of the art style reminds me of Yuki Yuna is a Hero. Like the color schemes in some scenarios. Ruka Hanari looks similar to Sailor Mars Rei Heino in a way. This has one of the best Anime OST BGM soundtracks I have ever heard hands down. If you have not played Blue Reflection, Tie/Second or even watched the Blue Reflection Ray Anime. Then you're missing out. This series is quite enjoyable and lovable. Blue Reflection Ray takes place between the first and second game that is a must watch. I really enjoyed it a lot. Blue Reflection Sword other the girl who dances in illusions. Blue Reflection Tie.
I love Mel Kishida's art style. It's very pretty. The Anime as a whole is perfect. It may not be the cream of the crop, but it's still really fun. And really enjoyable. Reflector, Magical girl, Magical girls. Gust Koei Tecmo Video Games and Anime.
Wangan_King
Adolescence is usually a difficult period in most people’s lives and one that is marked by large changes in one’s environment, bonds and own self. A transitional period from childhood to adulthood, emotional surges and heartfelt moments become common occurrences as one goes through their day-by-day interactions. A turbulent time indeed, but one that is etched upon the heart. Whether the markings convey the branding of pain or the scribbles of happiness, it is a time that shapes us all. Blue Reflection Ray tells the story of the energetic and genki Hiori Hirahara and awkwardly shy Ruka Hanari as they vow to protect the feelingsof young women everywhere through the magical power of the “Reflectors”. Reflectors use the power of their own feelings to try to protect those of others, which may otherwise go berserk when they are faced with difficult emotional moments. The anime is the brainchild of Mel Kishida, an accomplished artist who has great talent for capturing innocence and softness of his characters in his concept art. Some famous works he was involved in include Hanasaku Iroha and the Atelier game series. Interestingly, Blue Reflection Ray is an adaptation of the video game “Blue Reflection” but was described as an “unfaithful” adaptation of the game. As a fan of the original game, I can’t help but be drawn to those words. After watching it, I think I get why they called it that. The way they linked it to the original game was fun, but it’s more of an easter egg and not playing the game beforehand would not really affect the viewer negatively. Nevertheless, playing the game first would enhance the experience as you would be familiar with the mechanics of the world already.
Anyways, regarding the anime itself, I would say it is overall good, but has serious shortcomings. A rather bold decision was taken for the art style, which is minimalist and depicts the characters in rather flat colors. Skin and hair are emphasized with the use of gradients. I haven’t seen this art style used before, so it took some getting used to, but eventually I grew to like it. Unfortunately, the same can not be said about the animation, which is lacking in presence and relatively simplistic. To be fair, since this is an anime about emotions and feelings, there is a lot of dialogue and talking between the characters, so animation isn’t really a priority. Still, I would have liked to see the animation be more intricate and detailed, at least in the fighting segments of the show as I think that could have heightened the experience quite a lot.
As for the story, it was generally good. It was slow at times, but when it picked up, it got really thrilling. The pacing is consistent so its easy to follow, but some parts almost feel like break periods between segments of intense action. The anime delves (albeit not too deeply) into themes of teenage girl psychology, love, regret, guilt and apathy. There are also strong moments of shoujo-ai strewn about here and there, which felt organic most of the time so it didn’t bother me. Nevertheless, one weakness of the show is the main characters themselves. They feel bland and are difficult to emphasize or relate to, especially in the beginning. They eventually get better, but I wouldn’t say that their characterization is that well done. On the other hand and rather surprisingly, the antagonists of the anime are particularly well-written. I found myself always looking forward to seeing them on screen and learning more about how they think and why they do what they do. The antagonists felt unique from one another, and you could really emphasize with their own stories. You can almost boil it down to that the main characters represent idealistic optimism, while the antagonists represent brutal realism, the latter of which my jaded self could relate better to. As for the ending, it was satisfying. With a few modifications, it could have been truly excellent, but for what it is, I think it a perfectly acceptable ending to the story.
A strong point of the anime is the soundtrack, particularly the battle theme and tracks played during intense moments of the series. They did an excellent job at uplifting the tension and impact of some scenes and gave them a lot more weight, sometimes picking up the slack that the animation or writing generated. Truly a surprise that I didn’t expect once I first started it.
Overall, I think it was decent for what it set out to do. It’s not a Madoka Magica or Utena, but for a magical girl anime, its pretty respectable. If you like magical girl or shoujo-ai anime, I would say you can give it a try and it may click for you. You can tell that there was effort and passion behind some aspects of this “adaptation” and with some extra funding, it could have been something special but alas, it cemented itself as a painfully mediocre to sorta good mahou shoujo anime.
7/10, Take a shot whenever you hear the word “feelings” in the anime
Amogh24
This plot is decent, but it feels like it was stretched out too much. The start was also sub-optimal, as it was unclear what the story was even about until almost half the show had passed. The second half was an improvement, primarily because I actually knew what was happening. The series also has some decent slice of life episodes. As for the ending, it was actually pretty good, the only disappointment being that the epilogue felt really rushed, and a few things were left unclear, presumably to promote the game. The audio is amazing in most cases, with the op's and ed'd being someof my favorites of the season. Character design, while unusual, was also pretty nice, and their personalities were also fleshed out, and weren't 2 dimensional.
But the excessively slow start of the show is why I cant give it more than 6 stars, since it will probably kill most people's desire to continue to watch the show.
GabisDB
"Another Good Unknown Anime" Blue Reflection Ray is your tipic underrated anime that no one gives nothing and ends up being the best thing you've ever watched, although it takes a while to have that perception; It is divided in two halfs, two arcs and two different qualities. The first half is what shows the most problems. The beginning is not one of those exciting ones, the characters are undistinguible by generic design without carisma like their personalites, a standard storytelling in the "Magic Girls" genre with all the "friendship power", "teamwork" and the old "Good and Evil" chiches being far of interesting, well, except for thedrama. The drama is the first good reason to stay, it's intriguing, even with all the unnecessary parts to fill the episode, specially the girls interactions, when the antagonists show up, things take a good turn. Shino, this misterious character and her antagonistic team is by fact a important part of giving a little impression on the essence of the series conflicts. Conflits, that term is the biggiest problem on the start, the fights and the action scenes are a immeasurable atrocity, there are no consequences and no difference in which side wins or loses, and the dialogues, my god, how bad are the dialogues that could make you want to bury you head on the ground by how cringe it is, and it stays like that for a good period, if it wasn't for the "villains", nothing else would made you keeping watching for what comes beyond
The second half is the first half with all the problems fixed and given meaning. The anime accomplished the achievement of doing something half of all animes out there couldn't do, give every feeling deepness and authenticity. The proportion and weight in every emotion, every line of dialogue, every interaction, elevate the complexity and the inifinity of what a feeling could be, everything and everyone's respected and not changed for the sake of the plot, it breaks the fine line between that "Good and Evil" thing, protagonism and antagonism distances themselfs of what's right and wrong, transform every individual, their motives, ways of dealing and how they interpret their own lifes in something unique, reflected in a grand and deserved finale. Congratulations to the creators for the good work and efficiency in taking the flaws and giving it meaning and deepness even to the most generic thing there.
Shadoxas
To the review above, Ik how u feel but ngl I actually kinda enjoyed watching it. I think it was a fine show, sure I understand the mc may be bland and that she’s a walking plot device but who cares. There are people who still care about things even if to others they do not like. I liked the story, the characters, and the plot. It was interesting and tbh I liked it way more then anything madoka magika has to offer. Madoka magika compared to assault Lily or Blue reflection ray is not that great, tbh I think madoka magika is prob oneof the worst kind to have been made and Ik that’s something many and you may not like hearing, but to each their own opinion. Either way I’m going to stand by and say I liked this anime adaptation of the game. You can hate or dislike me all you want, but again that ain’t gonna stop me from liking this or any other shows. We can agree to disagree.
