Blue Gender takes place in the not too distant future in a world where things have gone terribly wrong for humanity. Humans have been replaced at the top of the food chain by the Blue, a race of bug-like aliens that have colonized Earth and pushed humans aside. A space station, Second Earth, has been constructed as a safe haven for humans, with the hope of one day reclaiming the Earth once more.
Yuji Kaido was cryogenically frozen, having been suffering from a disease known as B-Cells. Once awakened, he joins a team of soldiers that have come to Earth to extract him. Unfortunately, nothing goes according to plan as they make their way back to Second Earth.
Yuji will have to deal with the horrors of fighting a bloody war as he and the fighters from Second Earth look to survive. Will they be able to win back Earth without losing their humanity?
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Comentários
Blackened-Sun
Blue Gender is one of those series that a lot of people overlook or brush off for some reason. Many assume that it's just a depthless ripoff of Starship Troopers. However, in the process they're missing out on a substantially underrated and mature series that deserves more recognition. Story: The initial idea, I must admit, isn't very original. Giant bugs VS. human beings has been done many times over, but this isn't the entire focus of Blue Gender. A variety of locations, plotlines and situations are introduced, the vast majority of them well developed. A wide range of issues related to maturation, bonding, dealing withdeath/violence and mankind's self-destructive nature are explored, and the political intrigue in the latter half of the series is also a nice touch.
Art: Probably the weakest part of the series. While the gritty character designs are appropriate, the art often dips into noticeably distorted bad spots and is, honestly, a little bland. Don't expect too much in the animation department either, except for more important action scenes.
Sound: The music in Blue Gender ranges from the catchy OP, to the ambient (and often somewhat unsettling) background music throughout each episode, to the understated and beautiful ED. Overall, very good.
Character: One of the best points of the series. Even minor characters are given a considerable degree of background and personality, and the leads develop to a significant extent as they gain new experiences and face new trials. I felt that the characters behaved realistically, had understandable motivations and had more depth than those in most other series I've seen. In addition, the matter of relationships (and sex) is handled in a refreshing way that is, in most cases, tasteful.
Enjoyment/Overall: Blue Gender is an action-packed, frightening and ultimately great series. It should be noted that it is rather violent, regularly deals with disturbing topics and, at many points, tells a rather morose and bleak story. However, within this melancholy framework is something that is poignant, intriguing and worthy of praise. I would highly recommend Blue Gender to anyone mature enough to handle it, and to those that want a series that explores some of the darker aspects of humanity and its role in the universe.
Little-Curty
Bluge Gender is an anime that few people know about, or just over look due to the stroy about alien bugs taking over the earth and one man that is able to save it. It's a stroy thats been told before, but Blue Gender dose a much better job of doing so, with it chracters, and over all stroy line. It's these two major things that set it apart from the rest. STORY- A man awakens 12-years after being put in a state of suspended animation to find that the earth has been over run by giant bugs know only as the Blue. He is resucedand taken back to mankinds last safe haven called second earth which is a sapce station. Their he disocvers that he has the power to destroy the Blue and take back the Earth in order to save humanity.
ART- The art of the show is not the best, but very well done. It is done in a style that is remanicent of the Gundam Wing series, and is an older form of animation. The type not typicaly seen in newer animes, but don't let that get you down, because as I said before its still done very well.
SOUND- The music of Blue Gender is very good, the opening theme is one that will stick in your head, and the use of music is done very well and in the right spots to help set the tone and pace of the series.
CHARACTERS- This is where Blue Gender really shines. The differnt chacerts that are introduced through out the series are the ones with the most human aspect that I think I have ever seen in an anime series. They have their veiws about life and love and humanity as a whole, and the way they adapt and change through out the series is done very well. You can help but get involed with them due to these human aspects that we all feel.
ENJOYMENT- This is a 26 episode series that I finished in a matter of days, I was glued to the screen wanting to see what was going to happen next. Its a more mature anime series due mainly to the dialog and violance, but those are things that I didn't really notice too much, beacuse they are typical everyday human behaviors, which is another reason way I loved this anime series so much was the human elemnt that they brought to the series.
OVERALL- WOW! this seires was amazing, if you've heard about it and have'nt seen it, then put it on your list of things to watch very soon, you won't regret it. If you've never heard of Blue Gender and want to see an anime with great characters, and a compelling story, then this is the one for you. It's just one of those shows you can't help but love.
BlackMagic
I've gotta admit that I'm surprised by the amount of enjoyment I had watching this series. Maybe it's because I didn't expect much heading into it, but like I said...very enjoyable. For any of you who have seen the movie Starship Troopers, there are quite a few similar elements in Blue Gender. Despite our staggering intelligence and development, mankind is getting owned by some huge bug-like monsters. The difference here is that the bugs have already taken over Earth, forcing a small proportion of our population to flee to an orbiting space station. However, all hope is not lost since mankind is initiating an operation toretake our glorious planet. At the heart of this mission are people called "sleepers" and enter our main character.
We follow Kaido Yuji as he wakes up to a post apocalyptic Earth and follow the poor guy as he is dragged along a harrowing gauntlet of bloodshed toward a shuttle to escape into space...and that's really only the prologue. The feeling you get watching Blue Gender is similar to Starship Troopers. The battlefield is chaotic, the enemy seems unstoppable, and soldiers are being ripped apart by the dozens. However, unlike Starship Troopers, this show's storyline goes much deeper, has a much darker feel, and definitely delivers more than just gory action.
Anyone who enjoys raw brutality and violence surely won't be disappointed and there's even a damn good story behind it. I think the only reason I can't give it a 10 has to do with the characters. I personally never really connected with any of them though this is no wonder since the majority of them die without warning. Definitely not for the faint of heart or the easily depressed. Just a fair warning :))
Aeolun
[Spoiler Warning] I don't know what to make of this series. I honestly really liked the first part. The series begins with the main character Yuji waking up into a post apocalyptic world after being retrieved by a recovery squad. They try to get to a spaceship, while facing some difficulties along the way, and finally make their way to Second Earth. That part of the series was utterly satisfying. It had a relatively diverse cast, some good action and the episodes always contained something new and interesting. After the characters get to second earth though, the show slows down a bit. There is a lot of politicalintrigue, which is a nice change from the previous episodes, but while there are actually things happening it always feels like you know what is going to come next. After a while, you get used to it though and you just watch what is going to happen. The culmination of the second half is quite nicely done as well. The series could have stopped where it was, would have left quite a lot of questions and it would have been fine.
However, the last 4 episodes, the quality of the show just goes downhill like a landslide. The storyline falters a bit, the leader of the good guys apparently decides their enemy was right and becomes the bad guy and worst, there suddenly has to be a whole lot more meaning behind the story. That frustrates me.
There were quite a lot of very satisfying options to end the show, but the writers apparently decided to go with a really bad one in which the earth is intelligent and want to eradicate a lot of humans so that the remaining humans might live in harmony with nature aga... blablabla. If the rest of the show had conveyed a message like that, I wouldn't mind, but it didn't. Besides, it wasn't subtle.
I would recommend this show to anyone who likes scifi or a post apocalyptic setting, doesn't mind a bit of gore and blood (which due to the quality of the animation, is never really unsettling) or just likes mecha's.
I just didn't like the way it all ends.
A 7.
ThatAnimeSnobRE
The main themes and story in Blue Gender are grim and handled with more maturity than most anime, and that alone is enough to give it praise. Unfortunately the pacing is also very slow and mostly episodic, thus it’s hard for most to go through it, especially today when most anime fans prefer shameless fantasy isekai over depressing sci-fi. The art quality ain’t bad at all. The animators went for realism instead of flash thus the weaponry feels fairly realistic despite including bulky mecha. That tends to make most battles to feel slow or simple, although the goal was always a down to earth approach insteadof spectacle. It depicts better themes of survival and existential horror when the heroes can’t solo armies using broken powers. And boy, does this anime excel at atmosphere.
The setting is post-apocalyptic, with most of mankind having been exterminated by grotesque monsters and their corpses having been turned into big green meatballs, sort of food storages for the monsters. Most cities now look like giant bee hives and the streets are filled with said meatballs, full of faces writhing in agony on them. It will give you the chills. The surviving humans are actually affected by all this. Have you noticed how in most anime the characters act happy-go-lucky no matter how grim their world looks like? Like, there is always a high school and cosplayers and beach episodes even if the whole world has gone to hell? They have no touch with reality. Blue Gender is not one of those anime because all its characters are cynical, pessimistic and do not act like typical harem leads in some school comedy. Their faces are expressionless, devoid of hope, and they even have sex in random moments with random people just to feel they are alive.
Obviously, the number one reason for that is because the demographic the show is aiming for is seinen (adult males) instead of children who still like Naruto and Spy Family. But there is more to that, since most moe anime are also seinen and they are nothing like Blue Gender. There are erotic scenes and numerous gruesome deaths of major characters, and they don’t feel like they are done just for edgy schlock entertainment in the likes of Akame Ga Kill or Mirai Nikki. They mostly respect the viewer and exist to serve the narrative instead of destroying it with crap like fan service or comic relief.
With that said, the grim atmosphere of the setting overlaps most of the appeal of the characters, since the latter are almost average people with no broken superpowers. Even the special ones with the blue cells aren’t supermen. So it can be hard to bond with the cast, especially when they seem to have stopped caring anymore and turned into cynical materialists who just eat, fuck, and die. There is character growth for the major characters, by the way. One learns to deal with reality, another finds hope by falling in love, a third one embraces who he is meant to be, and so on. It’s just that they will be mostly overshadowed by the imposing sceneries of the bug-infested world.
There is also a bit of mystery concerning the origin of the bugs and how they correlate with the once-sick main characters, although the answers will be mostly for the heck of having a twist near the end than for developing the themes any further. The pro-ecology angle of Blue Gender is one of its weakest aspects.
The biggest issue is the run-down budget on animation which makes a lot of scenes to feel stiff and dull to look at for long. It is not something you can’t excuse if you have accepted it’s mostly about the atmosphere than the action, but newer anime watchers who were spoiled by shows like Demon Slayer will have a hard time staying focused for long. That aside, Blue Gender is a good anime that was unfortunately never given much attention because it came out at a time when Cowboy Bebop and Trigun were the gold standards. The industry moving away from dark sci-fi in favor of silly school romcoms and isekai made it even harder to recommend, especially when the plot is slow and semi-fillerish, while the characters are mostly un-relatable. If, though, you are in a mood for super slow and super depressing anime, this one is one of the best B-grade series of the 90s.
Huntsman
Blue Gender is truly a remarkable anime. It takes the end of the world anime type that is getting a little over used and takes it in a whole new direction. It surpasses all the other ones I've seen before. There are many things that takes Blue Gender beyond all the other world ending anime. First the story, which adds many twists. How far would we as humans go to survive, and what we would be willing to do to each other. The cost of war is up front, and doesn't pull any punches. The action isgreat, a relief from the endless giant mecha these type of anime. The anime is great, a different style from most anime, that works great. The two main characters: Yuji Kaido and Marlene Angel bring life and hope to this grim anime. As the anime progresses you how the story takes it's tole and them and how it changes them and you feel it as well. Overall Blue Gender is a classic anime, that change your view of the world. A must see for everyone who is 16 or older.
Ezekiel_01
Anime Review No.10 Blue Gender is an anime not very well known by many because of its dark and mature content which most anime fans stay’s away and especially because the anime is an old 90’s anime. Blue Gender is closely related to the popular western title “Starship Troopers” which I gladly enjoy during my childhood but Blue Gender is different because unlike the western title which is set in an interstellar and out of this world action battle “Blue Gender” took in a pass apocalyptic event where the earth human population is in near extinction by the menacing gigantic insects called “Blues”. The remaining humanstake refuge in huge space stations which they called “Second Earth”. The anime have great concepts that most people failed to notice.
Read my entire Overview of “Blue Gender” to find more details.
Warning! The Review will purely contain spoilers just to explain how well made the anime is.
Plot (9/10)
I will admit this purely by myself the concept humans fighting against giant bugs is already establish by multiple movies and anime series but unlike those former series “Blue Gender” have executed the plot in a very expanded way you will really feel the Apocalyptic damage the bugs have manifest because of the world building the anime provides. The anime is mature for the atmosphere of the show is scary, creepy and at the same time depressing. The creepy atmosphere adds up the tension.
The near extinction of the human raise make sense in the plot for the course of the episode it is explained that the “Blues” started as non-treat to humans so the government didn’t bother to act but as time goes on the “Blues” evolved and increase in numbers. The “Blues” overwhelm the human population as the monsters evolve to resist the human weapons making them harder to kill and as the government use up all the advance technology they can use against the blues, it ended up human slowly losing against the blues and the human extinction began.
The plot contain random sex scenes which is very unpleasant to people, who doesn’t tolerate ecchi scenes, but that also adds up to the story maturity and for the record almost all the characters in the story are adults without any source of entertainment in the time of war and sexual morality doesn’t exist anymore when civilization is now demolish.
The plot is slow for it will took you a few episodes to know accordingly what’s going on and understand the objective of the entire series but rest assure all the information needed for you to understand will be given 1 by 1. I like how they made the events slow for it provided room for character development and also it add interest on the viewers to what can happen next. Blue Gender is an anime original so it’s impossible to know beforehand what can happen next. The events of the show make sense but I am not going to push forward about the plot to spoil you guys. Watch the anime to find out.
Characters (9/10)
The series focus on the 2 main characters named Kaido, Yuji, the male protagonist that lived before the events of the apocalypse, and Angel, Marlene, the female soldier protagonist that was sent on a mission to bring the sleepers to second earth. The characters at first are not likeable but the character development in the long run did the best in fleshing them out to be well executed characters. “Spoiler” Marlene and Yuji relationship progress as the series moves forward.
The side characters in the first half of the series are not introduced for the obvious reason spoiler “they die” and not in a heroic way but a realistic way in combat like accident or getting fatally hit by “Blues”. As Yuji and Marlene travel to reach the nearest space port for them to reach second earth they met different people with different ideals that make the world building good for both the plot progression and character development.
In the 2nd half of the story we are introduce to the people of in “Second Earth” that portray the politic aspects of the show and reveal more about Yuji sickness condition and his importantance in reclaiming the earth from the “Blues”.
In 2nd half of the series a major change in personality in the 2 main characters will be seen in the ff.
Marlene Angel develops human emotion of caring and cherishing someone dear to her. From a cold soldier who lives to follow orders of her superior, she develops the personality to follow her own will as a living human being.
Marlene develop a heart to care for other people and her comrades which she doesn’t do when she haven’t met Yuji. Yuji thought Marlene how to truly live as human being.
Yuji become more adept in fighting the blues but loses his own soft personality and became bloodthirsty.
Yuji and Marlene relationship progress saving Yuji in the process of going insane.
This what I love about Blue Gender in terms of character build up you feel that the characters are not rush and progress slowly but surely.
Music (10/10)
"Tokihanate!" by Houko Kuwashima a song that is both creepy and mood lighting. The opening portrays the apocalyptic part and war of the anime that give the viewer the interest to watch it and nothing more to say. The background music give the creepy atmosphere which make the show horrifically mature in presentation. The last music the wonderful music title "Ai Ga Oshiete Kureta" by Houko Kuwashima is those beautiful ending that will make you cherish and adore the value of life and the only earth we are living in. The ED doesn’t function as mood swinger in the show but rather as prophetic message that we should love and take care of the only planet we have. A song with deep meaning is a song worth giving praise worth of a commentary.
Art style (8/10)
The art is well made to match the anime mood and story and so it’s good. The art style is particularly use in many depressing mecha series I have watched during the 90’s so won’t say it’s very original. The character doesn’t have appealing or trademark looks but it doesn’t hinder for them to be unique. The mecha are not particularly cool but rather more realistic for the mecha look’s heavy walker tanks pack with multiple weapons. The action scene is not cool but rather focuses on realism. You won’t get cool explosions here nor mecha’s doing insane stunt like other anime do to make the appeal but instead the art style shows the tension of real a battle. The “Blues” was made to become creepy especially their nest and honorably mention the human meat balls they make after killing humans it is extremely creepy. All in all the art style of Blue gender becoming doesn’t bother for the anime but instead make the anime a good old well executed art work classic anime that people should be appreciating.
Enjoyment (10/10)
Just took me 3 days to marathon this series to be finished meaning I really enjoy the show for it doesn’t bored me. I highly recommend this show for people looking for mature contents surely you will appreciate “Blue Gender” for its great content and concepts.
Overall (9/10)
Blue Gender is an almost “master piece” in terms of mature apocalyptic events but sadly the anime ended fast and everything ended in a both happy and bad ending at a same time but I appreciate it. Maybe because I cannot give a 10 for master piece for I am demanding more. Because of the adult demographics the anime have it doesn’t became very popular in more broader audition but mark my words “Blue Gender” is a good anime with logical gore, human emotions, conflicts and world building. I say this anime is good for a try.
Extreme Spoiler About the Ending!
Additional Spoilers! In case you didn’t understand the ending of the show after you finish “Blue Gender” here’s my logical explanation about it.
The problem in the ending of episode 26 why does the People of 2nd Earth killed each other and become blood thirsty apes and killed Seno the good leader. Actually the explanation is simple Miyagi, Seno ordered second earth to stop pursuing to live in the planet earth and continue living in the space station and because of the destruction of the Health Station the people won’t be receiving any medical support so what do you think will happen to that then? The people 2nd earth wanted live in the blue planet and because the objective war in reclaiming earth was there the people have motivation to live without going insane. Without the objective to fight and to live and no medical assistance are given naturally the people in 2nd earth will go mad! There is no entertainment in 2nd earth for the people to pass the time all they have is freedom of sexual intercourse but obviously they will grow tired of that eventually within a year. Nothing to do means suicide. Seno Miyagi didn’t foreseen this which finally fallen him to be killed by his own people. (Well that’s a well-made script writing )
ktulu007
Welcome back, to horror anime month. This week we look at another anime that wasn't based on anything but was an original work. From AIC studios, the same people who brought us such fails as Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari and OreImo, such decencies as Viper's Creed and Quiz Magic Academy and such goodies as Sasameki Koto and Vampire Princess Miyu. Since their work quality has such a wide range I can't even give a good estimate about how this we'll turn out. Let's take a look at Blue Gender and find out. Our story begins in 2009 with Kaido Yuji being put in Cryogenic Suspensionfor a strange condition that the doctor's hope to find a solution for before reawakening him. Remember when we developed that technology, froze all those people and completely forgot about all of it? That was a crazy year. He wakes up in 2031 to find that giant insect creatures called the Blue have over-run the Earth and a team of soldiers is under orders to bring him into space, for very stupid reasons. The first half focuses on their efforts to reach the space stations referred to as Second Earth and may Red Shirts lose their lives. The second half focuses on the battle against the Blue and many more Red Shirts lose their lives. You can probably guess some of the story flaws, but I'll extrapolate on most of them. The first problem is that the series is set too close chronologically. The earliest events take place a decade after the series started airing. Using technology we still aren't close to having. What was the point of setting it so soon? It just makes the series dated really quickly. You'd think they could have set it in the “not too distant future” without giving an actual date and it would have worked much better. By the way, the Blue are scheduled to appear in four years for those of you who like predicting the end of the world. I can't really go into the reason that they have to bring Yuji to second Earth without giving spoilers, so I'll just say it fails basic Biology and leave it at that. Another issue is the Blue's motivation. Once you learn it you will get a migraine from the sheer idiocy of it. I'm tempted to spoil it just to rant about it, but I will restrain myself. Then there's the ending. It follows one of the dumbest, oldest cliches in existence. The cliched nature of the series is a problem in general, but at no point is it worse than the ending. The series itself seems to be afraid of trying anything new. Every plot element seems to have been decided based on what a very generic sci-fi work would do which just serves to make the whole thing trite and predictable. The horror doesn't really work. There are scenes where they're obviously trying, but the attempts are just ineffective.
Then we have the characters. The only two important characters are Yuji and Marlene. Virtually everyone else is just a Red Shirt or they'll serve one basic purpose before being relegated to Red Shirt. That brings me to the biggest problem with the characters. There are a lot of deaths in this and they never give you any reason to care. “That character who was in all of two scenes and did nothing is dead.” Yet the series treats them as important and emotional, spending an absurd amount of time on some of them. Blue Gender, if you want your audience invested in your characters, you have to actually develop them a little. Otherwise it just seems like you're padding the series out by dwelling on the deaths of completely pointless characters. Even Yuji and Marlene are pretty dull. Yuji is your standard action hero. He starts out completely out of his element, but he adapts and becomes the big hero that everyone needs all without ever finding a developed personality to call his own. Marlene is more of your action girl who starts out tough but will get relegated to a background role when the plot calls for Yuji to take over. It doesn't help that Yuji is completely ungrateful. There are two cases in which his life is saved and he gets mad at the people or person responsible. It doesn't make him more developed or interesting, it just makes him annoying.
The art is pretty good. The Blue look interesting and the backgrounds are pretty vibrant, except when they're in space and they become kind of monotonous, but that does make some sense. The action sequences could have been good, except that they interrupt the action a lot to show random reaction shots. Because when someone sees one of their comrades killed we couldn't guess that they'd be angry. We have to see it. Another issue is with the facial expressions. They frequently just look borked and convey no real emotion.
The voice acting is good, considering that the actors have very little emotional depth to work with. The performances are still competent and they did get some good actors such as Nojima Kenji Kuwashima Houko and Nishimura Chinami. The music is really good. Whether they're trying to be scary, doing an action scene or whatever, the music could have been used in something that was doing it right.
The Ho-yay factor is a 4/10. There are two sex scenes between a couple of the generic female characters. They serve absolutely no purpose and I have no idea why they were included, but they're there.
So, that was Blue Gender. How does it hold up when taken as a whole? It isn't bad, but it's certainly not good. It's too cliché and generic. Every sci-fi element can be found in much better works, but they can also be found in much worse. In the end it's just a mediocre work that's relatively inoffensive. You might like it if you're a huge sci-fi fan and don't care about originality or if you're new to sci-fi and don't know the cliches yet. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother with it. Final rating, 5/10. Next week, horror anime month continues with a look at Danganronpa.
AstroNinja
With all the praise given to classic masterpieces and all the hate thrown around at whatever becomes more popular than it should, it's always fun to go back and take a look at an anime that literally no one gives a flying duck shit about. Y'know? A series that's not atrocious enough to be called bad, but hardly has enough going for it to even consider it as being "good". Just straight up, no holds barred mediocre. After all, the golden rule of entertainment media is "Be great, or be really bad. Otherwise, no one cares." There will be spoilers, though you shouldn't care.Really.
Blue Gender is one of those late 90's anime that you see floating around here and there and read a quick plot summary, maybe a brief wiki search, but then you realize that the only reason it caught your attention for even a fraction of a second is because the title is so jaw droppingly stupid that you just couldn't help yourself so you move on with your life. Unless your me, and like me not having a clue what you were doing when first getting into anime, so you watched whatever you thought looked cool at the time.
As my amateur self soon discovered, Blue Gender is a post apocalyptic series set many years into the future when our protagonist, Yuji, wakes up from cryo-sleep to find that the world has been taken over by carnivorous Beatles called The Blue, which is probably the least intimidating name for a race of insects resulting in the extinction of humanity that I've ever heard. Yuji comes across a group of resistance fighters piloting mechs (because why the hell not), who he joins with. And in what is literally the only interesting twist this anime has to offer, rather than Yuji simply grabbing himself a mech and going on many grand and wonderous adventures with his new resistance friends in an attempt to rid the world of the evil space Beatles, episode two has pretty much everyone die horribly except for Yuji and a couple other people.
This leads to some fairly decent next few episodes, as it focuses on the small group of survivors as they attempt to reach a space base to escape to a space station poetically called Second Earth.
So about these characters. Of the four that weren't killed off in the second episode, two of them were likable. Those two die within the next couple episodes. So, we're stuck with GenericMcLameFace Yuji, and AngstyMcMumbles Marlene.
Yuji is an ungrateful pair of ovaries. Scared of everything, and always complaining. Not that this isn't realistic for someone forced into his situation, but we the audience are forced to follow this idiot through the entire series. The only other important character, Marlene, is the exact polar opposite. She has no personality, and is stone cold in everything she says and does. Not the most entertaining lead duo, but thankfully these first twelve episodes are surprisingly well made, with some engaging plot lines and decent character development.
It's nothing special or original, but survival stories have always intrigued me. Blue Gender has a thing for the unexpected, introducing characters, getting you attached to them and then unapologetically killing them off in terribly violent ways. It's refreshing to have a story where you really don't know what's going to happen, where you can't call exactly where it's going to go from the beginning. However, it takes a bit too much pride in its unpredictability, and eventually you start to expect the obligatory tragedy. The enjoyment factor also takes a huge blow due to sub par animation and bland action scenes. The story elements still work though, and carries a good deal of emotional weight.
In those first twelve episodes.
Yes, if Blue Gender had ended with our characters reaching that space station and living happily ever after, I would be praising this show as a solid post apocalyptic action series. But no, of course not. Of course it has to continue. And after they get on that space station and the awfully forced transition to the second story arc is made, the writers ran out of ideas really, really fast.
The second half of the series is boring, generic, illogical, nonsensical, and an absolute mess in every aspect. The plot gets extremely confusing, and the characters become laughable. Remember the decent development from the first half? Well, by a few episodes into the second half, Yuji and Marlene's personalities have completely swapped. A brand new cast of supporting characters are introduced, and every one of them is annoying. The pace slows down to a painful crawl as it focuses on the humans fighting back against the Blue, which is a storyline the show avoided in the beginning and is the exact reason it didn't suck in the first place, and now that's what it's all about. It becomes a huge collection of sci-fi cliches, as well as some tropes thrown in from other genres for good measure. At one point, a horribly, horribly forced love triangle is brought into the mix for no reason whatsoever.
Pretty much everything that could go wrong with the script went wrong, and then worse. The inconsistent characters start throwing out betrayals left and right, a hilariously obvious evil council of shady political figures comes into play, a predictable and unsatisfying twist is revealed, and the ending is so unforgivably retarded that you won't even care to ask yourself what the actual fuk just happened.
On top of all this, there's a painfully obvious feeling that the show is trying it's very best to rip off many greater sci-fi works, in particular Evangelion. It's hard to explain in text, but it really shows when watching. While NGE knew what it was doing, Blue Gender was a sad attempt at trying to replicate the intricate psychological intrigue by throwing a whole lot of completely ridiculous and out of place moral messages at you all at once that seem to come out of nowhere. It's not even close to subtle, and really, really stupid.
I didn't like Blue Gender. I can't recommend Blue Gender. It's too busy putting it's head up it's own rectal corridor to expand on the potential it gives its first half, but then again, those first few episodes are legitimately engaging at times. It's the very definition of mediocre: Not good, not bad, and not worth it.
bloodnet
In my humble opinion Blue Gender is one of the most underrated anime, maybe because its style is a far cry from the usual anime tropes. When I bought the DVD many years ago, I knew very little about anime and chose this series on a whim. I consider myself lucky. Now that I've re-watched it, as an anime veteran, I can fully appreciate it for what it is and what it tries to do. - What is it ? ----------------- Blue Gender is a story about a young man of today waking up in a brutal futuristic world. Yugi Kaido was one of many people in theearly 21st century, who were diagnosed with a strange genetic disease. With the absence of a cure, they had no other option but to enter cryogenic sleep, until one was found. Suddenly, Yugi is wakened into a future where the Earth is overrun by an insectoid species called "The Blue". Their vast numbers and ability to adapt to all situations have made them an almost unbeatable foe. The remnants of mankind have been forced to leave Earth and make a huge space station their new home. Those not smart or rich enough to be given a ticket to space, were left behind and are considered dead. Humans only come down to earth to fight the Blue and gather resources. In one of those expeditions Yugi is accidentally awakened and he is forced to face the fact that the world he knew is gone and a horrible nightmare has taken its place.
Blue Gender is a post apocalyptic / Sci-fi series that shares similarities with movies like Aliens or Starship Troopers. I'd have a hard time finding many anime counterparts. It shows us a dark future where humans live in perpetual danger and are constantly hunted down by a relentless foe. The soldiers that come to Earth to fight, have to shut down their emotions in order to cope with the atrocities they have to face. Yugi on the other hand has to face the terror of a new, haunting, reality and has to try to cooperate with people that have forgotten how to be humans. He has to deal with the fact that they don`t even consider him a person but rather they think of him as a "sample". This series isn't just a dystopian action thriller though, it's also a critique on humanity and its constant urge to expand and devour. It`s a study of human psyche and how it reacts in conditions of isolation and desolation.
On the other hand, we have Marlene. She experienced the infestation of the blue at a very young age and can only remember this devastating world. She was assigned a role in the combat devision and she was the one that found Yugi. In order to survive she has shielded herself from everything and can only think of her mission objectives. She considers Yugi as just another objective and a hindrance that he`s awakened, since now she has to babysit a pathetic remnant of the past. In time she will change her opinion of him and she will change herself, not only because Yugi will help in the fight for survival, but also because he will break down her barriers with his hopeful demeanor. The interesting thing here is that these two characters will even exchange roles. It's one of the few cases in anime where "Character progression" isn't the usual unrealistic and forced fare, but it actually feels right. So, eventually Blue Gender is also a story about love and newfound hope.
- How does it look ?
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You wont find colorful scenes and shiny mecha here. The world is painted in bleak colors, with crumbled cities full of Blue nests and ugly monsters roaming the streets. The mecha actually look like human exoskeletons designed for combat and not like plastic toys. I really liked the character designs, especially the two protagonists who look completely distinguishable from other anime characters without being caricatures. The animation quality is good, not top notch, but for a 1999 anime you've got nothing to complain about. It could use a bit more fluidity in the combat scenes, but I don't recall any still frames, or any early 3D and that's a plus. In the audio department things look even better. Both the opening (a powerful hard rock song) and the ending (an atmospheric ballad) are beautiful tracks and it`s one of the few times where their English versions are equally good. As for the Voice Overs, both the Japanese and English are professional, without being anything exceptional though. The actual soundtrack consists mainly of ambient tracks that never take a prominent position, but they usually add to the atmosphere. I especially remember a haunting tune that played when we were first shown the ruined cities, it was very fitting.
- What it tries to do ?
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Thankfully, this anime isn't based on an on-going manga, so it has a start, a real ending and a normal length.
This is an anime that tries to cater the adult crowd, or should I say the anime crowd that would like some less childish entertainment. The protagonists are adults (or almost adults) and they have to face life threatening situations in realistic --in the context-- environments. Gone are the schoolboy protagonists, gone is the teenage angst, gone are the awkward Japanese attempts at slapstick comedy. Ok, we aren't completely ridden of cliché. The main character does have a special ability, but at least he isn't the only one, it's not really a blessing and he doesn't save the world or something like that. Yes, the anime tries to be dark and gritty and it's mostly successful. There is a lot of gore but it never feels too excessive. Also, there are some showings of sexual acts, and some of them do feel a bit unnecessary, but in a world where people drool over bouncing ecchi boobs and pantie flashing, I'll take a god to honest sex scene every day, thank you very much.
Let's set aside the grittiness though, because it's just a wrapping. The anime is ultimately trying to convey a message. It's trying to criticize many aspects of human behavior. And it does this successfully, without being didactic, without being naive or forceful. It's a simple message, it's not an overly optimistic message, but it's a good one and it's refreshing to see it in such a story. Blue Gender isn't a masterpiece. It could have had a more fleshed-out story, it could have had more interesting side-characters (and one less annoying side character), it could also use a couple more episodes to make the pace better in the second season. It's not as deep as Ghost in the Shell and it's not as stylish as Cowboy Bebop, but it's a very good series, one that deserves better recognition. It's a post-apoc/sci-fi action thriller, it`s a love story and it`s a critique on humanity's faults all wrapped up in a neat little 26 episode package. If you like post apocalyptic, or sci-fi settings and won`t shy away from a bit of gore, give it a try, you may find more than what you were expecting.
Hatul
Note: I have a soft spot for this series. It's one of my gateway anime and one of the first ones I've watched outside of television. I still like it, but I'll try to be as unbiased as I possibly can. This is a spoiler free review. *Story* The story is basically a survival-monster-apocalypse kinda story with giant bug like aliens called "Blue". It centers around Yuji, a guy who is cryogenically frozen for 20 years and eventually wakes up in a living nightmare. The story itself does have a rather large scale of both a space colony and the entirety earth. It is quite intriguing and theydo explore this setting thoroughly enough. They explore the living conditions and resentment of the people abandoned on earth and also the technologically advanced people in space and how each of their living conditions influences the basic nature of the population. There's also political disputes eventually, nothing too complicated, but it's interesting enough.
The pacing is on the slow side, but it's not that noticeable since it's pretty consistent and it never sidetracks.
I think it's safe to say that this anime's central theme is what sets us apart from beasts it is conveyed through the main 2 main characters' relationship and Marline's attempt to become more human and Yuji's descent into becoming a beast. And the general juxtaposition between the "ground crawling" humans on earth and the people who lost their humanity on "second earth".
On the other hand, I'm not too fond of the whole 'humanity is a disease' message that it seems to fall into, and it's not even particularly subtle either. But I normally don't rate based on an anime's message, even if I don't like it.
A more practical problem with the story however, is that at some point it disregards some cool ideas that it introduced earlier regarding the evolution of the aliens and in the second half it establishes new plot points and twists that are a bit odd (and maybe even jarring). I can't spoil it, but let's just say that it introduces super robot elements in to a story that was initially established as a more grounded "real robot" anime.
It does end in a conclusive way, but the ending also comes off as odd and it's related to the above issue. It does sort of make sense more or less, but something about it just seems off.
Another problem is that the story is very one-note.. It's pretty much a non-stop misery train in which we move from one tragedy to the next (with some glimmers of hope here and there). So this might be one of the reasons this series is not well received by many. And I think that's a legitimate reason since many people watch anime for escapism. Needless to say, this setting is not the ideal place to escape to...
Overall, the story presents its themes very, is well paced and has just enough variety to it. Though I begrudgingly admit that it's not perfect and it's not for everybody.
*Characters*
The main characters consist of a "cooldere", Marline and a male lead, Yuji, who's kind of an average joe. The series' main focus is on their relationship. They both have great chemistry. Their back-stories are a bit lacking and vague, but both of them develop a great deal throughout the series and believe me when I say this is the heart and soul of it.
They give a lot of attention to how these characters react to the situations they're in and I think that's done quite well and in a relatively realistic manner.
Even the sexual relationships this series contains is handled very maturely and nothing seems too fanservicy.
The problem is that these two characters get almost all of the focus and the rest of the cast feel kinda like cannon fodder or people who just happened to get in the way. Some characters are killed off pretty quickly and we don't get much of a chance to know them.
In the second half of the series more characters emerge and they're certianly more interesting than the older ones that we killed off. Not much depth, but they serve their purpose.
The characters in general aren't fun to watch either since they seem depressed and have nihilistic tendencies. So don’t expect them to be too relatable or likable.
They generally create an unpleasant atmosphere that's certainly not for everybody.
Overall, the characterization is pretty damn good, especially for the main two characters. Everything is handled very seriously and maturely, but don't expect this to be the most memorable or colorful cast out there, because it's not. The main girl, Marline is a well rounded and fantastic character though.
*Art*
The character designs are nothing that special, but are very much to my liking since they're very mature looking, none of them look like blobs and all of the characters are adults.
The surroundings are very well done and have a ton of destroyed buildings and alien nests that still look very creepy and quite detailed..
Mecha designs are nothing too memorable, but are still quite interesting since they look more like tanks with limbs than anything else. The animation is fairly decent, but the mechs movements are pretty limited which also means that there isn't all that much choreography in the battles. The battles are still very intense though, since you do feel like the characters really are in danger and there's a minimal amount of plot armor. Besides, it's very gory and creepy. The alien designs are creepy as hell and have a decent enough amount of variety to them.
Overall the visuals hold up quite well. It's nothing outstanding for its time and not much stands out about it artistically, but it's still quite good.
*Sound*
You have a very nice rock song as the opening and a more depressing song as the ending (a very memorable song, by the way). The soundtrack in general is great and mostly very creepy, but I did notice that it sounds like it's almost muted sometimes so maybe it could've been used a little better.
The (Japanese) voice acting sounds mature enough to fit the atmosphere the series is going for and each voice fits quite well with the characters. The sound effects are also used effectively and in a creepy way.
The sound is pretty amazing overall.
*Overall* 7/10
It's both enjoyable and unpleasant at the same time.
Blue Gender does have its drawbacks and it's certainly not for everybody.
But all in all, it's a solid cult classic that's definitely worth checking out.
hanabusa
Well I Recommendations to all Blue Gender because is a really fantastic series. Well it left me wondering what was going to happen next. But is sad is not like the other anime I seen this anime is old but is like a anime new anime is so cool wow I yes don’t know how to tell u guys how good it is. A race of alien bugs called the Blue have taken over the planet, and a few select humans have retreated to the space station Second Earth. Yuji is taken back to Second Earth, where he learns that he and theother sleepers will be instrumental in defeating the Blue. And his relationship with one member of the recovery squad only serves to complicate things.
Well I’m telling u guy if u wish to see something good this anime is a hot anime to see god to good, Well if u wish not to cry don’t see it because u will cry big time, yeh sexy guy and sexy girl ^^ yeh yeh
NaughtyCalibur
Ah, post apocalyptic animes are so much fun. I love how they always manage to over-dramatize the end of the world, a story arc that you would think has enough drama on its own. Sarcasm aside, Blue Gender is a surprisingly deep sci-fi drama with a lot going for it. Before I get started on the actual review though, let me just point out that the content rating on this anime seems to always be wrong wherever I go, including on the box set. I bought the collectors box set at Best Buy and after checking the back for the content rating I see thatit has it listed as �TV-PG.� TV-PG?! They must be nuts! Blue Gender has more people getting killed in single scenes than most of the goriest animes even have. Not just soldiers, but women and children as well. I don�t know, but I wouldn�t want little Timmy or Susie watching this in place of Pokemon expecting to be whisked away to some dreamy sci-fi fantasy world. No, Blue Gender is serious business, and certainly not TV-PG. Other sources have it listed as PG-13, but I can�t see how that�s right either. Besides the gore there is quite a bit of nudity, sex, and various other adult situations that I don�t think would make its way into any PG-13 movie I�ve ever seen. There are even a few scenes with orgies in them (yes, orgies). Hell, even the ED has full nudity in it. I�m calling this one �R� and I�m sticking to it, feel free to give it your own rating though if you feel mine is too drastic.
Blue Gender starts out simple enough. The Earth has been overrun by creatures known simply as Blue, and the remaining human race is struggling to take their planet back from them. For the first couple of episodes it�s the atmosphere and how the characters interact within it that really makes the show stand out. Everything feels as dead as it looks, and the characters all have this very emotionless way of going about themselves that is actually quite frightening. The main heroine (Marlene) especially. She�s this tough ass soldier chick who doesn�t care about anything except for the mission. She doesn�t care if her comrades die, and civilians are nothing but obstacles to her. In a way she�s more machine than she is human, mentally programmed to carry out her duties and nothing more. Yuji is one of the few cast members in the entire series that shows emotions and personality outside of the soldier, but it pretty much falls to deaf ears for more than half the series. Since I enjoy making comparisons, I�d consider it safe to say that fans of films like Aliens and The Thing would enjoy Blue Gender quite a bit. While none of those movies were post apocalyptic in any way, they both have a very similar feel to Blue Gender. A very dry, dead, scary and rather depressing feel, and where characters are very two dimensional only due to the fact that they don�t know how to act otherwise, constantly in fear or ready for combat. This is the world of Blue Gender in a nutshell.
Like I said earlier, Blue Gender is a pretty depressing anime. It doesn�t pull any punches, and doesn�t leave too many characters alive for very long. But besides that, it�s also rather sad to see mankind forced into outer space to live in some space station they call �Second Earth� all because of some giant bug infestation. I find it pretty far fetched that mankind, as stubborn as it is, didn�t just nuke the hell out of Earth before letting the Blue take it over and multiply even more in a sort of �if we can�t have it then nobody can� type of deal. Or at least dropped a few tactical strikes on the locations with the most Blue and then sent in an assault team to take out the rest. But, what do I know? It�s not like I�ve ever been in a post apocalyptic reality before. Without nitpicking too much though I will compliment the series on its cultural diversity. Besides Yuji and a few others, the characters all seem to range in nationality. This is a problem I always had with most post apocalyptic stories regardless of it being an anime or some other form of media. The main characters would all come from one country, and the major threats would all seem to center around one location, which doesn�t make sense with it being a global event. If Blue Gender does one thing perfectly, it�s making sure the Blue are all over the world and not just in Japan or some other part of Asia, and also making sure that many characters of the story come from different places. It�s not often I watch an anime where names like Yuji and Rick can coexist.
Although I did imply something about the characters being very two dimensional, that doesn�t mean there isn�t any character development throughout the series, but it is rather limited. The only characters that really have any development are Marlene and Yuji, our two main heroes of the show. It�s interesting to watch these two characters slowly evolve throughout the series, especially early on when they are so different from one another. Yuji wants to save the world and everyone in it, while Marlene just wants to eradicate the Blue and doesn�t give a damn about collateral damage. These two characters grow rather fond of each other, and by mid/late-season actually begin falling for one another. What is strange (and actually quite annoying in my opinion) is how the writers decided to use these two characters during the later half of the show. Without spoiling too much, lets just say Yuji and Marlene have a bit of a personality shift. Luckily things don�t stay like this for the rest of the series, but it was a tad bit infuriating to see more than a dozen episodes worth of character development get flushed down the toilet in a single episode.
The audio and visuals of Blue Gender are not what you would call high quality, but they get the job done I suppose. On the audio side, it�s all actually very good at setting the mood, but there just isn�t a whole lot of it. One tune in particular seems to play throughout the entire series. I�m also 99% sure I heard the song �Angel� by Massive Attack in one of the later episodes (during the orgy scene with Alicia and Yuji) but it was only the opening of the song and nothing else so I can�t be completely certain. But if so, then that was probably just something FUNimation threw in since I know they like to use �real� bands in their productions� The animation in Blue Gender is often times pretty cheap. The blood effects for example should have been a lot better when you consider the year it came out. Another thing I found funny was how the Armor Shrike�s (the mechs piloted throughout the series) had wheels attached to the bottom of their feet as a way of moving around. This probably made things easier to animate since they rarely had to animate the movement of the Armor Shrike�s legs and could easily just slide them across the screen (which also looked pretty cheap, since I doubt giant mechs would glide almost silently across rocky badlands). To be blunt, some of the movements of the Armor Shrike�s looked like they were done using a Macromedia Flash motion tween. With that said, I really don�t think this is an anime mech fans are going to want to pick up if it�s for the sole purpose of seeing some hot mech on bug action. Blue Gender has its flaws and certainly isn�t something I can guarantee you�ll enjoy, but if you�re ever in the mood for yet another post apocalyptic anime then I don�t see how it could hurt to check out Blue Gender.
My Score: 7.5
Version Watched: English Dub
KikkomanSauce
So, for my first review I wanted to do my absolute favorite anime. I fell in love with Blue Gender the first time I saw the first episode. Post-Apocalyptic stories, a good bit of romance, one man and his love against the world...all sounds a bit cliche but Blue Gender has a bit of something that puts it past its overdone plot elements. I can't put my finger on what it is exactly, whether it be the enthralling characters, rocking soundtrack, or the sheer boldness of the series itself. If pressed I'd say the two main characters, Yuji Kaido and Marlene Angel are what reallymake the anime. It's heavily character oriented and I haven't seen too many anime that develop characters as well as Blue Gender. They are what keep the viewer heavily interested in the down points of the plot, which are few but IMO are still there.
Though not without it's faults, Blue Gender is still quite amazing, and if you can get past the bits and pieces of sex and nudity, they I would highly recommend it to anyone slightly interested in a sci-fi epic.
Darkmoq
Story/Plot: I really did like the concept and the premise--Bugs vs Humans; Humanity on the brink of extinction; Scarce resources and difficult moral choices. It started out very fast paced and crazy (in a good way) but stalled after the first half. It’s not unwatchable-stalled but you’ll feel the decline and it won’t pick back up. The transition between story arcs feels a bit forced too. It has some dark parts which I thought were well done. Art: The animation was subpar and a lot of shortcuts were used. There was noticeable choppiness during some parts and low resolution scenery. I think the most annoying partwas the way the robots moved. The mechs had two legs but they ALL scooted around on wheels attached to their feet. I can only guess this was done to make drawing them easier. Oh and I HATED Yuji’s haircut. The guy looks like Elijah Wood with a mullet. I just couldn't get over it...
Characters: Very good first half, complete character shift second half. I will say this about the characters, don’t get too attached. This anime gets you to love the side characters then kills them off. I have a lot of problems w/ Blue Gender but I actually respect this anime for not accumulating one huge merry band of un-killable comrades as the story progresses. This is war and survival, and they keep reminding you.
Music/sound: average. They use the save 5 or so tracks and it gets repetitive. There’s one very haunting track called “cure” which they play for the sentimental parts. I actually liked it. Compared to some of the horror stories out there the voice acting is very good in the English Dub.
Misc catagories:
Predictability: the first half was predictable in a good way (i.e. the anime gives you exactly what you want) while the 2nd half is unpredictable in a bad way (characters make very stupid decisions and oversights that really annoy the viewer).
Consistency: Good guy bullets seem to hit home while everyone else’s bounce off enemies. The penetration power of the bullets depends on how angry a character is. One enemy is 100 times harder to kill than 100 enemies. This is not really a big deal we’ve all seen this before (inverse ninja law).
Violence: a LOT of low resolution blood and gore. It’s not a complete carnage fest like Elfen Lied or portrayed to the freakish detail like Shigurui but it gets your blood pumping…so to speak. Not for little kids.
Love Story: You kind of know what’s going to happen. The series builds up a lot of potential but then squanders it with clumsy character shifts that bring you back to square one. It’s not awful (like in Blassreiter for example) and it does have its tender moments but the flow/pace is very average.
Sex/Nudity: A few low resolution topless shots w/ a fair amount of “sexual situations”. It wasn’t gratuitous or particularly graphic. Some of the hooking up made me laugh because it was so random and out of the *cough* blue. That being said, I felt there was a lack of sexual tension/chemistry between any of the characters.
Overall: It depends what you want. This isn't a classic but if you've watched all the grade A material then this might hit the spot. My review covers most of the bad stuff so when this anime delivers you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Morita
have you ever watched something or listen to a song and thought it was great and then showed it to your friends and they didn't share your opinion on it? that's exactly what happened to me with this series. Blue gender tells the story of a guy that was a "sleeper" or a person that was sort of frozen in order to keep him/her alive since the was no cure for the illness he/her was suffering at the time and wakes up to a world in ruins and aliens(although they arenot really from out of space) running around killing what's left of the humans on earth. I won't say much more on the story and while it's not the most original (but on this day which stories are?) it felt as real as a sci-fi can. the characters were all flawed but likable and developed realistically according to the progression of the story.
This is a mecha anime and thus, there were many battles involving them. however, unlike most of the newer mecha anime there wasn't one overpowered character that was a one man army which for me was a big plus. above all is the fact that people DIE is these battles and it's shown makes it more thrilling since you don't know which characters will make it out. this is a well thought out mature anime with a sense of realism(in an unrealistic setting).
now to follow the standard review guidelines:
story- 10
not the most original but it more that makes up in pacing, the emotions that it deals with, and the way everything is portrayed.
art- 8
a bit outdated but this show was made in the 90s so it's understandable.
sound-8
some awkward choices towards the end but overall it's solid and goes along (for the most part) with the atmosphere.
character-10
this is where blue gender really shines every character has a distinct personality that really sets them apart from the rest and won't exactly fit into a category because they are dynamic meaning they grow realistically with the story.
enjoyment-10
I can honestly say this is one of the best sci-fi animes around regardless of what the score is, sure it's bloody and the mature contents might put some off but think about the setting. once you take into account everything that's happening in the world of blue gender everything fits.
overall-10
p.s
for those review critics lol this is my first review be a little lenient.
Karhu
Blue Gender was produced in 1999 during the era when last peak in mature anime series occurred. The series itself is a great example of how loyal to the "adult audience only" idea anime could remain back in the days. *light spoilers follow* From its settings, Blue Gender is highly similar to the cult feature film, Starship troopers, that was released only 2 years before the anime. In this case, our main character wakes up from an artificial sleep -- that is heavily plot-related -- to discover how the world he once knew has been overtaken by a species of over-sized alien bugs -- called Blue --who are being fought against by a military organization whose current active mission includes *saving* sleepers like him and bring them back to headquarters.
Around half of the entire anime centers around this first mission where the main character travels with the military group and discovers what type of a place the world has become and how much people have changed due to the effects of the *apocalypse*. This side of the anime is easily the most impressive part of the work. It managed to show how several civilian groups have learnt/have not learnt to cope with the situation and how normal things such as death have become. During the first 3 episodes of the series, 80% of the introduced cast is killed with brutal and gorey ways, be it Blue ripping off their arms, smashing against vehicles so hard that people snap their neck and paralyze or their heads getting crushed by the overwhelming power of these creatures. What is really interesting about this work is how the soldiers deal with the death of their comrades and how brutally they have lost the will to give a fuck about anything: the soldiers just bang each others and have orgies during breaks just to lighten the mood a bit. It's a rough world, yet the content itself is not introduced in an edgy manner, but rather to show that these examples I mentioned are as "normal" and "common" in the world of this series as they are unlikely to happen in the real world.
The story of Blue Gender is hardly limited or even focusing heavily on the things I mentioned, rather these elements just are there as part of the universe: things that add to the overall world and its building as well as to the characters. Blue Gender is really does have its own world and the world has bit of everything going on at the same. Character-wise, interactions, effect and both; the differences and similarities of different character groups are taken into consideration and they play a huge part in the series on a general level, in the politics as well as between personal relationships of the characters. Since the world consists of several different civil groups, military organizations, politicians, the sleepers and of course Blue, a lot is going on at the same. It is not easy to even make a proper lit of all the different genres the series manages to gasp during its run, but other than the mentioned things, romance and character development are highly valued in the series. There is also horror, drama, and more psychological side to it all. Mecha -side also exist among the work in the military side of the story and the very ending of the series could be considered to fall under the dementia or "chaos" genre with its level of existential madness.
To give some sort of picture of the characters: the two *real* main leads are pretty much the nro 1 reason why the work with its world stands out. Their interactions and character development is fascinating to say the least as one of them is a female soldier who is downright badass, almost emotionally dead person who has heavily molded herself to be able to deal with the horrors she faces in her job, which she has managed to make her sole reason to exists: all she sees in the beginning of the series is the military she works for and the only thing that matters is the to succeed in her current mission. The main male lead is almost the far opposite of her: person who lived in the *ideal* world timeline as a happy commoner. Guy who shares the social norms of *our* world, almost chaotically good person who is also a coward and extremely unfit to live in the world of the Blue. Yet these characters change, adapt, are heavily influenced by each others and eventually form the main romance plot line in the work.
To quickly sum up the production: the art and animation are outdated, but also have that style that appears incredibly welcoming to all of those who dig the *mature* style that was often used in the end of 20th century/in the beginning of the 21st. The soundtrack is simply fantastic, especially the opening and ending songs are nothing less than classics. The English version of the op is simply an incredible song. Personally I watched the series Eng dubbed because I heard it is one of the most underlooked English dubs and have to say it felt more natural than the Japanese version.
Enjoyment-wise, I highly enjoyed the genuine and accurate take on how humans can and do change. Series that so heavily focus on creating believable psychological side are nothing less than scarce. The character behavior and development made so much sense it was a pleasure to witness it happen. Some bigger problems do exist in the story and especially during the 2nd half of the series, but I could overlook most of them because of the good sides that managed to impress me.
nozomiEX
Blue Gender started strong... for 15 minutes. It's all down-hill from there. Despite having a ton of tags & genres, it doesn't do any of them well. Quite the opposite, it manages to do every single thing it attempts worse than if it had just neglected to tackle it in the first place. I honestly don't even know where to start with this, but I guess since he was the first thing you're introduced to, let's start with the main character, Yuji. Awoken to a hectic battle, with the power to simply run away in horror, you can immediately empathizewith him. He's alone, in the dark, being chased by ominous soldiers and hellish bug monsters, with no clue when or where he is or what's going on. You can understand the angst, the despair, the frustration, the confusion, you can see why he's frightened and jumpy, or to put it simply, this isn't Yuji at his best. However... as the situation relaxes and he gets his bearings, you unfortunately get to see what Yuji is like even when he's feeling better, and it's just as bad. He's sanctimonious, selfish, rash, and his only "good" traits are that he has a basic moral code, and that's it. Unfortunately his more consistent traits, his self-centered impulsiveness means he's always going about doing the right thing in the worst way possible and only the power of hack writing can save his sorry ass. If it weren't for the foot-thick steel plot armor (sometimes literally) around him, he would do more to damage his cause than any mindless bug alien mook or cartoonish evil government asshole. At his best moments, he's tolerable. He's never likable, you will never say "man I can't wait to see Yuji" or "How will Yuji deal with this situation?" An insufferable lead character, and that brings us to his better half (only marginally), Marlene. Marlene is the cool, stony soldier, tough as nails and committed to the mission: except when the author gets horny. Yeah, Marlene is either the stand-in for Yuji, the object of cringeworthy lust or romance-pandering, and basically eye and heart candy, never rising above her stereotype.
That brings me to one of the biggest issues with this show: this "romance" is basically the driving force of everything in the show after the first couple episodes, and it SUCKS. Yuji sucks, Marlene sucks, the two pining for each other sucks, and the amount of ways the plot has to warp and bend to get them apart then bring them back together then take them away from each other then bring them back together over and over again is excruciating. I would suggest you grab a spoon if you wanna watch this with which you may gag yourself. The major conflict of the first quarter of the show is Yuji being torn between Marlene or some nomad fling he meets on the way to the next story beat. It is so ridiculously contrived, and the writing is so sloppy that only that aforementioned double-duty plot armor can keep them from meeting the same fate as the rest of the meat puppets the show throws into harm's way to give the illusion that life in Blue Gender is fleeting. Going by the quick departures for the rest of the cast, with particularly gruesome and unceremonious deaths early on to this end, you would think that life is extremely fragile and death could come at any moment. Yet after the first episode, you can't ever fathom that Yuji or Marlene could ever die. They will always be the last ones standing in the face of wave after wave of endless (and purposeless) bug attacks. The grimdark tone the series wants is entirely undermined by how hasty the writer is to throw Yuji and Marlene into peril and how half-assedly it bails them back out. There's no tension for either of these fuckheads but everyone else in the show is so throwaway and doomed from their entrance that there's nowhere in this to place your concern. The major conflict of this show isn't pragmatism vs idealism in wartime, it's not man vs nature, it's not even man vs man, it's "when will Yuji and Marlene get together?" Gory deaths for the side characters, dismal outcomes for everybody not in the starring roles, frightening stakes for those not graced with plot armor all give the illusion of a serious, mature world and story, but this is a juvenile romance novel for tweens at heart. And to make it clear, I'm not mad that it's a romance. I'm mad that the romance is ass and all other aspects of the show are undermined by it, not that any of them fare much better in terms of quality of the writing.
The show is split into basically two halves, the first half being Yuji and Marlene's meet-cute on Earth and ensuing romantic escapades, and the second half being Yuji and Marlene being kept apart by a comically incompetent evil government in space and tying up (poorly) all of the underdeveloped story threads that aren't the romance. What's going on with the blues? What does the goofy ahh government want Yuji's ass for? Well, you'll get your hand-wave answers but you'd probably be more satisfied if you got your answers from chatgpt. The story is loose and only there to facilitate the cheesy action-adventure-romance, the action is exceedingly dull, similarly perfunctory. Waves of mooks, stormtrooper accuracy and cartoonish bad-guys, the bugs are flip-flopping between unstoppable terminator-ass forces of nature and squishy mindless walking corpses, the action is under-animated and veiled in darkness and often occuring entirely offscreen or on radar screens and there's a lot of standing around gesturing while nothing is happening. Even when it's just combat, no bawdy kissy kissy garbage involved, it's rather dull. Throw in the unwelcome, misplaced, and overemphasized horniness/loneliness and it's just a puke-inducing drag. There's no moral conflicts to chew on, there are no characters or plights to get behind, the only thing keeping you watching will be to find out if it gets on the rails and ever delivers on what the first episode made it seem like it would be, but rest-assured, it doesn't. Nothing but moaning, groaning blah awaits.
II-Christopher
I found Blue Gender to be an incredible watch. I know the show has more dislikes than likes. However, the strengths of the show lies in its main characters and complex story writing and grim setting. Characters Yuji Kaido and Marlene Angel are the focus points of the story. Their development is present through the conflicts presented through the plots. I was really enjoying seeing the characters change into completely different people at the end. Their internal and external struggles were believable and relatable.Story
The story was well written in order to forge growth in the main characters. Also, the setting was well done, because of the presentation of the Earth is truly grim and intimidating. The story writing is fantastic due to the complex technique of flashback used in to enhance drama or relay important information for a scene
Music
The opening does provide a sense of hopelessness to the viewer. In addition, reminds the viewer how serious the story really is. Ending song was really foreshadowing Marlene's struggles which I found very clever. The soundtracks were great, since it provides an eerie feeling to the setting. I will find myself very anxious most of the times watching the series.
Art
The art was watchable. Blue Gender uses the old style of animation, since it was from the late 90s. There was time when the animation would lose consistency, but I am aware of the studio's low budget, as a result I was not too harsh.
Positives
I really enjoyed the well written characters. The amount of complex flashbacks really made the scenes more dramatic or understandable. The story was consistent with the character's development, so it did its job. Music was effective enough to affect the vibe of the show.
Negatives
The animation did slip up many times. I would of wanted more dynamic characters, but the show still work with the two mains nonetheless.
Final Thoughts
Blue Gender has great main characters with a plot setting up growth. In addition, the setting and music does provide a survival vibe. The complex story writing of flashbacks and foreshadowing are great. Overall, this anime is marvelous through my objective analysis. Regardless, of the many dislikes from the viewers.
