Rygart Arrow is different compared to the other people in the continent of Cruzon: he is unable to control quartz, branded an "un-sorcerer." Despite this, he still befriends the future king and queen of Krisna—Hodr and Sigyn—as well as Zess, the younger brother of the Athens Commonwealth's Secretary of War.
Several years later, Rygart discovers that there is a war brewing between Krisna and Athens. While visiting Binonten, the capital city of Krisna, he learns that his misfortune as an un-sorcerer enables him to pilot an ancient Golem, a unique ability that quartz-wielding users lack.
As Zess leads one of the Athenian strikes upon the capital, Rygart joins the battle with his newfound power in hopes of mending the schism between the two nations.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
RedSuisei
Well I was pretty surprised to know that Break Blade got a movie! Talk about being out of date. I've read the manga and quite liked it, though in the manga, mecha battle scenes aren't drawn very well, it gets kinda confusing. So I was pretty excited to watch the movie, to see what the mecha battles will be. And this movie really doesn't disappoint me in anyway. Story: 7 Kinda typical story, a boy who can't use any magic in world where everyone can use magic, but somehow can activated a Golem that no other person managed to activate. Even if it's typical, I think it'splayed quite well. This is only the first movie so I can't say much about the plot, but I've read the manga so basically I know the story further than what this movie has shown, and I'll say that if the next movies continue to follow the manga, it will turn out to be good.
Art: 9
This is where I was struck the most. The animation is pretty good, the mecha battles are done pretty well. Though the mechas movements aren't nearly as fluid as Gundams, but I think it's done on purpose, since the Golem technology in this show isn't very advanced as how it is in other mecha shows. (This was not said in the movie, but it was said in the manga.) Designs for the mechas are interesting. They're not as flashy as other mecha shows, yet they're designed pretty well. As a mecha maniac I liked the designs of the mechas here. Character designs are average, though I quite liked it. At least there's no excess of moe/bishoujo/bishounen (they do exist, though at an acceptable dose.) Overall a good art, both in animation and design department.
Sounds: 8
For me, sound is divided into 3 parts: Musics, SFX, and Voice Acting. Music is nice, this movie has good opening and ending songs, and good musics throughout the movie. SFX are nice as well, they are made to be quite 'real'. Like, the sound of impact of a pressure gun is not as strong as the sound of impact in other mecha shows, since pressure guns are generally weak after all. I'm no pro at voice acting, but at least there's no annoying voice acting like those overly moe/shy character voice which is quite prevalent nowadays.
Character: 7
Sadly, there's only 50 minutes to this movie. Which means that there's not much character developments. Some cliched yet interesting characters are used, it's not really a problem for me since a cliche can be interesting when played well. Though not much character development, this first movie gives a good base to expand in the next movies. Let's just hope they do expand it well.
Enjoyment: 9
Pretty enjoyable for me. Cliche story that is played quite well to make it still interesting for me. Good animation, interesting mecha designs, and a fair character designs. Nice music, SFX, and VA. Characters that even though haven't developed much, already has good base to expand. Other than those, I liked the setting of the world in this movie. The world is full of magic users, so magic is generally used in everyday life. Even so, magic here isn't really that almighty like in many magic based story. There's no ultra powerful destruction magic or time controlling magic. Here, most of the things that magic can do are common things that can be done in real life. Moving vehicle, shooting pressure guns etc. This is what makes the setting interesting for me. Also, there's not really any awesome weapons here. The only weapons are the weak pressure guns, or the standard melee weapons. Though some may think this is a minus point, I liked it. I got kinda tired from all those high-tech, high destructive capability weapons in many mecha shows nowadays. This makes the world in which technologies are not very advanced and weapons are generally weak much more interesting.
Overall: 8
I want to give 8.5, since this is better than 8, but doesn't really achieve 9. But there's no 8.5 score here so I'll just give 8.
A pretty good show for me. Though I think this is kinda underrated, since not many people seems to give much attention this show. This show is pretty interesting in many ways that even surprised me. Before watching I thought I'm gonna give this a 6 or 7, but after watching, I changed my mind and give better score. Though, I still need to wait whether the next movies will also be good or not. Let's just wait and see then.
mel-hime
Just finished watching it and I liked it. Story-7,it's not uncommon,still in the Gundam form- a guy that appears incapable of doing something or common suddenly manages to fight a robot different from the others in order to protect his friends.-Despite that,the story is structurated well,though i still believe 50 minutes isn't enough,especially for the first part,in order to introduce us well to the characters.But for now we do have a presentation to the main character,Rygart Arrow,and a small idea about the other characters. Art-10,because it is Production I.G. and XEBEC we are talking about,and it looks well for me,as a mecha-fighting anime.The surroundings,canyon and desertreally seem to bring out that feeling of isolation and arid grounds.
Sound-10- because it is Kokia that does the opening,with another amazing and beautiful song,and Faylan's ending is also nice and more action-like.
Characters-8.It is hard to grasp the characters for now.But i do have a general idea concerning Arrow,Sigyn and Hodr.I like that Arrow is the more realistic,peaceful type.He has accepted his image in the world as a '' un-magic user'' and tries to maintain peace.I am curious about how he will face the problem of ''fighting'' his old friend.He seems rather innocent somehow [which makes him cute*giggles*].It is more than obvious that ,although Sigyn is married,there is something between them [ and not only friendship...i dare to say xD]
Enjoyment-10- it was very dinamic for a first part episode/ova/movie..and things didn't seem to progress too slow...but not too fast either,although it is because of this,that i wanted more than 50 minutes of it.
Overall-10, for a first.I really enjoyed it,as a mecha-action,it didn't let me down at all.But,you will have to watch it to see for yourself.
Uriel1988
‘Break Blade’ is essentially a 50-minute teaser. It starts with a rather chaotic scene featuring giant robots shooting at each other, only to shift focus to a young man fainting in the desert a couple of minutes later. It’s eventually made clear that conflict has broken out between 2 nations and that one of them has discovered a special weapon that could turn the tide in their favor if only they know how to use it. Enter our fainting young man in the desert who actually knows the ruler of said nation and, surprise, can use the weapon! That’s the bare essentials of the main story. Thereare plenty more characters but none of them really develop in any way. Every character introduced gets a scene or 2 to establish his/her personality and maybe a few hints about their background and past relationships. All of them fall into familiar archetypes: there’s a clueless hero, a plucky comic-relief character, a stern but well-meaning enemy commander and so forth. All the characters are potentially interesting but the short length of the movie makes the potential stay just that, potential. We’ll have to wait and see how the characters are developed in future installments.
The art and animation are good, as could be expected from Production I.G.. Though the designs of the characters and (especially) mechs are rather uninspired to say the least. There’s also the occasional still-frame here and there but these are few, far between and very short. One last complaint I have is that the bullets fired by the mechs didn’t really have much impact for me. There wasn’t much ‘oomph’ when a mech got shot down.
The audio is sufficient. The music is completely forgettable (so it’s not terrible at least), the sound-effects do their job and there’s plenty of now-popular seiyu (eg. Hiroshi Kamiya, Yuuichi Nakamura, Kana Hanazawa) to please the fans.
There were a few cool twists on certain clichés such as how every person in the movie’s world can use magic and being unable to do so is considered strange or how the main character who falls into a mech’s cockpit for the first time doesn’t immediately start kicking ass. This gave some novelty to an otherwise derivative final product.
I was entertained enough to with this movie to at least check out the next one (though it helps that it ends on a huge tease). There are some elements in here that could make for a fun experience if executed well; but whether or not the creators will manage it is still up in the air.
Ariray
Coming from common knowledge of mecha animes, Break Blade 1 doesn't go that far from reintroducing different viewers to what is really appreciated as a great genre of anime. To start things off, I could say that BB1 is something very typical of an action/military that contains a hero. It's cliche, as some of the reviews had already said. However, I admired how it was implemented well. There's great character development which helps the movement of the story. Rygart, who I can describe as an unconventional hero since he lacks the ability that all of the people around him possess, shines out. His lack of poweris what makes him that distinct from the other pilots, as well as his own Golem that only he can control. Given this foundation for the story, BB1 leaves us hanging for what Rygart can do as an unconventional pilot in a city that seems like on the brink of losing the ongoing war.
The art in BB1 is very detailed and stunning. The sound and animation are also top-on since they make the mecha battles and normal scenes very engaging and exciting. The caliber of the art and sound all contribute to the enjoyment of the movie as one. Some scenes which seem ordinary and normal are all elevated to somewhat a grander level because of the voice acting alongside the art.
I didn't expect for the protagonist to have close connections with royalty since we are used to stories having heroes serving the king out of duty and responsibility. In BB1, we see Rygart serving in the army not only because of his duty, but because of the idea of friendship behind the war. This must be the first time I experienced this type of story which is very refreshing to watch and experience.
I am quite excited to watch the remaining five movies after BB1. It serves as a great teaser or introduction which is very effective in making the viewers crave for some more mecha action and perhaps a romance story out of the blue.
Bishounen_Hunter
INTRO: Broken Blade was a bit of a let down for me. I broke one of my own cardinal rules for watching anime; I had expectations. I saw the nice art, I saw that it was from I.G., and that it was an OAV, saw some good-looking characters and therefore launched right into the assumption that it HAD to be great! And maybe it is, but it certainly wasn't my cuppa! I was kinda bored throughout this series....and I'm not sure why Broken Blade isn't classed as a series because you can't watch any of them independently or out of sequence, that's enough for itto be classed as a singular series. And that's how I've written this review...for the WHOLE series, So yes, bored and disappointed I was, as Broken Blade broke no moulds, the: same old mecha-driven plot complete with "unique" pilot, yet no true human story or character development and even though the art was lovely...it wasn't ground-breaking.
VISUALS: I.G. Definitely did not disappoint on the art and animation. They rarely do. Very good battle scenes, complex movements, dramatic slow-motion scenes all packaged nice and neat. The desert looks beautiful with it's infinite sand dunes, fine grains of sands slipping through fingers, lightly dusting everything it touches: clothes, boots, war-mecha...and it certainly seemed hot there. The castle interiors looked large and spacious, definitely Anglo inspired...once again [gag, eye-rolls!!! Would be nice for an anime to TRY and BE inspired by other cultures for once, how about Turkish, Moroccan, Greek?? Anything from Africa??] Sighs, geez, either way, the art was nice for what it was.
AUDIO: The OP theme was pretty grand and majestic sounding. It's the type of music you hear for films and anime that have a great story to tell, mostly the types that have been adapted from novels. It kind of reminded me of the theme from Lodoss War, that same kind of majestic “once upon a time” feeling. It definitely, encouraged me to think "yeah this story is gonna be great!" Big letdown. The ED theme was forgettable. I watched it in Japanese dub, typical shounen acting and screaming....bored, now. NEXT!
STORY: I'll tell you what's wrong with the story, it's unoriginal and completely uninspiring. The story is centred around several battles within a war for natural resources, namely quartz. Fine, I'm OK with that, I love politics, military and tactics, but this series had little of that. It was about the mecha and the battles, making the true characters of this series are the mecha....and that's why I got bored and lost interest. I'm not opposed to mecha-themed anime, per se, [loved GUNDAM, loved MACROSS] however those stories contained a solid foundation of human interaction and drama. With Broken Blade, human interaction is purely incidental, merely used only to fill the spaces between the combat scenes--where the true dramatic elements reside.
You can't create REAL drama from combat scenes only the illusion of drama with screaming, rage faces and blood drippings but you don't get the great drama that hits you in the gut because there is no character development. All the great war films and anime were splendid because time was spent fleshing out credible characters we can become attached to...no one beyond the 3 or 4 central figures has a solid back story. We only get to know who is related to whom then maybe there is some minimal interest by proxy: maybe they have a kid, maybe they were war-orphans, maybe they were slightly insane but there is no why or how they got that way. How did Sasuke [yes I know his name isn't Sasuke but these characters were so generic it's irrelevant] wind up on the opposing team? Why did Psycho-man turn against his comrades? What did he say to Naruto [yes I know it's not his name too] before going down in a blaze of glory? And there are many more questions that could have been answered were time spent more on that than the battle scenes.
CHARACTERS: OMG! If I see another blonde haired, blue-eyed lead character....I'm gonna hurl! Whatever happened to the old days when anime characters looked purely fictional with pink and green hair and all different color eyes? When did they start this raging trend to look like Hitler's army? If we're gonna stick to realistic human colour schemes, how about some black/blue, black/brown, brown/brown, red/brown...I'd even settle for blond/brown. But please, please, PLEEEEAAAASE! Stop with the blondes especially blonde/blue combos! I honestly couldn't even get into the characters because as soon as I saw blonde, I tuned out. I saw the glaring lack of originality and just tuned out. I saw Naruto, jumping into a mecha that of course ONLY HE can magically operate and I saw Sasuke on the opposing team, genius though he is, he's still misguided and he's still brooding as usual. And then some other equally boring archetypes thrown in the mix: Big boobs, gentle giant, midget loli-warrior, the over-plotter who doubles as the narrator to help the viewer follow along, crazies who get boners from warfare and killing. Now bake at 380 for six hours for the typical anime recipe, Ting! Boring! NEEEEEXT!
VERDICT: It's was a mediocre unoriginal story with nice art. It's pretty obvious this anime has only mecha-fanservice and battles scenes in mind and if that your cuppa tea, then have at it you'll be thrilled. But for those of us who've seen all that and are now looking for a bit more substance, forget it....you'll go hungry! You're better off with Escaflowne, they did already and MUCH better.
BakaShinjiIkari
This review will cover the all 6 films, thus meaning that this review will be an overall review of all the films, got it? :) The very first moment I watched this series, I knew right away that I'd be in for a great ride, and if you're into the mecha, shounen and military action genreas, then Broken (Brake) Blade is the anime for you and you won't be disappointed. I give the overall story a 7. Why? Here comes why. The story had a great start, however, I think that it seriously lacked some elements that would make the story better. The story is pretty chronological, sothe films don't jump between the past and present, besides some important flashbacks. We get some information about the main characters and their background, but I think the story would have scored higher if the viewer was fed with more information about the characters, the different nations, the different mechas. And I'm quite sure, and many will probably agree, that the anime would be much better and probably have higher ratings if one or two more films were made, as the anime ends too soon, or has an ending which is leaves a few questions unanswered.
Art gets a 10.
Great art. From the landscape, the charahcters, the cities, mechas and other various stuff makes the whole thing great. The landscape, where many of the epic battles are fought, is just great. Although it's a bit desert like, it's quite realistic with a lot of small and canyon like cracks to open plains. One thing about the character art is that all the crachters are... ehm.. normal. Yeah, Normal would be a fitting word, no anorexic looking charahters, they just fit and blend in perfectly. If we go to the mechas we see some epic machines in some epic battles. Just the way we see how these machines get battered, beaten, broken and torn is just epic.
Sound gets a 9.
In many animes the background music is more or less constantly on, thus no one really cares for it, or pays attention to it for that matter. This one is an exception. The background music in epic when it's turned on, and the epic music goes along with the epic battles. Simple as that. And the opening for the films was great. I also quite like how we hear the sounds of the different weapons, mechas and other transportation vehicles. Then comes the voice acting... Overall it was okay. Most of the characters had fitting voices and had the right intensity for the intense moments and the dramatic tune for the dramatic scenes. Except the main character which through out the whole show had the same dull voice.
Characters get a 6.
I don't think that I've ever given an anime less than 7 for their characters. Sad that this was the one who got less that 7. And the reason is the lack of character development. Althoguh the series just span over 6 films/episodes, we should have seen some considerably development from the main character Rygart, and I really think that there were some character who were more or less left out. I'd like too see some of the supportive character develop into something better. It isn't worth more than 6.
Enjoyment gets a 10.
And the reason for this is the "epicness". I genuinely enjoyed all the battles that were fought. This anime really is in the top when it comes to giving the viewer some great battle scenes. There is some minor humor, but the true enjoyment come from the many battles.
Overall I give the anime 8.
It's not the worst one neither the best. What gives it this high average is the art and enjoyment. If the makers of the anime would have put more time into the story and character development, we would have an anime which could compete with other major mecha anime.
yoshiman
Break Blade? I still think someone translated it wrong. When the movie starts, the first thing anyone would notice is the mecha battle. Basically their way of saying, “Ya, that’s right, this is a mecha show.” Honestly, I tend not to expect too much from mechas, simply because most are not that good. At best I expect to give this show an 8 overall, but I hope it will give me a reason to give it more. The first thing I want to talk about is the art, because it’s the first thing you see. Right away you will notice that the budget for this seriesis way higher than your normal anime, but not as high as 5 cm per second. The animation is very fluid and high def. The fluid animation becomes really prominent when they start throwing cool camera angles and pan overs across the screen. One visual affect that I don’t normally like is the use of CG. Most times the CG is weird and pops out of the animation, but Break Blade seems to have done it right. For instance, the running water out of the faucet was actually very pleasant to look at. As far as visual effects and animation, this movie gets a 9/10.
The second thing you will notice is the sound. The music plays a major role in this film. It’s used to convey a characters feelings and basically sets the mood for the show. One plus I will have to give the makers was the use of an opening and ending song. The opening song was used to set the mood. What it did for me was give me a since of great struggle in the road ahead. The ending song was very similar to the opening, except it was there to remind me of what was ahead. Besides the music, there are sound effects and voice acting. The voice acting was very solid and the voices went well with their characters. As far as I could tell, there were no sync errors. The sound effects would have to be my favorite part of all. One might say, “who cares about sound effects?” My response would be, “Me and anyone who cares to watch good shows.” The sound effects in this show are ridiculously natural. Every animation had sound to go with it and the sounds felt right. It was almost to the point of full immersion, like I was right up there in the action. For this movie I will have to give the sound a 10/10.
The most important part of any show is the story. One thing that someone looks for in a show is how it sets itself apart from other shows. Well, Break Blade gives a nice change of pace when it explains the setup. Basically, the main character is a “non-sorcerer” or someone that can’t use magic. The reason for giving you this term would mean that everyone else in the world has the ability to use magic. The form of magic in this world is the ability to manipulate crystals. Because of the ability to manipulate crystals is possessed by everyone except the main character, all technology in this civilization is based around crystals. Here is where it starts to get unfortunate. While this show has a different setup, it also starts to align itself with other mechas more and more. Who would have thought, main character who is trying to find his place in the world happens to come upon a mecha that is completely different than all the others in the world and one that only he can use. Believe me, I think I’ve seen this story line six times now. While being cliche, the producers did execute it correctly. Since this is only one part of the six part series, my hopes are that it does not end the same as the other mechas with the same story line. It would have been cooler if all the mechas were the same and the main character figures out that he just has different magic than everyone else. So far the story gets a 6/10. Five points for the cool setup and one point for the generic story line.
My favorite part of any show would be all the different characters and how they interact with each other. Unfortunately, with a cliche story there a lot of cliche characters. In other words, you can tell which role each character is suppose to be. This is true for most of the supporting characters. Fortunately, the main character and his friends seem to be some what different, as is their interactions with each other. I would have to say that the character designs are very nice and easily distinguishable from other shows. Meh, this feels like a 7/10.
As far as enjoyment goes, I really did enjoy watching this first movie. While knowing where the story might go, it still had it’s differences. Which is important, because if it was just another boring gundam, I would drop it. The really good animation and sounds kept me very immersed, while the characters intrigued me with their interaction. Even though I was bugged with the story, everything else was good enough for me to enjoy the film as a whole. I’ll give enjoyment and 8/10.
All the points added up would give this movie an 8, which is about where I would put it. You may not care for the story too much, but everything else is still worth your time.
Harizak
This is a review over the first 6 movies though I assume all the movies they will release. To keep this short 100 people dead in a different country will have less of an impact on you than the death of one close person. Sadly no one told the writer of this. So many people die which is fine, but it is all like omg they are dying and the bad people are laughing manically. Sadly because at best I know one thing about them they are basically strangers and when they die as soldier I could not care less. We have allhad those moments in something we watched where we were like fuck now, they better live. Sometimes they do not and when the good guys get revenge yous like yes tear them apart now we get to laugh like a maniac. Which this show tries to go after time after time but not once was I moved. More or less I was just like ow wow the bad guy got killed ow wow that was as thrilling a death as the good people they killed... someone kill me next please because I do not want me gravestone to say lamed to death by an anime.
I am not one of those noise in the air anime watchers who are like OMG I have seen this already be origional ect ect ect. This one just did not do anything form me, which I saw it really go after. It does not make you care about all the no name people who died, it does not make me like the main guy who does not want to kill, but after one thing gets over that shit fast but still complains like the whole series. Last of all it wasted so much time to resolve nothing. So much time was wasted on increasing the pointless backstory of people I cared nothing about when the people on the battle field they wanted me to care about when they died got nothing... and most of the people a backstory was built up on, the very few of those few even did anything.
I am very nice as a reviewer some things get me going and I am always happy as a person it does not take much to amuse me. So just note that means I did not like this at all and a 4 from me is probably a 2 from harsher people.
Also I will say there was one funny part where 2 guns are pulled out and shoved into the main character for something he said. Out of the evening we watched this anime while messing around for the 4 hours of content it provided I can say this one moment was the only moment I was like holy shit that was funny and good why can the rest not be more like this? Sadly that one minute worth of content was surrounded in an ocean of ow cool there killing people.. why the hell is random grunt number 12 getting screen time. This all being said I have a thing for Mech anime lately where I would rate Aldnoah.Zero and Heavy Object very highly. I love the music, the growth, how smart the main guys are. I love everything about those anime's so maybe I am judging this one in bias, but I felt like everything I loved about them was done way worse or not even attempted here. Like if anyone has ever watched Aldnoah.Zero.. you know when some shit is about to go down when that music start I was just like omg yes yes yes tear them apart, I was like a pavlov dog but instead of a bell, it was just that sweet sweet music that would make me drool, as I knew some cool shit was going down. In Heavy Object had more of this slice of life where you got to really know the people and you cared about them. It has good humor that makes you laugh and even though they are being shot at half the time with their quick quips. I will just say that I do not think I will ever watch this serious again. Where I do plan on watching many other ones for multiple times with larger breaks in the middle, but not ever for this one with its lack of arch completion and character development. Plus with all that combat it never had me like OMG YES fuck them up, end there lives, kill them all!... I get a bit into it okay. I guess while writing this review I realized it just did not bring any emotions out of me hardly for the amount of time I spent watching it. Felt like they just used a bunch of filler techniques not that I think about it. I personally cannot recommend it. Maybe a different more detailed media would be better suited for this like a Light novel. The whole idea of how the mechs work is very cool. Along with more backstory maybe peoples deaths would mean something. I will say we watched the whole thing, while means it was not the worst thing just we did not focus on it and instead watched other things. Though few things like Blood Vore make us turn it off but also few things make us all watch. So I would say a lower middle score like 4 is good.
ggultra2764
Note: My thoughts in this review cover the entirety of the Broken Blade movie series instead of one specific movie, just to give folks a heads up. Broken Blade explores a young farmer named Rygalt Arrow who finds himself becoming entangled in a war between two kingdoms when he finds himself capable of piloting an ancient mecha named Delphine that others in the kingdom of Krisna are incapable of doing. Throughout the span of six movies, Broken Blade features Rygalt reuniting with the rulers of Krisna, Sigyn and Hodr, who were old friends of his from military school and adjusting to life as a soldier whenhe agrees to join the Krisna military. He comes to learn that another friend from military school, Zess, is fighting on the enemy's behalf.
Broken Blade has a nice number of the common cliches of a mecha anime you can expect of the genre such as the unwilling hero, the powerful mecha being the last hope for the struggling side and some merciless and violent soldiers that both kingdoms put on the battlefield out of desperation to save their hides. Despite this though, the series proved to be an engaging one thanks to Rygalt's past connections to Sigyn, Zess and Hodr, on top of adjusting to being a soldier. Broken Blade offers a solid amount of fleshing out on the four exploring their past ties together and actually making the bond feel legitimate, with some hints dropped that Sigyn might have had an interest in Rygalt during their military school days. Rygalt also gets a reasonable amount of development for his character as he starts off unwilling to get involved in the war at first until seeing the realities of it lead him to become involved in Krisna's military. The movies also took some time to explore its world as it delved into what led to the start of the conflict between the two kingdoms, the corrupt activities brewing in Athens and the "magic" technology that is part of everyday convenience for those among both kingdoms.
Visually, Broken Blade has a solid presentation with nicely detailed mecha and character designs, vast shots of scenery, vivid colors and nicely choreographed battle scenes. While there are occasional shortcuts with animation such as speed stripes and still shots, the series still did a solid job making action scenes engaging through clever use of cinematography to simulate movement and not make the movie seem like it was on a tight budget.
For all the praises I have to give Broken Blade though, it does have its glaring flaws. The movie's most engaging and promising focus, the hostility among friends Zess and Rygalt, only occurs for the title's first half before it gets cast aside when Zess' role in the storyline gets reduced with Rygalt and Krisna forces dealing with General Borcuse. While Borcuse does make for a somewhat interesting antagonist for the second half with his formidable mecha abilities and battle knowledge, he doesn't get much in the way of depth and his storyline developments aren't as interesting compared to the more personal rivalry involving Rygalt and Zess. The movie series also lacks a proper conclusion as the war between Athens and Krisna goes on, Zess is about to return to battle and there is uncertainty over what Rygalt will do from here on out.
Despite its flaws and conventional elements though, Broken Blade was still a solid watch for me with its solid characterization on Rygalt and his three close friends and the title having its engaging action sequences. This is certainly worth a look if you are a fan of mecha anime.
Lypse
First of all I want to clarify that I’m writing this review after watching Movie 1. I have no clue how the story will develop. Maybe I’ll throw my final conclusions at the page of the last one. Who knows. Also, I apologize for every single spelling mistake I make in this post. I’m not really good at English. So. I think an ideal word to describe this series is ‘simple’. But not in a negative way. If something is simple, yet catches your attention, it means there must be something good about it. I have a hard time paying attention to video’s that exceed 20 minutes,so I decided I would watch a part of this movie, to see if it was interesting or not. Before I knew it, it was over. It didn’t felt as if I watched such a long episode. The story was very interesting, imo. Yet, there are several reasons why I use the word ‘simple’.
First of all, let’s talk about Rygart Arrow, the main character. He’s 25 years old (god bless every 18+ mc in anime) and is one of the only people that can’t use magic. Yes. It’s an averted trope. Whereas most anime throw mc’s at your face that happened to be able to unlock some kind of badass power, Rygart is the only one who can’t. Indeed, the story is about a ‘normal’ main. It’s something refreshing to see. I won’t say I never bumped into this trope before, but it is definitely nicer than the most special of special snowflake mc, that happened to be the chosen one and saves the world even though they’re less than 18 years old and have no experience in life or whatsoever. Yet, you could argue about how ‘unique’ the plot actually is.
But oh well, since I’m only at the first part, I can’t tell how the story will develop, but making the main this ‘normal’ compared to the other characters, could eventually push the story towards the ‘special snowflake’ trope. If he’s the only normal character, he’s still the ‘only’ one, making him more special than the others. But I guess we’ll see once I continue watching.
So. Simple series. What do I mean by that except for the fact that Rygart is ‘normal’. Well. The story isn’t all too complex. In my opinion, it was ideal. I don’t really like to watch anime movies, as the pacing is often odd. It’s either as fast as a mad bull running through an arena or as slow as Windows 8 doing a ‘minor update’. The pacing in Broken Blade, was great though. The conversations don’t feel too long and stretched, yet it’s not all too hard to understand what’s going on and everything is clear and well-explained. It’s an interesting storyline, yet, it’s not too confusing. And this is something that counts for pretty much everything in the series. The character designs aren’t all too complex or outstanding, but they aren’t boring either. And in fact, I didn’t mind the lack of music. Sometimes, the silence created a special, idk how to say it, ‘aura’. And the songs that played were nice. Some of them felt like ‘typical’ background songs, others were just very beautiful.
Honestly I loved how ‘classical’ orientated the music was. You could easily play some of these songs at a classical concert and nobody would note it was supposed to be music for a movie.
What I found rather disturbing in the beginning, was how Rygart happened to be best friends with the king and queen themselves. I thought he was supposed to be as simple as possible, making him childhood friends with them, didn’t seem right. But after thinking this through, I realized the purpose of this relationship actually is supporting the series it ‘simple’ vibe. It’d be really hard and unrealistic to come up with some kind of story to how King Hodr found out about Rygart, how they need to gain each other’s trust, Zess’ part of the story and the relationship between Sigyn and Rygart (I cover that one later on). Making the four of them friends, made the story better, in my opinion and I’m curious to see how things will develop in the sequel.
Okay. So about Sigyn. Honestly, I’m not all too keen on the RygartxSigyn hints the first movie gave us. She’s married to Rygart’s best friend. It’d be highly disturbing to see her cheating on him for no good reason. And no ‘Rygart is my true love’, isn’t a good reason to me. As I enjoyed the plot for so far, I really hope they won’t ruin the series for me with some half-assed love triangle.
As last but not least. The art. The freaking art. It’s beautiful. The animation is really well done, even the mecha fights were great. The bots had interesting designs as well. Not too weird, yet not too similar to the other ones I already saw.
Overall I think this was a really enjoyable movie and I’m really looking forward to the next part!
bloodnet
This is going to be a Fast and Dirty review for the whole six OVA series. Break Blade is a mecha OVA series that doesn't really offer anything new to the veteran anime viewers. We have a medieval-fantasy setting with mecha-golems. Everyone has the ability to use magic except for one young man who can't. Their peaceful nation is attacked by a powerful foreign power. At the knick of time they find a mysterious ancient mecha-golem, and guess what, only the boy without the magic powers can pilot it. We have an unlikely hero, reluctant to participate in battle, who is forced to do so inorder to protect the people he cares about.
However, even though everything seems like standard fare at first glance, the anime has some interesting ideas to offer. The mecha-golems look and fight more like stone giants with clubs, than metallic robots with guns. The way the various battles are portrayed is refreshing and enjoyable. The addition of some pretty good music along with the detailed and fluid animation contributes even more to the pleasing audio-visual outcome.
The story is adequate. As Ive already mentioned it's nothing spectacular, but it's nothing cringe-worthy either. The characters are mostly likable and they manage to get some exposition along the way. A bit of internal conflict, a hint of romance and a lot of intense skirmishes. Since the anime is based on an ongoing manga, the story is not concluded with the sixth OVA, but thankfully we get an ending since the story-arc is completed by the end of the final OVA.
All and all it was a rather unexpectedly enjoyable OVA series that manages to be more than the sum of its parts. I would certainly like to see the rest of the manga to get transfered on the screen.
Story 6
Art 8
Sound 8
Character 7
Enjoyment 7
fbh
This will be a review about the whole 6 OVAS. Story 7/10 Once again we are faced with a somewhat generic Story. In a world where everyone is able to control quartz (and they call it magic) there is a boy who was born without this ability, yet he comes across a special kind of golem (the mechas of this world) which only he can controll and will soon be a key piece in a war between two nations. Despite beeing quite generic I found the story to be entretaining and at the end of every OVA I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen inthe next one.
I'd recomment aproaching this as a "watch for fun" kind of story rather than something that will blow you away.
Art 9/10
Not bad though as far as characters design goes they are also on the generic side. I liked the design for the golems and also the kind of wepons they used, they seemed to stay true to their name (Golems) rather than just beeing another bunch of generic mechas.
The animation is fluid and looks great in HD, the battle scenes are frequent and exciting..
Sound 10/10
Great voice acting and an outstanding sountrack that uses some great original scores and also some great licensed scores.
Characters 6/10.
With a generic story it was obvious there would also be some generic characters. The easy life boy who comes into war but tries not to kill anyone at first until he is forced to do so to protect his life, the childhood friends who years later find themselves on oposite armies during the war, the cold and calculating bad guy, etc. They are all to be found here, yet they still manage to be likable.
The only thing that really bothered me is the fact that some characters seem to get a lot of focus on the first 2 chapters but then are completely forgotten for the rest of the OVAS.
Enjoyment 9/10
It may be a somewhat generic story with a bunch of somewhat generic characters, but it's still a very enjoyable OVA copilation.
The fighting scenes are great and really well animated and there seems to be a good balance between Story and Action yet the focus remains on the action. By the end of each OVA you don't really care if the story is generic but you are rather excited to see the next one.
Overall 8/10
It's not a masterpiece, but I think it was well worth my time. The final OVA was a bit underwhelming with too much of the story left unexplained and a feeling that the overall story was far from over (which makes sanse if you consider the manga this is based on is still not finished) and the final battle could have been a bit more epic and it just didn't feel as good as some of the other battles.
Still, this are some really great OVAS I found by chance and I find them to be great for anyone looking for som fun and well animation mecha show.
BowlingJD
This review covers all six movies. A long term key animator turned director by the name of Habara Nobuyoshi was the main guy heading up the mech adventure manga adaptation into a total of six movies up to chapter 50 of the manga. Break Blade or otherwise known as Broken Blade came from a joint effort by Production I.G. and Xebec. This is an anime about mech battles being a major focus for kingdoms and nations either to take over or protect their lands. There was a 12 episode anime tv series, but the adaptation was shortened and overall not very well received. The six movieadaptation here does follow the source material closely up until movie six as to have the story end at a good juncture within the plot.
Our setting is on a continent called Cruzon where war has broken out between two nations called Krisna and Athens with many smaller nations around them. The main resource for power is a type of quartz mineral in which has a multitude of uses including how humans have evolved to use this quartz as a form of magic. Rygart Arrow is a rare instance of a person unable to use quartz, but as fate would have it, is the only one able to pilot an extremely powerful ancient mech/golem to fight against the powerful enemy force of Athens. With close friends on both sides of the battlefield, he ends up siding with his friends the King and Queen of Krisna and battles ensue for survival.
A short description of this show would be well animated mech battles with a fairly bland setting, a basic story line, and plain characters. The mech battles are no doubt the high point and focus of the show with the military tactics and fallout over the battles being second. Each mech action scene has fantastic sound effects, good fight choreography, and significant weight behind each weapon strike. There is also a few scenes where a new pilot or a new mech jumps into the fray and slaughters everything in sight while not feeling totally out of place such as in many Gundam and other mech shows. Where the show also shines is the impact each battle has on the pilot and the cast of characters. The mechs armor and body structure deteriorates with weaponry, takes damage accordingly, and the strain of battle affects our pilots mentally and physically. Even the main character Rygart’s super powered ancient mech stays within the lines of physical limitations and the laws of physics.
These movies are however as generic as they get. The setting as mentioned before is generic fantasy with repeated valley and desert landscape battles. Even the characters are very uninteresting never developing outside of their generic archetypes. There is even a young prodigy girl pilot from Athens that is seemingly only there to have over sized breasts and “fan service” moments. At the half way point across the six movies, more characters are brought in the spice up the war. However, time is taken away from developing the main cast to focus on this new threat where the audience can clearly see what will happen. Rygart is the hero and will overcome the odds 101. Even the motivation behind the war on both sides is not very believable and this forces the viewer to accept a very high amount of suspension of disbelief.
Overall, Break Blade is an experience that would probably only be enjoyable for seasoned mech anime fans. Even then, the story, setting, and characters are hardly breaking any ground. Luckily, the battles are most of the anime and is quite exciting. The ending is not so bad considering the manga continues onward. Decent anime for mech fans, but not recommended for anyone else unfortunately.
indianoferrano
This is a review solely for the Break Blade movie series, as the movie veers off in it's own direction to wrap up the story. Overall, it's a great movie series to watch. It's movie length allows you to take in a good amount of information without consuming too much time or dragging out. Unfortunately, the manga series goes on for quite a while, so the movie doesn't cover the entire manga. Which makes for an unexplained ending and shortcuts throughout the movies. Nonetheless, the animation is great, and the voice acting fits the characters well. But like all superhero mecha anime's, the 'soldiers' are always meaninglessin combat, and sometimes act as placeholders to simply push a character through a plot. (I.E. the character "Dan").
There are a lot of important characters in the series, and without trying to spoil anything, it's worth noting that a lot of characters with solid personalities end up suffering the 'consequences of war'. I personally enjoyed the character development, as well as the complexities between their relationships as the movies go on.
If you like the underdog rising up to glory type of anime, you will definitely enjoy break blade.
