Break Blade – 04 (OVA)

OVA 04 – The Land of Disaster – 惨禍ノ地 [さんかのち] (Sanga no Ji)

The latest installment of the Break Blade series had much less character development, and in its stead we got a lot more coordinated battles and action sequences. What I’ve always found great about this series is how the mechs really have weighty feel to them, which makes the actual battles much more realistic and nitty-gritty, so to speak. This installment of Break Blade felt a bit more unrealistic in that respect, though, especially with that battle towards the end between Girghe and Borcuse. In the end though, this episode served to up the stakes for both the invading Athenian army, as well as the Krisnan forces that are on the defense. Not to mention it is setting up whom appears to be the main antagonist, Borcuse, as the typical methodological evil guy he seems to be.

What was rather lacking here was the character development; while previous episodes all did well in exploring and developing the characterizations of Ryugart, Sigyn, and Hodr, this time around there was very little development at all. Sigyn did get some moments, though, with her memory of her failed confession to Ryugart coming back to haunt her. The fact that Sigyn and Cleo are now the fanservice providers for this series doesn’t quite help, though the moments that Cleo and Sigyn have together are rather calm, yet complex moments that really does well in giving some perspective to them both.

Other characters got very little development here, with the only exception probably being Baldr in relation to his son Girghe. While we do learn some interesting things about Baldr, we learn very little about Girghe and his characterization. The lack of details on Girghe doesn’t really help when he enters the battle later on, where he just feels like your typical elite soldier with a screw or two loose. I do wonder what significance Girghe will be playing in the future, if only because of the hints at a rivalry between him and Ryugart.

The big focus here was definitely the battles, especially the battle between Borcuse and Baldr. What was great about the battle here is that you really do get a sense for the scale of this war, with dozens of massive armed mechs fighting and firing on each other in the battlefield. What made this warlike atmosphere even more pronounced was the tactical battle decisions of the opposing commanders, which made for a very interesting mind game. Strategy is always a key part of a battle, and the way Borcuse used fear to gain the upperhand against his opponents, as well as Baldr’s move to turn that fear into the drive for revenge, did a good job showcasing that soldiers are only human, and on the battlefield those little details play a major role in battles as well.

While the large scale battle was rather interesting, unfortunately the individual battles were far less creative than they have been in the past. The battle between Cleo and the Krisnan forces in the last episode was especially memorable, and unfortunately this episode did little that could match up to that. We did get Girghe’s solo assault on the flagship units of the Athenian forces, but it felt much less tactical and much more outright shooting and smashing than anything else. The smaller battles could have been developed a bit better in that regard, but I guess at this point I’m just being a bit too nitpicky.

In the end, this episode was more focused on the actual war between Athens and Krisna, as opposed to how the previous episodes achieved a balance between focusing on the characters and the actual mech battles. While there isn’t necessarily anything bad with that, I do wish we could get some more character development of our main characters here and there (especially Ryugart). Overall, though, we get a lot of buildup as to what exactly is at stake in this war, how brutal things will be from here on out, and not to mention the very enigmatic yet ominous Borcuse, whose smile at the end of the episode definitely makes you think twice about him.

Animation/Art: 8.0/10

Music: 7.5/10

Characters: 7.5/10

Story/setting: 8.0/10

Overall Enjoyment: 7.8/10

Screenshots are later in the post.

Next Episode Preview: Edge of the Line of Death – 死線ノ涯 [しせんのはて] (Shisen no Hate)