Break Blade – 05 (OVA)

OVA 05 – Horizon of Death 死線ノ涯 (Shisen no Hate)

This installment of Break Blade was definitely much more different in execution than previous installments of this series. The most noticeable difference here is the huge lack of much of the politics that has been so prevalent in this series up until this point. Instead, there is a huge focus on the battles in this episode (with battles taking up a majority of the screentime here). Break Blade has always been very good at showing gritty, well-played out action sequences, but the lack of balance between the battles and the actual plot progression was strikingly noticeable. We did get a bit of character development with the drama between Girghe and Lygart, but even their interactions were more like “extras” to all the action sequences in this episode.

Like I somewhat mentioned earlier, Break Blade is quite good with creating very gritty, realistic and well thought out battle sequences. You could clearly see the progression of thought, and battle tactics themselves, in this OVA quite easily. From the way in which Borcuse masterfully used Lygart’s momentum against him in their brief mech skirmish, to how Girghe quickly adjusts his aim with his weapon due to picking up a slightly uncalibrated gun, it’s quite easy to see how well trained, quick-witted, and tactical a lot of the pilots are. In the heat of battle, pilots need to be quick on their feet and adapt to the situation at hand (extremely fast, too). It’s pretty admirable how this series hasn’t done the typical mech “brawl-out” that other mech series are quite famous for (Gurren Lagann, Evangelion, etc). Don’t get me wrong here, those other mech series are perfectly fine, but Break Blade tries to take the extra step and add a sense of well thought out and choreographed battles.

Adding to the sense of realism in this OVA would be the actual way in which mechs fall apart. As a fight goes on, scratches, dents, crushed armor pieces, and other signs of physical damage are increasingly added in. A lot of the damage actually plays a role in how the fights turn out, from how a broken weapon is instantly seen as a liability and thrown out, to how a split second of hesitation leads to a cut off hand, and thus the inability to continue in a fight. I feel like I’ve focused on this point a bit too much, but Break Blade does a great job at portraying a semi-realistic way in which battles would play out. The only ace in the hole here, so to speak, would be how everything is based on “quartz technology”, which is probably the only thing keeping this from being (by definition) a real robot anime.

As for the character development and other aspects to this episode, they were simply lacking (or virtually nonexistent, at times). The only noticeable “development” would be the scuffle between Girghe and Lygart, and even that was cut off short by Girghe being shot dead (or at least, that’s assumed to be the case). It should be noted that this OVA deviated a little from the original source material manga, though the end result is virtually the same. Considering how few installments are left in this series, I’m kind of curious as to how the animation studio plans on ending this series, especially for a continuing manga adaptation. With only one more OVA left, hopefully this series won’t go the route of “you must read the manga to finish the story”, which would be a huge disappointment.

Animation/Art: 8.5/10

Music: 7.5/10

Characters: 7.5/10

Story/setting: 7.0/10

Overall Enjoyment: 7.6/10

Screenshots are later in the post.

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.

Break Blade – 03 (OVA)

OVA 03 – Assassin’s Vestige – 凶刃ノ痕 – (Kyoujin no ato)

Break Blade (also known as Broken Blade) has been doing a pretty good job at building up upon the previous iterations of the series. The previous OVA/movies were solid, and this installment continues the trend with some intelligently done and realistic mech battles. Not to mention, this movie does a pretty decent job at developing some of the side characters, and in particular Cleo, who gets quite a bit of screentime here. That being said, this series still gives me a ton of Gundam Seed vibes, and for those that do know Seed, you would know there are some glaring flaws in there (I’m not a Seed hater, mind you). That being said, Break Blade also does a good job of avoiding some of the pitfalls that I had expected to see, especially concerning the main character Rygart.

With Rygart feeling guilty about the death of both Lee and Dan from last time, his naive persona actually seems to be taking more of a backseat, with Rygart taking on a more realistic mindset where he knows that he will be killing people in battle. This is rather different from Kira Yamato’s Rygart’s very carefree, almost innocent, mindset last time where he played the role of the ultimate pacifist and refused to let others die. This all culminates in an all out battle between Rygart and his long-time friend and now enemy Athrun Zala Zess in a pretty intense battle between Rygart’s Undergolem, and Zess’ Valkyrie.

What was interesting about their fight was how Rygart still had a bit of that pacifist in him when he went to fight Zess, which made his attack (aiming for Zess’ weapon) very predictable and a fatal flaw to his strategy. Honestly speaking, if Rygart hadn’t realized how foolish he was being with his pacifist mindset and converted over to an “all out war” mentality, he probably would’ve been killed on the spot by Zess. However, after some very quick thinking on Rygart’s part, he doesn’t hold back and lands a powerful strike on the Valkyrie’s cockpit, nearly crushing Zess to death (though Rygart stopped midway and prevented his death).

The aftermath of the entire battle ends up with Cleo, a member of Zess’ squadron, holding off enemy reinforcements until Zess was safely extracted and removed from harm’s way. Cleo’s strategy to buy time here was, admittingly, brilliant on her part with her elaborate tactics that let her fight on equal footing with a group that well outnumbered her. This is where it’s really easy to see how this series tries to be very realistic with it’s battles, where you really do get a sense for the weight of things, how tactical decisions determine outcomes, and how soldiers can actually die in battle. A lot of other mech shows tend to try and keep as many deaths offscreen (or no deaths at all) as possible, so Break Blade here differentiates itself a bit here by being much more conventional; to sum it up, Break Blade actually treats weapons like weapons, which means they can kill people (whether you like it or not).

The latter half to this episode was much less mech-heavy, instead with a central focus on the now captured Cleo. We do get some interesting glimpses into how the average Athenian thinks through Cleo, especially with how they mention the distorted history that younger generations are taught; that they are fighting against “barbarians”, and thus, don’t deserved to be called human. Cleo’s comment about Queen Sigyn reflects upon this, though I do appreciate how Sigyn is going out of her way to try and make peace with Cleo. An interesting thing to note here is that apparently Athens is enhancing people in some way (*cough*coordinators*cough*), perhaps via drugs or some other means. It would definitely explain our very mature looking Cleo, who has the body of a young adult (age 20 or so) while being a 12 year old. Athens seems to be very pragmatic about what they want to accomplish, and seem to be willing to do it by any means.

Anyways, Cleo herself gets quite a bit of attention when she ends up stealing Sigyn’s gun and attempting to sneak out of her imprisonment. This event turned out rather interesting, because for the first time Cleo seemed to recognize her opponents as actual human beings as opposed to the “barbarians” she’s been taught since childhood. Her experience with both Sigyn, as well as overhearing Rygart’s monologue about Zess, definitely shook the mentality that is vital to most soldiers in war; that the enemy is nothing more than something to be killed. During war times, often one country demeans the other so that citizens and soldiers feel less guilt when they kill enemies, and Cleo here was a prime example of how this mindset was quickly fading away in her mind. The very fact that she hesitated to kill Rygart has quite a bit of significance, even if there were no actual bullets in her gun.

What Break Blade, as a series so far, does very well is stay close to it’s themes related to war, along with the deaths and misconceptions that war brings with it. At the same time, we do see how even Athens isn’t involved in a war just for the hell of it; they have pretty legitimate reasons for war too, which does blur the distinction between which side is “good” and “evil”. At the same time, though, Break Blade does try to portray a more human side to everything amidst all the ongoing battles and deaths. The animation and music does a pretty good job at complementing the events of the show so far, though in terms of anime movies/OVAs the music and animation is quite standard. The character dynamics in this show involving much of the main cast including Rygart, Cleo, Sigyn, Zess, and Hotdr, is the main attraction here that keeps things interesting, though the battles and stuff are certainly a big factor here too. The funny thing here is that this installment would probably count as buildup, especially with the brief intro of general Borcuse along with another mysterious character. Now I wonder how the next OVA/Movie for this series will turn out.

Animation/Art: 8.0/10

Music: 7.5/10

Characters: 8.5/10

Story/setting: 8.0/10

Overall Enjoyment: 8.0/10

P.S. For those that don’t get the crossed out words references I wrote, you should check out the infamous Gundam Seed series. The characters are so eerily similar at times that I can’t shake the feeling that I’m watching a Seed redux of some sort, just taking place in a parallel universe or something >.>; Admittingly, Break Blade is better than Gundam Seed by quite a bit.

Screenshots are later in the post.

Break Blade – 02 (OVA)

OVA 02 -The Split Path – 訣別ノ路 (Ketsubetsu no Michi)

With a relatively normal, standard installment for the Break Blade series last time around, it’s nice to see that this series is gradually improving. While the previous OVA focused on introducing our characters and getting the entire setting/conflict set in stone, this time around there was more of a focus on the actual political aspects of the entire conflict, as well as more mech fighting, with a little drama mixed in.

The first few minutes of the show delves into the whole political situation revolving around this war. It happens that Athens, the invading nation, is attacking Krisna for a couple of reasons; for one, Krisna indirectly was tricked into aiding Orlando, the only other major power on the continent, in an invasion of another small country. Thus, Athens invades Krisna with the Krisna’s military aid of Orlando as an excuse. However, there is also a secondary reason for the invasion; Athens’ natural resources are dwindling, and thus, Athens is attacking resource rich Krisna for to replenish itself. All this political banter at the Athenian Capital discusses the progress of the war, as well military casualties and costs in the war against Krisna.

Amidst all the politcal chatter at home, Zess and his Valkyrie Squadron are initiating a carefully calculated invasion of the Krisna capital. Of course, Ryugart and Zess initiate and attempt to obtain a surrender, but negotiations inadvertently failed after an impatient Krisnan general jumped the gun and attacked Zess’ troops. Based on Zess’ reaction to Ryugart’s comment about the conditions of a surrender it’s pretty obvious that Zess, and probably the rest of the Athenian military, have not been notified of the full conditions of a surrender; most likely, the fact that the Krisnan Royal Family is to be executed. There are more political power plays and struggles going on behind the scenes, probably more than what we can see from a quick glance.

The failed negotiations between Ryugart and Zess, eventually, end up getting Ryugart into a mess of a fight between himself and Zess’ subordinate, Lee. Even with Ryugart’s lack of skills, his machine’s superior capabilities managed to overpower Lee’s attack; however, it was not without casualty. After Ryugart’s naive insistence on not killing Lee ends up getting Dan, Ryugart’s ally, ruthlessly shot down, Lee ends up committing suicide anyways. For a naive pacifist like Ryugart, the death of both Lee and Dan (thus failing at saving either of them) would be a complete failure; It hit him pretty hard after he came to the realization that his actions caused some actual deaths.

After seriously debating, and almost abandoning, his position, Ryugart finally decides to go full time into the military for to help out Hotr and Sigyn. It seems like both his guilt at indirectly causing Dan’s death, as well as the danger his two friends were in, convinced Ryugart to go against his advice from his father (that he should run away when in danger).

As of now, Ryugart feels like a redux of Kira Yamato from Gundam Seed; someone who does not want to kill, and is the ultimate pacifist. Ryugart is definitely naive in regards to fighting and war, so it should prove to be interesting to see how being an actual pilot in battle changes his outlook on things. The plot has started to get more intricate, with the introduction of more political happenings in parallel to the war, as well as the indication of much larger, more powerful invasion forces on the horizon. Throughout all this, the production quality of this installment was consistent with the previous OVA movie, but due to the status of this OVA series being released theatrically, it’s not exactly surprising that the animation quality has been consistently solid.

Of course, this is all second to the main conflict between Hotr, Sigyn, Ryugart, and Zess; their relationship, and how that shapes the subsequent conflicts, is something to look out for. There are hints at changes in the relationships of our main characters as well. Sigyn obviously has some sort of feelings for Ryugart, considering her somewhat abnormal level of attention she devotes towards him, and Ryugart seems to have an intense devotion towards his friends; whether it’s more specifically towards Sigyn hasn’t really been hinted at, but is very well possible. Zess’ confidence in Ryugart’s pacifist motives will probably get him to question aspects of the war, considering how he seems to know that Ryugart wouldn’t not back down without a good, legitimate reason. All this, with the political backstory and the mech fights, has made this installment of Break Blade surprisingly enjoyable to watch, although it is nothing revolutionary of the sort.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Production Quality: 9/10

Characters: 8.0/10

Story: 8.0/10

Overall enjoyment: 8.2/10

Screenshots are later in the post.

Break Blade – 01 (OVA)

OVA 01 – Time of Awakening – 覚醒ノ刻 (Kakusei no Koku)

Studio I.G. and it’s subsidiary, XEBEC studios, are animating the Break Blade manga series into a six part OVA movie series. The first movie had it’d DVD/Blu-ray release fairly recently, and the second movie should be released within the near the end of August.

That being said, this first installment of Break Blade was rather interesting. It wasn’t particularly amazing in any sort of way, but this OVA does have it’s strengths.

The plot itself is nothing terribly special; a basic overview would go somewhere along the lines of “guy without any skill or abilities suddenly gains an immense power (in this case, a mysterious mech), and saves his friends with it.” It is relatively generic, but it does help introduce the setting, and more importantly the characters, relatively well. The setting is nice, giving off a feeling somewhere crossed between fantasy setting mixed in with knights and magic, coupled with the addition of mechs known as Golems.

The characters are some generic as well, but there are hints at quite a bit more depth to their personas than what we can see at a quick glance. There are the obvious issues, such as the marriage between the queen and king and it’s relation to the main character. However, there are also a few subtle hints at what the characters may develop into, hinting at themes of duty, honor, love, betrayal, and situations involving political power plays.

For instance, the Queen Sigyn’s obsession with researching mechs is probably her way of keeping her mind off both her unwelcomed marriage and her feelings for Rygart. Nether the King, Hotr, nor Sigyn wear their engagement rings, indicating more complexity to their situation. Hotr’s refusal to sit in his own throne also implies he has a more deep-seated resentment of being royalty in some way or form.

The plot also hints at a deep history to the setting, involving a potential conflict between regular humans and the quartz magic users, with the quartz magic users having come out on top. The ancient Golem that was discovered in this OVA, being reactive to only non-quartz users, is indicative of this. At least, this is if my speculations prove to be correct.

As expected of Studio I.G., the animation in this OVA is solid. There are a some still shots here and there, but overall the scenery and the animation is excellent in quality. The art and visual direction is understated, but it really helps bring out a dynamic feeling to this OVA.

The music for this OVA is entirely orchestrated, with a few good musical pieces in the soundtrack. The soundtrack overall isn’t really anything special though. The opening theme, on the other hand, is wonderfully subtle yet beautiful, and overall is absolutely stunning. It is probably one of my favorite opening themes from more recently airing shows/OVAs.

Overall rating: 8.25/10

Production Quality: 9/10

Characters: 8.5/10

Story: 7.5/10

Overall enjoyment: 8.3/10

Screenshots, OP and ED themes are later in the post.