Yuri Anime: Blue Drop, The Complete Collection

April 8th, 2010

Man, does this series have one of everything. It’s got an alien race of women and a Japanese schoolgirl and a loyal crewmember and a vengeful crewmember who lost her lover in an accident that couldn’t have been prevented. It’s got a character who writes fanfic and a character who is not what she seems. There’s one complicated family situation and one set of deceased parents who were killed by the unstoppable accident. And the alien and the girl have met before as a result of the unstoppble accident.

It has a sneering bad guy who can take the blame for everything.

It’s got noble sacrifice, and tragedy and drama and a play within a play and a school play that eerily echoes the real situation and comedy and fun and friendship and love.

It has moe 2-D animation and the ships are in 3-D CGI which give them a sort of cool unworldliness.

It has thoroughly likable characters and a story that ends ironically, but it definitely ends.

It has good and bad and moral ambiguity and questionable decision-making and two women who fall in love, so it doesn’t really matter if it all makes sense. But for the most part – it all makes sense.

Blue Drop: The Complete Collection is a fun watch from beginning to end. It’s well presented, complete in one box and with no significant extras. Totally worth a watch whether you’ve read the original Blue Drop manga or not.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Given the watchability of this story, I’m even more bummed by creator Yoshitomi Akihito’s decent into mediocrity in his recent manga work. I think he needs to return to this world once more and have a little fun.

My sincere gratitude is once again directed at Okazu Superhero Daniel P. for his sponsorship of today’s review and his ongoing support of Yuri. ^_^

9 Responses

  1. DezoPenguin says:

    I still love how Yoshitomi is basically getting paid to write the same story twice in two magazines. Unfortunately, it’s equally unreadable in both iterations.

  2. @DezoPenguin – Agreed. I wonder if it is the end of his good stuff or if there is hope.

  3. Cryssoberyl says:

    Sisterism isn’t that great, but I personally am enjoying Two and Two quite a bit, if only for the speed at which things are moving. There are more twists in the first two chapters than in many chapters of other titles, and the cross-relationship dynamics are interesting. It might be soap-operatic in style, but I’m someone who was hooked on General Hospital for about two whole years during my teens, just because I couldn’t stop wanting to see what would happen next. :P

    (Vericode: phapped >_<)

  4. Eric P. says:

    I give Blue Drop kudos for featuring an overweight woman in the main supporting case. They are such a rarity in the realm of Anime, the only other two series I can think of that featured similar characters are Witchblade and Princess Nine. Like the girls in those titles, Hiroko may be quirky but she’s definitely not dumb. This may unrealistic, but I would think it wouldn’t hurt to see more girls with physical character.

    This review pretty much sums up what makes Blue Drop an entertaining watch. All in all, it was a very surprisingly nice series and the ending theme song was lovely, and really stayed with me especially after the final episode.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Speaking of Hiroko, if one were to use the typical LFB reasoning for two girls being a couple, couldn’t it be said that she and Akane are going out?

  6. ArcaJ says:

    Heh! I was tempted to write a bad Hiroko/Akane fanfic when I first saw this show. ^_^ (Loser Akane FanGirl)

    I really enjoyed Blue Drop for what it was. I enjoyed the characters and their daily school life problems in the face of a massive alien invasion.

    The only thing I was slightly disappointed with was Sentai’s bare-bones season set. I guess I should be pleased that Blue Drop proved popular enough to warrant a dub, but I’d rather have some studio extras and a nicer box.

    Anyway, thanks for the review Erica! I might write that horrendous fanfic afterall. ^_^

    ::HUGS::

    Arca Jeth

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