Blue Drop – Tenshi-tachi no Gikyoku: Reading the manga probably helps with understanding the plot

Written by Little_Wolf-18 on January 23, 2012 at 2:45 PM

This is a quite good work, not yet excellent but all in all well executed. The story is a very light shoujo-ai (love affair between two girls) with a sci-fi/suspense/mystery aspect on the side. While it certainly keeps you on edge, I personally found the science-fiction aspect a little hard to understand – it worked out in the end but I was pretty confused about the central conflict for most of the time, since you basically learn about the conflict while watching it progress. It was an interesting concept, but a little hard. Also, since it’s indicated the whole story is a memory/flashback, I would have loved to learn some more about the context of that flashback. Perhaps the story would be easier to understand in the manga; I haven’t read it (still looking for an English translation) but from all I heard it is very different from the anime, focusing on the story behind this and basically building the background for the anime. The anime itself is definitely worth your time, but it would probably be easier to understand with the background of the manga.

It’s quite an interesting concept to name each episode after a flower. For some or another reason, I loved the idea (can’t really explain why though ^^°).

The characters are well developed, interesting, and character dynamics and relationships are well thought-out. It’s not one of those anime that will have the gears in your head turning without end but the main characters are definitely memorable, especially the protagonist since she’s quite courageous and stands out in her own way. Also, it helps that the number of characters is limited.

The dialogue is simple and polite, very easy to follow with mostly basic language. My Japanese sucks, but I think I’d even be able to understand this without subtitles for once. Maybe I’ll try if I find the raw version ^_^

The animation is excellent, very smooth and likeable. Colours are soft and well-set. I also like the use of imagery, for example flowers and seagulls. The music is also well-done, mostly calm and really beautiful in my opinion. I’ve been listening to the opening song over and over ^^
(Btw, anyone knows if there’s a full version of the opening/ending, or were those specially composed for this anime? Just asking since I looked on Youtube for the full versions the other day and couldn’t find them. Would be awesome to have a full version.)

This anime does not contains as much violence as most nowadays. I wouldn’t go as far as to say you can watch it with your 5-year-old sister, it’s probably too complex for a small child, but it can easily be watched by children.

I think “Blue Drop” is rather relaxing and a definite change from all the generic fighting stuff out there. The plot generally is serious but there are a few very cute and funny moments, although it might be hard to understand at some points. But despite its complexity, it’s a very enjoyable story and definitely worth a watch in my opinion.