Customer Reviews

Blue Gender (Vol. 1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I must say that I really enjoyed this DVD. The story starts with a basic aliens-take-over-the-world style plot. But even the first three episodes show that this anime isn't as cliche as it first appears. First off the mechs look like they might be buildable, which is more than can be said for Gundam in any of it's incarnations (not putting Gundam down in any way, it is just that their mechs do complex movements that don't seem possible when the cockpit is seen). Then there is the blue themselves (those aforementioned aliens invading the earth). They also seem somewhat believable because they are so similar to insects that can be seen in real life, only much bigger and meaner.

The base personalities of the different characters are laid out in these episodes. It is hard to tell just from these, but they seem like they are going to turn out to be more complex then they first appear. The voice acting is great. All of the main characters are voiced by people who have worked on DBZ, but that isn't a bad thing. They seem to have been given more natural roles in this show because they are much more convincing. The animation is also great. I haven't noticed any looping or re-using of animation yet, a thing that plagues some other shows. It is also creatively violent. There are bug bits and broken people in most of the major scenes. Think Starship Troopers style violence and you'll get a good idea of what I'm getting at.

The DVD itself is great as well. The layout doesn't go out of the way to be annoying or confusing. This means straight forward and easy to use menus that are still worth looking at. The extras are also good. There is the standard assortment of trailers. There are also character bios that show who does the voice acting and what else they have worked on (a feature that I personally loved, it humanizes the voice actors). The rough sketch gallery is cool to look at because it gives the average person a small look into the planning that has to go into any animation. There is also a first for me: an audio commentary. It consists of the voice director and the two main voice actors discussing different, and usually interesting, things while the first episode plays in the background. Over all great extras for an anime.

Bottom Line: If you like sci-fi with good mechs, aliens that like to spew when they die, good animation, good dubbing, and a promising story line then get this DVD.

If your basic Japanese anime were melded with "Starship Troopers," the result might be something like "Blue Gender." Better plotted than "Troopers," "Blue Gender" is an entertaining if uneven series, the first three episodes of which are here (along with extras such as audio commentary and character profiles).

Yuji Kaido is an ordinary kid from a few years in the future, living an ordinary life... until he's diagnosed with a strange, incurable virus. His only hope to to enter artificial hibernation until a cure is found. Theoretically, it wouldn't be long. But he wakes into a world gone wild, and is nearly devoured by monstrous insects the size of trucks. He's barely rescued by humans driving enormous robots, who were sent to bring him back.

Yuji discovers that twenty-two years have passed, and it is now 2031. While he was sleeping, the earth was overrun by these insects, called "Blues," which devour organic and inorganic alike and have reduced civilization to a pack of on-the-run soldiers. They were ordered to bring all the sleepers back to a space station where they all live, but a Blue attack kills all the sleepers except Yuji. Determined not to be babied by the present-day humans any longer, Yuji decides to fight for his life.

A pretty typical plot, and as a cartoon it sounds doomed. But despite the anime look of the characters, the action scenes, settings, and the Blues themselves are quite realistic-looking. One problem is that the action scenes themselves are a little repetitive, if well-done -- bloody, weird, full of violence and gnashing insects.

The Blues are one of the bonuses -- as they act like real insects, only thousands of times the size. Nor do they seem evil, just animalistic. Though alien invasion is nothing new, we're given a good means of finding out what is going on, by having a clueless hero. And time is taken to build up the sense of desolation, loneliness, and destruction that the Blue have brought to Earth, and how civilization has been wrecked by them.

Fuji will, without a doubt, irritate the heck out of viewers at first. When first rescued from the Blue, he whines, shrieks, freezes in danger, and generally acts irrationally - although given his circumstances you can't really blame him for going bonkers. There's certainly promise of improvement; he does grow on you with time. Marlene just comes across as cold at first, but gradually we see some softening. Most of the supporting characters are a lot harder to keep straight, especially since quite a few die.

While not particularly original, "Blue Gender" is a solid scifi story, with the king of darkness and violence usually found in major action movies. Though the characters are a bit hard to warm up to, it's overall an entertaining show.

FUNimation is actually taking on anime titles outside of Dragonball Z. And they did a great job in terms of content.

Meet Yugi. In the year 2009, he was frozen until a cure for his illness can be found. Yugi, however, is woken up a little early. He awakes in the year 2031. The Earth is now plagued with huge biological bugs, called Blues. The moon has been colonized and named Second Earth. For some reason, Yugi is to be transported to the moon. He is escorted around by Marlene, an emotionless soldier, and Joey, a mech pilot. Yugi examines how violent and hoorible the world has become. He's in for a wild ride.

Story Type: Mecha
Content: A
Animation: A
Music: A+ (hard rock and piano)
Japanese Dialogue: A
Dub Dialogue: B+
Subtitles: B-

Characters
Yugi: Freaked out guy who awakens in the horror filled world of 2031.
Marlene: Emotionless soldier girl who Yugi is abssesed with. Pilots the commando mech.
Joey: Movement pilot of the two person mech.
Kieth: Moves arms on two person mech.
Malcom: Jeep driver.
Takashi: Yugi's friend from 2009.

FUNimation pulled no stops with this DVD. We get Bios on the characters and dub actors, textless opening and closings, audio commentary on first episode, Original Japanese Teaser Commercial and a short rough sketch video. And the menus are fast and look very stylish. Title menu features Yugi, scene selection features the two person mech, Setup features Yugi freaking out after remembering his friend and extras menu features Yugi in the two person mech battling a Blue.

Overall, the dubbing is above average, the story is great, the animation rocks and the music is extreme. Highly recommended to all anime lovers.

NOTE: Unlike DBZ, this title contain extreme violence and brief nudity in the closing.

With BLue Gender we are thrust into a post-apocoliptic future where man has been driven off Earth by a new type of vicious species that can eat anything organic (like humans) or in-organic. These hige insect like creatures have taken over the planet. The story begins with an apparent rescue mission of some survivors who were placed into cryo-sleep before the disastor. Things go wrong from there. The story is very promising but has a few flaws that may or may not drive you crazy. For example, the main character Kaido is a coward, and an annoying one at that. Character development is minimal and at times uninteresting. Otherwise, a very promising anime if a few things are improved with the next disc.

When i first got this on pre-order i was skeptical if I was doing the right thing. Well I am definatly glad a bought it. I prefer the dark, morbid, bloody plot over most things. And believe me this is filled with it. it is kinda confusing at first, but I listened closely and instantly fell in love with it. The dubbed version isn't far off from the subtitled and the voices match perfectly, for most the characters.

This series deserves more credit than it has received.

First off, the voice acting is excellent. As they explain on the DVD, the voice acting is done by the actors who voiced out both young Trunks (Marlene in BG) and future Trunks (Yuji in BG). They also tell you that they recorded all of the scenes at late hours in the night when no one was there and all of the lights were turned off- to give them even more of a weirded out feeling.

The subtitles also match up to the acting, which is excellent to see. I get really tired of the subtitles being totally different from the speech- it gets ridiculous.

The animation is nothing spectacular. For a new series, and with things like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun out there, you would expect some better animation. It doesn't detract, but for those of you who have seen the other series, you can see how much potential it has to be excellent with great animation.

The story is well done. I actually haven't seen much anything like it. The 'mysterious alien race' has been done before; however the awakening that Yuji received after hibernating an illness off is a new touch that I like. I think its good having a character that pretty much relates exactly to the audience- learning as he goes. We see everything he learns about what happened, and that is great to see. Narratives work well to explain things in anime, and it's good to see that Blue Gender fit it into the plot so well.

The action is superb. Cowboy Bebop has better hand to hand fighting scenes, but the mech combat in Blue Gender is the best of its kind I've seen in anime. Much like Gasaraki (another great one), they use the 'mecha' armors more like tools in battle than suits like armor. Sort of like walking tanks that are very difficult to control. Also: none of the mechs are the same, which shadows Gundam Wing. But in GW, each gundam had his own uniqee weapon, but they didnt look far off from eachother. In BG, one mech has a large cannon, and another uses these huge arms to smash things. That one also needs two pilots, one for the arms (a cool touch). The basic fighting physics and everything are realistic, including ALL OF THE BLOOD. (pretty gore scenes-faces through windows and heads bashed against walls of vans...)

The characters are okay thus far. Off the top of my head I don't remember their names...The only complaint I can see with the characters is that they teach Yuji a little too quickly how to pilot the mechs. It almost seems that they just wanted the 'relating-to-a-teen-audience character' to just hurry up and get into the mech...Although its reasonably important that he learns how to pilot it: at one point Marlene feels he shouldn't know anything, and an hour later it seems she wants him to pilot their most valuable asset....just too quick of a transition.

All in all this anime really delivers. It gives you a cold, dead feeling of a destroyed world like few others do. Robotech rebuilt all of their cities in like 1 episode, so the desolate Earth was never explored. In BG, you see a modern city totally taken over by the blue, and no one, absolutely no one is there. I love it.

When I saw the adds for this anime, it looked like a good hit! I never heard anything like it before and it sounded like it could be good. When i finally got it and watched the first episode, i was pretty disapointed. Dont get me wrong, it was bpretty good, but it just wasnt AS GOOD as I expected.

After about a week, i got the courage to watch the other episodes on the DVD, and i was much impressed on how it picked up. While still not up to my expectations, the series got better with every episodes and i dared to preorder the next volume just to see what is goin to happen.

Check this out if you have the money to do so, it definetly shows promise.

Blue Gender has that old anime look: the limited use of colors with an emphasis on primary colors like blue and green, the slightly blurry animation, the facial feature styles like Voltron. I looked up the date of release in Japan, expecting it to be early 8o's (although it's pretty violent for seach an early anime.) I was surprised to see that the Japan release date was 1999.

This anime is hardcore, fast-moving, action-oriented horror/sci-fi. If you can stomach humans being dismembered and rolled up into green balls, bug guts and lots and lots of green and red blood, then you will enjoy the post-apocalyptic mecha anime.

Much has been said about the main character whining. Considering what he goes through, I would whine like a b**tch too, and probably faint after crapping me pants. At least he tries to fight back.

I completely disagree with the earlier review. This anime was fantastic. With each episode you watch the main 2 characters transform, their ideas their views their decisions. The action scenes will keep you glued to your chair, and if you dare to even put yourself in the character's shoes.. you'll be cold sweating with each episode... this was freaking awesome!

i purchased this dvd on word of great iternet reviews and liked it on most condtions except for few minor tweaks here is how it rounds. +'s:exclent feautures like special feautures and the bilingual languages also the plot.-'s:just one big problem the animation isn't very well drawn. overall its agood series but make sure you check out the commentary.