Blassreiter - or why motorcycles are dangerous

Well Blassreiter will probably be considered the latest addition to the relations of Japan and German cause let’s face it: Japan luvs foreign things, especially German numbers. Seriously there are many anime/visual novels/light novels/manga that are full of them…..And I can’t name any right now.

This is my rant on Blassreiter, Nitro+, and Gonzo.

Blassreiter is actually set in Germany. But this doesn’t really affect the story (keep in mind that seeting does indeed affect the story).

Anyway it’s a weird show. First of all the only reason I ever heard about this is because of Nitro+’s involvement. GONZO is a wierd animation studio, and thus almost any series that they make can be considered wierd (”weird studio = weird studio” is not always the case), they are known for their use CG (which is used for cars, weapons, dragons, areas, nametags, and hairpins), I’m not a bothered by their CG cause I see other anime use CG to both major and minor extents (Kaiji and Sousei no Aquarion come to mind) and I’m not really critical.
Blassreiter’s fighting scenes are almost all 90% CG and some of them are pretty cool. The Blassreiters (I’m going to call them that other than: fighting bikers, Demoniac riders, other dumb title) are fine in design.

I’m sort of a Nitro+ fan because I love the look of their games. And they have proved that they can mix wierd elements together and get brilliant stories. I’m not the only one who shares this opinion.

As an example let me present how they likely brainstormed “Gekkou no Carnivale”

Guy1: Werewolves are fun…
Guy2: True
Guy3:…Taxis…..A werewolve TAXI DRIVER…who..
Guy2: Finds an android-doll!
Guy1: and it’s set in Italy!

And there you have the plot of Gekkou no Carnivale

Now to describe Blassreiter.

The story is actually somewhat simple for Nitro+’s writer (Gen Urobuchi). It’s easily summed up as: Germany, Fighting Motorcyclists, Cyborg disease
In 5 episodes the story hasn’t really given anything exciting, it hasn’t been predictable though….because it’s been so simple.

The story has alot of sad feeling in it so far. So far the main heroine’s younger brother is picked on by bullies, the two hero characters are isolated from other people because of their transformations, and overall the story is quite bleak.

The character development hasn’t been really heavy. Gerd basically has had his life changed and likely the series will reflect on this. Otherwise the development for the other characters is relatively null.

The presentation is interesting though… They waited until episode 3 to formally introduce the main character (Joseph). While Gerd (who is also a main character, but not considered one by ANN) disappears for a few episodes before coming back. There is a gnostic feeling in the series, which I think could have been made more interesting (I don’t know how though): the special forces (XAT) station is a church, in the second episode there is constant praise of god in the latter half.

So yeah. I can’t really talk about Blassreiter very much because not everything has been introduced. So thats all for now. Also: there are no screenshots cause I’m lame and view the series off Youtube.