Anime: Crystal Blaze

Ever wondered what would happen when stupid people tried to make a mystery anime? Crystal Blaze, that’s what.

Story:
Crystal Blaze’s story starts out well. I had high expectations. They were crushed, quickly. The plot is obvious, full of holes, and hinges on so many bizarre coincidences that it becomes frustrating to watch. And that’s too bad, because they could have made it good…they just didn’t. It quickly falls into mystery genre clichés, and it doesn’t even do the clichés well – it reminds me of a three year old trying to trace a picture. Not only a copy, but a bad copy. Added to this the show flirted with slightly kinky sex appeal – it didn’t show much, but it suggested a lot. Cross dressing, BDSM, videotaping pornography, etc. Normally I would classify this as fan service and not count it down, but it is presented in an odd enough way that I think most people would be ambivalent to it at best. And it clashed with the mystery theme – but a lot of things clashed in this show.

Animation:
Overall, the art balanced for average in things like backgrounds and action scenes - sometimes getting a few particularly good looking scenes, sometimes some particularly bad ones, but usually mediocre. The character designs are a mixed bag. The majority of them are typical anime style, but the male lead is not. He has a much more realistic art style to him (e.g. Monster). I believe this is done to make him look mature and grizzled, which it did, however it made every scene with him and another person jarring. The realistic vs. typical anime styles clashed. HW-9 did a lot to redeem the character designs. She's a well-drawn character and has superb facial expressions. However, she was drawn so much better than the other characters that it was a bit distracting. Putting that aside, HW-9 is a treat to watch and definitely bumped up the animation rating for me.

Characterization:
The characters are one-dimensional. They have one or two traits and cling to them. There's also some problems with cause-and-effect in the character development. For one thing, almost no one’s reactions to events actually make sense. Its just not believable that they would react to certain events the way they do. Even dialogue is like that – it just isn’t realistic. When cause-and-effect in characterization is logical, the time span it happens in is not. The reasons behind character development are there, but then there is no change for a long time after the causes occurred, and then suddenly the character makes a total change in themselves several episodes after it would have been reasonable to. Also, Crystal Blaze mentions mysterious back stories to a few of the characters, but these are never actually revealed, only vaguely hinted at every opportunity.
And then there is Manami...its almost impressive that she can have so little development, and be so stock, and yet still be so incredibly annoying. I'm sure many, many people dropped Crystal Blaze just because of Manami. She is definitely in my top 10 most annoying characters in anything ever list.

Sound:
Music was average, slightly above average if you like Jazz. Both the opening and ending songs went with the premise of the story and the city it took place in. The in-story music did a decent job of setting the mood, and wasn’t terribly overplayed. HW-9 and Akira’s seiyu both gave excellent performances. Porilyn-chan and Manami’s seiyu were a bit cringe-worthy. Manami’s voice was really annoying, Porilyn’s really disturbing. This fits with the personality of the two quite well though, so I'm making allowances for that in the score.

Value & Enjoyment:
If you don’t like intellectually based mysteries, but still want to watch one, then this wouldn’t be a bad choice. It can be mildly entertaining. However, it has very little rewatch value, and for the general anime fan I don’t think Crystal Blaze is worth the time it takes to watch it.

…you are walking down through the foggy wet night of an old badly lit neighborhood when you suddenly spot a humming neon sign on top of a brick thorn wall with a small wooden door by it. Walking steadily towards it the echoed water splashing sound caused by your steps against the water on the pavement, give place to a still stuffy mellow deep bass from inside the place. As soon as you open the door your eyes instantly loose themselves on the tick mist of smoke against the small green lamps on each table, which provides the only light to the small cramped room. Your ears get absorbed by the slow jam so loud now that even your thoughts are difficult to reach, and your nose goes numb with the strong stench of smoke, alcohol and a faint scent of gunpowder. All your senses seem to plead you to turn back and go away, but by the time the neural impulse reaches your fingers they had already let go of the door.

On the left you spot a long dirty bar filled with broken dreams and misleading smiles on the small uncomfortable sits. A few steps where enough before the almost faded green light behind the gorgeous mistress holding a glass and inviting you to sit by her, made the blurry whisky glasses by the counter shine like stars on an empty night sky. By now you are fully aware, neither bullets nor kisses will save you, and if the green girl on the other side of the room screaming as she burns inside a huge pyre, or the two teenage girls playing with a dog casually right by her are any indication, it’s obvious what awaits you…

So, in a nutshell, this is what you should expect out of Crystal Blaze… outside the fact that this is not how the plot goes. Obviously, if you are keen on specifics or my mental image simply left you absolutely clueless, please, feel free to keep reading, I will do my best to refrain from further insanity.

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Story & Characters

If you are looking for cross-references there are a few, Heat Guy J, Speed Grapher and Cowboy Bebop amongst others. These come pretty close to this title in terms of development and overall feeling, with some going a bit further sharing more similarities than others. Being even remotely familiar with the genre, there is nothing out of the ordinary to be expected from Crystal Blaze. From the very first episode all the twists become obvious and the small remaining margin for originality is never reached.

Predictive as it is, this is not the major issue here. The usual beat down story of mad scientist making ultimate weapon is all there with everything that comes to be expected for such an uninspired theme, but what really hurts is the lack of urgency. One might come to Crystal Blaze expecting a thriller of some sort, but the murders we are presented to are tedious and mostly at random, the conspiracy that the plot revolves around is dull and consists of nameless entities that are nothing more than extremely convenient plot devices, and the thrive to unveil the mysteries is never interesting on its own.

The characters themselves simply put are shallow. They are somewhat well designed and seem to be interesting, but with their past never being explained thoroughly, and the interactions they go through mostly forced, we end up with badly developed arcs and difficulty to relate to their plight as consequence. This is not to say they are bad since they do play exclusively by their strengths, never trying to get out of character or doing anything not to be expected from the default role they are occupying. You, as well as I did, might end up relating to one or another based on premises and expectations alone, just don’t think they will be fully delivered by the time the curtain closes.

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Animation, Art & Sound

Such is the case with such anime, as ironic as it may sound, animation it not its strongest point. All in all, despite somewhat insipid the animation does hold itself well under scrutiny for the most part, but its less than stellar quality does show some problems when the script requires over the top sequences. On the stances where we get past the somewhat awkwardly staged gunfights, with people running straight at gunshots with disregard for their own safety, and bullets making miraculous trajectories to avoid life threatening wounds, the animation is not extremely fluid, but since these are rare enough it don’t get in the way of the enjoyment.

The art is just fine, with well designed characters containing a fair amount of detail and personality, particularly the females that are gorgeous, and thankfully so since the male characters do nothing more than fill the basic traits for their roles, even if well executed. The color pallet seemed a little off putting for me from time to time, but the background is also competent and not overly used, making the city seems fairly lively and diverse.

Opening and ending themes are good and add a crucial vibe to the whole production. The background music is very competent presenting itself unobtrusively, coming off on the right moments and setting the mood while not aspiring for the spotlight. Stepping outside the music arrangements, the sound effects feel authentic without ever going too over the top, and the voice actors do a remarkably good job giving an extra tinge of originality to their characters.

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Value/Enjoyment & Conclusion

Whatever reasons someone might have to start watching a series, be it the advertisement surrounding it, be it interest in the plot, be it a friend’s recommendation or simply out of curiosity, one thing is certain, a much greater effort is necessary to put it away after you got sucked into the plot and started to relate to the characters.

Being the average anime it is, after you get into the plot, albeit not an incredibly interesting one, after you get to know the characters, albeit not particularly well developed ones, after you get into the mood of the show, albeit not very climatic one… well, after you get yourself into the trap it won’t present you any major flaw to break away the immersion.

What this particularly pessimistic painting of the twelve episode series is trying to present itself as, is simply that Crystal Blaze comes pretty clear with its premises, and even while not reaching out for anything beyond that, for fans of this specific type of anime or people just interested by its plot, characters or setting, I can’t build a strong enough case not to recommend it. Even if it won’t take the center spot into anyone’s shelf, it can be a valiant effort into giving one some diversity, just drop your high expectations outside the room before you give it a shot.

Amazing how one single character can drag down an entire show.

Crystal Blaze is on the verge of being a fairly average show, without much aspects which make it a really good or really bad show. Thirteen in a dozen comes to mind, if only they didn't integrate a particular character, who simply spoils the entire show.

Animation: Fairly average with spikes up and down.

The animation isn't all that bad, as one would think of a show with such low ratings. It's unfortunately also not anywhere good, which is a pity. However, there are some scenes where the animation spikes up – better facial designs, detailed backgrounds or simply a few nice explosives which seem to be above average. There are, just like in most shows, also some times where all of the above is simply below average, which maintains a sort of balance, though not for the better.

Sound: A bit of Jazz, with good voice actors, but once again – a hideous script.

The songs are done fairly well. I'm not a fan of Jazz, but even I have to admit that the songs used in the show aren't all bad. They're also far from being really good, but they do a proper job in the show.

Almost all characters have appropriate voice actors who are doing a good job at first sight. Unfortunately, the dialogues go hand in hand with a hideous script, which spoils much of the mood. It's not even the cheesy lines which appear on a frequent base; it's mainly the silly responses which are busting the mood.

Story: Quite weak. Although it tries hard.

The story isn't all that great – and it could've easily been the worst part of the show. The first episodes are the intro of the story, followed by a couple of fillers where only a few scenes add to the plot itself. By the time the plot really starts to roll, the events are a little too coincidental, or even blatant stupid. The worst of all being the final scenes, where they simply disband the entire cast without much of an explanation at all – it's simply ‘enough’.
If you consider the above a spoiler, don't bother with the series. This is as much of an explanation as the entire series gives you. It doesn't explain anything, it just is there – no questions asked.

But it tries hard, it tries really hard, by having a seemingly thick plot, with secrets and mystery all around the show. Unfortunately, none of the characters really convinces, nor does any of the plot twists. If there were even remotely capable people steering the show, it could've been a show which could entertain most people. Far from being good, but still enjoyable. But with only 12 episodes to tell a story, it loses much more than just the entertaining aspect.

Characters: Okay characters, with just one exception.

Most of the characters are merely okay, and though some of them have a distinct personality, hardly anyone makes as much as an impression. Most of the characters also have a hidden past, which sometimes flickers on or off – depending on the plot. But worst of all is that a particular character simply refuses to abide by any rules.
If you tell her to do ‘X’, then she does ‘Y’. If you tell her to not go to place ‘Z’, she goes there. Most of what happens in the show is her being disobedient and getting everyone and their dog into trouble. It's not simply a case of a stubborn kid, it's a plain annoyance to see. And if it happened once, or twice … no, it happens nearly every friggin' episode. And every episode she feels sorry, but the next time it goes the same way. Punishment? Nah, we don't do that.

This wouldn't be so bad if it were a comedy or something, but this series tries hard to take itself seriously, which means this particular character brings doom over the series.

Value & Enjoyment: Mostly frustrating.

This sorry addition brought down most of the mood and instead of it being an average series, the enjoyment factor goes down exponentially. The show becomes frustrating to watch, due to it being the case over and over again.

There is absolutely no reason to buy the show, but there is even little reason to watch it either, due to the aspects pointed out above. So all in all, this show isn't to recommend, not even for hardcore watchers.