BlazBlue: Alter Memory - 02

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Watching BlazBlue: Alter Memory makes me wonder if perhaps I don’t know the timeline of the games as well as I thought I did.  To some extent, though, that’s a good thing.

It’s a good thing because it means that the anime will be able to keep surprising people who are familiar with the games.  At this point, I sort of feel like half of what’s going on in the anime is simply a shout-out to the game fans.  New characters are constantly introduced without any explanation whatsoever and glossed over very briefly.  Viewers unfamiliar with the games are likely very lost thus far, and I wouldn’t blame them for that.  We can only hope that it will get better and less confusing as BlazBlue: Alter Memory progresses.

It’s interesting how they’re interweaving several different storylines together in the anime.  Obviously, that’s how they’d have to do it in order to explain everything within the amount of time they have.  I was expecting the show to run in cyclical arcs, with first arc being short (due to the speed at which the first episode moved) and focusing only on Ragna.  We’ll see what this means for the rest of the series.

The ending of this episode wasn’t what I was expecting.  I was expecting Ragna to lose again with only minor changes (like Noel’s involvement), but mainly just expecting this arc to be about establishing that, yes, this timeline keeps happening over and over without deviation.  Instead, things change and we move on in the timeline.

At this point, I really don’t know where the series is going to go.  Clearly, we’re going to see Rachel take on Takemikazuchi soon, and hopefully get some explanation of exactly what it is for people who aren’t familiar with the games.  On top of that, the exchange between Nu and Noel definitely needs more explanation, as does the relationship between Rachel and Hazama.  And, of course, more information on Hakumen would be useful, too.

Basically, BlazBlue: Alter Memory still leaves us with plenty of questions and virtually no answers.  Personally, that’s what I was expecting from the series, based on the game storylines.

BlazBlue: Alter Memory OP

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BlazBlue: Alter Memory ED

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BlazBlue: Alter Memory Episode 3 Preview

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