BlazBlue: Alter Memory - 08

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The latest episode of BlazBlue: Alter Memory introduces a new character and gives Ragna some unexpected character development.

Honestly, it’s about time Arakune was introduced in this anime.  Without giving too much away about what I know about it from the games, it’s actually kind of important to the plot lines of a few of the other characters.  And clearly Ragna is at least familiar with what it is (enough to know its name), so that in itself should be an indication that Arakune might be important later one.

One thing about Arakune that sort of surprises me is that it talks a lot more coherently in the anime than in the games.  Generally, its speech is very garbled and half the time all that can actually be heard is “Azure”, but in this episode of BlazBlue: Alter Memory it actually says quite a few full sentences.  It makes sense, because it’s the best way to actually have Arakune be a meaningful character and not just a prop or a token “monster”.

On a different note, this episode brings out a side of Ragna I’ve never really seen before and never expected to see.  And, honestly, I don’t know how I feel about that.  The scenes with Ragna and Lambda are cute and all, but they sort of seem out of place, given what the plot of this series is all about.  To some extent, this episode helps to round out Ragna’s character and give him a purpose other than revenge, but at the same time, it just seems odd.  I guess we’ll see how it ends up informing his character for the rest of the series.

But another reason this sort of seems out of place is that this anime is based on a series of fighting games, and there really hasn’t been much fighting in it at all.  I can understand why, to some extent; this is likely an attempt to not fall into the trap that other fighting-game adaptations have by focusing more on characterization than fighting.  However, it seems strange to me when there are several scenes that seem to build up to a fighting scene, only for that fight to either be cut tragically short or fail to happen at all.  In this episode alone, the fight with Arakune was pathetically brief, and Tager avoids fighting (for the second time in the series) by simply using his magnetism to bring Lambda to him.  There have been several other examples of this throughout the anime, and it kind of bums me out, personally.  I expected to see some fighting in BlazBlue: Alter Memory, but there seems to be a penchant for avoiding literally any fight that isn’t 100% necessary to the plot.

BlazBlue: Alter Memory Episode 9 Preview

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