Blazblue: Alter Memory

[BlackYakuzu94]

Obligatory hot springs episode.

I also like how Ragna went from "yeah I guess Noel is all right" to "BITCH GET OUT OF MY FACE" in a split second.

No one likes Noel.

Its because he thought she was gonna go all Nu on his shit.....and she technically does later.

[Shinhwa]

Kind of weird how he didn't notice Bolverk in Episode 2 =w=

But he was busy fighting Nu, so it's understandable.

But only Nu is totally all over Ragna.

To Noel, Ragna is just Nii-sama pretty much XP (But Ragna put a flag on her anyway)

[RadRed]

Platinum passing out during personality switches is hilarious to me.

[Zazz]

I think Trinity showing up so early was to establish that all Six Heroes have been on shown, in one form or another.

Also the flashback of Rachel giving Ragna his arm was neat, but isn't it a bit weird they used the character selection music for that scene?

Platinum passing out during personality switches is hilarious to me.

why do i think a .gif of platinum smacking her head on a table repeatedly will get so much mileage? (it would be a good way to describe some of Arc's more questionable decisions)

Edited November 5, 2013 by Zazz

[BoltofShadow]

Given the animation studio I wasn't surprised that we got one of THOSE bits at the beginning.

Other than that I'm cool with what happened this episode. Plat was a nice surprise.

[gamester]

Rachel + swimsuit. So good, I was chuffed with this episode

[LeDom]

Well the Hot Spring segment was...kinda weird lol.

Aside from that, we finally got to see Tager and Platinum (Trinity was quite the surprise) some decent dialogue and the background music was still pleasant to hear. Now all we need is Bang and Arakune to finally show their faces.

[RifleAvenger]

What a waste of an episode. When you've only got 12 episodes, whose insane idea is it to waste half an episode on hot springs? Oh wait... ecchi studio and Mori...

[Grimsley-San]

I find the hot spring segment like a gag reel or something.

[Shinhwa]

Can't wait for next week.

[swordsman09]

This episode wasn't that bad. I like how they added Trinity in there this time.

And of course we get a Hot Spring scene with drunk Litchi. Too bad she didn't dress up anybody though.

[kylehyde]

I liked it, I'm not a huge fan of excessive fanservice but honestly this wasn't THAT BAD compared to other shows. It had a purpose in a sense, it was to heal Ragna of his wounds. And I guess to show the audience that Rachel has a thing for him.

But I love that she was wearing a swimsuit and standing right in front of Ragna LOL. She really don't give a crap unlike Noel lol.

I'm waiting for the part where she free's Hakumen. Things will get interesting when that happens.

Edited November 6, 2013 by kylehyde

[Teutonicknight]

I guess episode 5 was alright... Even though I'm not a huge fan of those god-forsaken beach/hot spring/mindless fanservice segments, but this only did it for only a third of the episode rather than the whole thing, so I give it a pass. I think it lacked any real movement though.

[Shinhwa]

I am more interested in how the anime staff are going to deal with Lambda-11 in the anime.

Needs moar Lambda-11 and Nu-13!!!! DX

[kylehyde]

I am more interested in how the anime staff are going to deal with Lambda-11 in the anime.

Needs moar Lambda-11 and Nu-13!!!! DX

I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see much of Lambda-11 in this anime. Probably until the final parts of CS in keeping with the game's story.

[Ehecatl]

I dropped this series. Not even my love of all things Blazblue can keep me watching this utter trash.

First, this episode is filler. I can't believe they did it but they actually made a filler episode that they have no TIME to make whatsoever within something that is supposed to tell the whole tale of Blazblue up until now in 12 episodes.... And the filler broke my suspension of disbelief. Completely. Utterly. I honestly don't understand the Japanese anime style of "humor" where they cut right into the middle of important plot to break in with a stupid intermission that lacks any subtlety and screams for attention like "HEY HEY LOOK AT US. WE'RE BEING FUNNY! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO LAUGH HERE!" The joke endings of Blazblue are dumb but at least they're not canon. They don't actually HAPPEN in the story and are just silly asides deliberately poking fun at itself and can be avoided. They're not considered to have actually occurred. But this? I'm really supposed to believe that Rachel would take time out of her busy schedule to listen to Tao (wut...) and teleport everyone to a hot-spring where they get stripped to skimpy bikinis and goof off? And that's supposed to actually happen in the story? Well-- goodbye suspension of disbelief! How I knew thee!

Contrary to popular belief, this is not a matter of style. It's bad story-telling. You don't interrupt your plot to shove in some wacky routine where everyone suddenly just acts out of character and the world just stops turning so you can add your forced humor-- and then pick up back to where you were, expecting your audience to believe that actually happened. It destroys immersion, destroys your setting, destroys your characters. And it's not even funny or original! Real humor requires thoughtful set up and execution! It's usually subtle and doesn't require breaking its setting to accomplish. On top of that, this "moment" wasted so much time in a plot that has so little to explain itself in. We couldn't use that time to delve deeper into character backstory noooo... SURPRISE-- fan service!

Not to mention, why the hell are Ragna, Noel, Rachel, and Tao together anyway? Part of what drove the drama on Continuum Shift was because they were each alone with o much happening and were trying to find each other but got caught up in their own many problems and didn't often get chances to meet. Only Rachel knew where everyone was in the first place anyway. Ragna spends most of the game looking for Terumi and Noel. Noel spends it running for her life and down confused memories until Terumi his hold on her and makes all her worst nightmares a reality. Rachel spends it playing a balancing act between trying to deal with Takamagahara, free Hakumen, stop Terumi, help Ragna, make sure Noel is protected, deal with Jin, deal with all the other cast, keep from getting killed by Relius, and she inevitably gets captured by Phantom. She's constantly on the move as is everyone. Where is the time to faff about in a hotspring when reality is coming apart at the seams and so much is happening barely a week after the events of Calamity Trigger???

Nah... not buying it. This series has lost me completely with it's nonsense. Never have I seen a series with so much potential as a quality animation get let down so very VERY hard. It's an absolute mess that cannot be fixed.

Edited November 6, 2013 by Ehecatl

[mAc Chaos]

Sometimes I wonder what the people that makes shows like this are thinking. Anyone here could probably make a better episode.

[Tigre]

Anyone here could probably make a better episode.

But would the episode you make sell blurays (This one will :v)

[Shinhwa]

I have to agree that if they had time to insert a half filler episode, they could have invested more time in extending what happens during Calamity Trigger instead to actually make the story make sense for the non-gamers.

I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see much of Lambda-11 in this anime. Probably until the final parts of CS in keeping with the game's story.

T___T yeah... I won't be surprised as this anime is all Ragna's POV mostly anyway...

Sometimes I wonder what the people that makes shows like this are thinking. Anyone here could probably make a better episode.

Maybe it has to do with Japan's culture that we the outsiders don't really understand?

[BlackYakuzu94]

Japan has very weird taste. But yea, first half of the episode was just.....unneeded.

[kosmos badgirl]

I like the logo on Rachel's tea cup. Decent episode, sure we will get another episode like this, they need to show Makoto and Tsubaki in a bikini too, lol.

[Tsuki Garyuu]

I'm intrigued that a few scenes that almost warrant a forced fight in the game is actually skipped for dialogue or interaction. Litchi vs. Noel could've happened, but the two were actually being rational. Ragna vs. Platinum really could've happened, but we get Trinity revealing herself to Ragna. It's quite a surprise.

[Lucid_Nightmare]

I dropped this series. Not even my love of all things Blazblue can keep me watching this utter trash.

First, this episode is filler. I can't believe they did it but they actually made a filler episode that they have no TIME to make whatsoever within something that is supposed to tell the whole tale of Blazblue up until now in 12 episodes.... And the filler broke my suspension of disbelief. Completely. Utterly. I honestly don't understand the Japanese anime style of "humor" where they cut right into the middle of important plot to break in with a stupid intermission that lacks any subtlety and screams for attention like "HEY HEY LOOK AT US. WE'RE BEING FUNNY! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO LAUGH HERE!" The joke endings of Blazblue are dumb but at least they're not canon. They don't actually HAPPEN in the story and are just silly asides deliberately poking fun at itself and can be avoided. They're not considered to have actually occurred. But this? I'm really supposed to believe that Rachel would take time out of her busy schedule to listen to Tao (wut...) and teleport everyone to a hot-spring where they get stripped to skimpy bikinis and goof off? And that's supposed to actually happen in the story? Well-- goodbye suspension of disbelief! How I knew thee!

Contrary to popular belief, this is not a matter of style. It's bad story-telling. You don't interrupt your plot to shove in some wacky routine where everyone suddenly just acts out of character and the world just stops turning so you can add your forced humor-- and then pick up back to where you were, expecting your audience to believe that actually happened. It destroys immersion, destroys your setting, destroys your characters. And it's not even funny or original! Real humor requires thoughtful set up and execution! It's usually subtle and doesn't require breaking its setting to accomplish. On top of that, this "moment" wasted so much time in a plot that has so little to explain itself in. We couldn't use that time to delve deeper into character backstory noooo... SURPRISE-- fan service!

Not to mention, why the hell are Ragna, Noel, Rachel, and Tao together anyway? Part of what drove the drama on Continuum Shift was because they were each alone with o much happening and were trying to find each other but got caught up in their own many problems and didn't often get chances to meet. Only Rachel knew where everyone was in the first place anyway. Ragna spends most of the game looking for Terumi and Noel. Noel spends it running for her life and down confused memories until Terumi his hold on her and makes all her worst nightmares a reality. Rachel spends it playing a balancing act between trying to deal with Takamagahara, free Hakumen, stop Terumi, help Ragna, make sure Noel is protected, deal with Jin, deal with all the other cast, keep from getting killed by Relius, and she inevitably gets captured by Phantom. She's constantly on the move as is everyone. Where is the time to faff about in a hotspring when reality is coming apart at the seams and so much is happening barely a week after the events of Calamity Trigger???

Nah... not buying it. This series has lost me completely with it's nonsense. Never have I seen a series with so much potential as a quality animation get let down so very VERY hard. It's an absolute mess that cannot be fixed.

On one hand, I feel your fury with the way this anime has been handled...Ideally, it should've been at least a 26-episode long anime(CT-6 episodes and CS-20 episodes)...OVAs could have been Gag Routes, Phase Shift Novels, Wheel Of Fortune, XBlaze-could be a spin-off prequel anime, etc...

However, as I understand it, they do not have that kind of budget and that'd be a little too ambitious for them right now...This is more like testing the waters so to speak...

As it stands, we have what we have...It seems that they are trying to cram in a bit of the gag side of things even if it costs them time for more important things...

As a fan of BB's goofier side of things, as well as being a Gintama fan, I can't help but enjoy seeing Sugita's Gintoki channeled into Ragna. lol

That said, I enjoyed this episode alot, as I have gotten rid of my expectations for anything great and am especially enjoying it for these laughs.

One last thing-WHERE IS BANG???!!! When they had Litchi at the hot springs, I was half-expecting Bang to just pop out of nowhere or fall from somewhere screaming LITCHI-DONO!!!!!! XD

[SoldnerKei]

I was face palming myself half of this episode, then I thought... well, wasn't that my same reaction when I got a gag ending for the first time??? In all honesty, I know most fans of the game will hate this episode with passion(I do it... kind of...), but I think that's the gag ending episode for us... but really, that's something you leave out for the ovas, not half an episode of the only 12 you will have

edit: nevermind, after seeing litchi's QUALITY faces this episode was worth it... expect nothing, then maybe, you can enjoy the show

Edited November 6, 2013 by SoldnerKei

[Shadow Draygon]

Quality Litchi in this episode: